First System You Had for Foreign TV

Finne1993

I always had an interest in the whole satellite set up, I remember getting Sky for the first time in November 1991, it was an Amstrad Fidelity SRX400 Box with a videocrypt card slot bulit in, it cost £250stg in Currys in Newry for the dish and box and if memory serves me right they wanted something like £150-£200stg to install it but we declined, I can still see the face of the sales person chuckling when we said we were installing it ourselves, he reckoned it was totally impossible for a "normal" person to install it! 3 hours later we had it all done!! Well my father done the most of it, i was shouting when the picture came through!!
Sky Sports, Sky News and Sky One were free, The 2 Movie Channels were the only encrypted channels at that time. Sky Sports was brilliant for the live FA Cup football and WWF at the time! It went encrypted in August 1992 when they won the Premier League rights, I paid for my card a year in advance, £30 punts for the whole year!!

As time went on I was always messing about checking for new channels and moving the dish around for the other sats, I etched out the exact spot on the bracket where the signal for Sky 19 degrees East was so it was easy to get it back! I can't really remember what Satellites I picked up, I think maybe Hotbird and the Scandanavian signals.
One time my experimenting came in handy was when the Ireland V Turkey Euro 2000 play off was'nt broadcast in Ireland but was FTA on Star TV on 42E, I got the match, picture was'nt great, there was plenty of speclies but it was viewable, after the match I was asking why I went to all the bother!
Sky Digital was next and I didnt bother with the foreign Sats till 2006.

I resurrected the old 80cm dish, pointed it at Hotbird and bought a Smart receiver with 2 cam slots, a viaccess cam and an Art Sports card, loved it!

I then got my hands on a 1.2 channel master dish and pointed it to 16E for Digitalb when Art lost the Premier League rights and bought a darkbox 8000 with a multicrypt card reader (Its still working fine now!)
(I also bought a Kaon HD box but it didnt last long as I got rid of it when Digitalb lost the 3pms)

I also had Premiere TV for a year in 2008, (I moved the 80cm dish to 19E) I got the receiver and paired card, not sure what make it is, its lying in the attic since. I was disappointed with their Premier League coverage, they promised to show 300 live matches but after they made that promise they won back the Bundesliga rights and the Premier League was thrown to one side.

I bought a Liberty receiver for £25 and bought the Al Jazeera card about 18 months ago, still going strong.

After the Digitalb debacle last season I decided to splash out last year on Sky Italia HD, an amazing package, I got a good deal too, €980 for HD box and sub to mondo, sport and calcio and delivery.

My latest purchase is a Tring card and clone Dreambox, dunno how Tring will fare out but at worst they'll have all the Sky/Espn matches so i'll be able to move it on handy enough if it does'nt suit me.

My Current Set up is
Sky Minidish with quad pointed at 28E
Sky Minidish with quad pointed at 13E
80cm old style Sky dish pointed at 19E
1.2 Channel Master pointed at 16E

Sky HD box with Sky World, HD pack and Setanta.
Sky Italia HD Box with Mondo, Sport, Calcio and HD pack.
DarkBox 8000 with Irdeto Al Jazeera Sports card
Dreambox clone with Tring Sports card
Freesat HD box.
Another 4 redundant Sat receivers lying about somewhere!!


O and a Sony HD projector and 4 Panasonic plasmas to watch it all on!!

Apogee

Smeagol wrote: »

Followed a couple of month later by a Drake ESR earthstation and a six footer Channel Master dish.

Was this after winning the Lotto or robbing a bank?

sob1467

Finne1993 wrote: »

I always had an interest in the whole satellite set up, I remember getting Sky for the first time in November 1991, it was an Amstrad Fidelity SRX400 Box with a videocrypt card slot bulit in, it cost £250stg in Currys in Newry for the dish and box and if memory serves me right they wanted something like £150-£200stg to install it but we declined, I can still see the face of the sales person chuckling when we said we were installing it ourselves, he reckoned it was totally impossible for a "normal" person to install it! 3 hours later we had it all done!! Well my father done the most of it, i was shouting when the picture came through!!
Sky Sports, Sky News and Sky One were free, The 2 Movie Channels were the only encrypted channels at that time. Sky Sports was brilliant for the live FA Cup football and WWF at the time! It went encrypted in August 1992 when they won the Premier League rights, I paid for my card a year in advance, £30 punts for the whole year!!

As time went on I was always messing about checking for new channels and moving the dish around for the other sats, I etched out the exact spot on the bracket where the signal for Sky 19 degrees East was so it was easy to get it back! I can't really remember what Satellites I picked up, I think maybe Hotbird and the Scandanavian signals.
One time my experimenting came in handy was when the Ireland V Turkey Euro 2000 play off was'nt broadcast in Ireland but was FTA on Star TV on 42E, I got the match, picture was'nt great, there was plenty of speclies but it was viewable, after the match I was asking why I went to all the bother!
Sky Digital was next and I didnt bother with the foreign Sats till 2006.

I resurrected the old 80cm dish, pointed it at Hotbird and bought a Smart receiver with 2 cam slots, a viaccess cam and an Art Sports card, loved it!

I then got my hands on a 1.2 channel master dish and pointed it to 16E for Digitalb when Art lost the Premier League rights and bought a darkbox 8000 with a multicrypt card reader (Its still working fine now!)
(I also bought a Kaon HD box but it didnt last long as I got rid of it when Digitalb lost the 3pms)

I also had Premiere TV for a year in 2008, (I moved the 80cm dish to 19E) I got the receiver and paired card, not sure what make it is, its lying in the attic since. I was disappointed with their Premier League coverage, they promised to show 300 live matches but after they made that promise they won back the Bundesliga rights and the Premier League was thrown to one side.

I bought a Liberty receiver for £25 and bought the Al Jazeera card about 18 months ago, still going strong.

After the Digitalb debacle last season I decided to splash out last year on Sky Italia HD, an amazing package, I got a good deal too, €980 for HD box and sub to mondo, sport and calcio and delivery.

My latest purchase is a Tring card and clone Dreambox, dunno how Tring will fare out but at worst they'll have all the Sky/Espn matches so i'll be able to move it on handy enough if it does'nt suit me.

My Current Set up is
Sky Minidish with quad pointed at 28E
Sky Minidish with quad pointed at 13E
80cm old style Sky dish pointed at 19E
1.2 Channel Master pointed at 16E

Sky HD box with Sky World, HD pack and Setanta.
Sky Italia HD Box with Mondo, Sport, Calcio and HD pack.
DarkBox 8000 with Irdeto Al Jazeera Sports card
Dreambox clone with Tring Sports card
Freesat HD box.
Another 4 redundant Sat receivers lying about somewhere!!


O and a Sony HD projector and 4 Panasonic plasmas to watch it all on!!

So Finne1993 we meet again its a small world out there! The Digitalb Sub is still going strong but I am trying to flog the Kaon box and I am going to get a clone dreambox 800.

Manc-Red

Oatesy23 wrote: »

I'm still relatively new to the foreign satellite way of life.
I started last February(2009) and decided it would be better to futureproof my system by getting a motor right away. So I started with a 1.1M Triax dish and a DM600. My first card was a DigitALB card shortly followed by an Al Jazeera one .

What a great system to start off with m8....

Oatesy are you on a HD box now?? If so is 1w HD channels ok with that dish.

I'm needing an upgrade

Finne1993

sob1467 wrote: »

So Finne1993 we meet again its a small world out there! The Digitalb Sub is still going strong but I am trying to flog the Kaon box and I am going to get a clone dreambox 800.

Small world is right, i noticed a few posts from you before and knew I recognised the name from somewhere!! Glad its still working OK, your Digitalb sub probably has about 6 weeks to go if I remember correctly!
I would'nt flog it just yet, I'm not too sure of the ins and outs of the Kaon HD Box but theres a possibility a Tring card would work in it and theres talk of them bringing out HD channels in a couple of months so I'd hold back, for now anyway. It is a long shot but it might be worth more than it is now if that works. I'll post a report on the Premier League sticky at the top of the page about my Tring subscription on the 14th and we'll know then if its value for money

ISAA

In 1983 I had a 3m andrew's dish with LNA,LNC with luxor receiver for gorizont. 4Ghz

1985 I think 1.8 metre cosmos prime focus with 3.5db LNB (blue Bomb) with Luxor push button receiver on Intelsat V 27.5 west, with AZ/EL for (Mirror vision,premiere UK, children's channel), CNN started up later that year.

Then moved high class with polor mount and connexions rotary tune receiver and actuator, only 4 satellites then : 13E,7E,5w,27.5 west, what great days.:)

All tranmissions in analogue, Filmnet in the clear 13 east, premiere in the clear, Minnor vision in the clear, no pay tv then. Only Sky Channel with that cat DJ cat I think.(scrambled)

The good old days,

1.8 metre dish with push button receiver = £3000 punts installed.

sold 15 in the first month, then Mr Bruke ( minister of communications) made TVRO illlegal, (Got what he deserved)

Regards,

Gerry

Smeagol

Quote:
Originally Posted by Smeagol
Followed a couple of month later by a Drake ESR earthstation and a six footer Channel Master dish.

Apogee wrote: »

Was this after winning the Lotto or robbing a bank?

They were quite costly but well worth it. I think they were 1200DM so roughly about 400punts. Funny name, though.
Drake Earthstation receiver


-

marcel353

1991, France
Cambridge analogue receiver (RX480S I think, still somewhere in the garage)
80cm Lenson Heath dish

Dish was fixed at first and I was picking up Astra1@19.2
Then I started to tweak the system manually towards the west and discovered feeds.

Then I got tired of moving the dish with my 13 spanner but couldn't afford a polar mount, so I made one with the front of an old bicycle frame, didn't look the best but worked a treat, despite a home made manual positioner too.

Was really getting the bug at this stage, (my parents never got the point of keeping a test card on the screen for so long... could spend hours on Intelsat K)
If I remember well the furthest feed I could get was the NHK in NTSC(B&W on my receiver) @ panamsat 43 or 45W.

It was a bit awkward but I was totally hooked up. The cambridge did the job till an Echostar with a bigger LS dish, then Nokias 9600/9801, Humax 5400 and Topfield later. Pretty much retired now with my sky box :rolleyes:
I am just sorry I never took a picture of the home made polar mount, it was priceless...

carbsy

marcel353 wrote: »

I am just sorry I never took a picture of the home made polar mount, it was priceless...

Ah.. would loved to have seen that!

bassy

1st box i ever had was a philips analogue for sky uk fta when it first lauched in 1989,then got a alba analogue box connected to a d2 mac decoder and pointed at 1.w for the english footy on tv2 at the time,it then changed to c+ scandinavia.the dish was a old 1.85cm prime focus.

my 1st digital receiver was a nokia 9600 loaded with dvb2000 and irdeto freecam for canal digital and premiere world.

then went for a humax 5300 viacesswith art sports card for 13.e,then i bought a technomate 1500.moved from that to a dm500s what a great servant that litle dm was

then made the big move a few weeks ago and lashed out on a vu+duo gotta be the best receiver i have ever owned i cannot fault it.

i have 4 dishs here sky dish,80cm dish,1.2m irte prime focus fully motorised and 1.85cm fixed dish.

and a host of old cards from the great d2 mac days along with the programmers etc,bring back the good old days.

tv1000 after midnight

Manc-Red

bassy wrote: »

1st box i ever had was a philips analogue for sky uk fta when it first lauched in 1989,then got a alba analogue box connected to a d2 mac decoder and pointed at 1.w for the english footy on tv2 at the time,it then changed to c+ scandinavia.the dish was a old 1.85cm prime focus.

my 1st digital receiver was a nokia 9600 loaded with dvb2000 and irdeto freecam for canal digital and premiere world.

then went for a humax 5300 viacesswith art sports card for 13.e,then i bought a technomate 1500.moved from that to a dm500s what a great servant that litle dm was

then made the big move a few weeks ago and lashed out on a vu+duo gotta be the best receiver i have ever owned i cannot fault it.

i have 4 dishs here sky dish,80cm dish,1.2m irte prime focus fully motorised and 1.85cm fixed dish.

and a host of old cards from the great d2 mac days along with the programmers etc,bring back the good old days.

tv1000 after midnight

Superb m8

bassy

you know me m8

Manc-Red wrote: »

Superb m8

Manc-Red

bassy wrote: »

you know me m8

;)

Pal

Started out in 2003 with 13, 19 and 28e on an 80cm dish.
Thanks Tony.
It was great !
Disecq switch. Palcom box and a Matrix Reloaded cam

Learned how to flash the cam in a laptop and never looked back.
Had more channels than I knew what to do with

The 28e LNB has since migrated to an octo with Sky HD, PVR and Freesat all over the house.

Moved to TM for a while and longed for a Dreambox but was always
daunted by it.

Using a Spiderbox these days.
Serious piece of hardware
recommended

redout

Pal wrote: »

Using a Spiderbox these days.
Serious piece of hardware
recommended

Can that run enigma ?

carbsy

redout wrote: »

Can that run enigma ?

That would be a no.It's a poor box for the true techy imho, although Pal would prob beg to differ.

fish fingers

carbsy wrote: »

That would be a no.It's a poor box for the true techy imho, although Pal would prob beg to differ.

I have one too, its more or less plug and play. For the price its a nice piece of kit.

carbsy

fish fingers wrote: »

I have one too, its more or less plug and play. For the price its a nice piece of kit.

Yeah.. usually it comes with a 'gift' pre-configured.Anyhow, not a box for me!

fish fingers

carbsy wrote: »

Yeah.. usually it comes with a 'gift' pre-configured.Anyhow, not a box for me!

I dont use it for the gift. It runs cccam fine for me, I have a Tm500 and an eagle for tinkering

Pal

carbsy wrote: »

That would be a no.It's a poor box for the true techy imho, although Pal would prob beg to differ.

I like football so for that reason its great.

Apogee

Smeagol wrote: »

They were quite costly but well worth it. I think they were 1200DM so roughly about 400punts. Funny name, though.
Drake Earthstation receiver

Ah, I was thinking maybe you had the 2000XT, the 'Rolls Royce' receiver with the dual axis positioner control. Think they used to sell for ~€1500 in today's money.

ISAA

I thought this was "what was your first foreign channel system, not what PIRATE cams are been used"

Regards,

Gerry