Satellite Television in the United Kingdom: 28.2°E

Satellite television in the United Kingdom is broadcast on 2 satellites. The Astra 2 satellites at 28.2°E and Eurobird 1 at 28.5°E. There is only 1 package on these satellites and that is Sky UK or BSKYB (British Sky Broadcasting). It has more channels than any other package in Europe and has a great selection of free to air channels including our national broadcasters (BBC 1, BBC 2, ITV 1, Channel 4 and Channel 5). The channels on 28.2°E are encrypted in NDS Videoguard and are decrypted by a Sky Viewing card. The card also decrypts the channels that are free to view, even if one is not subscribed to any specific TV pack.

28.2°E has strong beams that cover the UK and parts of Europe (e.g. France, Germany, Italy, Spain). 28.2°E is in fact receivable outside of it's intended beam. An example, I was on holiday in Turkey a few years ago and they managed to receive Sky UK with a good, watchable picture. Unless it rained then it would go to the "No satellite signal is being received" message as is standard on Sky Digiboxes. Here are some pictures of the Sky Digibox EPG and the minidishes found on houses across the UK.

My Dish Setup: Triax TD88 + Inverto LNB

I want to talk about my satellite dish setup. Back in February when I originally started doing this hobby I purchased a very basic setup (Fortec Star) that was only really good for the strong satellites where I live (13e, 19.2e, 5w etc). However I have since upgraded to a Triax TD88 satellite dish. When I purchased the dish it said that it was 88cm in size, however when I got the dish I measured it myself and found it to be 94cm, not that I am complaining - the bigger the better! I also upgraded the LNB to an Inverto Ultra Black. This is a high gain LNB and so put together it makes the perfect satellite setup. I even managed to receiver BADR at 26 East, used for the Arab countries it is quite hard to receive in England without using a large dish (according to Satbeams.com I need a 100cm to receive 26e!). Anyway I will post some pictures of the satellite dish, which sits in my back garden, as well as that there is a video of my setup.







Video of my setup