OT Satellite receivers?

[Andy Wade]

AIUI all Sky Digital boxes have had hardware support for DiSEqC, from Day 1 of their digital platform. Until relatively recently though Sky haven't made any use of it, so it's remained an invisible feature, not accessible through the standard UI.

DiSEqC is being used now though in Sky's implementation of the SCR (single cable routing, aka 'Unicable' or 'One-Liner') system where one RF (1st IF, really) cable can be passively split to feed up to 5 (? exact number) tuners. This works by putting intelligence in the LNB or multiswitch in the form of IF-IF frequency conversion, so the LNB/switch can 'serve' a required transponder/multiplex on an IF channel dedicated to a particular tuner.

Full protocol details are in EN 50494.

has some background.

[Andy Hall]

OK.

I wonder how this would work with a generic setup though. The DVB-S receiver allows selections to be made on per-satellite basis in the EPG. I was able to set that up so that it would use dish 1 for anything at 28.2E and dish 2 for everything else. The Skybox doesn't seem to send anything out and so the multiswitch provides it with dish

1.

[David Hansen]

On Mon, 12 May 2008 19:06:28 +0100 someone who may be Peter Scott wrote this:-

To add to what the others have said, the main criteria for the size of a satellite dish are which satellites you are considering and where you are. A setup with a tiny little dish will be able to get satellites in Southern England but the same setup will not get the same satellites in Northern Scotland.

[Peter Scott]

Many thanks to all. I started utterly ignorant of satellite. What with all the help from this ng and the referenced documents, I reckon I know how to do it. It's going to be a quatro on my 85 cm dish feeding a 5 to

8 way multiswitch. I'll keep the terrestrial aerial system separate. I expect to abandon it in the not too distant future. But to start I'm just using a single LNB and one receiver. This will allow me to set it all up and experiment. Maybe I'll motorise eventually.

One of the feeds will be lengthy, about 25 metres, so I might need an additional inline amplifier I guess. We'll see. Spaun gear seems to be sold widely. Any opinions on it?

Peter Scott

[Dave Liquorice]

Naw, the feeds here are about 20m we have full sig strength and all but two blocks on quality on a sky digi box signal meter. This is in the north of England with a zone 1 minidish. We are on the edge of where zone 2 (bigger) minidishes are fitted.

Just make sure you use a good quality CT100 cable, see the wrightsaerials site for decent info on cables.

[Ron Lowe]

No need for amps at 25 m.

For your general interest, look at the 3 sat distribution pdfs here:

[Andy Hall]

Yes. Spaun is excellent. That's what I have. Works faultlessly. One thing to decide is whether you are happy to be limited to 8 outlets. They make expandable versions as well if you think you might want more later. It's not so much needing to have this many receivers, just that number of outlets.

If you think that you might motorise, check receiver specs. carefully.

A 25m cable run should be OK, but do use proper cable like Belden, not bell wire from Homebase.

[Andy Hall]

Yes. Spaun is excellent. That's what I have. Works faultlessly. One thing to decide is whether you are happy to be limited to 8 outlets. They make expandable versions as well if you think you might want more later. It's not so much needing to have this many receivers, just that number of outlets.

If you think that you might motorise, check receiver specs. carefully.

A 25m cable run should be OK, but do use proper cable like Belden, not bell wire from Homebase.

[Dave Liquorice]

Andy why are you double posting? Seen this a few times from you over the last couple of days. Note different Message-ID: and Date: lines.

[geoff]

it's his doppelgaenger

[Andy Wade]

[SCR]

I don't think the question even arises, thanks (if that's the word) to Sky's proprietary box software. I was just pointing out that they do make use of DiSEqC for a specific purpose.

[Andy Hall]

Good question. I'll check the logs of my server.

[Andy Hall]

I used to have a labrador, but never a doppelgaenger.

[Peter Scott]

Takes twice the feeding!

Peter Scott