New to Freesat

[ericmark]

The dish sizes for Sky digital have not changed since it launched.

Sky was initially formed in 1990 by the equal merger of Sky Television and British Satellite Broadcasting the latter were well known for the Squarial. Sky when I started used a "Pace" set top box, since then they have had many boxes some better than others, it seems odd to think they have used the same dish throughout the UK for all that time, the LNB has clearly changed and I would think the array of plastic bits supplied with LNB's is because over the years the dish has changed.

However since the post made it clear he was not using Sky it does not really matter what dish Sky provides. What I personally found was my Sky box stopped working, but my free to air box had no problems with the same dish, so it would seem the Sky set top box was a bit deaf. The dish we first had was fitted by the appointed Sky man who clearly had not go a clue really as he fitted it on an existing mast above the rotator, so when I change station I was talking to the sky would have failed had I not seen his error, 5 years latter when we had problems the Sky guy said he could not work on that dish because of health, and safety issues accessing it, so fitted a new dish to front of house, actually fitted to garage so can reach it from a set of step ladders. And it's not the same as one fitted to back of house.

With 8 coax cables coming into my house I can have satellite in every room if I wish, however only ever had 5 boxes, and in real terms only now use 2. When we first got Sky I ran a coax to loft, into a booster splitter with digi eye through so 4 outputs dinning, kitchen, and two of the bedrooms, although today there are better ways I have never upgraded.

In mothers house there is one dish, two coax feeds go downstairs, however I don't need two down stairs so one goes to room I am in now. Other pair go to my wife's room which has the Sky+ HD box in, so in all three boxes connected to satellite. When I ran the cables we had not decided what we would do in each room, and I made errors as a result. So down stairs in main living room we also have two Freeview aerial feeds from mast head amp. This is then sent to mothers bedroom and room I am in now. My wife's bed room has no Freeview, and my bedroom has no TV, I watch pre-recorded programs with my laptop.

Clearly not very well set up. In this room I have three coax feeds, satellite, Freeview, and with a digi eye signal from the Sky+ HD box, theory was I could combine all the RF signals, but in practice I have to plug aerial lead from TV to either the Sky+ HD or Freeview signal, one messes up the other, in spite of trying to swap what channel the Sky+ HD box uses.

I know how I can get it all working, but just too lazy to bother. Good TV in the main means Sky TV, and I have not watched Sky since Christmas, I find I have about 5 channels I watch, ITV3, BBC1, Yesterday, More4 and Drama, yes there are some good programs from time to time, but mother does not want to watch them so all I can do is record them, and then watch after she has gone to bed. At one time I watched Universal and Gold a lot, but now it seems no point in having Sky.

Two of the TV's in the house do not need aerials to watch TV, neither Freeview or Satellite connection is required, the broad band goes direct to TV with Wifi and one wonders why I bothered running in any aerial cables?


https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/British_Satellite_Broadcasting

 

[Sam Gangee]

The dish sizes for Sky digital have not changed since it launched.

Give or take a couple of centimetres. Different manufacturers made slightly different sizes. The current Triax zone 1 dish measures approx. 43cm x 58cm. The LNB is designed to focus on the oval shape for optimum efficiency.