My satellite equipment (analogue and digital).
Winter 2000 - May 2001
I originally started searching for analogue satellite signals with the following equipment:
Mitsubishi ST-PB10 satellite receiver. This was an ex-Sky box that had done service for several years, and was made redundant when friends went over to Sky Digital.
60 cm mesh dish - this came with the Mitsubishi box. This dish was dismantled and stored when I got the 80cm dish in May 2001.
10m satellite cable - this was the original cable that came with the dish.
The original lnb is an ancient enhanced unbranded type, and covers 10.700 Ghz to 12.100 Ghz. (Therefore it covered the Astra 1D band without need to use an ADX frequency shifting box).
2 bricks (to hold the dish in place on the lawn!)
May 2001
The Mitsubishi remote control went wrong, so the decoder was replaced by a nice Pace MSS 100. However, the Mitsubishi wasnt junked - it still worked as long as you used the buttons on the front. It was passed onto a workmate who had a dish on the side of his house, but no box. It was reported to be still working fine in May 2002, and is used for the news channels.
The Pace MSS 100
80 cm dish (scavenged from the side of the road in town on bin day!!)
the same lnb / cable (no lnb on the new dish)
3 (!) bricks to hold the bigger dish in place...
I also invested in a Philips "On Digital" DTT box to give us a basic selection of pay tv services. The extra few channels was a big bonus after only having the 5 terrestrial services, and a few strange German ones for such a long time :-)
June 2001
I treated myself to a lovely Echostar 3000IPVA (embedded Viaccess) digital & analogue receiver. However, the Pace is more sensitive to weak signals, so I normally use that one when I'm looking for the weaker signals or new satellite orbital slots.
A new Cambridge G57 0.6db lnb (dual band - 10.600 - 12.700 Ghz) was put on the 80cm dish to allow the Echostar to get it's full frequency range.
January 2002
A SECA conditional access module was added to the Echostar to widen it's capabilities.
The coax cable running to the 80cm dish was replaced as the original had started to split. I bought a 20m length of satellite grade coax from the local B&Q for about a tenner.
Nowadays, I have the dish supported on an old car tyre. The bricks were knocking too much paint off the dishes causing them to rust. I have also found that aligning the dish is much easier when it is sitting on a car tyre.
May 2002
Oh dear. I picked the wrong pay tv service..... With the end of ITV Digital at the end of April 2002, we lost most of our extra channels :-(
So I bit the bullet, and decided we had to go with with Sky... I treated us to a new Grundig GDS 3000 sky digibox so we can have our pay tv channels back. The picture quality is superb from this box.
The Grundig GDS 3000 Sky Digibox
The 60cm dish was bought out of store, and dusted off. A new Cambridge G57 0.6db lnb was put on it, and it's been permanently bolted to the wall on the side of the cottage. To get the Sky Digital signals, the dish was initially aligned onto Astra 2C at 19.2E, then moved onto Astra 1D at 24.2E, then finally onto Astra 2 at 28.2E.
I wanted to install all the equipment myself having seen the mess the Sky installers had made when they put a dish up next door a couple of months previously....
This far north, the 60cm dish was a little too small for the analogue Astra 1 signals - they suffered from sparklies especially in bad weather, but is perfect for the stronger Sky Digital signals.
May 2002
I am hoping to get hold of an old 1.2m dish in the near future. Its a glass fibre dish with a metallic coating on the front face. It's white, so will definitely have to be painted so it blends into the garden better!
January 2003
I got hold of the 1.2m dish, but its currently safe in store at work until I find somewhere to put it.... Just been donated a redundant Nokia Sat 780 IRD, and a nice 80cm dish. Thats the 4th dish I now own. The lnb is an old single band one, and will have to swapped when the dish is put into use, but it's been dismantled and put into store for now.
February 2003
The Nokia 780 IRD has been disposed of. I tried it out and although the picture and sound was excellent, the tuning on it was hit and miss - no proper numerical details of what you were tuned to. Its been passed on to an old lady who was desperate to get Eurosport for the tennis. Her old Sky receiver packed up a few weeks ago. All working nicely, and old lady is thrilled to get her tennis coverage back :-)
March 2003
The Mitsubishi ST-PB10 has been handed back, as the chap who was using it has gone over to the new DTT "FreeView" service.
June 2003
Ive finally added a tv card to my computer, so I can watch tv on the monitor. The main reason I wanted one is for screen captures of interesting transmissions for the web sites, but its fun watching the tv on the monitor. Ive used a cheap splitter to divide the rf output at the end of our rf chain, so Ive got all the terrestrial tv channels, my beloved European satellite channels, Sky, and the video :-) At some point, I'll have to set up a proper rf distribution system, but at the moment I cant be bothered. The current system works well enough.
The card is a Pinnacle PCTV Rave, and was picked up for about 30 quid from a local big name household electrical shop.
December 2003
The Philips DTT box - redundant for 18 months since we switched over to Sky - has finally found a new home. Ive dug it out of its cupboard, blown the dust bunnies out of it, & given it to a lad from work so he can have a few extra channels.
January 2004
Some minor changes to the equipment set up. Ive swapped the LNB on the Sky dish for a 2 output MTI Blue Line 0.6dB. Ive added a DiseqC switch to the Echostar, so the second output from the Sky dish now goes to the Echostar. The 80cm moveable dish has also been connected to the DisecQ switch, so I can now switch electronically between dishes 1, 2, & 3.
April 2004
3½ years after starting with the moveable dishes, I have finally made a decent mount for one of the 80cm dishes - nothing fancy, its 2 fence posts, and some cheap bolts from B&Q! Dish 2 is now pointing at 13°E.
February 2005
I added a dragon cam to the Echostar to widen its capabilities.
January 2006
I have treated myself to a Infinity USB programmer. ;-)
September 2006
Ive treated myself to a Dreambox 7020S. Its hellish complicated after some of the other receivers and its had me scratching my head on more than one occasion!
Yet another dish joins the ever growing collection - its an white 80cm solid dish removed from the roof of my workplace. They were going to throw it away so I grabbed it! Its currently got an ancient blue cap lnb on it, so that will be replaced before it goes into service. Im thinking about spraypainting it dark green - the current bright white paint job sticks out rather badly in the garden!
January 2007
2 MTI BlueLine 0.2dB lnb's have arrived free thanks to one of the lads on the satellite help forum.
July 2007
Our 5 year old Grundig GDS3000 sky digibox finally packed up after several weeks of losing channels intermittently. It has been replaced by a Pace TDS470N Sky+ box although with only 1 input from the lnb at the moment its just being used as a high spec normal box.
Dishes:
Dish 1 (fixed - 28.2°E for Sky Digital)
second hand circular 60cm ex Sky analogue dish
MTI Blue Line 0.6dB twin output universal LNB
---output 1 to Grundig GDS 3000 Sky Digibox
---output 2 of LNB to Technomate TM 1000 in bedroom
Dish 2 (fixed - 13°E for the Hotbirds)
second hand circular 80cm dish (salvaged from
the local woods!)
Cambridge G57 0.6 db universal LNB
via DiseqC switch to Dreambox 7020
Dish 3 (moveable - sits on an old car tyre - but spends most of its time on 19°E)
secondhand circular 80cm dish
MTI BluLine 0.6dB LNB
via DiseqC switch to Dreambox 7020
Dish 4 (fixed on 5E for Sirius 2)
secondhand circular 80cm dish
MTI BluLine 0.2dB lnb
via DiseqC switch to Dreambox 7020
Dish 5 (fixed - currently on 16E)
new circular Orbital 1m dish
unbranded 0.6dB LNb
via DiseqC switch to Dreambox 7020
plus offset lnb for 23.5E
MTI BluLine 0.2dB
In store
Dish 6 - new Triax oval Sky minidish (43cm, zone 1 type) Grundig 0.7 dB Universal LNB (currently only used for experimental purposes.)
Dish 7 - a decidedly second hand 80cm dish.
Dish 8 - a 1.2m dish. (the mount was destroyed in a gale, so it will only be used for experimental satellite hopping on the weak satellites)
Dish 9 - white 80cm dish salvaged off the roof of my workplace. The mount is damaged, although the dish face is in excellent condition.
Dish 10 - ex BSB squarish dish (Bought for nostalgia purposes, and for playing with!)
Pace MSS 100 - used occasionally on Dish 3 to find weak analogue signals. A great little receiver.
assorted lnb's including MTI Universal Golden Single 0.6dB / 2 x Cambridge G57 0.6 db universal LNBs and various enhanced 9750MHz old analogue types.
If you arrived here from a search engine and dont see the frameset, click here to get to the front page.
The web site will not work properly if you dont.