SKY Box

[limerick]

hi is there any problem with me taking my sky box and card from home to France & Wales for 2 week's , the box isn't plugged into a phone socket at home rgds limerick

[Dave Newell]

Hi Limerick, There should be no problem with taking your Sky box from home as it's obviously not subject to the usual contract deal, i.e. you didn't agree to have it connected to the phone line. Just remember to take a dish as well! D (lol)

[colin]

Technicaly taking your sky card out of the country is not allowed, but how they going to know if you don't have to conect to phone line? Sky is availible in bars in spain yet they won't sell any there!

[bjphillips]

Yes Ive used mine in France & Spain no problem but dont take the card out of the box whatever you do *-) (lol)

[limerick]

Just back from France no problem using the sky box even had the card in my wallet for two days and it still worked when i put back in the card. Rgds Limerick

[Robby]

what about a sky dish? Is it possible to buy a dish which will work with your sky box & card?

[johnsandywhite]

:-D Hi Robby. Any Dish including the Sky dish with a Universal LNB will work with Sky and other Receivers. I have a friend who I meet in Spain who has used a normal Sky dish with his Sky receiver as far down as Gibraltar. ;-)

[Robby]

Thanks for the advice but what I really want to know is other than unbolting the dish I have attached to my house and using that, is it possible to buy a separate dish that maybe could be mounted on a stand?

[colin]

Look on ebay,you will find zone 2 sky dishes on tripods. Read the discription carefully as last time I looked some had photo with tripod but where for dish only. You will also find some that have compas and signal meter these are a great help. Check out www.satelliteforcaravans.co.uk and play around with it before you go so you have a more stress free holiday.

[Robby]

Brilliant, thanks Colin.

[tezza]

Have you looked in Lidl's, this week, they have a suit case type satalite set up for £70, i bought one and it works great, you could attach the dish to your sky box

[colin]

[QUOTE]tezza - 2006-05-23 9:00 PM Have you looked in Lidl's, this week, they have a suit case type satalite set up for £70, i bought one and it works great, you could attach the dish to your sky box [/QUOTE] If this is the one with 40cm dish you might have struggle picking up BBC and ITV as you get further from UK

[bjphillips]

Ive got quite a large sky dish on my Laika at a guess I think it must be about 25" dia,I'm a bit concerned if it gets too windy because the angled bracket that elevates it dont look too strong ,I'm sure it could easily bend.I usually lower it down & resort to the aerial when it blows up too much.The one on the house is of a wire mesh type & only about 12" dia ,couldn,t this type be used on a Motorhome, where the wind wouldn't be so much of a problem?Any experts out there know about these things? (?)

[colin]

The '12"' one you have on house will proboly be a zone 1 sky dish, this is ok for most of UK, but in some areas of UK you will neen Zone2 dish, As you get further from UK signals for UK tv become weaker, this is especialy true of BBC and ITV as these use a 'spot beam' because they are transmitted free to air. It sounds like your dish is solid, maybe you could replace it with zone 2 dish (which is bigger) or old 60cm sky analoge dish( you might need to use new LNB or one from your present dish) If I remember correctly www.satelliteforcaravans.co.uk gives some info on dish sizes around europe.

[derek500]

We live near Valencia and have just bought the Lidl system, it works very well. Of course we can't get BBC1/2 ITV C4 C5 signals etc. But we can get Sky News, CNN, CNBC, Euronews, BBC World etc. Also Radio 2 for Wogan!! At home we need a 1.9m dish to receive the regular channels and further south towards alicante they need 2.4m dishes and even then they struggle to get the channels 24/7.

[ken]

Im very interested in the digi kit from lidl but have you used it abroad yet to see what channels it picks up, if not , do you know if it will pick up uk programmes,ie, normal channels such as bbc, itv,english speaking films etc. waiting for your reply.

[johnsandywhite]

:-D Hi ken. Although the receiver can be important for receiving a Satellite signal (some are better than others), the Dish and LNB are the defining factors. ;-)

[colin]

[QUOTE]ken - 2006-05-24 7:57 PM Im very interested in the digi kit from lidl but have you used it abroad yet to see what channels it picks up, if not , do you know if it will pick up uk programmes,ie, normal channels such as bbc, itv,english speaking films etc. waiting for your reply.[/QUOTE] All digital recievers that I can think of at moment can pick up BBC and ITV given that a big enough dish is used to pick up signals, at present ( and proboly for next couple of years) only sky digi boxes can unencrypt C4 and Five. If you want any sky chanels then you can only use digibox

[southwind]

The standard size SKY dish works fine in France and also down as far as San Sebastien in north western Spain for most 'watchable' TV. East coast Spain is a different problem. The best advice is get the largest dish that you are prepared or able carry and cope with. To save removing existing dishes, checkout www.satcure.co.uk for dishes, LNB's etc. They even do the table top direct focus thingy that a lot of people swear by - plus it'll fit in the wife's handbag when not in use! :-D Plus! - this is a good site for help and advice. Also if going to Spain, checkout www.spainforyou.net/sky for info on dish sizes and other useful bits of intelligence needed for there. It also has useful links to various other sites of invaluable information - including quick SKY tuning guides for caravan/motorhome owners. I use the Maxview wind-up 66/80 dish. It's very convenient, reasonably easy for a handy person to fit, but expensive at £350+, though it does work well in most of western Europe in conjunction with a Pace Rapier 2600C1 Sky digi-box and £20 FTV card to get channel 4 and 5 in addition to all BBC/ITV TV and masses of radio.