How am I receiving sky sports for free?!

Danny2580

Hi all,

Two questions.

1. I just moved into a new house, hooked the TV up to an old sky cable that was in the wall when we moved in, and am receiving sky sports and some other channels (RTE 1,2, BBC 1,2, ATR etc) free of charge. There are dishes all over the neighbourhood. Can someone explain how this is happening?

2. The reception is around 50% of what it should be for most of the channels. Is it possible to boost this somehow?

Maybe there's a pub or bookies nearby with leaky cables?

Danny2580

It ain't a bookies or pub. Just wondering really how I can better the signal and how I'm receiving it without a box.

Antenna

Danny2580 wrote: »

. Just wondering really how I can better the signal and how I'm receiving it without a box.

You will probably lose it very soon. You say in another post where you are in a part of Maynooth - don't be surprised if this is investigated within hours of your post to stop your free reception. It is probably due to an error at the headend of the cable system of Maynooth, which is surely what you have hooked up to. Anyway they know about it now!

Danny2580

Wrong, Antenna, I didn't move into the aformentioned area I ended up somewhere entirely different! If nobody has anything constructive I'll check elsewhere, cheers.

Are there even any analogue cable networks still carrying Sky Sports? Unless maybe the OP has a TV with a DVB-C tuner and there's an encryption fault on UPC in the area? It's about the only thing I could logically think of.

Danny2580

I'm more or less in the countryside, but near some a few sky and other dishes - there is a cottage pub near with a fairly large dish that is not sky. No idea how it's coming in.

Danny2580

I'm also presuming the cable is sky - looks like a sky one.

Minstrel27

Danny2580 wrote: »

I'm also presuming the cable is sky - looks like a sky one.

What does a Sky cable look like?

byte

Nah, you seem to be picking up a cable system of some sort.

Gargantuan

Probably MMDS UPC system if you say you are out in the country.

Antenna

Gargantuan wrote: »

Probably MMDS UPC system if you say you are out in the country.

connecting an MMDS aerial directly to a TV would get absolutely nothing in any situation as it has a downconverter which needs DC power sent up - similar to an LNB with satellite.

its obviously analog cable the OP connected to

bittihuduga

in some maynooth houses the old analog NTL is still on i think. but i did not know skysports was on analog ntl

STB

byte wrote: »

Nah, you seem to be picking up a cable system of some sort.

Feed from the neighbours......

slegs

STB wrote: »

Feed from the neighbours......

Only possibility...

steo2009

Hi what about a free view box or internet all you see.org worth a try maybe.

scruffy66

Danny2580 wrote: »

Hi all,

Two questions.

1. I just moved into a new house, hooked the TV up to an old sky cable that was in the wall when we moved in, and am receiving sky sports and some other channels (RTE 1,2, BBC 1,2, ATR etc) free of charge. There are dishes all over the neighbourhood. Can someone explain how this is happening?

2. The reception is around 50% of what it should be for most of the channels. Is it possible to boost this somehow?

Hi danny, is it a brand new house or was somebody living there before?

Is there a communal system that you might be hooked up to ? or maybe the last owner left a sky box in the attic. what frequencie is sky sports coming in on?

Maybe the last owner was friends with pub owner, strange one ,a small 10 -20 db amp could improve the picture quality

watty

Sky Sports is a pay TV channel in Ireland. Period. Ireland has strict laws about getting payTv without paying properly.

Antenna

scruffy66 wrote: »

maybe the last owner left a sky box in the attic.

Do you really think that could be likely with a premium channel still being paid for on that box!


Either its a local fault on an analogue channel of a cable system (sports channel being carried instead of some other channel)

or else maybe this thread is just some sort of a wind-up?

If one really was getting a premium Channel "for free" - I think most people would keep their mouth shut and hope it lasts a bit longer!

Minstrel27

Antenna wrote: »

or else maybe this thread is just some sort of a wind-up?

This is my thinking.