UPDATED:  6th April, 1999

What you need in order to receive satellite:
 
 

2 - A satellite receiver (Pace 100 recommended).

3 - An ordinary television set.

After you have those requirements you will need an installer to setup your dish and receiver.

What you get on satellite:

(I don't list any Digital, subscription or non English channels)

Click on one of the following 3 satellites for information on its channels:
Astra satellite, 19.2deg. East
Hotbird 13deg. East
Thor sat, 1deg West

As I am busy studying for my leaving cert., some of this information about channels may go out of date.  If this happens, you can email me (E-mail address is on homepage) and I will get it updated within a few weeks.  If there are any questions, I will try to reply to them as soon as posible.

Dish position 19.2deg East is one of the most common satellite watched in England and Ireland.  It has got over 25 foreign Channels, mainly German, over 25 'subscribe to' English Channels and about 7 Free English Channels.  You need to subscribe to SKY in order to get the rest of the english channels but Sky is expensive (price depends on what you want, minimal price per month:  £12).
 

MTV Germany is half English and German and usually contains English Music Videos.  If you have a satelite reciever with a Videocrypt decoder/encoder, then you may not be able to watch the channel as the channel causes the internal videocrypt encoder to scamble the picture.  On some recievers, you can disable this from happening.  If you have a pace reciever with a decoder socket in the back then click here to find out how to watch it (all you need is a piece of thin wire, no opening of the reciever is necessary.)  As I don't have my dish pointing at this satellite, this information may be going out of date.  I was E-mailed recently about Channel 5 going scrambled.  If there is any changes on astra about free English programming, you can email me (E-mail address is on homepage)  I will try to reply to all emails.
 

Dish position 13deg East is another popular satellite, mainly for people who like music or learning other languages.  There are only 2 'Subscribe to' channels which are French and polish.  The satellite contains channels of all different types of languages.  e.g. English, German, Polish, French, Arabian, etc.  English channels are:  CNBC (ceasing soon), Quantum 24, EuroSport and DW TV.  There are about 25 foreign channels.  If a new english channel comes to this satelite, there is no Sky to take over, unlike Astra 19.2deg East.  There are 2 music channels that usually mostly play English music, the music is usually rap and modern music.  This satellite also has over 50 radio radio stations!

Contents of Music Channels:
Chart Music, Pop, Rap, Heavy Metal, reviews (reviews usually in German).
 

Satellite Position 1deg West is the one that we watch the most.  I is ideal for those who don't watch much sport and don't want to pay subscriptions.  Unlike the foreign channels on most other satellites, these channels mainly show English shows, soaps, comedies, Films,etc.  This satellite also contains about 15 D2MAC Channels.  To watch anything on this satelite, you need a D2MAC receiver.  These decoders usually cost about £90 and come with a card.  The card can be updated for free by using the remote and visiting WWW.D2MAC.COM for new codes.  These decoders are on sale in most satellite magazines.  I am not too sure if it is o.k. to use these decoders in England but I know they are o.k. to use in Ireland and they are sold in some satellite magazines.

Contents of Channels:
TV Norge - mixture of programs and 1 or 2 Films per day. *4
Canal 5 - mixture of programs, soaps and comedies. *4
TV3 Denmark, TV3 Sweden & TV3 Norge - General Entertainment *3 & some sport *2
Cartoon Network - Cartoons from 6am to 7pm *2
TNT - Films from 7pm to 6am, same lineup as on ASTRA.  *2
DR2 - Mainly foreign language entertainment *2
TV1000 - 24hr Film Channel *3
Canal+ Norge - 24hr Film Channel *5
NRK 2 - Mixture of English and Foreign language programs, includes soaps and comedy's *1, somtimes *2
TV2 Norway - mixture of programs, soaps and comedies *4 (contains football at week-ends *6)
CNN - 24hr News channel *2

*1 D2MAC channel but does not require smartcard.
*2 D2MAC encrypted channel, codes very rarely change. (about once a year).
*3 D2MAC encrypted channel, codes change about once a month.
*4 D2MAC encrypted, some smartcards don't support this channel.
*5 D2MAC Canal+ channel, some smartcards don't support this channel and codes usually change once a week.
*6 D2MAC TV2 FootBall, encrypted channel, most smartcards don't support this channel.

You can get channels *1 with a D2MAC receiver in most countries in Europe.  In some countries in Europe it is illegal to buy pirate smartcards to get *2 to *6, e.g. Denmark, Norway & Sweden and some other countries, I think it is o.k. in England.  I know it is OK to buy a smartcard in Ireland as most satellite shops that sell D2MAC receivers usually include smartcards which can be updated using the remote control.  Most smartcards now can unscramble all the above encrypted channels (usually except TV2 football).  Codes can be found freely at http://www.d2macdecoding.com/main.html and http://www.d2mac.com/.  There use to be MTV Europe on this satelite but it has moved to Sirus 2 which requires a universal LNB and and large satelite dish e.g. over 120cm diameter if you live in Ireland.  If you still want to watch MTV then try MTV Germany on the Astra Satelite, the only problem is that some of the programs shown on it are in German but almost all the music shown is in English. Click here for how to recieve it.
 
 

Links
Geocities Home page
My HomePage
My favourite Midi Files
Pace 100 Hidden Features

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