Freesat reception - all about dishes

Published on 10th September 2006 at 12:42 by Brian Butterworth on UK Free TV

Satellite reception has both advantages and disadvantages compare with terrestrial (aerial) reception.

By using much higher frequencies (gigahertz, compared to terrestrial televisions megahertz) more transmission channels called transponders (the satellite equivalent of multiplexes) can be provided. For example, there are only six Freeview multiplexes, but Sky or Freesat users can access two hundred satellite transponders.

Aside from exceptional weather conditions (very heavy rain for example) digital satellite provides stable pictures and audio. Where Freeview transmitters are no more than 732 metres above sea level, the geostationary satellites used for television are 35,800,000 metres above the equator so reception is possible even where buildings, trees and hills make terrestrial reception impossible.



The downside of the transmitters being 22,300 miles up in the air is that the signals are very, very weak - so standard TV aerial is of little use. When the signals are sent to the satellites, huge dish transmitters are used to uplink the signal to the satellite. These are tens of metres from side to side, and feature an emitter that generates the signal, which is first bounced of a mirror (called a reflector) and then off the surface of the parabolic dish.



There are many satellites in the sky over the equator. Often these are in clusters over a particular position, for example there are four used for UK television are at 28.2 degrees east. There is another cluster over the 19.2 degrees east positions that are used for German television.

To receive these very weak signals from the satellite, it is necessary to use a dish for reception too. By using a reflective dish, this concentrates the signals onto a small device called a LNB. This is held in front of the dish by a metal arm.



The size of dish for reception is typically much smaller; often 60cm to 100cm in diameter, but the exact size depends upon the transmitting satellite transponder. To keep the transmission power levels down to levels that can be powered by the satellite's solar panels, each beam is focused on a particular area of the Earth's surface. If you are trying to receive the signal at the centre of this zone, a small dish is required. At the outer edges, you may need a 5 metre dish. Maps of these zones are provided by the satellite companies, and are called satellite footprints.

When the dish is installed it must be aligned carefully as the signal is very weak. The installer needs to know the inclination and the azimuth from the ground location to the satellite. If you install yourself you will find that there are markings on the dish that are used to point the dish in the correct position. It is important that the view of the satellite will not be blocked, so must take into account leaves growing on trees and potential building works.

For many people the LNB will have a single cable connected to it, however if you have Sky+ or a multi-room installation the LNB package will actually contain four receivers a quad-LNB. Unlike terrestrial television where you can split the aerial cable to feed more than one Freeview box or television set, with satelite reception you cannot. So, a Sky+ box with two receivers (so you can watch one thing and record another) has two cables connecting the box to the dish.

The cable that connects the dish to the receiver must be satellite grade cable. Whilst this looks superficially like the cable used to connect and aerial to a television, a higher grade cable is required for satellite reception.

Here is an image of a co-axial cable. This sort of cable is used to connect any type of receiving aerial to the reception equipment.



RG6, PF100 and PH100 are all types of coax cable that are suitable for the very weak signals that are received by a satellite dish. (The power is the same as you would receive from a one-bar electric heater on the moon).

The conductor in the centre passes the signals received from the dish to the set-top box. This is made from steel in RG6 cable, and from copper in the RF100 and PH100 types. This makes RG6 less suitable in the UK where rain can damage the cable.

The shielding is responsible for keeping unwanted external interference from damaging the signal. In the cheaper cable this will be a foil wrap, in better specified cables this is a braid (or mesh) of copper wires. The sheild in the RF100 covers 58% of the cable.

The non-conducting layer between the shield and the conductor is called the dielectric. This can be either a solid (RG6), foam (RF100) or air-spaced (PH100) dielectric. This makes the cables progressively more flexible (ie bendy without damage).

First comments Earlier comments  ◊  Later comments Latest comments

Your comments are always welcome. Please use the form below to add your thoughts or questions to this page. We will get back to you as soon as we can.

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Iain barker
Tuesday 28 June 2011 2:32PM

I am thinking of buying from Aldi a portable satellite kit - dish, tuner, cables - for use when caravanning in Europe. Will i be able to get freesat reception ?
Thank you
Iain

1 post

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jb38
Tuesday 28 June 2011 4:36PM

Iain barker: You will be able to receive Freesat with this kit but not in the same way as does a dedicated Freesat box, as the EPG guide is only a now and next type and not the usual programme list, this making it a bit of a nightmare when searching for your usually watched favourite channels.

The other thing to remember is that the dish is only 45cm and therefore will be a bit more critical in setting up, as indeed they even are in Northern Scotland, so this will limit the reception possibilities if you stray a bit too far towards Eastern Europe, 60+cm dishes being the more usual.

Apart from these criticisms the kit is good value for money.

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Baz Mason
Saturday 2 July 2011 10:00AM

hi,
I have recently purchased an Optex 9540 receiver and Optex 80 cm dish. I have aligned my dish for Astra 28.2E using a Sat Finder meter that squeals when aligned but all I get on the sat box is "No Signal". Elevation 32.5, Az. 143.3 and LNB skew -18.5, all checked. As the box is configured for the French FTA, I realigned to Astra 19.2 but get the same result, "No Signal". Could this be a box fault? The aerial fits onto the 9540 but there isn't an aerial connection from the 9540 to the TV so I presume the Scart lead carries the signal? I live in SW France.
Thank you, Baz

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jb38
Saturday 2 July 2011 11:18AM

Baz Mason: The sat finder meter will give an audible indication when it detects something so long as its being supplied with power via the co-ax, (not even requiring a receiver) so at least you know its working, that said though it still might not be 28.2 you are on as these simple sat finder devices require real operational precision to determine the null point between individual satellites, this sometimes being barely noticeable!

I would go into the set up menu and select Astra 2D, then carry out a test scan on that as some UK channels should be seen there, although have a check and see if any signal strength is showing as there could be a problem with the box, especially should it be second hand, as these have been on the go for a number of years.

Pity you cant borrow another receiver, (any type) as substitution is always an easier way of determining the source of a trouble, especially if a dish alignment comes into the equation.

And just to confirm that the scart lead is the method of connection to the TV.

Try entering your location details into this link, and use that as a basis for your tests.

 Satellite Finder / Dish Pointing Calculator with Google Maps | DishPointer.com

4,694 posts

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Ken Sims
Thursday 7 July 2011 12:49PM

Les Nicol. Thank you Les for your comprehensive reply. Even though I am an active pensioner long gone are the days when I would climb a ladder to top of my house. I did however get a young man to get up there and he assures me that all the bolts appear to be in place and secure. He tells me that the dish is pointing directly to the side of a tree that bends in the wind and obscures the gap. So I'm pretty sure my problem is the trees.

My neighbours who have encountered the same problem have since confirmed this.

This leading edge technology that beams high quality pictures into our living rooms from thousands of miles away, but stick a tree in the way and it all goes tits up in the last 25yds! I amazed!

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Jon Shannow
Friday 8 July 2011 8:17AM Stevenage

Ken Sims: Hi ken
I have just moved into a property with a dish installed .
How can I find out where my signal is coming from sg2 8tz
Thank you
Jon

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Les Nicol
Friday 15 July 2011 11:03AM

Ken - It's possible the dish isn't sited in the best position. A dish can be sited at ground level - Sky fitters in particular seem to have a preference to establish dishes at a point well out of the reach of subscribers !

I have a motorised dish on a ground stand and there are several large trees anywhere between 300 to 1200 yards from where the dish is set up and at the 300 yard point the main A75 trunk Euro Route from Ireland to Europe - the constant HGV traffic using it not to mention buildings.

My dish is configured correctly by myself and I have no difficulty in reception in the complete range of receivable satellites from from around 40+ plus degrees East to 40+degrees West. - accepting that my dish is 88cms in size,

In fairness to SKY fitters they are not given the extra time to achieve the best possible location where there are site issues

Finally a personal and more critical appraisal- some receivers aside - the hardware used is the cheapest of the cheap.

972 posts

Les Nicol
Friday 15 July 2011 11:11AM

Jon Shannow - You may be able to compare direction with other dishes nearby- not the most accurate method of checking. Really the only way to get some accuracy is by connecting a receiver to the dish and seeing what reception your getting or by having a local rigger who would be able to assess this visually or by connecting a Pro-Meter to the input cabling to your property.

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KEN
Friday 15 July 2011 5:25PM

is it ok to paint the reflector dish and if so is there a specific paint to use.thanks KEN

2 posts

lesnicol
Friday 15 July 2011 6:14PM

Ken - Yes you can paint your dish either with a spray or brush paint. There's no specific type but I would go for a powdercoating finish. Clear perspex dishes are avilable also if you require something more asthetic.

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KEN
Saturday 16 July 2011 7:53AM

re painting dish. thanks for your answer and so prompt too, thanks KEN

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Ian Blair
Wednesday 20 July 2011 1:26PM

I'm thinking of putting up a freesat satellite dish. I live in a small semi detached bungalow with a tv aerial pole attached to the gable end wall.
Would it be suitable to put the dish on this pole below the aerial ? What size dish should I use and are some better quality than others, any information would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks in advance.

1 post

Briantist
Friday 22 July 2011 1:53PM

Ian Blair: The problem with putting a dish on a pole is that it will probably blow around in the wind and disrupt satellite reception.

There are plenty of options for dish locations, can you please see  Householder guide to satellite dishes | ukfree.tv - independent free digital TV advice .

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Rob
Saturday 23 July 2011 2:48PM

I recently bought a Tevion Elite freesat hd kit from aldi. It came with an ugly lookingcwhite 45 cm dish. Can I replace this dish with a smaller black mesh dish like the ones Sky use. If so what is the smallest size i should choose. I looked on the net and it talks about zones1 & 2 etc. ( I live in Stoke on Trent ST6. I would also like to run more than 1 receiver from the dish. Can anyone help please. Rob

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jb38
Saturday 23 July 2011 5:55PM

Rob: Why don't you just spay the dish with satin black car paint such as sold by Halfords etc, as 45CM dishes are the standard used in most parts of England, albeit Sky versions being elliptical.

If you intend to use other Freesat boxes or TV's then you should purchase a quad LNB kit, these costing under £10.00 from various dealers on e-bay etc, and they come with adaptors to fit most commonly used dish arms, rectangular or round.

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Ann Lynn
Friday 29 July 2011 12:29AM Basildon

jb38:
Hi, we have 3 televisions, a very old black and white tv, a Panasonic Viera TX L32S20BA, we have a Humax PVC running through to the TV, a Becko of about 7 years old which we watch through a Freeview box.

I noticed that the ITV channels disappeared off the Panasonic and we had to use the Humax to view them about 2-3 weeks ago. Last week everything changed. The black and white pick up any channels but the reception is very poor, it flickers and you can hear it, but that's about all. The Becko (situated in the upstairs bedroom) is the same. It could be viewed if you managed to bypass the request to update the tv through the Freeview set top box. We have tried updating the set top box, it duly looks for the channels, finds them but then returns to the screen reminding us that we need to update our channels, we can no longer bypass this to watch the tv. Unless of course, you switch the set top off, which we did but the reception is very poor, lines appear across the screen. The Panasonic has NO SIGNAL, the screen is black with an occasional flicker. I used the Humax to watch the TV last Thursday, before making the mistake of re-scanning it and now that does not pick up any channels either. The Humax reports a signal strength of about 100% and picture quality of about 40, but this varies greatly due to flickering. I've read the posts about the perils of re-scanning. That's after following the advice in Digital TV, we have connected, disconnected, rescanned and all to no avail. Apparently there's a box in the loft (a new areal was fitted in about 6 years ago, with separate leads to each room). My husband has tried adjusting the signal strength (reading these posts suggest it's too high). We're non nonplussed, any ideas would be welcome. We are in SS16 4QS. We are not part of the digital switchover yet, although I note that the Panasonic can not find analogue channels.

We suspect the areal but why would it play up now?
eal

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jb38
Friday 29 July 2011 8:31AM

Ann Lynn: Well, you obviously have varying problems dependant on what's being used at the time, but the trade predictions for your location indicates Bluebell Hill as being your best bet, Rouncefall also being possible but only on the three main Mux channels, albeit reception of all three Mux's being down compared to Bluebell Hill.

I feel that your problems are basically caused by poor reception, so if the aerial amplifier has an adjuster on it I would leave it fully advanced for the time being, then concentrating purely on your Panasonic TV carry out a manual scan on Mux channel 59 (BBC1 from Bluebell Hill) and note what the indications are showing as (strength/quality) once done try the same test but on Mux channel 24, this being ITV1 etc from the same transmitter, this to give an idea of what you are actually receiving as predictors can have a wide margin of errors in what they indicate as being possible, these usually erring on the side of fanciful!

Although its unlikely, but if the Panasonic cant find the channels mentioned for the test couple up the Humax and try it on that, although both of these devices are about the same as far as sensitivity is concerned.

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Ann Lynn
Friday 29 July 2011 11:30AM Basildon

Ann Lynn:
Thank you very much for your quick response. We have now tried a manual scan on Channels 59 and 24 on the Panasonic. On channel 59 the TV indicates a signal quality of 100% the quality is static and appears to be about 10%. It finds the BBC Channels but only for a couple of seconds before they disappear. The same applies to channel 24 but the signal quality fluctuates to between 80-90%.

When the TV was hooked up to the Humax the signal strength is 100%, the quality is 40% but it flickers up to 100%. It has found the BBC channels but the menu froze. The PEG has been updated, after a fashion, some of the channels have moved up to 800 but many of them are missing, a trend that I have noticed over the past few weeks. I've also noticed, when the Panasonic is switched to analogue there is no signal. It only recognizes dvb. However the TV picture records no or bad signal. The TV pictures appear to be scrambled. I'm afraid it didn't work. Do you think will we need to purchase a satellite dish or have the aerial adjusted to get this working? Your advice is greatly received.

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jb38
Saturday 30 July 2011 11:15AM

Ann Lynn: Well, there is always the possibility of inefficiency as far as your aerial is concerned, but based on what you have reported I think it very doubtful if any adjustments to it would bring any great dividends unless there is actually any fault with the aerial itself, like a bad connection at the co-ax / aerial connecting point, or its been blown off track with the wind etc.

As far as some channels up in the 800's are concerned, if you found BBC1 or ITV1 amongst these channels you should signal check them via the tuning menu to see what Mux transmitters they are coming from, as I suspect that they "might" be being received from Rouncefall on the rear side of your aerial, "if" that is your aerial is pointing to Bluebell Hill, Rouncefall's BBC1 on Ch44 with ITV1 being on CH41, (these being the same as Sudbury's high power Mux's) and if they are consistently better than what's on the correct EPG positions for these channels then setting your TV etc up using purely manual tuning for each Mux is liable to give more satisfactory results.

As far as going Freesat is concerned, I would always recommend to anyone that's fed up with bad reception caused by reasons out with their control (as most are!) to go for Freesat, as Satellite reception is 99.9% of the time totally reliable, with any time its not usually due to a particularly heavy thundercloud down pour.

Another interesting test would be to try coupling a TV directly to the aerials down lead, although "if" you have a mast head amp you couldn't do that as it requires to be powered via the co-ax.

Anyway, you could maybe give an update on checking the two channels mentioned in the 800 range, as I am interested in what you find.

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Ann Lynn
Saturday 30 July 2011 8:51PM Basildon

Hi thanks for getting back to me. I had no joy in trying to re-tune the Panasonic. I then tried it through the Humax, attempts to manual tune through channels 41 and 44 were met with an abrupt 'no channels found'. I noticed that with the auto scan on the Panasonic that Itv is back into channel 3, although there's no signal to view it.

When I tried the 800 channels through the Humax the signal check gave the response 'unknown'. ditto for BBC 1 which is back on Channel number 1. ITV 1 which is now 800 is unable to find also says 'unknown'. I've tried manual re-tuning through a number of stations but there's been no improvement. That's also the same for the other TVs in the house. Something seems to be scrambling the signal, don't know what or where but I suppose we'll have to do without a TV for a while, or may be invest in Freesat and see if that improves things. Thanks for your help.
Ann

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jb38
Sunday 31 July 2011 8:41AM

Ann Lynn: Thanks for the update, the content of not really being of great surprise as everything you have reported is symptomatic or receiving an erratic signal.

This is also the reason why every time you carry out a re-scan stations change places, basically because when the TV/box is slowly scanning from Ch21 upwards and is on a channel that signal happens to be low on at the time, the box is just liable to by-pass it and not lock onto it, as the signal has to be at a certain level for a given TV/box to capture, this varying between brands.

Of course at this time of the year other factors could be coming it the equation like interference from other distant transmitters etc, but irrespective of whether this might apply or not the fact is that unless there is a fault on your aerial connections, then the situation is really out with your control.

On the issue of Freesat, if a persons residence can accommodate a dish being mounted facing South and not into a large tree, then no-one ever regrets it as reception problems effectively become a thing of the past.

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Ann Lynn
Sunday 31 July 2011 10:59AM Basildon

It looks like we shall have to grin and bear it until we get an alternative. Thank you for your time and help. It is greatly appreciated.

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Jm F
Sunday 31 July 2011 9:14PM

Ann Lynn: Your distribution amplifier in the loft might be the cause of your trouble (usually the power supply becomes noisy due to failure of smoothing capacitors, which injects mains hum onto all outputs).
You could check this by removing just one output cable and see which telly has "gone off" completely.
Now disconnect the coax input from the amplifier and join it to the first cable you've unplugged (you may need a coax "joiner").
See whether the one telly fed by this coax appears to be any better. If it is, then your amp is duff.

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Ann Lynn
Monday 1 August 2011 9:31PM Basildon

Thank you very much for your advice. We tried this and we are now able to access a load of channels. BBC 1 has a poor signal and I don't know where ITV 1 has gone, ITV 2 etc can't be accessed but we have a brilliant picture on BBC 2 and Film 4 but to name but a few. It sounds as if there's a problem with the amp but also we are experiencing signal problems, apparently there's maintenance going on at the Bluebell Hill sight. Thank you for your advice.

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Ken Sims
Wednesday 17 August 2011 9:01AM

Les Nicol
Finally found a local Aerial installer that I knew I could trust to do a good job (from word of mouth and recomendation) and he resited my dish in a position that I hadn't thought of and hey presto it all works great now. Thanks Les you were right, and without your sound advice I wouldn,t have done this.

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Roderick Morrison
Wednesday 17 August 2011 1:51PM

I have just put up a second hand dish and LNB short is comming up on screen. What do I have to do to rectify this? thank you in anticipation.

1 post

Briantist
Thursday 18 August 2011 8:24AM

Roderick Morrison: You will need to find the short. It is most likely to be a poorly made connection at one end of the cable or other, but it could be a broken LNB.

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Don Greer
Sunday 21 August 2011 12:47PM

Hi I wonder if you can help with the following;

I have a Samsung UA55D8000 TV that comes with an internal free Sat receiver.

I would like to use an already installed Sky dish for Free sat reception on the Samsung.

However there is only one input on the Samsung for a Satellite dish and my Sky dish has two cables.

I am assuming that one cable to the dish is power and one cable is signal.

How would I go about using the dish? Do I need a separate power supply?.

There is no information in the Samsung manuals regarding the internal free sat receiver

Regards

Don Greer

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jb38
Sunday 21 August 2011 1:49PM

Don Greer: You don't really have anything to worry about except maybe that your still is still aligned properly, which it likely will be, as you just leave the extra lead uncoupled as it was possibly being used for a Sky+ set up where recording is involved.

All outputs on a dish LNB are independent of each other, so that they can be used for things such as viewing one channel whilst recording another etc.

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Don Greer
Sunday 28 August 2011 4:42PM

Thanks jb38.All fixed up and working fine.

Regards
Don Greer

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freddie
Sunday 28 August 2011 4:48PM

hi i have a metronic kbox digital satelite receiver the problem i am experiencing is that on al jazeera, bbc,sky,cnn,euronews,dw tv, the picture on the screen rolls on other channels not at all.also no roll on local terrestrial channels.please would appreciate your advice.iam living in northern portugal.
this problem has only just started recently,as the system has been in place for 4 years. thank you

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Bert
Tuesday 30 August 2011 10:04PM

hi, I would like to install freesat, will be purchasing humax hd recorder box with a further 3 hd boxes, will this require 2 dishes??? i understand that the recorder box will need 2 cables in, will there be enough cable space left for 3 other boxes?

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Bert
Tuesday 30 August 2011 10:15PM

p.s. forgot to also ask..... should one use shielded or unshielded ethernet cable for connection from broad band to freesat box, so that we can receive bbci player, some of the cable will run down the outside of the property. will it be weather proof or will we need to contain it?

2 posts

Briantist
Wednesday 31 August 2011 8:20AM

Bert: Cat 5 cables (as used for Ethernet) are balanced, there is no need for shielding.

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Billy
Wednesday 31 August 2011 2:00PM

Thought I'd add this here as no postings I can bring up on dish inside.
Going back, oh gosh couple years maybe more, was over the chip shop when I saw a satellite van, so I went over and asked them, can you get a signal with a dish inside, along those lines, no they said, funny I said, I do.

They won't tell you this cause obviously not good for business.
On the other hand can be bit and miss and not always easy to find the signal, have to know what you are doing and where to point it roughly and so on, and some channels due to going through window can come through due to a reduced signal.

However that is not all, yes the small sky like 40 cm dish is about 18 inches back from the window, goes through window, net curtain and normal curtains when closed. I get usual main channels no problem, obviously reduced signal.

Reason for mentioning is, say someone, oh gosh, is renting, landlord or for whatever reason not allow an outside dish, if you face the South and East way, might, only might be worthy investigating if you can get a dish to work inside, obviously the draw back, ugly looking thing in sight, but I'm used to it now, so, lol, and have bigger one outside as well anyway for satellite feeds, golf etc.

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Lee
Thursday 1 September 2011 6:44PM

I am thinking of buying the aldi satellite system to replace my sky HD box. Can i use my existing sky dish and would i be able to receive the free football channels?

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Billy
Friday 2 September 2011 3:00PM

Lee, sadly not as such, because any free football feeds will be on other satellites, I use 78cm dish and often for the golf I like that is not enough, get rain and bang it's gone, depending on threshold etc.
What people do not know it a lot is free, but need a good box, like AZ box which you download the software and then you are away, as a lot is not encrypted, but is in 4:2:2 as opposed to 4:2:0, it's a colour thing apparently and in HD.

See here for feeds:
Archives des feeds annoncées - Satelliweb

I do hope that helps, love helping and especially in this kinda field, times over the years I've tinkered communication wise, lol, :).

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mark341
Wednesday 7 September 2011 10:18AM

i currently subscribe to sky but can i also attach a freesat box to the sky dish, so that i can get sky in one room and freesat in another?

2 posts

Briantist
Wednesday 7 September 2011 10:25AM

mark341: Yes.

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mark341
Wednesday 7 September 2011 11:22AM

Thanks Briatist

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a.keevil
Tuesday 13 September 2011 8:36PM

I am thinking of buying Freesat. What is best, a single/ double or quadruple LNB ?
Iive on the coast in West Sussex what size dish is best suited to this area ?

1 post

Briantist
Tuesday 13 September 2011 10:08PM

a.keevil: Buy a quad-LNB, they are reasonably priced and will allow you to add devices without having to throw away your old LNB package.

A 60cm dish is used in England.

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richard gains
Thursday 15 September 2011 11:26PM

hi i hav a sky dish and use to use a sky pls box if i bought freesat plus box and plugged it in will this work and record 2 channels

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jb38
Friday 16 September 2011 7:38AM

richard gains: Basically yes, as dishes used for Sky are completely compatible for use with Freesat TV's / boxes.

Also, if the LNB on the dish is of the dual or quad variety then it can operate with a Sky box at the same time as a Freesat one.

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jb38
Friday 16 September 2011 8:19AM

richard gains: Of course the "dual" aspect of my latter comment only applying for purely TV use, as any dual channel Freesat recorder requires to use both inputs from the LNB, so a quad LNB is essential if any other Satellite device is intended to be used as well as the Freesat recorder.

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Nick
Sunday 25 September 2011 10:39AM

Hello,

I am installing a satellite dish and I can either put it on the wall of the house where it looks as though a neighbour's tree might get in the way of the signal elevation or on the wall of a very solid cabin in the garden where the tree is well out of the way. My question is, how far away can the dish be from the TV itself? I would use PF100 cable, but would I lose signal strength over a certain length? The cabin wall would be between 10 and 25 metres from the TV, depending on how I routed the cable.

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Jim F
Monday 26 September 2011 7:36PM

Nick: Max. cable distance for a standard mini dish is getting on for 50m (that's around 15dB loss for good quality coax - i.e. the stuff that is copper rather than copper plated steel or aluminium).
A bigger dish will provide more signal, so can tolerate a larger loss, and you can get amplifiers powered by the satellite receiver up the coax to overcome some cable loss.
At 25m max. you should be fine, unless you're living way up north.

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paul
Wednesday 5 October 2011 5:33PM Girvan

the nearest tree where clear line of site is available is 100m from the house - we used standard cable line but the signal drop off was too much - can you get a mini transmitter to senf sigal to the house from the dish?

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Jim F
Thursday 6 October 2011 9:46AM

paul : You can get an in-line satellite amplifier that is powered from your satellite receiver.
See:
http://www.vision-product…d=65
for an example.
The in-line amplifier won't work at the "house end" of the coax cable, since the signal has already dropped too much. Typically it would be used closer to the dish than mid-distance (i.e. where the signal has dropped some, but not too much). You might be able to use it close to the dish. Knowledge of your coax cable loss would help to determine the optimum position in the cable. It will need suitable protection from the weather.

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Moray christie
Friday 7 October 2011 2:51PM

Hi can you give me instructions to get channel 5,on a sat dish on my caravan,im in Yorkshire.
thank you
Mac

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Nick
Friday 7 October 2011 9:55PM

Thanks, Jim, for the answer about cable distance. Much appreciated.

1 post

Briantist
Thursday 13 October 2011 9:59AM

Moray christie: See How can I get Channel 5 on Sky in Ireland? | ukfree.tv - independent free digital TV advice please.

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