Satellite TV

[Pister]

I would be very grateful for advice on which Satellite TV system to get for my motorhome for travelling in Europe (and Scotland i.e. the north of UK). Shop advice so far has varied from:

1) needing to buy at least 60cm sat. disk

2) only needing 30cm disk

3) anything will provide Astra2 coverage...(?????)

etc etc

Please briefly what are the must haves/don't have to haves/good idea to haves? I don't want a heavy roof fixed sat system. I've seen people (in Europe) get out their small tripod and set everything up in minutes. So,

what's cheap, light, easily set-up, covers France Spain...??

Many thanks for any advice or links to websites.

[flicka]

Hi Pat

Ther is a lot of technical info regarding Satelite dishes (& domes) in the Roadpro supplement with MMM.

Although Roadpro are a dealer, the advise in the supplement appears very comprehensive & impartial.

[davenewellhome]

The problem is satellite TV is a huge subject, and Europe is a pretty big place :-S . For example when you say touring in Europe do you mean Northern France and Belgium or do you mean all the way to eastern Italy or even beyond? If its just Northern France then yes, a 30CM dish will probably do you. If you want to go to Eastern Italy or Southern Spain though you're going to need a much bigger dish if you want to watch mainstream UKTV.

 

You say you don't want a "heavy roof mounted system" but what do you count as heavy? The Camos crankup for example is only 5.5 KGs, not significantly different to a portable dish and tripod setup. The crankup will get you all the UK channels throughout the UK, 90% of France, all of Belgium, all of the Netherlands, about 1/3 of the way across Germany etc.

 

If you could refine your requirements a bit it would help us to advise you.

 

D.

[Pister]

Thanks D-Dave(?) for advice so far. Re requirements, I would need Spain i.e. southern Europe, maybe not as far as south Italy (the Astra 2 range I believe). Weight = not a "heavy roof system" as said before, but something reasonably compact and portable and not screwed into anything - tripod-ish. I'm confused as Maplins advised I'd need a 60cm dish; others I've seen (on sites) seem to find much smaller dishes adequate - for Europe. I know 30cm will suffice for UK.

Pat

 

[davenewellhome]

Hi Pat, Southern Europe is still a pretty big area but roughly speaking Northern Spain can be covered for all UK channels with a 60+CM conventional dish, this should get you all UK channels down to about Barcelona but it will depend on how good the dish is, how good the LNB is, how accurately you align the dish and set the skew angle and how "open" your receiver is. "open" simply refers to the receivers sensitivity as some are better than others, SKY receivers are notoriously troublesome.

 

If you want to go further south, southern Spain or Portugal for example then you will almost certainly need a bigger dish and/or a better LNB. Its worth being aware that the larger the dish, the more accurately it needs tobe aligned and therefore the more sensitive it will be to movement from winds etc.

 

D.

[Klyne]

You might like to look at this website www.satelliteforcaravans.co.uk its pretty comprehensive.

 

David