basic question for someone who knows about satalite/aerials

[chopper]

basicly the house im living in has an old sky dish, one of those small ones, iv run a ct100 single cable from the dish and used a sky end to connect to it ( one of those you just twist on, ) but to test the signal i but a coax male end on and plugged it direct to my tv,but it says no signal,
can u put a sat end on one end of cable and a coax on other? or as it gotta be sky ends on each end and run to a satalite box?
all im wanting to do is use the existing sky dish and run it to a freesat box (which iv not purchased yet)
any advise please

 

[danzor]

freesat is just digital isn't it? So you won't need a sky dish, just an aerial?

Maybe I'm wrong and miss read everything you wrote.

 

[i=p/u]

buy an old sky box and use that as freview

 

[cymroaur]

You have to have a Sky / Freesat box connected for the signal to be read, or one of those satellite finders with the needle for about £20, but even then you still need 12V to power the LNB. So I'd say buy / borrow some sort of satellite box, plug it in, and see if it works. If it doesn't you'll need a mate to keep an eye on the signal strength meter while you point the dish. But if you've got neighbours with sat dishes just make sure you're pointing the same way as the majority!

Also, you'll need to fit your F-type (Sky) connector back onto the TV end, and make sure the sat end is weatherproof - if water starts getting into the cable it'll corrode and you'll lose signal strength.

Hope this helps!

 

[chopper]

cheers, so wont my tv pick up signal from the sky dish without it being connected to a satalite box, also it does seem to be pointing same direcky dishes on street

 

[cymroaur]

I've yet to see a TV with built in Sky / Freesat (i may be wrong!). Freeview, yes. Your standard TV works with plain old RF signal, but a satellite's LNB can be polarized either way and two voltages. So you need some kind of Sat box to send it the correct setting for any given channel. Your TV can then 'see' the signal from the RF output on the back of the box.

 

[boberty]

the only freesat tv's i.e. with a built in sat tuner that i know of are made by panasonic. so ar'nt going to be cheap. You can get a hd sat box for £100 upwards. But make sure it can get free to air [fta] as some come preloaded with existing channel lists and are harder to update.

 

[Guitarist]

You sure it's not an old analogue dish?

 

[chopper]

no my tv aint got freesat built in just freeview,
so basicly i will not recieve a signal to it as it is plugged direct to the tv using the male coax,
so to recieve a satalite signal i need to use a sat box which sends voltage upto the lnb to enable it to read signals

 

[mhar]

At present in the uk the uhf broadcast signals (freeview terrestrial) are from 450 to 900MHz - this is changing soon hence the recommendation to use wideband aerials. Satellite intermediate frequency (the frequency that the LNB downconverts to starts at 950MHz up to 2150MHz.
A standard tv tuner cannot tune to satellite if, nor can a satellite tuner tune to the uhf frequencies. Additionally as chopper states a satellite receiver sends out control voltages and tones to select different polarities and bands from the lnb.
I=p/u is correct in that you can use an old sky digital box but you get a menu full of channels you cannot receive. Trade on a freesat hd box is sub £60 and about £20 less for a sd (standard definition) box so I would buy one of these in preference. LNB not working, dish bent/rusty? £20 total gets you new