I have a Sky Dish from 1996?! Can I get freesat?

micah777 · 17-07-2009, 02:00

Heres my situation,

I use to have the full Sky package. However the subscription ended a few years ago after I got it all in back in 1996. Took out the box and have since lost the box. However, my girlfriend has moved house and got Virgin and has given me her Skybox with the card in it as mine has gone. Her Skybox still has the card in it. She was watching freesat before she gave me the skybox?

So I connected my Sky Box up to the TV using a scart and plugged the ariel from the satalite into the back of my Sky Box and it searches for a few seconds and after a few seconds it says no satalite signal is found?

Does anyone know what the problem is here?

WOuld most apprecite any help?!

Thanks

Micah

v0id · 17-07-2009, 02:15

Unless it's a mini dish (egg shaped, not round) I doubt you'd pick up much of anything worth watching as the round dishes aren't digital are they?

popper · 17-07-2009, 05:51

if its from way back in 1996 then the chances are that its got an old analogue LMB on there so you cant get digital anything directly....

these old dishes are far better at picking up weak signals than the above egg shaped new ones BUT you will have to get a New digital LMB and mounting sleeve to old analogue dish and replace/swap out the old analogue one if you want to continue using that on todays digital signals...

Jon T · 17-07-2009, 08:25

I think you mean LNB popper: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Low-noise_block_converter

Also if it's an old analogue dish, will it be pointing at the wrong group of satelitte's? Or do the digital satelitte's occupy the same space in the sky that the analoge birds used to.

**Kymmy** · 17-07-2009, 08:28

I think popper means the LNB (Low Noise Block convertor)

The 60cm dish should be better than the minidish, last time I wanted a universal LNB I picked one up from Lidl for £4, ebay is another great source for them.

The dish though if installed is likely to be pointing at 19.2E (the old Astra 1 sats though if you still have the analogue box German Eurosport is still broadcasting there with an English audio though not a lot else in english), where as Freesat is at 28.2E so you will need to point it in the right direction.

dd11 · 17-07-2009, 09:01

The price of getting a new dish is dirt cheap anyway. I got a mini dish & Quad LNB for £14 quid! off a company on ebay. Good quality too.

You just gotta hope your wireing still works now ay.

micah777 · 17-07-2009, 16:27

Thats for all your replys. So basically do I need to get a whole new dish? Or do I just need to get something added too and taken off my egg shaped dish from 1996? If so what is it that I need to get exactly?

The I guess Id need to get someone out to fix it onto my satalite, how much does that normally cost?

17-07-2009, 20:35

Quote:

Originally Posted by popper

if its from way back in 1996 then the chances are that its got an old analogue LMB on there so you cant get digital anything directly....

these old dishes are far better at picking up weak signals than the above egg shaped new ones BUT you will have to get a New digital LMB and mounting sleeve to old analogue dish and replace/swap out the old analogue one if you want to continue using that on todays digital signals...

Theres no such thing as a digital LNB. All digital TV is carried on analogue carriers. Theres also no such thing as a digital dish (or a digital terrestrial antenna for that matter).

**Kymmy** · 17-07-2009, 21:03

Quote:

Originally Posted by The-Darkside

Theres no such thing as a digital LNB. All digital TV is carried on analogue carriers. Theres also no such thing as a digital dish (or a digital terrestrial antenna for that matter).

But the old LNB might not be tone switchable and go all the way down to 9.75 or upto 10.6Ghz IF

Hence I suggested he get a cheap universal LNB

17-07-2009, 21:18

Quote:

Originally Posted by Kymmy

But the old LNB might not be tone switchable and go all the way down to 9.75 or upto 10.6Ghz IF

Hence I suggested he get a cheap universal LNB

The Local Oscillator frequencies are 9.75 and 10.6GHz which give the Ku band range of 10.7GHz to 12.5GHz - the L band (IF) range is 950MHz to 2.050GHz no matter which LO is in use.
Not sure what you meant above Kymmy, tho from spending time on the site I know you know what you are talking about.

**Paul M** · 17-07-2009, 21:26

Quote:

Originally Posted by Jon T

Also if it's an old analogue dish, will it be pointing at the wrong group of satelitte's? Or do the digital satelitte's occupy the same space in the sky that the analoge birds used to.

The digital sats are basically in the same place.

17-07-2009, 21:38

Quote:

Originally Posted by Paul M

The digital sats are basically in the same place.

The analogue Sky services were using Astra 1 at 19e whereas digital Sky are using 28.2e so the dish needs repointing.

**Kymmy** · 17-07-2009, 22:00

Quote:

Originally Posted by The-Darkside

Not sure what you meant above Kymmy, tho from spending time on the site I know you know what you are talking about.

The original LNB's I think had a fixed 10Ghz oscilator only, so if you have one on a digital system you can't get the lower and upper banks of frequencies

That's why the universal LNB's have tone selectable between 9.75 and 10.6Ghz (they use I believe a 22Khz tone) which means a lot wider band spread

17-07-2009, 22:08

Quote:

Originally Posted by Kymmy

The original LNB's I think had a fixed 10Ghz oscilator only, so if you have one on a digital system you can't get the lower and upper banks of frequencies

That's why the universal LNB's have tone selectable between 9.75 and 10.6Ghz (they use I believe a 22Khz tone) which means a lot wider band spread

The original LNB's used 9.75GHz only. There was a external device which connected to the RF cabling and added a further frequency mixing stage which allowed the LNB to pick up the entire extended frequency range. I seem to remember it used the voltage switching on scart pin 8 to enable or disable it. I can remember watching analogue wimbledon feeds on our Amstrad analogue box when I had a play with our dish back in the early 90's.

EDIT : No I'm wrong you are right, it was 10GHz.

**Kymmy** · 17-07-2009, 22:17

Quote:

Originally Posted by The-Darkside

The original LNB's used 9.75GHz only. There was a external device which connected to the RF cabling and added a further frequency mixing stage which allowed the LNB to pick up the entire extended frequency range. I seem to remember it used the voltage switching on scart pin 8 to enable or disable it. I can remember watching analogue wimbledon feeds on our Amstrad analogue box when I had a play with our dish back in the early 90's.

I knew it was somewhere round there

Situation here is that Jenna had an old 1.5m dish on a Pace positioner and pace analogue box when I moved in, since moved it got bored with the positioner needing constant fiddling so I've since got a couple of universal LNB's and made a 15 degree seperation bracket and a seperate diseqC switch

So now have freesat/sky on one LNB and Hotbird on the other feeding into a small little Relook Mutant with a neutrino image.

All in all for the OP you can keep the dish, the LNB might need changing (I would do anyway as if you want to use a freesat PVR you'll need a dual one anyway(Quad if you want to have more than one freesat in the house)) and the dish will need repointing from 19.2E to 28.2E (remember when you move it it's not a simple matter of just turning it slightly east but also raising it up a degree or two to cope with the curvature of the earth), then you just need a freesat reciever and some decent co-ax

[edit]

Quote:

Originally Posted by The-Darkside

EDIT : No I'm wrong you are right, it was 10GHz.

LOL I was right then