KVH M7. change to satellite Internet receiver

[Lozzer]

OK before I try and re-invent the wheel has anyone done this already?

We have two KVH M7 on boat. Box A tracks Hotbird, Astra and Sirius. Box B was tracking Astra 2s but this has stopped. My idea is to switch box B to receive Internet via satelite and watch tv over the Internet.

In Spain we have a number of companies offering satelite Internet at very competitive prices with fast speeds and unlimited access.

Question is does anyone see why I cannot use my existing technology, I don't see any reason why not if I remove the sky decoder and replace with black box from ISP.

I'm sure someone else would have done this he ce asking question before doing more research.

 

[davids0865]

Hi Lozzer,

Hate to burst your bubble, but, I had the same thought a while back as I have land based sat internet access, and the lnb is a transmit and receive special jobbie so it is a bit more complicated than just substitute the decoders, not saying it's immpossible, just not straightforward.

I will follow with great interest as many would love to use the same system i'm sure.

David

 

[Hurricane]

I don't think you will get the KVH dishes working internet without some serious mods from KVH
There are 2 satellite internet services (domestic - not marine) out ther
I looked into this last year so this is purely from memory

Astra have a system which I seem to remember is broadcast/linked to the Astra 3 position (somewhere between Astra 2 (28degrees and Astra 1 at 19 degrees)
That's not the problem with marine domes though as they will find the satellites themselves
However, the LNB setup is entirely different so a KVH upgrade/replacement would IMO be required

The other system is Eutalsat from Hortbird at 13 degrees (from memory

But this system uses a circular polarising technique and , more importantly, they have divided Equrope into about 20 or 30 segmants for the uplink. Each one is about 150 miles wide and requires registration each time you switch

Astra has a smaller bandwidth to the Eutalsat service but IMO both wouldn't be good enough for IP TV. Not because they wouldn't work - but because the costs would be too prohibitave

Now the catch - there is a huge reluctance out there for marine providers to provide the satellite internet services that are being provided to the domestic market
I presume it is because the marine market makes so much more money from what is essentially the same system for the domestic market
I seem to remember the marine/professional markets using a service called VSAT

Now to your initial problem
Your Astra 2 dome probably isn't tracking because it uses transmissions from the satellite to "track" (probably the transponder that BBC were using last year TP 13 - I think
The solution is simple - use a different transponder (frequency) to track the satellite - there are lots to choose from
Try looking at this site www.lyngsat.com
But , in your case, it's a KVH system and (I'm sure) you will need to get them to update your satellite database in the KVH kit
I haven't done mine yet - I use a fiddle at the moment - mine are Intellian though
My fiddle is to get the system to track Hotbird which should work ok then switch back to Astra 2
Mine seems to be able to find Astra 2 from Hotbird and will then "lock on" - don't understand why this works but it does
I will set up some new frequencies later when I have a bit more time

Finally, some very bad news
Soon all the BBC/ITV TV channels (currently transmitted from Astra 1N which is currently in the Astra 2 slot) will be switched to Astra 2F (and also eventually Astra 2G when it is launched). Using these 2 new satellites, they can focus the beams at the UK much tighter than they have been able to in the past. This means we will loose some of the UK TV that we currently receive in the Med. I think (hope) that Sky will be unaffected

In the meantime, I suggest that you get the old KVH system running using KVH support

If you want broadband internet in Spain - have a look WiMax (4G) - and in particular Iberianda (part of Telephonica) - a broadband terrestial system which should be suitable for IP TV - see here www.iberianainenglish.com

Hope that helps