# Very basic free-to-air question



## zag (7 Jan 2007)

I have a very basic question regarding free-to-air services . . . bear in mind that my current TV experience is provided by a pair of rabbits ears on top of the telly at the moment giving me RTE1, RTE2, TV3 & TG4.  Previously I had cable with NTL, but that was years ago and even then that was when there was a single set of channels available.  Satellite/digital didn't enter into it.

I want to get access to RAI and other 'mainstream' European channels.  From my limited knowledge I understand that these are available for free from Astra and/or Hotbird, but my problem is finding out how to get them.

Given that Astra & Hotbird are satellites I presume I will need a satellite dish of some form, but I thought I heard/read somewhere that this mightn't be the case any more.  I accept that in all probability I will indeed need a satellite dish to pick up a satellite signal . . .

Is there a guide out there to using FTA services in Ireland or can anyone give me any pointers on what I need to do/buy ?

Thanks,

z


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## hansov (7 Jan 2007)

Hi zag: the good folks over on boards.ie have a satellite forum where I picked up all that I know. I have a Lidl purchased dish and receiver and I had it motorized to allow me to swing from one sat to another. RAI (and its associated stations) is available on Hotbird. lyngsat.com gives a listing of all stations which are available on each satellite and which ones are free to air ie you don't need a subscription to receive. The nice thing about satellite is that once you have paid out the initial outlay, its free. A quick summary of what you need: a dish, a LNB (which is the thing that points at the dish and picks the signal up to send it down the), coaxial cable (you are advised to buy satellite quality to preserve signal strength; which connects to), a receiver. and finally patience if you go to set it up yourself! Good luck!!


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## zag (26 Jan 2007)

Thanks for the reply Hansov.  Some things move slowly in the zag household and this particular project is one of them.  I bought What Satellite SomethingOrOther in Easons yesterday and a quick review of that, plus your post is getting me on the way to where I need to be.

Looking at the magazine & some of the stuff on boards.ie and other sites shows that there are about a billion combinations of things which are possible, but trying to work out which one would suit my (very basic) requirements is hard.

In an attempt to simplify things I had a look at http://www.maplins.co.uk and they have a kit for £99 which claims to have everything in it required for receiving free to air . . . "view up to 2000 european tv channels, from countries including many from german, french, arabic and turkish channels. to enjoy an unbelievable feast of programmes, follow the simple instructions, attach the dish to the outside of your house, align it to the SATELLITE and connect the receiver to your tv. easy as that the receiver is already pre-programmed with all the current free-to-air SATELLITE channels and when new channels become available, simply scan the selected SATELLITE and it will program them in. we this amazing piece of equipment and vast number of channels, the one thing we can’t help you do is choose what you will watch!..."

Has anybody any views on this ?  It sounds like it has everything I should need, and at that price it is hard to go wrong.

z


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## procus (26 Jan 2007)

Hi Zag I posted this in answer to another users qusetion a while back i have cut and pasted it below hope it helps , this is the way i went about it.
 original post

If its fairly recent sky dish, it should work if you have a universal lnb on the dish if not you will need to replace it , they are really cheap, you should be able to pick up a free to air decoder for under 100 euro. By connecting the coax from the sky dish into it you should receive all the fta channels, bbc1 2 3 4 itv utv film 4 and many more channels. I am not well up on satellite stuff, but here's how i went about it,

I purchased a free to air full system off a company called zintek, on the green hills road, the whole system only cost around 120 euro (and no i dont work for them), I found the guy really helpful there. I hadn't a clue how to set it up , but decided to give it a go myself. I looked at the way the neighbours dish was setup e.g the direction it was pointing e.t.c. After pottering around with the dish for about 1 hour, starting off with the dish pointing downwards and moving it up a notch at a time and then from left to right slightly i found a signal. I had the dish in view of a tv set because the dish was at the end of the garden. I couldnt believe my eyes when i came in and had all the channels and all for free. I dont get channel 4 but i will live without it , when ntl come out and disconnect which i have requested mid december and no sign of them yet!. If you cant have sight of a tv while setting it up you can buy a sat finder for about 15 euro, and that will tell you when you have a signal. For rte i bought an aerial which i placed in the attic and i get rte 1 2 tv3 and tg4 perfect. I can't believe more people don't do it, I do know that there are restictions on placing dishes on the front of the house e.t.c. but i was ok because it is in the back garden.
I am not sure if this is the best way to do it but that's the way i did it , the one thing i didn't do is earth the dish which i heard is a good thing to do, i was talking to an electricial and he said its quite simple to do, so i should get around to it soon.

There is a website called www.satellite.ie and it has a section on frequently asked questions and i found it quite helpful.

hope this helps


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## zag (26 Jan 2007)

Most excellent set of links there (I mean off the satellite.ie site) - thanks.

As a quick guide can you give me a rough indication of broadly which direction we are talking for Hotbird & Astra  ?  This will give me an idea of whether it will be an option for the back of the house.

Thanks,

z


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## Markjbloggs (26 Jan 2007)

Procus, do you need to manually switch between satellite and aerial?  How does the TV interpret the difference between the two?


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## procus (26 Jan 2007)

Hi zag, we have a south/west back garden, we have the dish down the end of the garden on a pole about 7 foot high, it point towards the house. The dish points to the east , if you look around you and see what way the neighbours have theirs the chances are more than likely they are sky dishes pointing at astra, you would point yours exactly the same for astra which is all the bbcs and itvs e.tc. and hotbird is very near it. I think astra is 28 degrees and hotbird is 13. As I say i just got it by moving slowly and a lot of patience. 

Hi Markbloggs , in order to get rte 1 2 tv3 e.t.c , i just use an aerial and plug it into rf in on back of tv and tune them into the tv. e.g channel 1 to 3 and for the satellite i have to use the decoder remote control and press the av button on the tv remote, it would be better if you could just use 1 remote but ive got used to it. the decoder connects via scart.


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