spainboy

I do have Sky TV over in Spain but iam always paying these so called agents £30 each time I want to swap a package or add/remove one. My parents in the UK have just moved home and do not have sky nor do they wish to get sky so Im interested in perhaps asking them to order SKY+ with a sports package so I can bring it back to Spain. The only thing is (as far as I know) is that the box may need to be connected to a phone line for 12months. Is there any way around this? I have a UK credit card as well as a spanish one so we can pay the monthly subscription from a UK card and of course we are fully aware not to ever call SKY from a line outside the UK.

The one off cost is £79 and then the monthly subscription is the same what im paying right now.
Im not just doing this for a cheap sky+box but I really want to have a sky card registered with my parents address unlike the one I have now which is with a spanish company.

Can this be done? I guess PCand Sat guy may have some advice but ill take any feedback from people that have perhaps done this. Also whats the standard cost of getting an extra LNB on my 2.4mtr to enable the sky+ function and will it effect my signal (make it weaker for BBC/ITV?)

The Guy

In many cases Sky like their equipment to be connected to a UK phone line so they know where their equipment is (all equipment of a sky discounted installation remains sky property for the first 12 months) - so people dont take the box away and either use it at another location or sell it on ebay.....

In some cases a bit of BS and you can get away with the phone line connection - but the phone connection is it is policed (99.9% of the time for multiroom subscription - a bit more relaxed for other installs). Sometimes for a one off fee (£25 i think has been mentioned) you can forgo the phone connection - but sort this out when ordering.

You can just order a new card at the UK address and use your own Sky+ box.

But if you order a new sky+ box at the address they may only supply at the discounted price if they install the dish as well, and the engineer also likes to make sure your card is paired and working with your box before they go.....it is part of the interactive installation discount after all! (you could always give your parents your old box to use with their newly installed dish!)

I have found that the Sky+ boxes with the card slots on the left of the front panel perform much better than any others - PAce 3100 or PAce TDS470NB - but unfortunatly you may not get a choice from the sky installer in the uK - you'll just get whats in his van...

But as you say a Sky+ box does ideally need two cables from the dish to the box for its full potential.
If it is a 2.4m dish then you will ideally need an invacon Twin (or Quad) LNB - approx 70 euros / 100 euros for supply install and realign. Running a second cable will also need to be charged.

A new LNB will probably improve the signal, and the twins are better for reception than a single, and a quad is slightly better than a twin.

missile

I have a quad lnb. I noticed the signal strength varies between the cables, is this normal?

Solarwhizz

As i reported earlier, I recently did this for SKY+ HD, basically same requirements, You cannot go for any of the SKY offers (as they always ask for a Telephone line connect)
So I did the following
1) Purchased SKY+HD box off ebay here ( http://shop.ebay.co.uk/macavity2004/...1&_from=&_ipg= ), cheap and with 3 month guarantee!!
2) Ordered SKY+ description off SKY using UK brothers address ( he doesnt have sky), told sky I had bought box off ebay, as I didnt want big brother phone line (Extra £25 manual activation charge)
3) Got card delivered to my UK address, then sent to me,
4) activated over my UK mobile
5) system up and running, new SKY white card delivered to my UK address sent here and put in box and all A ok

PS HD Box is Pace TDS850NB, reception is very good on 2.4M some probs with BBC2 at times, but otherwise ok.

missile

You can buy a telephone extension box and connect the wires to a 9 volt battery and plug the sky box in. Fools the sky test signal into thinking your box is connected to a phone line.

The Guy

but that does not fool the Sky computer that is waiting for the signal from the box via the phone line that starts to trigger the "your box is not connected to a phoneline" letters.

Chiclanagir

Remember to cancel your card with the supplier in Spain or you may end up paying for both as we have done.

derek500

Yes. The signal strength of each feed depends on what channel it is receiving at the time. As there are various satellites, with different beams and with two polarities each, the signal strengths will vary.

Normally one will be picking up the default transponder and the other the last channel you were watching when you checked the readings.

If you have Sky+ you can test the feeds by recording two channels off the same transponder at the same time and then check the signal strength/quality. They should be identical.

To test vertical polarity try BBC1 West Midlands and BBC1 North West.

For horizontal try BBC1 Wales and BBC1 Scotland.

All the BBC variations are up in the 900 range.

missile

I am sure you know a lot more about how the system works than I do. However, it worked for me.

missile

I do have sky + and signal strength / quality is different on each of the four feeds. I suspect there may be losses (possibly bad connections), on the weaker feeds?

The Guy

the strength / quality indicators depend on what channels you are watching / recording. normally on a sky+ box one of them show the strength for 11778.
and dont forgoet that different boxes have different tuners inside so they perform differently and therefore report differently.

but if you are testing them on the same box and still getting loss then check the cables, connections and are all the cables the same make / quality

missile

I think I have tested with every permutation, on the same box, line feed and channel. There are some joints in the cables and I guess that is not good news?

bealerDSB

Nope, not good news...

Less nor forget, every inch of cable carries so many Ohms Resistance.
If you have got one cable X more longer than a shorter one you will experience more "voltage drop".

DSB.

spainboy

Thanks for the advice. Just as a bit of extra advice how long do you need to wait until the new white sky card arrives? Ive had a 'sky card in post' message for about 3 weeks now and now its telling me to insert my new card. The message is coming up every couple of hrs now and the card still hasnt arrived to the new address yet in the uk!!

The Guy

the new cards have normally arrive at the UK address within 7 days of the message appering on the screen.

if you have not receieved the new card yet then contact sky (your or frined in the uk etc) and let them know. they will cancel the "missing" white card, cancel the on screen messages for your exisitng blue card, and add your name to one of the "sweep ups" at the end of the process.