Satellite Dish Alignment in Southern Europe

Setting up your system to receive a UK satellite signal from Spain, France or anywhere in southern Europe through your Sky Digibox isn’t a problem. All you need to do is change a few settings.

Programmes on the Astra 2 cluster of satellites are 'beamed' down to create three footprints: North, South and UK. All of the Free To Air and Sky programmes are received within these footprints. An up-to-date list of programmes that are available on each footprint can be obtained from www.ses-astra.com

In the UK, you should be within all three of the footprints, and with the right equipment, you should not have any problems receiving all of the Astra transponders. Outside of the UK, problems of reception and dish alignment can occur. The default frequency of the Sky Digibox is set to a transponder on the North beam. If you travel southwards and move out of the North footprint, you may need to change the default transponder of the Digibox to match the South beam.

To change the default transponder setting, you will first need to access the hidden INSTALLERS SETUP menu. First press the SERVICES button on your Sky remote and then '4' to access SYSTEM SETUP.

Although it is not displayed, you will need to press '0' then '1' then SELECT to access the INSTALLERS SETUP menu, then select '2' to enter DEFAULT TRANSPONDER.

The following display will then show:

Select 'Frequency (GHz)'. By typing in the relevant numbers, change the settings from 11.778 to 12.129. When the changes have been made, select 'Save New Settings'. Press BACK UP to return to main screen.

This entry was posted on Thursday, August 2nd, 2007 at 9:09 am and is filed under Installation Guides. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.