Trying to set up my sky dish in France...

narendar

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I have just moved to France for a few months for work and thought that I'd take my sky box with me so that I can stil watch sky while I am there. I bought a new sky mini dish with a tripod that I intended to set up on the balcony of the flat where I'm staying. I'm having trouble getting it to wok though, the sky box keeps saying that its not receiving a signal. I have used a satellite finder to help align the dish but the signal seems to be weak - I have to set the sensitivity to quite a high level in order for the satellite finder to react but I have pointed it to the direction where it gives the strongest output.
So a couple of questions:
Should I be able to receive a decent signal where I am (I am in France but right near it's border with Luxembourg)
Could it be that the sky mini dish is not big enough to pick up a decent signal at this location and that I would need to change it to larger, round one?

I'd really appreciate any advice anyone can offer.

Thanks!

Nick P
 
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As far as I understand since leaving the EU Sky TV etc is geo blocked inside the EU. Others might know a way to receive Sky in the EU, I haven’t heard of one that doesn’t mean there isn’t a way.
This may help.

 
You might need a bigger dish, the footprint varies throughout France, I am in the southwest and use a region 2 dish which is ok unless it rains heavily.
 
I'd imagine you'll need a bigger dish, check on coverage sites on the web for the est size you need for your location.

I just about got away with a 0.9m dish on the South Coast, though only on a clear day...

Not sure of any geo lock on sky, but you'll get freesat at the very least...
 
As far as I understand since leaving the EU Sky TV etc is geo blocked inside the EU. Others might know a way to receive Sky in the EU, I haven’t heard of one that doesn’t mean there isn’t a way.
This may help.


Thats Now TV skys online TV nothing to do with satellite
 
Are you sure you are pointing the dish in the right direction? There's a number of different satellite services all within a few degrees of each other and some of the apps are not as accurate as they could be. Try moving a few degrees either way and see if can find some more signals.

The satellite beams are quite tightly focused, but even a mini dish should be ok in your location.

Check the skew on the lnb as well. This will affect the quality of the signal and will reduce errors once you've found the right signal.
 
I used to live near Frankfurt and needed a 1.1m dish to receive all Astra 2 channels all the time. Later, when we moved to eastern Spain, needed a 1.5m. Looking at the Astra 2 footprints, I reckon you'll need at least a 60cm or possibly even an 80cm to get a decent signal.
LNB skew is also important but size really does matter. :)
 
Looking at the coverage map, I agree you might need a larger dish, but you should be able to get something, even if the quality is not brilliant.

1630332596868.png
 
Thank you for all of your feedback and advice, it's really appreciated. I have now been able to get it working, the reason it would not work before has turned out to be more embarrassing than I'm happy to admit. It was pointed to me by a visitor that an apartment block about 100m away, although small, might have been getting in the way of the signal. To test this out, I raised the tripod that my dish is fixed to by about 40cm by putting some boxes underneath, and that seems to have done the trick (see the picture). Not a very elegant solution but at least it works, I'll put something a bit neater underneath later.

Thank you all again for your help.

Nick P.
 

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Glad you got it sorted, but I'm doubtful the extra height was the solution. I would imagine it was pointed in slightly the wrong direction and was picking up a different satellite.

Worth dropping the tripod back down off the boxes and trying again.
 
Glad you got it sorted, but I'm doubtful the extra height was the solution. I would imagine it was pointed in slightly the wrong direction and was picking up a different satellite.

Worth dropping the tripod back down off the boxes and trying again.
Thanks, i'll give it a try when I look to swap the boxes out, but when looking from behind the dish, the top of the buildings across the way do look like they're very close to the dish's line of sight (see the pic). I'm nervous about moving it now because it took so long to get it working! Decent signal strength and quality now (see the other pic) when I was getting nothing before despite fiddling with it for ages, but I'll give it a try when I've got some time and I'll let you know. Thanks again
 

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I used to live near Frankfurt and needed a 1.1m dish to receive all Astra 2 channels all the time. Later, when we moved to eastern Spain, needed a 1.5m. Looking at the Astra 2 footprints, I reckon you'll need at least a 60cm or possibly even an 80cm to get a decent signal.
LNB skew is also important but size really does matter. :)
Thanks for the advice, I finally got it working (see my other post) 😊
 
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Thanks, i'll give it a try when I look to swap the boxes out, but when looking from behind the dish, the top of the buildings across the way do look like they're very close to the dish's line of sight (see the pic). I'm nervous about moving it now because it took so long to get it working! Decent signal strength and quality now (see the other pic) when I was getting nothing before despite fiddling with it for ages, but I'll give it a try when I've got some time and I'll let you know. Thanks again
I can see what you are saying. Just bear in mind the angle is significantly steep than the "straight on" position due to the off centre LNB, so it may actually clear, or sods law might dictate that taller bit of roof is bang in the way!!
 

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