advice please? installing sky dishes

Hiya, I could be on a posting roll tonight, trying to get everything into place for our move in just 3 WEEKS TIME!! Yay!!! 

I believe (but correct me if I'm wrong!) that if I buy my Sky box and freeview card while I'm still here in the UK, I can take it with me to Spain and just need a guy to install the dish for me - is this right?  And then, I would have no monthly payments for UK TV- right?  

Soooo, does anyone know of anyone who can do this for us (just the installation), and where about's we get the dish from? I saw a few dishes in Bricohouse when we were over in June, but got totaly confused with what size I should be buying etc, so I'm seeking the advice of all the good people on here   We're moving to Lo Crispin, Algorfa.

Thanks, Jenna

 

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Not sure about the size of dish needed, but you need to buy your card from Sky (about £20) and activate it in the UK before you go. This will regionalise the BBC and ITV channels, plus add C4 & C5 to the EPG. You will now receive the subscription free channels with nothing more to pay. If you are moving to an urb, you may be lucky and be able to just add a feed to someone else's dish which is the cheaper option.

HTH

Mark

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Everyone is assuming their community permits individual dishes as opposed to one communal one !

Check first.

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thanks, we have recently discovered though that we are not part of a community (although we were informed we were when we initially purchased the house by our agents) It annoyed me at first as it means we don't have access to the communal pool, but I am now happy that a) no community fee's and b) no permission seeking!  So as far as I'm aware we are able to install a dish if we want. I'm discovering not to assume anything in Spain, we're coming across red tape of some form in whatever we do

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You will probably need at least a 1.2m dish, although some claim to get OK reception with smaller. (Smaller = less suceptible to movement, and less unsightly, but may not pick up some channels) You should be able to source one somewhere locally - electrical store, TV/satelite supplier etc., or from the classifieds. Save yourself a bundle and fit it yourself if possible - it's actually quite easy. Freesat seems like a good alternative to SKY now - no fee or card, just get yourself a decoder from Argos and away you go!
Probably the best site for info on this subject is www.satelliteforcaravans.co.uk/
Don't worry that it's for caravanners - the same applies for permanent dwellings!

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Sorry Jenna, I thought I was posting in a thread with many posts about sat dishes generally, been so many. 

My post still stands, but doesn't affect you.

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as roberto said, you wil need at least a 1.2mdish, and possbil;y a 1.8...c4 changed its frequencies yesterday, and is available for aboutth e same time as bbc2 (will vary from place to place - in valencia where i am bbc2 goes off at 6pm!)
these types of dishes are not available in your runof the mill electrical / diy / lidl stores, only via local satellite and tv suppliers / installers, or classifieds.
if you go via the freesat route, rememebr that their version of the sky+ will be available towards the end of the year, and it will need an LNB with two outputs, for two cables, which feed this freesat hd PVR. (personal video recorder)
Five is not on freesat at the mo, but will be soon, but not fiver or five us, these will be remaining on a sky reciver for some time.
it is alwasy sbest to try and "hid" a dish, as neighbours and communities can still complain it spoils their property and can getthe localpolice and townhall peopel around to look and assess it and get you to take it down - speaking from experience here

This message was last edited by satandpcguy on 8/5/2008.

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I'm using 1.3m on CDS and get most channels most of the time. The caravan guy has pages on his site about dish size for whatever area in Europe your caravan (or house!) may be, so worth having a look at.

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I have just installed a 2.4m dish in Fortuna, which i bought off ebay ,you will possible get away with 1.9m dish i ahve a contact for a good company who covers the costa blanca area pm if you require their details

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Still getting Ch4 perfectly at this time of night on CDS - with 1.3m.
Anything bigger, you're going to need a tripod, and no twitchy neighbours!

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Thanks everyone for your help, I think I'll get in touch with our neighbours to make sure they don't mind us putting dish up.  I don't really like the idea of having some huge dish on the house anyway. I'm finding the whole TV thing and all the options available rather confusing, and want to go with an option of no monthly fee's as we're not expecting to find work straight away so need to keep our outgoings down.  We wanted the TV sorted asap, but may have to sacrifice a few weeks worth of eastenders to get the most suitable system.  I'm not the most technically-minded person, and neither is hubby

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