Satellite identification

[JAH]

Hi Folks
I use an old sky didgibox with a roof mounted 50 cm ariel when touring abroad with my caravan, which is fine for Astra2D down through France and into northern Spain but then I have to go for Astra South and settle for not much more than News 24 and sky news.
Does anybody know of a reasonably priced reciever that would identy the satellites that I encounter whilst looking for Astra, or is there a box that I could load with the information of satellites that I would like to find, and then have it tell me if it has found them. not to much to ask for is it, given the amount of really clever people about these days.
Thanks in anticipation, you clever people.

[alunfennell]

The further South you g

The further South you go your moving out of the footprint of the Astra 2 satellite and the signal gets weaker, you will need a bigger satellite dish possable up to a 2 meter dish in some parts of Spain... Especially the Islands or down on the Med

The first to go will be Astra 2D which has a very tight footprint across the UK & Ireland, there is nothing you can do about that (They will just dissapear)

As for the rest of the Sky channels a bigger dish at least 1 meter if not 1.4 ans up to 2 Meter and you will receive Sky across most of Spain ..........

Astra 2 - South Beam


Astra 2 - North Beam


Some Extra Info
From the footprint maps above you should be able to calculate the required dish size for your location. Quite often you will find that if you don't have the complete set of channels you won't be receiving signals from all the required satellite beams.

The simple rule is - the bigger the dish, the more signal captured. A little local knowledge can be worth it's weight in gold - see what dish size your neighbours are using and if they get full reception.

It is also possible if you are just wanting to use a small dish to receive the channels just from one of the beams knowing that a larger dish is required for full reception. The specific channels associated with each beam can be found on the Astra satellite website

Regards:
Alun

[JAH]

Thanks for replying to my post alun, so far you are the only person that has, unfortuneately you seem to have answered some body elses question.

[alunfennell]

I understand what you have asked JAH but your Satellite dish is far to small for a start ! A 50cm dish in Britian is grand but anywhere out side the Astra footprint and you will start losing signal, I live in Northern Germany and I need a 80cm Dish just for picking up Astra 2D....

If it a satellite Meter you are after you will need something like this ! they only cost a few quid... in Maplins etc



And for where to point your dish depending where you are use this tool !
SES ASTRA - Installation assistant


Regards:
Alun