DonB Posted February 22, 2015 Share Posted February 22, 2015 Could anyone give me the pros and cons about different sat domes? I have always carried a tripod system and know about the reduced footprints now. So what I would like, unless you know better, is one of the larger domes with autoskew and twin LNBs. Any info much appreciated. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest peter Posted February 22, 2015 Share Posted February 22, 2015 Don't you mean dishes?. You won't get much in Southern Europe these days with a dome O/K in the UK though. The dish inside them is too small. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mike88 Posted February 22, 2015 Share Posted February 22, 2015 This subject was covered recently here: http://www.outandaboutlive.co.uk/forums/Motorhomes/Motorhome-Matters/What-size-satellite-dish-/37329/ Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DonB Posted February 22, 2015 Author Share Posted February 22, 2015 No, I don't mean dishes. And as I said I know about the reduced footprints etc. What I asked for is info on comparing various dome systems, please. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
PJay Posted February 22, 2015 Share Posted February 22, 2015 We have the 40cm dome. Depends on what you want to view. We can get Skynews CNN BBC world news down in southern Spain. We like to see the F1 GP races, can get those on the "German" satellite, and you can get some english speaking channels as well The advantage of a dome is that it does not move in heavy winds, disadvantage, you have to position yourself away from tress , in line of site. My OH has now got very good at finding the right place to pitch ! It's nice to catch up on news, but if you must watch Tv take plenty of DVD's along PJay Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest peter Posted February 22, 2015 Share Posted February 22, 2015 Oooooooh. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
StuartO Posted February 22, 2015 Share Posted February 22, 2015 Not sure you are likely to get much help because dome systems are changing all the time and only a few of us will gain experience of operating more than one of them. I bought ours about 5 years ago (from a company which has since stopped trading) and fortunately it has worked remarkably well and is much more convenient that the tripod system I used to have. It's a Tracvision and I think it has a 40cm equivalent aerial dish inside, single LNB and no skew adjustment, so modern standards it is a pretty basic system. But it works remarkably well and we have got signals when I really didn't expect to do so - eg sometimes through trees etc. Before the footprint shrinkage we got domestic UK channels reliably on the south coast of France and going East we lost some of them as we got to Munich. Never been to Spain. Most difficulty getting a signal has been on British camp sites where you seen to find yourself more often surrounded by high trees. Since the footprint changed we have still been perfectly OK in the Loire Valley but we've not yet been further South or East. I expect we will still get Sky News well away from UK as we used to but not the UK domestic channels like BBC and ITV. As you will see from the other thread I'm not convinced that a bigger dish or skew adjustment adds much now that the footprint has shrunk, apart from a bit of extra range at the edges of the reduced footprint. My basic system, which I chose at the time because of an overriding need for a low profile, so I could still get the MH into the garage, has worked out very well. I've taken care not to bash it on tree branches etc because the dome is pretty thin but so far it has stood up well to use. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jonboymentalhealth Posted February 22, 2015 Share Posted February 22, 2015 I've just started using the snipe system not a dome but small and one touch operation, very simple and so far very reliable Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Caddies104 Posted February 22, 2015 Share Posted February 22, 2015 Hi We have the Dome that came with the Van, and is very good in the UK and halfway down France, after that forget it... Is easy to tune in and gets loads of free stations, enough for us anyway, just make sure you have no big trees close to you to the south.. Just needs a little forethought when choosing your pitch.. And a compass... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Solwaybuggier Posted February 23, 2015 Share Posted February 23, 2015 As said before, no prior experience with a dome (we had a dish before) but we're very happy with our Roadpro 40cm dome (single LNB, auto skew.). On several occasions we've been able to use it when wind would have forced us to take dish down. Roadpro are a good company to deal with. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bigmomma2 Posted February 23, 2015 Share Posted February 23, 2015 We have a Camos 'Auto Seek' Dome, have used it in UK & Europe. Good enough for Northern Europe for UK programmes (France, Germany, Holland etc). No good for normal UK programmes in Spain though, although we adjust satellites, in Spain we tune to Hispasat or Astea 1 and pick up the English speaking News programmes as mentioned in an earlier pist e.g. BBC World News, CNN and even a French News channel (in English). However, if you get WiFi you can get UK TV programmes via 'Film On' or 'You Tube'. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
betsy Posted February 24, 2015 Share Posted February 24, 2015 Hi, We also have a Camos dome (no auto skew) with about five preset sats and it works fine - certainly beats our last two Alden dish systems for finding whichever sat we have asked it to find and we can use it in all weathers as well. Once the dish has found the sat you can switch off the power to its control box and still get a picture on your tv. With the Aldens once you turned off the power the dish would be automatically brought down so if you were just using battery there would be a drain either way...... Works well on the UK and most of France but in Portugal and Spain you will have to settle for sky and bbc news etc on one if the other sats as others have said. Good luck Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
derek500 Posted February 24, 2015 Share Posted February 24, 2015 The wind can be a problem with dishes on very rare occasions. However, if you have a PVR with programmes on you can still watch them with the dish down. We've got a few box sets downloaded from Sky ready if needed on a rainy day. We did however, get all UK channels on our 85cm auto skew Mecatronic dish, on the Italian riviera, and pay channels including ITV 2-4 HD, More4 HD etc south of Sienna. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
StuartO Posted February 24, 2015 Share Posted February 24, 2015 derek500 - 2015-02-24 12:21 PM ...We did however, get all UK channels on our 85cm auto skew Mecatronic dish, on the Italian riviera, and pay channels including ITV 2-4 HD, More4 HD etc south of Sienna. Presumably that was before february last year, when the reduced footprint for UK domestic channels was introduced. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
derek500 Posted February 24, 2015 Share Posted February 24, 2015 StuartO - 2015-02-24 12:39 PM derek500 - 2015-02-24 12:21 PM ...We did however, get all UK channels on our 85cm auto skew Mecatronic dish, on the Italian riviera, and pay channels including ITV 2-4 HD, More4 HD etc south of Sienna. Presumably that was before february last year, when the reduced footprint for UK domestic channels was introduced. No, last October. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bolero boy Posted February 24, 2015 Share Posted February 24, 2015 even on a small dome, anyone who is a sky subscriber (and brings their sky box and viewing card) will be able to get the pay movies and sports all over France and a good way intô Spain. we had a Camos flatsat which i skewed myself, and we got all our subscription channels in Bennicassim, nr Valencia. obviously, no BBC/ITV there except over wifi using Filmon. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Randonneur Posted February 25, 2015 Share Posted February 25, 2015 We have a Maxview dome which has stopped working after nearly 4 years. We have traced the problem to the PCB in the dome but trying to get Maxview to tell us if they can supply a new board is like pulling teeth. Anyway, enough of that. When it was working it was great as far down as South coast of France then it was unstable. We are in Portugal at the moment and we could get Sky News, Pick, Pick+ and Community Channel without altering the Satellite. If they weren't so expensive we would have another one. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
silverback Posted February 25, 2015 Share Posted February 25, 2015 we have a dish 85cm from mecatronic, the reason..my installer said that the domes had a tendonsy to get condensation inside the dome and water / electronics don't mix ..whether this is true i don't know..he might have just wanted me to buy a more expensive piece of kit *-) jonathan Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Randonneur Posted February 26, 2015 Share Posted February 26, 2015 silverback - 2015-02-25 1:45 PM we have a dish 85cm from mecatronic, the reason..my installer said that the domes had a tendonsy to get condensation inside the dome and water / electronics don't mix ..whether this is true i don't know..he might have just wanted me to buy a more expensive piece of kit *-) jonathan Your installer was correct, when they took the dome top off there was lots of condensation. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
derek500 Posted March 30, 2015 Share Posted March 30, 2015 Currently in the aire at Soustons and we are getting ALL the UK channels on our 85cm Mecatronic with auto skew. Great aire BTW, 6.50€ (£4.71) per night Including good amperage electric. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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