New to confusing digital!!!

[Veteran Sat Lad]

I'm interested in receiving the Freesat service (at least I THINK so!). I understand this is the equivalent to Freeview but received with a dish as opposed to a digital aerial. I am not fully aware of this service but I believe it to be a service provided by ITV and BBC and nothing to do with Sky.
I am now unsure where to go from here. I have fixed a mini dish to my house and have fitted a quad LNB to it. I have not however aligned the dish as yet because my meter uses a connection to the receiver that I have not got yet!

I could purchase a cheap digibox from ebay but would I need a viewing card (perhaps from Sky?) to receive FTA channels? I understand FTV channels would require a card.

I have recently stumbled across the Freesat package from Sky which appears to be a fully installed dish and a receiver for £75. However, I do not want to EVER subscribe to Sky's ridiculous subscription channels and I don't really want to deal with underhand thieves if at all possible. Having read lots of reviews for this package, it would appear that Sky take bank details and setup a direct debit to take £17 per month after the initial trial period of 4 months' subscription channels being "free". Only if you cancel the direct debit can you continue to receive the free channels with no additional charges.

Should I take advantage of this deal from Sky to receive the FTA channels?
Or should I buy a receiver and align my dish to do the same thing? Where would I purchase a card if required and at what cost?
In addition to the 4 coax feeds to the LNB (for future upgrades) I have also run another 2 coax cables with the intention (if this was possible) of fitting some device to allow 2 or even 3 LNBs to the feed arm of the dish to allow reception from more than one satellite. I suspect the dish would be too small for this (I live in Wigan, Lancashire) but would like to try anyway and receive whatever I can. I'm not sure about what satellites are available though (I have never used digital equipment before - only analogue). It used to be that Astra was at 19.2deg East and could also receive Eutelsat adjacent to this.

Is the Satellite now 28.2deg? I do not even know which it is! I have been told Sky have their own satellite and do not use Astra. It seems very confusing to me!

If it was possible to attach a device to enable 2 LNBs, would I need to fit a larger dish (perhaps 60cm) instead of the minidish?

Please advise!!!

[nvingo]

Hi. At the different satellite positions there are multiple satellites, ie. a dish aimed at 28ºE can see satellites at between 27ºE and 29ºE and that covers a lot of space where many actual satellites can reside. There are more than one Astra2 satellites at 28.2ºE and some from another owner at 28.5ºE which are all seen by a fixed Sky minidish. Astra still have some satellites at 19.2ºE carrying foreign (mainly German) broadcasts. Sky don't own satellites, they are a broadcaster and lease capacity from the satellite owner as do BBC, ITV, et al.

The advantage of the multiple-satellite approach is redundancy, each has spare broadcast capacity (transponders) to cover failure and provide continuous service - if one satellite fails completely its services can be shared amongst spares on the others. The satellite operators can move the satellites from one position to another, there is fuel on board to constantly maintain the desired position and that can equally be used to initiate and terminate a drift along the Clarke Belt (Arthur C. Clarke's proposed ring of geostationary orbit that communication/broadcast satellites occupy).

Free to Air channels can be received on any digital receiver. For a long time Sky receivers were the only ones capable of displaying FTV channels but there are now a few non-Sky receivers with the necessary decrypter and card slot available. Since the introduction of Freesat just about the only notable broadcaster using FTV is Five.

A cheap digibox from Ebay (or the £75 POWF) is ideal for Sky services but is severely limited if considering any channels from other satellite groups.

For a single receiver to work with multiple LNBs (typically upto 4 but maybe more) it has to have diseqc control which NO Sky receivers do. That is a method of signalling to a switch box to select from the different LNBs, that box can be mounted outside ie. on the wall beside the dish mount so requiring only one coax from the dish to the receiver. However having multiple coax can be an advantage, obviously so if you eventually decide to have multiple receivers each dedicated to different satellites.

If you desire to receive from more satellites than four, or they are further apart than 10º or so, and you are happy to limit viewing to a single receiver, a motorised dish may be a preferrable option - that can see any single satellite position at a time.

Each satellite has a specified coverage area, or footprint, where the broadcast beam is aimed. Astra satellites carrying Sky and Freesat are aimed at Western Europe, signal strength decreases towards the edge of the footprint. In Wigan you may be on the borderline between a Zone1 and Zone2 (43cm and 60cm) minidish for reception from 28.2ºE. Even so, for either motorised or multiple-LNB use, a larger dish still may be required depending on the strength of signal from the weakest desired satellite.

There are more channels available on Freesat than on the terrestrial Freeview service - there is more capacity available at satellite's higher frequencies and due to other technical aspects. Due to contractual and licensing issues there are still some channels available free on Freeview which are either encrypted or only available as part of a Sky package from satellite.

Enjoy.

[Veteran Sat Lad]

Thank you for the comprehensive reply! It has answered a few questions for me.
I am very interested to receive signals from more than one satellite now. What sort of device would you recommend fitting to enable 2 or even 3 LNBs to be fitted to my minidish?
I understand the motorised concept and am going to set up a syatem in future when I am ready to do so. For now, I want to just use the mini dish setup.
I have 6 coax cables so they will definitely cope with the multiple LNBs. I understand the switching action provided by many receivers (except Sky digiboxes!). However, do some receivers not have more than one LNB input? I am not looking to spend silly money at the moment (that will come later on the motorised setup!) so I just require a method of switching between LNBs. I'm sure there used to be automatic LNB switches available (possibly switched by the magnetic output of older receivers?) or even manual switchers?
I actually have a fully isolated 3 position switching device intended for terrestrial TV aerials which may work.
What I may do then is have the POWF system installed by Sky (with a new minidish) and use my minidish as a second dish to receive additional signals.
Could you recommend a suitable receiver based on the above information please? Possibly even compatible with any future motorised setup although this is not essential at this stage - I do not object to many boxes connected!!!
Thank you once again for the informative reply!

[Robbo]

Hi,

If I understand correctly, you want to add multiple LNBs to a minidish to receive from more that one satellite.

Unfortunately that proposal is not a practical option, because the mini dish is too small.

You might as well go straight down the motorised route.

It is not necessary to spend a fortune. My first motorised setup used a minidish, so all I needed was a motor £30-£40. A bit limited but it worked.

For a 1m add about another £50 and you are done.

Motor: Moteck SG2100a

Any digital receiver with USALS/Diseqc 1.2 will do it. I'm a Technomate fan myself, but each to his own.

[Veteran Sat Lad]

Yes, you understood correctly! I appreciate what you say about going mororised - unfortunately this is not practical for me at this time. I will set up a large dish in the back garden, mounted on the garage wall. However, the garage isn't built yet and I cannot run cables back to the house safely yet. I have fitted the minidish on the front of the house and have easily run cables to my setup so that's why I want to just use the minidish for now.
I'm afraid I am more confused now! There appears to be some conflicting information - I realise the minidish is very small and proibably will not produce strong signals (especially in bad weather) but I would like to try anyway. Does that mean it is not possible to add a device to the dish to allow more than one LNB to be fitted?
Or will I ONLY receive the Freesat signals and nothing more, making it pointless adding additional LNBs?
Am I right in thinking then that I do not need any card to watch the Freesat signals only?
Sorry for the repetetive questions - it just takes me a while for the information to sink in!!!

[nvingo]

Yes Freesat is specified as FTA - no encryption and no decryption circuits in the receivers.
The beam from 28ºE is strong in the UK hence the use of minidishes synonymous with Sky.
I know some foreign satellites are received with similar sized dishes, there are many on multi-let properties around here.
I have not investigated whether there are any multi-LNB brackets for minidishes, I expect those are only made for 60/80/90cm dishes, with signal strength from the side-focus LNBs deciding that.
There's no reason not to use one dish for 28ºE and another larger one for multi-sat reception, you can still combine the feeds to a switch.