SatSig topic:

Newbie needs help...

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May 10^th, 2008 at 8:51pm

I know very little about satellite TV theory or practice, although I have learnt a lot looking at this site. I have a problem that someone in the know can probably put their finger on immediately, but will take me weeks.
Background - I am a Brit, living in southern Spain. I have two systems -
1. Sky dish and decoder, works fine.
2. Via (also known as Digital Plus) dish and decoder, works fine.
But I want to stop the rental on the Via box, and pick up free-to-air Spanish TV, to help me improve my Spanish. I bought an FTA box here in Spain, Axil AD-600. The manual is little help.

First attempt (2 days ago). Played around with various menus in desperation, don't know what I did, but eventually I started to make progress.

A. When connected to the Via cable, the screen showed "no satellite", and no signal strength/quality.

B. When connected to the Sky cable, I finally got it to sense some satellite life out there, did a scan (option - "FTA and scrambled"), and it listed Astra 1E (WITH signal), Hotbird, Hispasat, Telstar, and others (NO signal), Astra 1D, 2A, Eurobird1 (all with signal). Picked up several regional Spanish channels OK, but hundreds of channels were listed, many scrambled, so I decided to "Restore factory default", to start again, and just choose FTA option.

Second attempt (today). I ran the Sky cable into the new box, then connected the output to the input of the Sky box. The Sky box works fine, like this.

The new box showed "no satellite". Will not scan, because it insists there is no satellite. After a long time (1 hour) I happened to check the screen again, and it still insists there is "No satellite", but - there is a good signal strength (90%?) shown.

I think what I need to know is the following.
1. What satellite is used by Sky, here in Spain?
2. What satellite is used by Via, here in Spain?
3. If the answer to 2. is Hispasat, or Astra, why can't I now get the box to acknowledge it is there, and let me scan it (after all, it shows 90% signal).

Any ideas gratefully received.

May 10^th, 2008 at 9:28pm

1. What satellite is used by Sky, here in Spain?

When you connected the new (or old) receiver to the Sky dish you saw some channels. Write down some examples of these channels, names and frequencies. Then compare with channel listings for 19.2 east, 23.5 east and 28.2 east Astra satellites. See https://www.lyngsat.com/europe.html ; You need to select each satellite e.g. https://www.lyngsat.com/28east.html

Once your written list of programs matches a satellite listing you will know what satellite the Sky antenna is pointed at and, by studying the listings, what FTA programs there are. Run scan and save just the ones you want.

2. What satellite is used by Via, here in Spain?

No idea. You can search the lyngsat listings perhaps. Maybe someone else knows....

3. If the answer to 2. is Hispasat, or Astra, why can't I now get the box to acknowledge it is there, and let me scan it (after all, it shows 90% signal).

Maybe the signals are encrypted and won't show unless you pay.

You may be better to present your problems to a satellite television forum. We deal mainly with people who want two-way access to the internet via satellite because they are located away from cable and ADSL phone line service. Anyway I am please to help you as far as I can.

It will be worth while trying to understand the manual.

Best regards, Eric.

May 12^th, 2008 at 8:16pm

Eric, many thanks for the feedback. I actually made some progress after I sent the original post, but still have a few problems left. I will try everything you suggested, but if no success, I will try a more appropriate forum. The manual is pretty poor - it just says, more or less - if you push this button, you will get this menu list. No explanation as to what any of it means, or how it can be used.

Thanks again. Brian