FTA Query

TheDriver

Hi Folks,
Seriously thinking of putting in FTA system in house. Have terrestiral aerial already and live in West Cork close to city. Couple of questions:
a) Where can I get a non rusting dish (neighbours all have rusting sky dishes!) and will i get away with 60cm?
b) Is lower or higher db lnb (.2 vs .3) better?
c) anywhere in Cork where I can buy the stuff?
d) have brothers skybox from old house, will this work if using another satellite?
e) Which one can I get BBC1,2,3,4 and ITV 1,2,3 and other good stuff like this?
f) what do I use to combine terrestrial with sat signal in the attic? Saw yoke on satellite.ie, is this kind of thing ok?
g) can terrestrial signal go through decoder in my sitting room on same cable and all feed into tv as one?
h) do I need a satellite meter or will trial and error do? Is DIY easy as handy enough with terrestrial installation on couple of friends house.
If anyone can answer this would be great, thanks again and sorry for being a ticko on this!!!!

L1011

1. Panel dishes rarely rust
2. Lower the better in general
3. Corksat
4. Yes
5. Astra 2/EB1 (28E)
6. A diplexer/combiner
7. No, you use a plate at the wall to split them
8. Trial and error works for me

Capt'n Midnight

Some Lidls may still have satellite meters for about €11 so it's not going to break the bank.

Skyboxes are tricky to work with other satellites the EPG don't work and you can't scan for channels and you are limited to about 20 manually added channels before extra channels feature gets unreliable.

Ancient Skyboxes can still pick up some analog services - last time I looked (a long time ago) it was RAI , BBC world and eurosport.

Lower LNB is good, bigger dish is also good, but unless you are looking for something out of the ordinary you don't need to spend mad money on them.

TheDriver

Thanks folks, becoming a good bit clearer. Has anyone dealt with Corksat regarding quality of kit etc? Also what direction is sky dishes pointing to get idea of east and south!!

L1011

theorethically 28 degrees east of south, actual angle is in the 20-somethings for Cork. I'd suggest googling for "satelloite position calculator".

RAI+BBC World are gone off analogue, but theres still a huge host of analogue channels, mostly in German, on 19E. CNN, CNBC and Eurosport in English, mind... I assumed he meant a digibox, but hey... I also misread the bit about "other satellites", so change that to "Yes, but bloody painfully".

Trevord

http://www.dwyers.ie/acatalog/Location.html

You should be able to buy everything you need bar the sat finder (still available in many lidl stores) at above address.

They have dish, wall bracket, receiver, etc........although not sure if they have lnb

If you want to try doing it yourself then you could also buy online.

There is a branch of Maplin in the Blackpool Shopping Centre in Cork also - they would probaby offer more in the way of tech advice too.

watty

Re Maplin Advice:
BUT NOT TO Lidl purchaser!

They a bit fed up! ONly advice now to those buying their sat gear (LNBs, Meters, systems, receivers and Motors etc)

TheDriver

Thanks folks, never found Maplin shop much good for advice to be honest and not a patch on guys here.
Only thing troubling me is getting combiner for terrestrial and satellite in attic without messing up my terrestrial reception. Also are splitter wallplates available locally for sitting room then?
Lastly, whats corksat like to deal with anyone down my way?

Tony

Honestly I dont blame maplins not giving advice on LIDL systems as i'm sure they would rather advise customers who are considering purchasing from them. The LIDL deal is great as long as you understand they cannot advise you on installation etc.

emul

I had Corksat install a 96cm dish, dual LNB and two FTA receivers - no problem. About two weeks after installation one of the UFO's (remote control extender) went faulty - they were out that afternoon, swapped immediately and checked all other equipment.

Good service.