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Where should my Freesat dish point?

satellite dish
  • Posted at 3:55pm
  • 31 May 2008
  • by DoctorDigital-RT
  • 13 comments

Q My HD satellite receiver says the Freesat channels I receive, including BBC HD, are coming via Astra 19.2° East, but all the set-up instructions I have seen so far say I should point my dish towards Astra 28.2° East. Please advise.
Leslie Rushbrook, Stevenage, Hertfordshire

A Freesat is using two satellites: Astra 2 at 28.2° East and Eurobird at 28.5° East. (Readers who are baffled by this needn't worry about it! But you'd be surprised how many people asked.)

**

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Comments

  • Posted on 11 November 2009
  • at 11:29am
  • by DoctorDigital-RT

FAO bonty - I've got this image now of you struggling to balance your TV and a dish on the roof. I take it that this is a new installation, and it's not that you've lost UK channels you used to have?

The short answer is that Freesat satellites are in the same part of the sky as, well, Sky: 28.2° East. It might be best to get a local engineer to do it for you, though, because the precise elevation and compass heading vary slightly depending on where you are in the country.

  • Posted on 10 November 2009
  • at 7:39pm
  • by bonty

I/m only receiving German channels from my dish.Taken the receiver and tv on roof to try a get Uk channels without success help

  • Posted on 19 October 2009
  • at 2:53pm
  • by DoctorDigital-RT

FAO liam - It does have to be south, I'm afraid. The difference in the satellites isn't sufficient to make a huge difference on Earth.

  • Posted on 12 October 2009
  • at 7:40pm
  • by liam

so does the dish face east or east of south because im confused and i want to get free sat but my house doesn't have a south faceing wall

  • Posted on 14 September 2009
  • at 10:06am
  • by DoctorDigital-RT

FAO jim - The short answer is that the degrees alone are not enough. Possibly it's being too careful since these are the figures for UK-facing satellite services and you could presume a certain amount from that.

But this is like Close Encounters of the Third Kind. The characters in that decode coordinates from the aliens and head off to meet them at Devil's Mountain or wherever it was. But the coordinates they get are purely degrees, there's no further clarification so in fact the aliens could've meant any of four places on the globe. Lucky for the American scientists it was the one in their backyard.

  • Posted on 09 September 2009
  • at 8:04pm
  • by jim

Why 28.2 east or east of south? Why don't they just give it in degrees?

  • Posted on 17 August 2009
  • at 10:58am
  • by DoctorDigital-RT

FAO Gary - To receive what UK channels can be seen in Europe, you need to point your dish at the Astra 2D satellite at 28.2 degrees East.

However, depending on where you go in the south of France, it's not guaranteed that you will be able to receive a signal. Astra 2D's footprint, the area it officially broadcasts to, is quite small. You will almost certainly need a larger than normal dish so your best bet is to wait until you get there and consult a local engineer who'll tell you what's possible.

  • Posted on 13 August 2009
  • at 2:08pm
  • by Gary

We are going to the south of france, could you tell me where to point the dish and which satalite should I point at? Many thanks

  • Posted on 03 August 2009
  • at 10:19am
  • by DoctorDigital-RT

FAO Sue - Do you have access to the roof of your building and can you get permission to install a dish there? It would presumably cost more to install but equally if there are several people in the block who want Sky, you may be able to club together for a dish that will serve multiple flats.

Otherwise, the Sky engineers are correct: the dish has to face toward the south. Actually it's 28.2° East of South.

Note that it will be the same for Freesat but you could go for a terrestrial Freeview.

  • Posted on 01 August 2009
  • at 3:33pm
  • by Sue

Sky installation engineers tell me that because my flat faces North I cannot have a Sky sat dish. (I have no available walls at the rear.) My TV aerial faces NW and I have a clear aspect to NE. Could Freesat be fitted?

  • Posted on 27 June 2009
  • at 5:12pm
  • by DoctorDigital-RT

FAO Darren - Just by sheer statistics, the most likely answer is that this old dish is pointing the right way and is working: Freesat's satellites lie in the same part of the sky as Sky's. While there are alternatives to both Sky and Freesat and many people use them, the odds are highly in your favour, especially since Sky users moving house tend to get a brand new dish installed where they're going. So the dish is unlikely to have been abandoned through it failing.

Nonetheless, it may have failed, the dish may have been nudged out of alignment, there's no way to know if the cabling is still working. And it is conceivable that the dish is not a Freesat or Sky one at all. But if it isn't, it'll almost certainly work anyway when pointed in the right direction.

So be prepared that you may need to get a local engineer to check the dish or cables and so at worst they may need replacing. But it's very likely that everything will work correctly as soon as you connect up a Freesat digibox or TV.

  • Posted on 27 June 2009
  • at 4:32pm
  • by Darren

Hi, i hope you may be able to help me, I would like to go onto freesat, i have a satelite dish installed and the black cable runs into the house, i am not sure if the satelite dish works as i have never used it, it was left by the previous owners, is it as simpoxle as buying a freesat boxes and connecting the black wires to it that run through the wall from the sat dish ?

  • Posted on 09 May 2009
  • at 4:03pm
  • by Eric

I'm pointing at Eurobird; I have a COMAG HD satellite receiver - but all I seem to receive is German channels. Can anyone help me find good ol' BBC1, BBC2, ITV1, etc?

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