Can I check if my Satellite Dish is Working?

pealy

When I moved into my house year ago there was already a dish on the chimney. There's also a receipt or the installation which shows it as Sky Digital. The cable is in my sitting room so I thought I'd see if it works.

I've borrowed a Box from a friend but he can't give me his viewing card, I've found a card in another friends old box but we don't know if it works (it's a blue Sky card with a yellow house on it which I think should enable free to view channels)

Can I just plug it all in and expect it to work or does the card need to be registered with the box?

I'd love to get the free channels, I'm stuck with a portable TV aerial and 4 channels at the moment.. Definitely don't want to start any kind of subscription..

Hunnymonster

Even with just the box, you can check the dish is functional because you'll still get BBC1/2/3/4/ITV3/CBBC/CBeebies and a raft of other channels.

Then a £20 Freesat card from https://www.freesatfromsky.com will get you ITV1/2/C4/C5 on top

mike_paterson

If the card is active then it should work

pealy

Thanks for the comments, and the news is good. I'm getting BBC1, BBC2 and a raft of other channels like men & motors but no ITV or Channel4. I guess this means the dish is working and pointing in the right direction and so a new card should mean I can get the other channels. Can I phone the number on the card and get it re-activated?

micheleen

If you just leave the card in the box for 24-48 hours then ITV, C4 and C5 should come back on their own as long as the card hasn't been cancelled.

pealy

micheleen wrote:

If you just leave the card in the box for 24-48 hours then ITV, C4 and C5 should come back on their own as long as the card hasn't been cancelled.

Really? I'll give it a try..