Dunk

iTrader: (1)

Going to Spain, if I take my viewing card, can I pop it in & pick up all my usual channels ? If not, how do I ?

D

STi-Frenchie

Yes, no problem. You can pick up Sky assumming the dish you are using is big enough - the little mini-dish which is commonly found in the UK isn't big enough to pick up the signal so you'll want something in the region of a 60-70cm dish.

Flatcapdriver

Frenchie - if he's going to the south of Spain, then he's going to need a dish around the !.5m size. If you get stuck I can give you the contact details for a satellite installer down there.

STi-Frenchie

Ooh, I didn't know that Flatcapdriver, I was assuming the signal strength wouldn't be much different than here so I went out and measured the dishes I have. Thanks for correcting me!

STi-Frenchie

Found this on the interweb:

Dish sizes need to be quoted to receive every channel. Smaller dishes can be used and since some channels are more powerful than others, the small dish will work on a percentage of channels but not all of them. The BBC and the ITV are the weakest channels, and so unless the dish is big enough to receive every channel, it will not be big enough to receive the BBC and the ITV (although many other Sky channels could be received with smaller dishes) In addition it is important to note that there are 2 beams aimed at Spain. The north and the south beam. The BBC and the ITV are not on the south beam but many Sky channels are. The south beam can be received anywhere in Spain on an 80cm dish. To find out which. channels are on the south beam go to www.astra.lu where you will you can research what each beam carries on the Astra satellite. The North beam carries every channel. As far as the north beam is concerned, customer feedback over the last year has provided the following information on dish size recommendations. Costa Brava 1.0m. Madrid, 1.2m Southern Spain and Portugal 1.6m. Alicanti (weak spot) 2.4m dish Close to Alicanti 1.8m dish.
All we can do is relate to you customer feedback. It is your responsibility to check
yourself with people in that area as we cannot guarantee the accuracy of these recommendations,

ALi-B

iTrader: (1)

Yep, you need a huge dish in some parts as some of the the transmitters on the Astra satelite are only designed to cover the UK for certain sky channels

We've got this huge ****** - 1.9m...and even then BBC2 amongst a few channels is a bit dodgy (no top gear )




You card should work as long as the box you trying to use the card with isn't locked onto the original card - this depends on who supplied and fitted the box.

Dunk

iTrader: (1)

I probably won't install a bigger dish...... when renting for a week ! I'll pop the card in my pocket & see what happens.
How do I find out of my card is locked to the box ? (Sky installed it years ago)

D

lampshade

Sorry, you cannot just take your card from your digital sky box abroad and put it in another box it won't work. The card is mated to your box and your box alone.
The only way around this is to buy a dreamweaver box (look on ebay) and clone the information from your sky card.

Lee247

Took our card to France this year, and a message come up on the screen saying to contact Sky if we wanted to used it whilst there. We didn't bother, probably would have cost

Flatcapdriver

Maybe someone can help me out with this problem? Occasionally at night in Spain we can get Channel Five but mostly we cannot but during the day it generally seems fine - could this be an alignment issue or is it down to atmospherics?

mart360

just take the box as well problem solved...


the second box we have works with whatever card is inserted!! the one that came sh just says to upgrade contact sky

Mart