the parkers

using sky + in spain don't me the legal tell me the technical ta.

Tele Addict

What do you want to know? And where are you going to be?

The majority of Sky general entertainment channels, Sky sports, Eurosport, etc. are easily received on an 80cm dish. This dish sizes also covers various free channels such as news channels (Sky News, BBC News, plus ten more) BBC sports feeds (Formula one, Wimbledon, etc.) , various channels with "B" movies, some kid's channels, altogether some seventy free-to-air channels (not including shopping, porn or other garbage). Channel Five and sister channels are available free at this dish size but require an FTV viewing card. For a Sky+ box you need a dual or quad LNB as the receiver requires two feeds from the dish because internally it has two tuners, one for recording and one for viewing.

Mainstream channels are not available at this dish size. A 1.8 metre dish is about minimum on the Costa Blanca for BBC1, ITV1/2/3/4, E4, More4, etc.

Channel 4 and BBC2 are possible in some areas on the Costa Blanca on a 2.4 metre dish but only for a few hours daily. For 24/7 reception you would need a dish upwards of 4 metres.

Use of a Sky subscription is not allowed outside the UK under terms and conditions of the Sky contract. If Sky discovers that its service is being used outside the UK it will terminate the contract. This means the only way to run an account with Sky is to use a UK address for the contract and to receive the viewing card, use an unsubscribed receiver, and breach the terms and conditions by using the viewing card outside the UK (without Sky's knowledge of course).

the parkers

We're going to be moving to Algarrobo near Sayalonga and had heard that it was illegal to use Sky so this is good information to have. Thanks

Fred James

You will get all the channels 24/7 on a 1.3m dish.

spain

is that because of the area ? as we had a 1.9 and didnt get all channels 24/7

The Guy

can you confirm that this does include bbc2, cbbc, freesat five 24/7?
and what about sky sports news, ssportxtra and the sky movie channels during the weak north beam time mid afternoon to early evening?

Fred James

All Freesat channels are OK 24/7. We no longer have a Sky box (now use Humax Freesat HD) but when we did, all the subscription channels were OK.

In Andalucia, especially on the coast, there is no problem with reception of (almost) all channels on a 1.3m dish. On the Costa Blanca it is a totally different story.

Tele Addict

Yes. The Costa Blanca (centred on Alicante) coincides with a null in the signal coming from the satellite. North of Javea and south of Torrevieja things improve a lot. In Alicante no BBC2, Channel 4 or Five FTA is possible at any time of day even using a 2.4 metre dish.

IanandKathleen

I live up the road in Competa and have both Sky+ and Freesat+ you will have no problem on condition the dish is set up correctly, we have just changed a 2meter dish down to a 1.3 with a quad LNB and receive all channels, Wife watches Freesat and I watch Sky films and Sci-fi but all the normall channels are available on Sky.

Regards,

Solarwhizz

I have a 2.4M. dish, and have taken the trouble to set up to BBC2 , and achieve,
BBC2 From about 1:30 pm through to about 5:30pm with little or no trouble, pixelates and drifts out after about 5:30 and comes back through about 6:30 and then ok ( along with BBC3/4 when that starts) till about 0100 in the morning. lose it then until after lunch next day, Channel 4 and some of the movie channel follow same pattern,
CH4 available 24/7 on other channels 12480, and same with CH5 on 12422 so far.

IanandKathleen

I dont understand this, you all have huge dish's up north and I, and the neighbors down south, all have smaller ones and receive all the channels all the time. Not boasting or trying to annoy you, but why is it ?.
The Parkers should not go and buy a 2 meter dish until they have spoken to a local Sky man or I could be mean and sell them the 2 meter dish sitting on my drive waiting for the rubbish man.

Regards

Tele Addict

You don't say where you are. I said Alicante (city not province). Go 50 kilometres in either direction and 2D horizontals are quite possible for a small part of the day, but not in Alicante.
You didn't read my post properly; it said FTA channels. The ones you mention are encrypted FTV channels which probably won't exist from later this year and are not possible to receive using a Freesat box.

The Guy

the rumour is that Astra 2d, the "weak" beamed satellite that carries the free BBC and ITV channels, was damaged during manufacture. This has meant that the signal footprint is not as what they hoped for, and that they is a "side lobe" of good reception around the south of spain, and hence smaller dishes can be used.
It is nothing to do with "The signal needs to be received in Gibralter!"