B&Q Satellite - Ross freesat box and dish

[Kymmy]

Remember that even with a sat meter you might end up on the wrong sat.. Once you find a sat all you have to do is go left and right (though the dish might need raising a fraction when you get to due south and lowering a fraction (talking about only a max of 5 degrees between 30E and S due to the rounding of the earth) as you track the sats across the sky.) If you find a sat and tune it in use Lyngsat.com to find out which sat it is by matching up a channel/freq, if you're for example on 13E then you need to go about 3-4 strong signals to the left to find 28.2E..

Best of luck with it..

[Scorpio53]

Thanks again Kymmy today got washed out as I had a major PC crash and spent most of the day getting it up and running again.
Your replies are much appreciated I have already scanned in the Ross box using the Sky feed and saved the channels as you suggested so when I reconnect it to Ross dish it should be easier and you have given me the confidence that I can get the system working.

[Road_Hog]

Right, I bought the B&Q kit for £35 this week. Quite good value I thought and a good starter system. First off, thanks to all the people who have already given helpful replies. I've read the whole thread, but still have a few questions, so I hope I'm not asking something that has already been answered. My questions are as follows.

I've connected the digi (receiver) box to my Sky dish and it picks up the satellite/channels. I was going to put up the dish (Ross dish) but have realised that the house next door blocks the angle to the sats (satellites), unless I put the dish right next to the Sky dish.

Does the Sky dish have the same reception as the bigger Ross dish or will I get a weaker signal and I'd get better reception/more channels with theRoss dish. The Sky dish is the standard size meshed one that you see about these days.

If I swap from a single LNB to a dual (or quad) LNB, will I be able to watch, say Sky (using Sky box, non subscription, just freeview) on the downstairs TV and Freesat (using Ross digi box) on the upstairs TV using just one dish for reception.

Where's the best place to buy a dual/quad LNB, (answer to the question of do I get better reception with the bigger dish is important here), my Sky dish is a good 10 years old so that needs to be taken into consideration, as does if I need it for the Ross dish.

Which sats should I expect to receive/download the channels, based on a fixed dish and wanting English speaking broadcasts (I'm UK based in South Warwickshire).

There's a couple of other questions, but they allude me at the moment, As soon as I remember them, I'll post them.

If you have a functioning Sky dish there is no point installing the Ross dish. It won't give you any more channels, but it will give you a world of pain trying to align it properly if you've not done one before.

Get a quad LNB like this one from Maplin and attach it to the existing Sky dish. Your unsubscribed FreesatFromSky box will be quite happy with it, as will your new Ross box, and you will have two spare terminals left over should you wish to add more boxes or a PVR at a later date.

---------- Post added at 23:22 ---------- Previous post was at 23:18 ----------

As to which channels you can get - basically the same as the official Freesat line up, plus a bit of dross around the fringes, and minus a few like Sky3, Fiver and FiveUS which are still encrypted (your Sky box will continue to receive them in Freesat mode so long as it has a card in it, but the Ross box will not).

[Scorpio53]

I was up B&Q today and they are selling a quad LNB fairly cheap but I can't remember the exact price I'm sure it was less than £20.

As to available satellites I picked up all of these with Ross box connected to Sky cable:-

Eurobird 9A
Astra 1
Astra 1E/1G/3A
Astra 2A/2B/2D
Astra 2C
Eutelsat W48

I noticed a lot of duplicate channels between the satellites but have not had time to arrange the channels yet.

[Kymmy]

The sky will have only picked up Astra 2 (where sky is) unless you moved the sky dish, the Hotbird, Astra 1 and eutelsat share some channels but they are in different orbits

Where is the sky dish you're testing it on? If yours at the same house then you could just buy a cheap quad LNB, run both recievers off the same dish and then sell the ross dish/lnb

[Road_Hog]

Originally Posted by Kymmy

The sky will have only picked up Astra 2 (where sky is) unless you moved the sky dish, the Hotbird, Astra 1 and eutelsat share some channels but they are in different orbits

Where is the sky dish you're testing it on? If yours at the same house then you could just buy a cheap quad LNB, run both recievers off the same dish and then sell the ross dish/lnb

Okay, so basically, just the one satellite with this dish (if you want to continue receiving Sky)?

The Sky is mine at home. The current set up was, Sky downstairs being used as freeview (stopped subscribing about a year ago) and upstairs was freeview through an OnDigital box (Nokia Mediamaster 9850T) which I'd had from when OnDigital first started. Now something has happened to the aeriel and the cost of getting someone out to go up on the roof was somewhat more than buying the Freesat system. Also the digi box would have needed replacing when the digital switch over is complete here.

So, it was my intention to do exactly as you have suggested, I just wasn't sure if I could run two different systems from the same dish. I was originally going to fit the Ross dish but upon getting on top of the garage, I realised that I couldn't fit it where I wanted to (no line of sight) and the only place I could realistically fit it was right next to the Sky dish (would be an eyesore).

This looked like a good buy (less than £6 inc. postage), any reason I shouldn't go for thsi replacement LNB?

http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/Genuine-SKY-QU...item2c574c7ceb

Lastly, the screw connecters on the cable supplied with the dish are prefitted and it would seem that you would have to drill a much larger hole for the cable than is necessary. What have others done, I'm loathed to mess with a cable and have to refit the connector but it seems silly to drill a larger hole than is necessary.

That LNB looks like a good deal. I'd jump at it at that price.

Incidentally, Astra 2 isn't a satellite, it's a cluster ... 3 of them at present. Eurobird is at the same location. A properly aligned Sky dish should receive a range of channels from these satellites.

---------- Post added at 10:55 ---------- Previous post was at 10:51 ----------

Originally Posted by Road_Hog

Lastly, the screw connecters on the cable supplied with the dish are prefitted and it would seem that you would have to drill a much larger hole for the cable than is necessary. What have others done, I'm loathed to mess with a cable and have to refit the connector but it seems silly to drill a larger hole than is necessary.

Buy cable that doesn't have pre-fitted f-plugs ... sorry, I know that's not helpful in your current situation! TBH if you're drilling through brick you're going to need to make the hole bigger than the cable anyway. The extra couple of mm needed to get a fitted f-plug through it isn't going to make a whole lot of difference, as you will need to plug up the hole with a suitable exterior sealant either way.

If drilling through wood (which I did), I would rather cut off the f-plugs and re-fit them, and give myself less of a filling job afterwards. If they are screw-on connectors you won't even need to cut them; you may be able to carefully pull them off and if the copper braid underneath is undamaged you won't need to re-trim the cable before re-fitting the plug.

[Kymmy]

The auction you specified comes with f-plugs anyway

Simple answer, yes, swap your existing LND with that one (make sure that you note the exact twist of the LNB) and then that will feed not only your sky box but also the Ross box

[El En Bee]

Hi folks - just joined to say that B&Q are selling the Ross HD Sat Kit for £50!

Just bought one myself - may be back to tap into your expertise should I hit problems.

Already set up an old Sky satellite using advice in previous posts - it was a doddle - Many thanks!!

[lmt1]

Hi guys, I was wondering will I be able to record to my toshiba hard disc recorder from this setup.

[lmt1]

I must say this satellite is one of the worse things I have ever bought. Trying to configure it for starters is a nightmare. Then there is trying to set up a scheduled recording, this is ni on impossible! Oh and then half the time it say's that there is no usb hard drive, well it either keeps moving or playing hide and seek because I haven't moved it.
One thing for sure is that after 2 days of trying to work it out is that tomorrow it will be back in the box and on it's way back to B&Q.

I've said it before in this thread and I'll say it again - if you already have a Sky digital dish on your house, do not under any circumstances buy the Ross box and dish combo from B&Q.

You don't need the dish and what's the point mucking about with the fiddly Ross box, which doesn't even have a proper EPG, when you can get a branded Freesat box with a proper EPG, and even some red-button functionality for under £40?

[lmt1]

Originally Posted by Chris

I've said it before in this thread and I'll say it again - if you already have a Sky digital dish on your house, do not under any circumstances buy the Ross box and dish combo from B&Q.

You don't need the dish and what's the point mucking about with the fiddly Ross box, which doesn't even have a proper EPG, when you can get a branded Freesat box with a proper EPG, and even some red-button functionality for under £40?

Hi Chris I wish I read that in the first place! Any suggestions on which to buy? I would idealy like one with usb so I could then record onto a stand alone hard drive.

Many Thanks in advance.

[Road_Hog]

Originally Posted by Chris

I've said it before in this thread and I'll say it again - if you already have a Sky digital dish on your house, do not under any circumstances buy the Ross box and dish combo from B&Q.

You don't need the dish and what's the point mucking about with the fiddly Ross box, which doesn't even have a proper EPG, when you can get a branded Freesat box with a proper EPG, and even some red-button functionality for under £40?

First off, thanks to you and Kymmy for your previous help. I'd just like to say, that I'm more than happy with the Ross/B&Q kit, which for £35 I can't complain. I didn't have high expectations for that amount of money and the fact that I could use my already fitted Sky dish was a bonus. It's done what I needed it to do which was restore TV reception upstairs. I would just point out that it seems that B&Q are now doing the HD version on offer for £50 and I probably would have gone for that if it was that price at the time of my purchase.

I might just stick the Ross dish on the flat roof of the garage and get another sat box so that I can get some of the other sats (ones that the Sky dish won't pick up) to have a look at what's on them. At the end of the day, there isn't much other use for the spare sat dish and I can always link up the extra sat box to the quad LNB (if the Ross dish sats prove a waste of time).

Just to confirm that I ordered the quad LNB I linked in one of my earlier posts and it turned up two days later and was exactly as described. I find it strange that I bought it for about £5 + postage, which seems to be completely different to the market price. It came with the spare plugs, LNB holder adapter (not required) and the LNB holder I used had a spirit level on it.

The only thing left to do is drill the hole in the wall (it's connected up with the cable through an open window at the moment), which I'm still a bit nervous about. Also the cost of a single extra long masonry drill bit is extortionate, £10 - £16 for a 10 - 12mm 300 - 400mm drill bit that I'm going to use once. I think I've found a Draper deal online that is local to me and is open tomorrow, if so, should be £4 tops.