chrisrowson

A few people have asked me about receiving British television in France, and so I decided to write a small 'how to' using info I've found across a few sites on the net. I'm a new user at these particular forums, but I thought that some of you may find this information useful in either taking your existing sky digital box with you to France, or learning about any extra equipment that you may need.

There are three satellites beaming information down to us Europeans from Sky, and whether or not you can recieve the signal from them depends a lot upon the size of your dish, where you are located, and the angle you have your dish pointing at. The following diagrams show the 'footprint' or coverage area of each satellite. They also show what size of satellite dish is needed to receive a signal in each colour coded area.

Astra Satellite North Satellite Numbers 2A & 2B


Astra Satellite South Satellite Numbers 2A & 2B


Astra 'spot' or UK focussed beam Satellite Number 2D


Each of these satellites broadcasts a different array of channels. For this example, BBC 1 is broadcast on Astra satellite 2D. You can see by the diagram therefore unless you live in the North West of France, you will not be able to receive BBC 1 using a normal sized satellite dish. In fact if you lived in the far South East of France, you'd need a 120 CM satellite dish in order to recieve a signal!

You can view a list of which satellite carrys which channel at this link: http://www.ses-astra.com/tv-radio/gu...UK_digital.htm clicking on the transponder link brings up the map showing where each channel can be received.

OK, assuming that you've now established which channels you can watch, you've procured yourself an appropriately sized satellite dish and you have a digital satellite decoder box. What next?

You are going to need to know where to point the satellite dish at! The Astra satellites are positioned at 28 degrees East of South, you should be able to use a compass to plot that alignment, and get the dish pointed in the correct direction. Now, you need to work out the angle of the dish (up and down). Generally, satellite installers have to use a signal meter to establish the strength of the signal (we won't though because they cost a couple of hundred quid!) If you have a lot of patience though, use the actual signal strength indicator on the box. It may take some time, but by using your compass you have the dish aligned very roughly, so get an installation buddy to check the signal on the box, as you move the satellite about in very small movements.

If you get the dish aligned correctly, you'll get the following info on your signal strength screen:



Well done, you're dish is pointed at the correct satellite!

I believe that BBC channels are now free to air, so they shouldn't need any type of viewing card for you to be able to see them. ITV, Channels 4 and 5 require a viewing card which you can buy for £20 from Sky.

So basically you can recieve all digital satellite channels anywhere in France but it is dependent on a few issues:

Your position within the footprint of the satellite - You may need a bigger dish

Postition of objects in your area - Your satellite dish must be able to point at the Astra satellite. Line of sight.

Viewing cards - Check with Sky, or on the net to see what cards are needed.

Information:

http://www.brymar.co.uk/acatalog/index.html - Loads of satellite products, and information. They sell bigger dishes.

http://www.ses-astra.com/ - Information on the Astra satellites

http://www.sky.com/ - Information on Sky's services

david brent

another site which is pretty useful for getting a grasp of the basics can be found here