Sky dish on a leasehold flat

[Andy Jeffries]

My friend (honestly, I kid you not!) has just had a Sky dish installed on his flat. There are other flats in the block that have a dish installed, but he's now found out (or realised, not sure which) that he should have asked the freeholder for permission.

At some point the freeholder may/will notice. As I understand it, he can't force removal of it as it would be inconsistent in that other leaseholders have been allowed the dishes. He can levy a charge for allowing it to be installed, but again this can only be for the same amount he's charged others (i.e. the court would only award the amount he'd have got if my friend had asked for permission before installation, not some punitive amount).

Do I understand correctly? Anyone offer any advice/hints? (except for, check the contract before getting one installed next time, been there!)

Cheers,

Andy

[Andy Jeffries]

Sorry folks, that was meant for uk.legal, but I was reading this group at the time and forgot to change to post.

Cheers,

Andy

[Christian McArdle]

It may also need planning permission if there are already dishes. In a block of flats, it is best to use a single shared dish for all flats. This is possible as there are 4 "channels" from the Sky satellite. Using a quad LNB (like used for Sky+) and some fancy switching gear, you can run an unlimited number of decoders from that single dish.

Christian.

[Mr X]

In article , Christian McArdle writes

I'm afraid you cannot.

You can with a Quattro LNB

There is a very fundamental difference.

[tony sayer]

In article , Mr X writes

And a multiswitch....

[Mr X]

In article , tony sayer writes

Yes I know, such as a Philips. I have such a setup...

But you can only run 4 STB's independently from a quad LNB contrary to what the other poster claimed.

There is an octo LNB out soon.

[AJ]

Aren't there some multiswitches which can control a Quad (not quattro) LNB as well?

[Mr X]

In article , AJ writes

Maybe! But with limitations!

Each port on a quad lnb behaves as a single independent dish.

An lnb port can only function in any one mode at a time; i.e. if it is set to low-band vertical it *cannot* receive in any other mode at the same time.

However the L-band spectrum from that port will contain all low-band vertical transponders so other STB's can pick any of these.

Not quite the same thing as a quattro LNB which has four outputs -- low band vertical, low-band horizontal, high-band vertical and high-band horizontal, which when fed to a proper switching unit such as the Philips PAS7512E will give you 12 independent STB feeds

[Christian McArdle]

You can definitely run a switch from a quad-LNB. The switch just drives each one permanently into one mode. It isn't rocket science. However, not all multiswitches bother to stick the right frequencies up the line, and so will, indeed, require a Quattro with "hard coded" LNBs.

Christian.

[AJ]

Yup - that's what I meant :-)

[Andy Wade]

FAOD most multiswitches will NOT do that.

[Christian McArdle]

Yes, I get the impression that most newer models will now only accept a Quattro. I did see a box once which effectively turns a Quad into a Quattro, which can be cost effective if the dish is not easily accessible to swap out the LNB. After all, it is not difficult injecting an audio frequency carrier and a bit of DC onto the line. However, for new installations it would be silly not to use a Quattro, as the fixed frequency and polarisation means they're a good 20 quid cheaper.

Another advantage of the old quad compatible multiswitches was that you could daisy chain them. i.e. a 16 way master multiswitch could have another four 16 way slave ones plugged in, giving 64 outputs.

Christian.

[Mr X]

In article , Christian McArdle writes

Ok, thanks. URL?

[Christian McArdle]

A quick look shows that current multiswitches don't seem to offer this functionality. You could fake it up with a little bit of DIY electronics, but you'd have to be seriously geeky to bother!

I think it is shortsighted by the manufacturers, though. The additional cost of the electronics would probably be about ten pence per unit. However, with the availability of quattro units, they probably didn't see the point.

Christian.

[Mr X]

In article , Christian McArdle writes

Yes, you'd just have to set 14v or 18v and inject 22Khz as required.

I didn't think the quattro's were very available. I have only ever seen the Grundig unit being offered and that was some while ago.

Thank you for explaining how an ordinary quad LNB could be used in that way. It wasn't something I had envisaged.

[Ian Middleton]

Read these 3 articles on mutiple satellite distibution, makes it all clear why a quad is needed.

[Mr X]

In article , Ian Middleton writes

Eh? A quad is needed for what?

thread you will have seen that I understand perfectly well the differences between a quad lnb and a quattro lnb and why a quattro lnb is used in a distribution system.