parabole

[mint]

All possible advice needed and appreciated:  size, make, type, etc.

Chancer, I hope you are there and reading because I have decided to take your advice and splash out on a new tv set.

I'm going to site it downstairs and install a new satellite dish because the new tv will be in a room at the opposite end of our house (and it is a long sort of a house half-way up a steepish slope) where it will cause too much disturbance to connect to the original aerial.

Will a satellite dish work in any location?

To our surprise, our electrician, who was here yesterday for something else, has said he could install the dish and put in the electric sockets necessary for the new tv.

Thank you for all the suggestions that I KNOW will be flooding in![:D][:$]  I'm relying on the knowledgeable ones!

[Loiseau]

No surprise re the electrician, mint. My dish was set up by mine, and so was the banana's.

Angela

[woolybanana]

Norman has a rather novel solution; he has a dish which is in the horizontal position, next to him, when he is sitting outside the barrel, bullying passersby for large change (no small change merchant, he). It is called a begginbol.

At night he simple tilts it upwards so that he can get BBC and North Korean TV!

Yes, Nimt, as long as the electrician knows which satellites he is aiming at (Astra 2) he can do the job. Just make sure he uses a big enough dish - down your way, perhaps 80 cms is needed but others know far more than I do.

[Patf]

Mint - my husband used to be a TV engineer and has installed several dishes for friends here, but too far to come to you.

I would accept your electrician's offer, because he has local knowledge. Reception (of UK channels ) does vary in different parts of Europe, and the dish and the lnb (?) need to be adjusted to suit.

We had to change to a much bigger dish.

[woolybanana]

Yes, bigger dish better, Nimt. My guess is about 80 cms down your way; don't let the electrician put in somethig too small. Have a look at what has been installed by local Brits who have the BBC for guidance.

By the way, Norman installed a bigger dish and found that his takings improved no end as it seriously blocked the pavement and poor innocent tourists thought they had to pay a toll to pass!

[Patf]

I think you need 110cms here. There was a map online showing the different ranges of the signal, and the size of the dish needed to cope.

ps Woolly - I've just noticed your location, I thought you'd gone to Belgium?

[mint]

[quote user="Patf"]I think you need 110cms here. There was a map online showing the different ranges of the signal, and the size of the dish needed to cope.

ps Woolly - I've just noticed your location, I thought you'd gone to Belgium?

[/quote]

No, Pat, the Belgians said they had enough home-grown problems already and did not need to import Wooly![:D]

On a more earnest note, thank you to everybody who has replied.  Will go round mentally measuring the size of dishes during the coming weekend.

[woolybanana]

Funny, I always thought that Parabole was an Italian opera singer or was that Pabarole; Norman will know.

[andyh4]

Difficult to advise on dish size since - as has already been said - local conditions seem to have an impact.

The maps show us outside of the 60cm dish reception area and possibly just inside the 1m dish size - yet I have not changed our 60cm dish for a larger one. I will however accept that out reception of some stations has reduced in the HD format. As long as I can still the receive analogue version this is not a big thing for me since the TV picture is only somewhat better in HD.

Over time however I think we have to expect a phasing out of analogue.

Best bet is to ask any local Brits what size dish they have and how reception drops of on things like Channel 5HD in poor weather.

[Chancer]

You need a clear line of sight to the satellite in stationary orbit somewhere over the equator at a longitude of around 28°, so pointing somewhere South, South, East, does that answer you question?

If the dish is set up to the correct compass bearing and elevation and appear to be pointing at trees or some other obstacle it may not be as bad as you think as the dish is actually pointing beneath the satellite, the dish may look like its at say 15° elevation but the signals will be coming down from say 30° and reflecting off the parabole to a focal point on the LNB. 

[andyh4]

Senior moment - where I wrote analogue above, I really meant digital - normal/standard definition - as opposed to High Definition.

[Alan Zoff]

Completely off-topic but the heading brought to mind an old episode of "Who wants to be a millionaire?" which I watched this week. Having struggled to get to £300, the young female contestant had a choice between parable, paratha, parasol or pariah for someone branded an outcast. She had already used one lifeline but didn't recognise any of the words so she went 50:50 to be left with parable and pariah. She was inclined to go for parable but Tarrant persuaded her to use her last lifeline and her Gran suggested over the phone that she went for pariah instead. So she just about survived again.

It made no odds as she got the next question wrong anyway and was one of the few contestants to leave with nothing.

To save the off-topic criticism, I will add that in Allier central France I have been using a portable 60cm dish which has served us well but there have been occasional drop-outs in bad weather so I have upgraded to 80cm. Mrs Zoff says an extra inch or two never does any harm.

[Chancer]

I am using one of those tiny elliptical Sky mesh dishes with good results, its very discreet unlike me and at this latitude picks up all the HD channels even during thunderstorms.