| What you need | | | | Sky channels. Freeview gives you all the BBC TV |
| - A satellite dish, 85cm or larger depending on | | | | and radio channels, plus all ITV channels, Channel 4 |
| your location (see below) | | | | and Channel 5. |
| - A second hand, used, ex-rental Sky Digibox | | | | Choosing a satellite dish The only important thing |
| - A Freeview Card or expired Sky viewing card | | | | about a dish is the size, other than that, just pop |
| - A TV | | | | down your local DIY store and you should find a |
| Optional items | | | | suitable dish. Note that quite often, the shop will |
| - Sky contract (UK address is required) | | | | assume that you want to watch satellite TV |
| - A satellite finder meter or an accurate compass | | | | from that country where a small 60/70cm dish |
| Choosing a Digibox The satellite we are looking for | | | | will do, this is not the case here. |
| is Astra 2D which is positioned at 28.2° east, | | | | Look at the Astra 2D footprint map on and |
| has a footprint focused tightly on the British Isles, | | | | determine the size of dish you need. The bigger |
| making reception difficult in large areas of | | | | the better, but as a guide you will need at least |
| mainland Europe. So the choice of box is | | | | an 85cm dish for central France, 1.8m for |
| important. | | | | Southern Spain, 3m for Mainland Greece and 3.5m |
| The best place to buy a Sky Digibox is from | | | | for Turkey and Cyprus. I use an 85cm dish in the |
| ebay.co.uk. At the moment most people are | | | | Southern French Alps and it does struggle on the |
| upgrading to Sky+ and Sky aren't bothering to | | | | digital only channels like ITV2, ITV3 and ITV4. |
| collect their old boxes, so people are selling them | | | | The detector is called a Low noise block |
| on ebay, where they are going cheap. | | | | downconverter ( LNB ) It is the device on the |
| Ideally a Grundig GRD310/2 or Panasonic | | | | front of a satellite dish that receives the very low |
| TU-DSB30 (not a 31) box is the best choice or | | | | level microwave signal from the satellite, amplifies |
| look for old Pace and Grundig boxes which work | | | | it, changes the signals to a lower frequency band |
| superbly with low signals. | | | | and sends them down the cable to the indoor |
| Buying a viewing card Once again ebay.co.uk is | | | | receiver. |
| the best place to get a card if you did not get | | | | There is nothing special about these and the one |
| one with the box. There is no difference in the | | | | that comes with the dish should be fine. |
| channels you can get on Freeview card compared | | | | It is possible to buy multi headed LNBs, the |
| to an expired Sky viewing card. If you want to | | | | popular one being the Quad LNB which has four |
| watch subscription channels like Sky One then you | | | | output cables that can independently feed 4 |
| will need a Sky contract, this requires a UK | | | | boxes. |
| address and a UK bank account. One very easy | | | | Setting it all up There are usually local companies |
| way to do this is to get a friend, who has a Sky | | | | who will set up your system for you, especially in |
| contract, to order a second box for 'use in their | | | | the 'ex pat hotspots' such as The French Riviera, |
| caravan' and then pay them your subscription. | | | | but with a little patience and a compass you can |
| Personally I have never felt the urge to have any | | | | do it yourself, I'll cover this in a later article. |