Satellite Free to Air

handlemaster

I have a satellite dish on my house that I personally haven't used and it hasn't been used in at least 6-7 years. Could this dish pick up free to air channels. How would I be able to find out etc can a decoder box be bought for this. It would be alot cheaper than getting someone to install a new dish etc Any advice would be greatful

LordSutch

Interesting!

Firstly, is the satellite cable still attached? and then, if it is attached you have to ascertain if its alive? borrow a friends box (ask nicely to borrow for 30 mins), or buy a basic one in Lidl or Aldi for a song (7 day refund). Plug in and do a full scan on Astra 28.2 and you will soon find out if the dish is alive or not. If the Dish is dead then either its not pointed at Astra (UK Stations), or there is a faulty LNB (that's the think on the end of the arm pointing at the dish), you can buy a new LNB and this will save you the hassle of replacing the whole dish assembly!

If the dish looks old & rusty then buy a new one, start afresh and you won't be disappointed, 'Free To Air' is great for all the basic UK channels, and once you've installed it, you will have no more bills.

Picking up the Irish stations is another story, which depends on the age of your TV.

Compton

It most likely could if everything is working, you will need to have it aligned to astra 28.2 to get the free to air channels, free to air boxes are around 50 euro and can be bought here.

http://satworld.ie/product-list.php?Free_To_Air_FTA_Satellite_Receivers-pg1-cid108.html

handlemaster

LordSutch wrote: »

Interesting!

Firstly, is the satellite cable still attached? and then, if it is attached you have to ascertain if its alive? borrow a friends box (ask nicely to borrow for 30 mins), or buy a basic one in Lidl or Aldi for a song (7 day refund). Plug in and do a full scan on Astra 28.2 and you will soon find out if the dish is alive or not. If the Dish is dead then either its not pointed at Astra (UK Stations), or there is a faulty LNB (that's the think on the end of the arm pointing at the dish), you can buy a new LNB and this will save you the hassle of replacing the whole dish assembly!

If the dish looks old & rusty then buy a new one, start afresh and you won't be disappointed, 'Free To Air' is great for all the basic UK channels, and once you've installed it, you will have no more bills.

Picking up the Irish stations is another story, which depends on the age of your TV.

Thanks for that. I'm going to borrow a box that was used by someone else for free to air. Its from Maplin's don't know anything else about it. Hopefully its still live. Interestingly when I called UPC they dropped their price from 24.75 per month for basic package to 22 per month for digital package with 40 channels then when i said it was still too expensive it was dropped to 14.75 per month with a free connection box that would normally cost 20. All said they were looking for a 12mth contract also.

handlemaster

I have now gotten to borrow a Fortec star digital satellite receiver model FS-4000 V2. It is only picking up the some BBC channels .. any advice on how to get others. ...

Gerry Wicklow

If the box was working correctly at your friends house it would imply that your dish is pointing to the wrong satellite.

handlemaster

Gerry Wicklow wrote: »

If the box was working correctly at your friends house it would imply that your dish is pointing to the wrong satellite.

If its pick up a few bbc channels surely it should pick up the others..... or at least a hand full more. Bbc hardly have their own satellite

The Cush

handlemaster wrote: »

If its pick up a few bbc channels surely it should pick up the others..... or at least a hand full more. Bbc hardly have their own satellite

From this list can you identify the channels/TP frequencies you're picking up - http://www.lyngsat.com/28east.html.

The LNB on the dish could be faulty or the dish might be slightly out of alignment.

D1stant

You might be picking up just horizontal or just vertical channels

If so, new LNB needed