Best setup for maximum birds

newbusiness

Hi folks,

basically I want a setup to watch as many FTA sat stations as reasonably possible.

a) would I be better of with a motorised dish or is that overkill?

b) I presume if I went for a motorised dish it would complicate feeding muiltiple TV's different stations from different birds. Being able to do this is more important than getting maximum birds, would a multiple LNB setup instead of a motorised dish allow this?

d) a 1 meter dish is all I'm allowed without planning isn't it? Is this overkill or worth it?

c) any gear recommendations?

Tony

For multiple receivers, several multi output fixed lnb's are your only option. Triax td 78 or 88 dish works well with 3 lnb's ie astra 1,2 and hotbird.

newbusiness

Ok, cool.


So say I have 3 LNBs and I want to get a feed off one of them to three different decoders. Can a single LNB pump enough signal to all three decoders?

Also do most decoders have enough inputs for three LNBs?

byte

You'd need 3 quad LNBs for the 3 satellites you aim to receive.

Then you'd need a seperate DiSEqC switch for each receiver. A feed from each LNB goes into DiSEqC switch, and then 1 cable into satellite receiver.

I don't know of any proper satellite receivers (so that rules out Skyboxes) that cannot support DiSEqC switches.

newbusiness

Perfect.

I'm pretty handy at the electronics end of things, I just needed to know what I needed.

I feel a big order coming on

macplaxton

I'm getting two satellites in at 13E and 28.2E. I have a Triax TD88 which actually measure about 89cm x just under a metre (i.e. slightly oval). Correct, one metre is all you are allowed without planning permission. A TD88 isn't overkill. The multi-arm attachment you can get will fit 4 LNBs, but you need narrow Alps LNBs if sats you want are bunched together (6 degree spacing is fine for regular LNBs). The multi-arm states in the instructions that 1.1kg is the weight limit on the arm. My two quattro LNBs add up to about 800g.

The two quattro LNBs are fed into a 9/6 multiswitch which I have in the loft and needs somewhere to plug it into. 4 inputs (LV/LH/HV/HH) are for the first quattro LNB. The next four inputs are for the 2nd quattro LNB (and so on for larger multiswitches). The last one is for a terrestrial aerial if you want to put it through it. From there the first two output go to the living room and the twin tuner recorder. Another two go to bedrooms and the last two are spare. Each receiver (except the twin tuner) has a single LNB input and can send DiSEqC switching signals along the LNB wire to the multiswitch to select which signal it wants. Say you want four satellites, serving 4 receivers - get 4 quattro LNBs and a 17/4 multiswitch.

There was a lot of cabling involved as I'm in a two floor 4 bedroom semi. The other reason I ended up using loads of cable was because my multiswitch isn't that close to the dish. In hindsight, I could have got it closer, but not that much more so.

Buy a big enough bag of F plugs. If you get them in the right places they are cheap as chips.

The house side of things cost me just over €500, but that was trunking / wallsockets / multiswitch / outside conduit / wall bracket / dish / multi-holder / LNBs / F plugs / self-amalgamating tape / sundries.

The equipment side (easy to unplug and take) was €300 for a twin tuner 250GB recorder and a couple of basic FTA boxes €80.

The buying the tools that I didn't have handy cost me €275, but most of that you'll either have yourself or be able to borrow from someone.

If you're getting stuff in the Eurozone, stock up on Euro Converter plugs.