Freeview TV/Satellite

[Wildman]

Hi all. I have just bought a freeview digital TV, freeview tuner built in. Tried out the ant at home, worked fine. However in my field (600ft asl)where the analogue TV works without an external antenna there is no signal. I suspect the situation will be the same all over the UK for a few years yet. So is it possible to connect a suitcase Satellite receiver and dish to receive free to air sat signals or will they only work with an analogue TV. Don't have sat at home. What is the score, anyone done it, anyone given up on the suitcase jobbie and have one going spare?

 

[sandyketton]

Roger,
I have a TV with built in digital tuner and like you have no signal. I connected up an old Sky dish and box to it and it works well.
I'd find a friend with a Sky dish and try it out before buying a suitcase jobbie.
Good luck

Edit: only receive free to air programmes.

 

[Braunston]

Hi,

If I understand correctly you have a TV with a built-in Freeview capability and all you need to do is connect a suitable aerial and point it in the direction of a Freeview transmission station and away you go, you should be able to connect a satellite box to this TV as long as it has a spare scart socket which will allow you a number of choices

I would just say that the Digital Terrestrial signal which is what you need to obtain Freeview is very directional so you really do need to obtain a good aerial and point in the right direction, not like the Analogue signal which usually picks up a signal no matter what way the aerial is facing.

The suitcase jobbies contain a small portable dish with various fixings and a FTA receiver which will allow you to pickup hundreds of channels from various satellites some of these will be foreign language and while this can be an asset to some people I find the it a pain as its very difficult to setup them up to exclude/include a reasonable amount of usable channels as i find i am trawling through to find anything that interests me.

To avoid the above I use the dish from one of those suitcase jobbies connected to a old second hand Sky box in which i have a £20 FTA card from Sky installed and that will get me most of the channels that are on Freeview but not all of them? and it keeps the selection down to a manageable number.

If you want to save money you could look at purchasing a second hand Sky dish from eBay etc. and make a mounting for it, you could also purchase an old Sky box and if you can find one with a card albeit the subscription may have run out, as I have been told that it could well still act as the same way as the £20 FTA card I purchased, its worth a try ?

Another suggestion would be to purchase either a secondhand sky dish or use the one from one of the suitcase jobbies and then purchase a FreeSAT box and connect them to your TV as FreeSAT is a new service from the BBC and ITV offering a similar service to Freeview but through the satellite system rather than the DTV service through a normal aerial, the boxes can be purchase form a number of places do a google on FreeSat

Hope that helps

Hi all. I have just bought a freeview digital TV, freeview tuner built in. Tried out the ant at home, worked fine. However in my field (600ft asl)where the analogue TV works without an external antenna there is no signal. I suspect the situation will be the same all over the UK for a few years yet. So is it possible to connect a suitcase Satellite receiver and dish to receive free to air sat signals or will they only work with an analogue TV. Don't have sat at home. What is the score, anyone done it, anyone given up on the suitcase jobbie and have one going spare?

 

[N Luyetund]

Roger, If you have Freecycle in your area ask if anyone has a sky box ...picked mine up from someone who'd switched to sky+

 

[PeteH]

Try Sky (cheap)

Hi

It can be done. I went skip diving and "rescued" a Sky dish. got the LNB for £3 plus postage of e-bay, the "sky box" was "donated" by a good friend who found it in the locker of his new purchase motorhome and did`nt want it!!. Bolted it all up to an old Camera Tripod. Initially I went by "guess and by god" (with help from the Man on the Internet Tele site, ) but I have now got a Signal finder (£14 from Maplin). If you can see a clear bit of sky roughly 20 to 30 degrees east of south, and start from there you should get a signal, in the UK ( Yorkshire) the Dish should be roughly vertical, but as you go further south you will need to point it slighly upward. I got BBC and ITV as far south as the Spanish border, beyond that you need a bigger dish.

WE take the home sky card with us so we get what we subscribe to, but there is a Card (one off payment of £20) which gives as good as "freeveiw").

hope this helps


Pete

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[Terry]

Hi Roger,I bought a suitcase jobby and it took me about 30 mins to set it up then my mate Paul moved it about a foot and away I went again 20 mins later got a signal,he moved it again and about 15 mins later you have now guessed it Suitcase job went back to maplins,but if you have use for it I have an old sky box (240v)brand new dish with EITHER a single or new quad lnb which ever you want.When Paul reapears this w/end I will ask him what you need / if possible needless to say Roger you are welcome to the lot:thumb:
btw It took Paul about 1 or 2 mins to get same signals and he knew I would never have the patence to do it
terry

 

[Wildman]

Hi Roger,I bought a suitcase jobby and it took me about 30 mins to set it up then my mate Paul moved it about a foot and away I went again 20 mins later got a signal,he moved it again and about 15 mins later you have now guessed it Suitcase job went back to maplins,but if you have use for it I have an old sky box (240v)brand new dish with EITHER a single or new quad lnb which ever you want.When Paul reapears this w/end I will ask him what you need / if possible needless to say Roger you are welcome to the lot:thumb:
btw It took Paul about 1 or 2 mins to get same signals and he knew I would never have the patence to do it
terry

Cheers Terry, got some more wiring done today and can try out raising existing ant in the meantime, any idea of the current drawn by the sky set up. Get it boxed up but this time do let me know the postage costs. I fitted the inverter today but only a small 180W one, TV is 45W, should be big enough. Might even have to add more batteries, hee hee

 

[Terry]

Hi Roger,not got hold of Paul yet (he's in lurrrrve) but your inverter will easy power both tv and sky box.email your address again:thumb: there is a old box, new single or quad lnb(let me know whitch) new (about 500 mm) oval dish (same as they fitted to my house) with a couple of fixing brackets and about 25 mtrs of used bit still good sat/ariel wire.It will all be winging it's way to you on monday so will get to you tuesday.Glad I kept it all now and that somebody can make good use of it I hate throwing good stuff away
terry

 

[Kon tiki]

I got my suitcase sat system from Maplins (they have them on offer from time to time it was £49.99 & I used a discount code to get an extra fiver off)
First time I used it I stuck on the side of the van turned everything on & I had a perfect picture on the UK channels (thought it was easy why do people have trouble setting it up ) On our first trip away at a show I spent all weekend & couldn't get anything at all :Angry: I looked at all the other MH's to see which way they were pointing & in the end gave up .
When I got home I did a bit of googling & read about how to set it up, one problem with these cheap systems is that to adjust it you have to loosen the ball & socket on the arm. The dish then can move about all over the place. I made my own attachment so I could mount it on an old video tripod I had. This allowed me to adjust the elevation & azimuth independently. It is now a piece of cake & it is just a case of connecting it all up & I can find a signal in 1 or 2 minutes :thumb:.
The tripod has a small leveling bubble, I set the dish (the offset type) to be near vertical if anything pointing slightly down. Then it is just a case of rotating the dish around until I get a signal There is only one other adjustment, the skew of the LNB but once set you only ever need to alter it if you are heading to southern europe.
We use our small dish in southern Spain but mainly for the UK radio stations, we could get the news channels, a few film ones, the shopping & S4C (so if you speak welsh you are ok)