Old sky dish

joolsveer

I have an old sky dish attached to my chimney breast. If I realign it can I pick up any other satellites? I am in Dublin and have a good unobstructed view to the south and south east.

watty

Yes, but the bolts are usually badly rusted. It's a bit small for some of the signals and a Sky Box isn't very useful.

You'd be better with a lower down dish for easier access. You can get over 20 different Satellite positions in Ireland from about 42E to 45W.

www.lyngsat.com/europe
www.lyngsat.com/atlantic

Check that the beam of a Transponder actually can be received in Ireland. Just because the Satellite is well above the Horizon doesn't mean you can receive anything.

Normally for Satellite as a Hobby a 80cm to 110cm dish and a €100 approx Motek Diseqc motor (or similar) is used. Alignment only needed once.
Various Satellite Articles by Posters here on the Satellite Forum http://www.techtir.ie/articles/howto


If you want simply to watch more mainland European FreeTV, then a Multifeed 80cm or 95cm dish with 4 x LNBs is better. Especially for more than one satellite receiver or PVR.
http://www.saortv.info/satellite-saorsat/distribution/

If you have space then a Motorised AND a Fixed Multifeed is good. Espc if you want to "hunt for feeds" and the rest of family want to watch BBC!

Nearer: Triax 90/95 cm dish with Triax multifeed bar and 4 x Quattro LNBs for four satellites.
Higher: Triax 110 cm dish on stronger pole with Motek 2100SG motor for over 20 satellites from 42E to 45W

See suppliers sticky.

joolsveer

Thanks Watty. I have just bought a Vuplus duo which is fed by an 80cm dish receiving Astra 2 channels. The sky dish is redundant now and I was thinking of getting rid of it. The 80cm dish feeds three rooms and it would not suit me to have a motor on it.

watty

Close up of the nearer dish.

You could have a Diseqc switch and add 3 LNBS to the 80cm dish and still use one coax in to the receiver. One room then gets all 4 satellites the other three on the 28.2E quad get the existing satellite. If you use a Multiswitch instead of a Diseqc switch, then all four rooms get all four. Sky box can't select satellites, so if using a Multiswitch, you put the quad on Port one and by default with no commands the tuner gets port one.

Sky/Freesat 28E ---- Astra 19E -- Hotbird 13E - 9E

Various satellites possible by moving the LNBs on the bar between 28.2E and about 7E
Dish in photo is actually pointed at 16E.

In Dublin an 80cm will work reasonably. MidWest needs 90/95cm.

joolsveer

I have an octo lnb. Will this rule out your suggested solution? I am not using any sky boxes at this stage. As well as the vu+ duo I have a Humax freesat pvr and an SD satellite receiver.

watty

The 28.2 LNB can be Quad or Octo for Diseqc and can be Quad or Octo if the Multiswitch is used and it's a model of Multiswitch that works with Quattro or Quad.

Typical Multiswitch has 16 outlets.

Minstrel27

I used a Sky dish successfully for picking up Hotbird. I used it for a few months. It also worked fine when I directed it at Astra 1.

watty

In south East it's not bad.
Midwest would be a bit small.

joolsveer

Thanks for all the help. I have it pointed at Astra 1 and I am getting the fta channels now.