TV IN COX ALICANTE HELP PLEASE

WE HAVE BEEN TOLD BY A FIRM WE NEED A 1.8M DISH TO GET UK TV AND THEN GET A SKY BOX TO GET FREE VIEW AS THE MICRO SYSTEM DOES NOT COVER OUR AREA

HOWEVER ANOTHER COMPANY SAY A 1.4M DISH AND THEY SUPPLY A BBC HD BOX TO GET FREE VIEW
WHO IS RIGHT PLEASE HELP

THANX 
STEVE

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Hi,
you may get bbc and itv etc via satellite on a 1.4m dish, but the reception of the main channels may not be satisfactory or 24/7 and you may loose channels during the day. a bigger dish will allow you to ensure you keep the channels watchable for longer. it could be an ideal to find someone who has a 1.4 and 1.8m dish and ask them about reception in your area if the experts in your area cannot agree, but i think a 1,8m dish is the minimum for your area.

for BBC HD you will need to make sure you get BBC Channels Islands, use this channel when asking around.

unless you really really really want a freeview HD box go for it, but personally i would wait until closer to december when the freesat personal video recorders (PVRS) become available (they say!) - like Sky+ they will have a hard disk and be able to record one channels and watch another, and pause live tv.

on a side note, you cannot get "freeview" in spain. "freeview" is the name of the UK digital service available only through a TV aerial and only transmitted by UK television transmitters. spains version of freeview is "TDT" - 20-30 digital channels. by satellie you can get "freetoair" using a generic free to air receiver, "freesat" using a freesat receiver, "freesatfromsky" using a sky reciever and a sky FTV card, and "sky and setanta subscription services" using a sky reciver and a sky suscription card.

hope this helps

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I live in the Albatera campo about 3 miles from and overlooking Cox.

I have the mesh system that works well, I also now have satellite.

I will be dumping the mesh system when the subsciption expires at the end of the year, since the problems the main suppliers have had with sky channels and other pay channels, we have been left with mainly free to air channels anyway, so why pay?

I have a 1.9 dish, twin MTI LNB and pace sky digi boxes 430 and 2600, I also have sky freesat cards from the uk.

I get all the free channels BBC / ITV Channel 4 and lots more, we also get 100's of radio channels. The only exception is BBC2, we only get this in the evening, a 2.4 dish may correct this but we are not bothered any way.

Large sat dishes, sky boxes and sky cards are expensive in Spain and you can get easily ripped off, try to get you kit in the UK if possible and get it shipped over. Suitable Pace digi boxes, mainly 430 & 2600 are obsolete and will cost in the region of 200 - 250 euro in Spain, unless you can pick one up at a boot sale. Best place to get them is from Ebay.

Your sky card is only £20 to a uk address, at least 100 euro here, you are not officially supposed to use them outside UK and Ireland, you have to pair the card to the digi box it will be used in to get the best from the card, so do this, if you can in the UK, or call sky using a UK mobile phone.

We tried to get a friends 1.2 dish onto the Astra 2 sat's that bring Sky and the new BBC freesat with not much success, we found the sat. but with only minimal channels.

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The Alicante area is a notoriously bad area for the Sky footprint.  You can get other satellites on small dishes but you will need a 1.8m or 2.4m dish in your area.  The UK terrestrial channels (BBC/ITV/C4/C5) are very weak signals in this area and you will find they drop out at certain times of the day with a 1.8m dish.  Even with a 2.4m dish in the Alicante area, BBC2 may tend to drop out at certain times.  You can pick up other Sky channels with a 1.4m dish but not 24/7.
As mr.kevin says, expensive in Spain for large dishes/decoders/cards so try and get them in UK and ship them over with other items. 
Only expense then maybe to have the dish installed professionally, I mentioned before that these things can cause a lot of damage when bowling down the street and bump into neighbours' cars, not to mention the loss of neighbourly feelings when it does happen.

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