Freesat & Sky dish info needed for a novice

[petergam]

I'm thinking of buying a Freesat recordable 4k box. The previous owners of our house moved out a year ago and had a contract with Sky for their TV. There's a Sky dish on the roof and its two cables come through into our sitting room. These cables are coax (or similar) and look like they're compatible with the sockets on a Freesat box. I've read on here stuff about LNBs and other tech stuff which is beyond me. My local satelitte TV installer wants £45 to come and check compatability, which I can't really afford, so I'm considering taking a gamble on buying the box (which I may have to return as unusable).

What's the chances of the box and aerial being compatible, or is there not enough info here to answer that?

[TimmyBGood · Accepted solution]

@petergam 

A Freesat 4K box is compatible with both Sky+ and Sky Q LNBs so you should be OK.

It's the older non-UHD Freesat hardware which has problems with some Sky dish setups.

[Suzy59]

I have purchased a 4 k free sat box and it won't connect to our sky q dish. All wires have been changed to new and only thing not been changed is the actual metal dish. It still says no signal on tv.. Help!!! 

[TimmyBGood]

@Suzy59 

Typically the advice is to leave the hardware with an internet connection and the dish feed connected overnight: with some software updates and restarts it usually sorts itself out.

[Suzy59]

Thankyou we will try that.. !!! And will update if I get stuck!!! 

[Suzy59]

Hi All, we still are having no luck with our 4 k freesat box.. As I said in my previous post, we have changed all the cables to new and have the correct new lnb- the only thing we haven't changed is the actual metal dish. We purchased a second box as second hand to try and still no signal . My hubby has moved the satellite dish higher and purchased a gadget to get the correct satellite signal.. We do have high trees across the road from us but we had sky q previously and this was not a problem.. we have also left the box on overnight to see whether it would update as on the settings it doesn't seem to have updated since 2022. And the post code is still saying the london one!! Saying that the basic freesat box we purchased as a second will not get a signal either!! Any more suggestions of what to do please! Before we pay for an engineer!! 
thanks suzanne

[nigea99]

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@Suzy59 wrote:

Hi All, we still are having no luck with our 4 k freesat box.. As I said in my previous post, we have changed all the cables to new and have the correct new lnb- the only thing we haven't changed is the actual metal dish. We purchased a second box as second hand to try and still no signal . My hubby has moved the satellite dish higher and purchased a gadget to get the correct satellite signal.. We do have high trees across the road from us but we had sky q previously and this was not a problem.. we have also left the box on overnight to see whether it would update as on the settings it doesn't seem to have updated since 2022. And the post code is still saying the london one!! Saying that the basic freesat box we purchased as a second will not get a signal either!! Any more suggestions of what to do please! Before we pay for an engineer!! 
thanks suzanne

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hi @Suzy59 

Did you change the LNB on the dish when moving the dish ?

I am not aware of any cheap dish alignment products that work with the Wideband LNBs used by SKY Q so I think there is a very good chance that the dish is not aligned correctly to the Satellites at 28.2 -

Even if you did change the LNB it is possible that the dish is aligned to a different set of Satellites as the frequencies are often the same 

[Suzy59]

Hi and Thankyou for your reply! We did change the lnb and now we are going to change back to the original to see if it makes a difference!!! If this doesn't work then I really don't know!!!! 
Thankyou though!!!! 

[Suzy59]

Hi, 

we have put the original lnb on which we had for sky q and still no luck

[Suzy59]

Hi, further to my recent posts re No signal on freesat box.. we still have No signal.. 

Any further suggestions on how to rectify this would be great!!!! 
many thanks

[Annie+UK]

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@Suzy59 wrote:

Hi, further to my recent posts re No signal on freesat box.. we still have No signal.. 

Any further suggestions on how to rectify this would be great!!!! 
many thanks

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I would think about getting someone in to fix it as DIY does not seem to have worked

[PhilCo]

My advice is to check first the f-connectors on the cable are properly connected/assembled.

Make sure there are no short circuits. The central copper core could be not making connection if cut too short or bent over. There are volts coming from your receiver to power the lnb in the dish which is susceptible to shorts so power off when connecting to protect it. Assuming cable is good and lnb is known to be good/new and box is same condition, it should get a signal. Good luck🤞 

[PhilCo]

The other thing you can do if you have digital multimeter, is check the output voltage at the back of your receiver where the cable from the dish connects to. 

Carefully.. Unscrew f-connector, remove cable and power up receiver. Set meter to DC Volts and carefully touch one lead to threaded part and one lead to small hole in the middle. You should read between 13 to 18 volts. This will prove the receiver box output voltage is OK. If OK next place to check would be the dish end. This would prove the cable. If no volts found at back of receiver box, then it's internal problem, possibly a small fuse if there's been a cable short. Fingers crossed something works for you! Sorry I'm a bit rusty explaining things, it's been many years since I've messed with sat tv. If there is volts where they should be, the LNB will power up. If still no signal then download an app which will show direction your dish should be pointing. Simple to use. The Clarke Belt where all the satellites sit never varies but easy to miss if badly aligned dish. 

[Micky58]

Hi there community, I've had the same problem as Suzy59. I stopped using Sky Plus (before SkyQ) about 3 years ago and went to Virgin Media. I recently cancelled Virgin Media to go on Freesat to save money. I conducted some research and bought the Freesat 4k recordable box and I plugged in an ethernet cable for wifi and the old Sky Plus cables and received 'No Signal'.  I also had no signal on the Panasonic Smart TV. 

I contacted a local aerial company and he advised me that I needed a wideband model Freesat box. Therefore I sent it back and am now on the hunt for a new box that will work with our existing Sky cables and LNB. Judging from the previous comments it sounds like a professional should be employed as DIY is not working. Does anyone have any ideas on the most suitable Freesat box?

[Mark39]

@Micky58 Sky+ equipment does not require and can't work with a wideband LNB. A Sky+ LNB is compatible with a standard Freesat box. A wideband model isn't required.