TFC & Freesat

[Andy]

Can anyone help? We've got the TFC satellite service, which we still want to keep, but are thinking of getting Freesat which is subscription free. We've been told by Freesat that you can use non-sky satellite dishes to get Freesat & can in theory (provided it points in the right direction) have both TV services. Does anyone have or know whether it's possible to get TFC & Freesat?

[Terpe]

Do you also have a sky dish?

[Terpe]

Firstly I'm not at all knowledgeable in this sort of thing at all.
But I have Sky, Freesat and TFC

Both Sky and Freesat broadcast from Astra 28.2E.

TFC is broadcast from Atlantic Bird 3 (Eutelsat 5 West)

Both dishes are on the front of my house next to each other but not pointing in exactly the same direction. The difference is perhaps too much to say for sure
if the same dish set-up could be used.

I can't make a test right now as I'm already recording TFC. But tomorrow I will have a chance to connect the TFC cable to the Freesat box and see what transpires.

I will also connect the Freesat (Sky) cable to the TFC box and see what happens there. I'm hopeful as many people suggest that the Atlantic Bird 3 signal and is so strong you could receive it on almost anything.

Let's see

[imagine]

iv worked with installing sky , im not sure about what you want if the satellites are close enough to each other, i do remember that for some if close enough u can offset your dish slightly to pull in both satellites, but on doing this the signal will be weaker to your orignal as its slightly offline,

sorry i cant help you more on that as my knowledge was mainly for sky, but you should be able to google search for more info :xxgrinning--00xx3:

ps , sometimes an adapter to hold 2 lnb's on the dish one for each satallite can do the trick , difficult to line up unless you have a meter which reads more than one satellite

[hawk]

i have freesat and i just hooked it to sky dish when you put yours to dish just do a new install it will tell you how good the signal is if its anywere near it will be ok like mine also nomater were its pointing it will get a singal mine can be tuned into any sat ie freebird astra and others

[Terpe]

i have freesat and i just hooked it to sky dish when you put yours to dish just do a new install it will tell you how good the signal is if its anywere near it will be ok like mine also nomater were its pointing it will get a singal mine can be tuned into any sat ie freebird astra and others

As said before, that works because both Sky and Freesat are transmitted from the same satellite.
TFC is transmitted from a completely different sateliite at a completley different location.

Andy, my simple testing this morning switching between two dishes and two boxes did not work out in my area. I did not make any adjustments to the set up of either dish.
I think the suggestion made by Imagine may offer a good solution.
It's no too expensive to add an additional independently adjustable LNB and have a specialist to set them up for you. Looking at my dishes and just "by eye" the actual spread between the two satellites looks like it's quite large. In which case the size of the dish will play a key part. You may need a much bigger dish.

Bottom line I think is to ask an installer to see what can be done with your existing arrangement (if anything) or just go for a new dish installation for Freesat.

[Andy]

Many thanks for your help & comments. We haven't got Sky only a TFC satellite dish. I think we'll have to get a survey done &/or advice from an installer.

[Dedworth]

Many thanks for your help & comments. We haven't got Sky only a TFC satellite dish. I think we'll have to get a survey done &/or advice from an installer.

I'd look around the area for a Sky Van parked up then offer the guy some folding stuff rather than go through official channels

[malchard888]

Andy,

Although im an amateur, i have three satellite dishes set up, one of course for sky the other two pull in different satellites including a couple of free filipino channels and i managed to do all this myself by trial and error. I will be more than happy to help you so if u want to get in contact, message me on my facebook (malcolm harding, town of uxbridge) and ill get in contact and hopefully point u in the right direction
Good luck
Malcolm

[imagine]

it may be less problematic to have a seperate dish ,