FTA Howto

in anticipation of RTÉ going FTA under the direction of Dail Eireann to provide RTÉ International, I have decided to post a very basic howto on Digital DVB Direct to home Free To Air setup.

1. find out what is free
http://www.lyngsat.com/freetv/Europe.html

notice Ireland has NO FTA the Sky News
Ireland wasn’t really Irish and it has now closed.

2. get your kit
satellite kits sell from €80 upwards (often in Lidl) 80CM dish with LNB FTA receiver and cable and F connectors Think of out of contract Sky kit as worthy of use including old mini dishes

3. point you dish at your target content
28E UK / Ireland
13E France / Italy / Poland
05E Russia
[this is a very stereotypical representation]

how to align your dish http://url.ie/69c

4. tune in

tune your FTA box to a known service for example using Lyngsat for 28East go to http://www.lyngsat.com/28east.html get Film 4 at 10729 V SR 22000 FEC 5/6 enter these details into your set top box (STB) and scan this transponder to find FTA channels
Tips: keep dishes low and clear to the sun in the south east at 11am. Low helps the dish stay out of the wind and stop dish wobble. Fix dishes to poles, 100mm traffic light poles in a concrete base are best. 50 or 60mm poles will have too much give. Fixing to walls is popular but dish alignment and alterations can be easier on a pole no higher that 3 meters. Shorter cable runs make for better signal but if long runs are needed invest in good satellite cable.