Sky satellite TV reception latest - Hurricane?

Nick_H

Nick_H

Well-Known Member
Joined
20 Apr 2004
Messages
7,660
www.ybw-boatsforsale.com
Anyone know if all Sky channels have now migrated to Astra 2E, or if some will stay on 2A?

Trying to decide whether to bother getting a Sky box and free-to-air card for the boat in South of France.
 
All are on 2e but bbc, itv, chan4, chan5 and all their flavours are all using the uk spot beam. The rest inc Sky channels are on the pan european beam.
 
Sorry - late in picking this one up.

Yep - in Feb all the BBC/ITV channels went onto the new UK beam from Astra 2E and 2F
The new UK beam is much more focused on the UK than the old Astra 2D/Astra1N satellites.
The result is that here in Spain even 3m dishes are having trouble picking up BBC/ITV
So the only answer is Sky (for those who don't know, not BBC/ITV over Sky).
However, there seems to be some good news here.
We have noticed a much stronger signal from most of the Sky channels (Sky News is Free to Air and our 60cm Raymarine dome "locks on" much better than before.
So, it seems to me that Sky have also switched to Astra 2E and Astra 2F but using a European Wide Beam.
In fact, the Sky signals are so good that a 45cm dome should be OK wherever you are in the Western Med.
I've always had a standard Sky subscription (Gold/Dave/Watch/Discovery etc...) and this is working well here in Spain on our 60cm dome.
I used to have a portable 80cm dish for watching BBC etc but I've put it in away in my store as it is totally useless now.
Sky does now seem to be the way to go.
I might upgrade the subscription sometime.

To watch F1, I tune my TV to the Spanish terrestrial channel and use BBC Radio Five Live over the internet as a sound track - works really well!!! - even when BBC don't carry the live F1 event!!! (Radio Five Live always carries the F1 anyway) - I can patch audio around the boat.
Nick you can get the F1 on the German satellite RTL channel - transmitted from Hotbird at 13 degrees east
In Mallorca last year, we watched the F1 - video on RTL TV and English commentary on BBC Five Live over Wifi Internet!!!
 
Nick_H said:
Ooh, thanks. Do you know if you can set up a Sky receiver to get this channel, or do I need a seperate Sat TV receiver?
Click to expand...

Ahh - slightly bum info in my last post
RTL isn't on Hotbird - it is on the Astra 1 slot at 19 degrees.
You should be able to get it easily though.

The frequencies etc are:-
12188 - Horizontal - Symbol Rate 27500 - FEC 3/4

So this should be your tuning procedure

Set your dome to point to Astra 1 slot (19 degrees)
For people with KVH domes this can be tricky because KVH systems seem to require a satbox connected!!
For those of us with Raymarine/Intellian the procedure is really simple using the sat dome's control box
Once locked onto Astra 1, use the following notes to get a Sky Box receiving RTL

Press Services
Select System Setup
Select Add Channels
Set Frequency to 12188
Set Polarisation to H
Set Symbol Rate to 27.5
Set FEC to 3/4
Select Find Channels

The Sky Box will now scan transponder 89 (12188 H) and display all the digital services it can find
The top one should be RTL Television
Select it
Store it

RTL Television should now be in your Other Channels Menu - Under Services

I hope that helps
I've just checked it on my system and it is working fine.

BTW - RTL is a commercial channel so you will get annoying commercial advertisements just as the F1 gets interesting!!!
But they do transmit it even when BBC don't have the live coverage.

Good luck
 
Wow, fab and comprehensive info Hurricane, many thanks!

I have KVH dish, but i'm sure i'll get there, maybe i'll have to use the old Sat TV receiver to lock the satellite, then change to Sky receiver.
 
Nick_H said:
Wow, fab and comprehensive info Hurricane, many thanks!

I have KVH dish, but i'm sure i'll get there, maybe i'll have to use the old Sat TV receiver to lock the satellite, then change to Sky receiver.
Click to expand...

The technical issue is usually based around a feature called DiSEqC - see here http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/DiSEqC
This is where the satellite receiver provides a signal to the antenna (dome in this case) to drive the satellite dish to the correct position.
Sky boxes don't support DiSEqC
My system allows me to disable DiSEqC completely - I manually select the satellite that I want to use.
Then just use the Sky Box to receive the appropriate channel.

I don't understand why but KVH systems seem to require a sat box connected in order for them to track satellites.
Our Raymarine dome is actually made by Intellian and is completely self contained so all I do is select the satellite I want it to point to and it will track that satellite even if there is no sat box connected.

Sorry - I cant help much with KVH - once you have the dish pointing at Astra 1, tuning to RTL should be very easy.

Good luck
 
Just went through the same problem. Wrote to BBC to ask advice and informed that after the February re-alignment of Astra, with exception of BBC World, there are no BBC direct broadcasts south of the Channel. I also told other UK service providers are following suite. I have a RoadPro "in motion" dish and it works great in UK, even in quite lumpy 3~4's. But unfortunately I'll only get Hotbird English speaking channels in the Med. My timeshare resort management in Costa del Sol also confirm that there are no longer any UK direct broadcasts available.
HFD
 
HFD said:
Just went through the same problem. Wrote to BBC to ask advice and informed that after the February re-alignment of Astra, with exception of BBC World, there are no BBC direct broadcasts south of the Channel. I also told other UK service providers are following suite. I have a RoadPro "in motion" dish and it works great in UK, even in quite lumpy 3~4's. But unfortunately I'll only get Hotbird English speaking channels in the Med. My timeshare resort management in Costa del Sol also confirm that there are no longer any UK direct broadcasts available.
HFD
Click to expand...

Get a Sky Box and have all the Sky Channels - (not BBC)
You can pick up most of the Sky Channels throughout Europe (even though their license is just for the UK and Ireland)
You don't even need a very big dish.
 
I'm so pleased that this topic has been raised. I'm back in Empuriabrava in a couple of weeks (That's north east Med Spain near the French border to those who don't know) and I had no idea that the BBC had changed satellites so this thread has saved me spending half my hols trying to figure out what's wrong with my dish.
So I expect to receive no BBC/ITV but it seems that Sky is available but does that mean I have to subscribe to Sky? I have an old Sky box and card in the attic which used to work in 'freesat kind of mode' in the UK even after we unsubscibed. Would this work? I really don't want to subscribe to Sky for the few weeks a year we are on the boat.
 
Nick and David

Just having a Sky card will only give you the "free to air" Sky channels.
Thats only really Sky News which, in fact, is quite good for UK News whilst away.
It is also a really strong signal (European Wide Beam)
Unfortunately, you will need to subscribe if you want more channels.

You both need to be careful when installing the system outside of the UK/Ireland.
Sky viewing cards need to be "paired" with the box that they are inserted into.
Pairing can only be done by Sky.
They either send a signal over the TV system or over a phone line.
It is reasonably easy to convince them that you don't have a phone line but if you were to say that you are located outside the UK/Ireland, they will simply cut you off.
When talking to them, you have to be economical with the truth.
So, there is a bit of a "Chicken and Egg" situation here
You have to get the Sat dish pointing at the Astra 2 slot first
Then get Sky News working - this should work on the "Free to Air" viewing card (I think even without pairing the card to the box)
Then Call them if you want to upgrade.
I've never used it but I believe you can upgrade yourself over their website.

A technical sideline - information only - not a problem now though.
Most of the Sky data comes over the "Default Transponder"
There are 4 designated "Default Transponders" which you used to have to set up for the strongest signal.
Up until recently, the UK Default Transponder was virtually impossible to receive here in Spain but since the big changeover, the UK Default Transponder is strong enough to use.
Sky Boxes have a little idiosyncrasy - they keep resetting the Default Transponder back to the UK one.
So, if anyone used to have to change the Default Transponder, it may now not be necessary.
It just works!!!!
 
Thanks Mike for your very detailed reply. I might have got it wrong but one of your earlier posts suggested that BBC/ITV would still not be available with the subscribed Sky box in Spain. Have. I made the right conclusion?

Ref ""So the only answer is Sky (for those who don't know, not BBC/ITV over Sky)."

Another question
Presumably I could do the pairing in the uk and take the box out to Spain since it sounds like the UK transponder would be good enough for me.
 
Last edited:
Nick_H said:
The Free to Air card doesn't need any pairing or authorisation, just plug it in to any Sky box.

This gives you all the BBC/ITV channels that you can't now watch in Europe, another 200 or so channels that you'd never want to watch, plus Sky News. Full list here http://www.sky.com/shop/freesat/home/what-can-i-watch/. We only wanted some news and kids channels, so it's worked out OK.
Click to expand...

This is interesting. So the outcome of this 'refocussing' is that ironically you end up with a stronger Sky signal that can be picked up with a small (45cm) dish, and all you need is your £25 Sky freesat card and you're all set?
 
jimmy_the_builder said:
This is interesting. So the outcome of this 'refocussing' is that ironically you end up with a stronger Sky signal that can be picked up with a small (45cm) dish, and all you need is your £25 Sky freesat card and you're all set?
Click to expand...

Sort of, though I could always pick up the Sky signal in SoF, even with my 37cm dish, but couldn't reliably get BBC/ITV, so really not much has changed for me. The positive coming out of this thread however is that I thought as Sky moved to Astra 2E/F we would completely lose all signal, but it appears we wont (in fact, as you say, it seems it's a bit stronger), which is good news

For long spells on the boat we take the skybox from home, and it seems we'll continue to get all the channels we previously could, as we could never get BBC/ITV anyway, but for shorter stays when its not worth the hassle of taking it, i'll now have an old skybox with a free-to-air card, so I can still get the news without paying for a second subscription.
 
I have just retrieved my old Skybox from the attic and plugged it into my dish (used for freesat) and it still works, picking up all the BBC/ITV channels (that I want). I haven't paid a subscription in years.
So, If I take it out to north Spain, will it stand a chance of working with the dish that I used to use to pick up previous BBC/ITV signals?
 
Nick_H said:
See if you can get Sky News on it. If so, then yes, it should get all the non-BBC/ITV free-to-air channels in Spain
Click to expand...

Will do
I'll report back in a couple of weeks when I'm out there.
The biggest technical problem is getting the wife to forego some of her clothes to get the Skybox into her Ryanair spec case. Before you ask mine is already full with a coffee machine.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.

Share this page

Top