Losing BBC and ITV English Channels in the Evening in Valencia Province

All viewers watching English UKChannels in the Valencia Province will experience a loss of some of the channels each evening and will question why this is happening.

The answer is that all Geostationary satellites drift in Space and require propulsion to realign them. Visit this web page for a detailed explanation. Basically the satellites follow a "figure of 8 pattern" over every 24 hours. This is called "Station Keeping". If you watch the very interesting video below they discus Station Keeping towards the end of the video.

Here in Valencia we are on the fringe of the reception from the satellite Astra 2d and consequently are effected by this drift. If you reside within the designated beam (the UK) then the drift has no consequence

The solution to not losing the channels

• Invest in a bigger dish (2.4m), although this only applies to BBC and ITV channels
• Select the BBC and ITV channels that have the strongest signals. These channels can change from time to time. Therefore wait until your channel is breaking up and go through every BBC and ITV channel on the channel list until you find a channel that has a picture and make a note of the channel. The signal strength on each channel doesn't change frequently. It only changes when the satellite operators make adjustments.
• Use a Sky "Free To View" card to access ITV 1, Channel Four and Five that are transmitted from a different satellite - visit this page for further information