Sky is a great way to watch matches in the UK but it has a limit on the number of matches it shows and it seems not to show Saturday 3.00 kick offs.
Fear not ! There is a way of getting those 3.00 starts into your living room. (apart from going to a pub which is showing it which is pleasurable but expensive)
Equipment that is needed
A 78cm or bigger satellite dish (this is the minimum size needed to pick up the signal) - this can be fixed or motorised. Motorised will give you more of a choice of matches.
A suitable safe surface and mount to put the dish onto either on the ground or on a wall.
A digital satellite receiver (not a sky digibox as this will not work)
Cable to connect the dish to the receiver
Possibly a meter to help find a satellite signal (if you pay an installer to fit the equipment you have bought this will not be necessary as they will do it for you)
A card or Cam or maybe both to de-scramble the scrambled signal from the satellite (similar to a sky viewing card)
(I will show you the actual equipment and where to buy it at the end of the instructions)
OK I have bought the stuff
What do I do ?
The dish needs to be pointed at particular Satellite or Satellites(motorised systems) in order to receive the correct signal. There are a number of satellites in the sky which carry foreign channels which broadcast live premiership football, European football and worldwide football and various other unmentionable channels!
The best for receiving Premiership Football on are Hispasat, Astra 1 and Hotbird.
So
The dish needs to be aligned to one of these - for a professional installer this is an extremely easy job and for a fixed dish will only take half an hour to an hour. For a motorised system it can take upto about 4 hours and prices normally vary depending on which eqiuipment your individual installation requires.
or as many people do - DO IT YOURSELF
All the digital satellite receivers I will show you have what is called a signal strength meter(a bar which shows on the screen which gets longer when a signal is being received and from which satellite). . So if you point your dish at a satellite the signal strength meter will pick it up and identify where it is coming from. All the satellites run from East to West in the sky. So with the use of a cheap compass and list of satellite positions (list can be got from www.satellitetvlinks.net this is an excellent site with lots of interesting information on how to pick all types of channels up or go to a good newsagent and buy a magazine called 'What Satellite TV' . An example all the mini-dishes in the UK which are receiving sky digital are pointed at the Astra 2 satellite at 28.2 degrees East.
To recieve Hotbird point the dish at 13 degrees East
To recieve Astra 1 point the dish at 19.2 degrees East
To recieve Hispasat point the dish at 30 degrees West
If you buy a fixed dish and want to try to different satellites or swap and change quite often it may well be worth investing in a meter to help you find the correct position quicker.
Remember in most cases if you do not like heights (like me) these satellites can be picked up a ground level through your dish providing a big building or big tree isn't in the line of the signal
SOME OF THIS MAY SOUND COMPLICATED BUT IT IS REALLY VERY SIMPLE AND WORTH IT
When you have found the satellite you require perform a channel search so the receiver will find all the channels available (can be 800-1000 for some satellites)
You need to find out which channels are showing the Premiership matches. (LIVEONSAT is a great site for this)
One of the best channels for the 2003-2004 Premiership Season was sporTV a Portugese Sports channel (on Hispasat)which showed Live basically all the Manchester United games. There are many other channels which show the other matches.
It is possible to watch a lot of matches Free to Air but there are also pay packages(where you are sent a card to put in your receiver) to make sure you definitely don't miss your favourite team.
Equipment Needed
A dish such as this 80cm dish, it can be solid steel or transparent whichever is preferable.
A Low cost LNB with standard 40mm neck. Light and easy to fit. Like the 0.6dB universal LNB made by SWkyware
A bracket for fixing the LNB
LNB Cable
A receiver such as the Manhattan Starlight 6900 which is a powerful receiver U-CAS 2ci, embedded Magic cam, 36v positioner, DisEqC 1.2 (sounds complicated -techno-jargon for it will get the premiership football!!! and much more)
