kelly58 Posted December 2, 2006 Share Posted December 2, 2006 Hi Has anyone any experience of the Status 530 aerial we pick our new motorhome up next week and were considering using the laptop as a TV and DVD player and as we will need an aerial to get a reception I would appreciate any comments good or bad regarding the status 530 to purchase £129.00 fitted £255.00 or would anyone advise fitting it yourself,or would DIY invalidate warranty. Thanks for any help best regards kelly :-) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mike Chapman Posted December 2, 2006 Share Posted December 2, 2006 Hello Kelly, We had a Staus 530 fitted on the previous van but found that reception in poor reception areas was not good especially for digital TV such as Freeview. With the current van and on the advice of our local friendly ICE/TV supplier we purchased a Vision Plus Image 530/18 digital compatible aerial and a 25mm 3 section Uni-mast which clips to the rear ladder using 2 Uni-brackets. Total cost £42.90. ( A great deal cheaper than the £255 you have been quoted and has the advantage of not adding to the vehicle height) Have used this for the last 10 months with both a Portable TV and a Laptop with a USB Digital TV tuner. No problems with reception even at poor reception areas. Only drawback is that the aerial and mast have to be fitted to the van which takes about 5 minutes. If you intended to use Caravan Club sites most have a TV aerial hook up and all you will need to connect this is a length of co-axial and connectors. The cable can be run through a window but we have had an external TV aerial point fitted on the rear of the van and wired into the standard internal TV aerial socket. Hope this is of assistance, Mike. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
manofgresley Posted December 2, 2006 Share Posted December 2, 2006 Hi Kelly I have a Status 530 on my Motorhome, i have to say that in my experience they are quiet poor, my reception is poor, even on sites that boast good tv reception, mine is particularly poor with "FREEVIEW".I have recently replaced it with a "Free to Air" Satelite System Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
manofgresley Posted December 2, 2006 Share Posted December 2, 2006 [ Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
peejay Posted December 2, 2006 Share Posted December 2, 2006 Hi Kelly, Quite surprised at the replies so far, i had a status 530/5 on my previous van and it was superb, obtaining a great picture in all but the most difficult signal areas. So pleased in fact that we intend to have another one fitted to our present van. Are the previous posters not getting mixed up with the status '315 flying saucer' aerial which is the omni directional type and gets the most bad press? We used to have one of these as well and its performance was questionable (polite answer - as much use as a one legged man at a botty kicking contest), most folk i've talked to seem to have similar opinions. The status 530 is a directional aerial and i've not heard many reports critiscising it, hence my surprise. As its a new van i'd get your supplying dealer to fit it for peace of mind just in case there are any leak probs later on, a self fit would be the perfect wriggle out clause on the warranty. £255 seems a bit steep though, but most dealers charge an arm and a leg for labour nowadays. pete Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Wend Posted December 2, 2006 Share Posted December 2, 2006 We have a 'flying saucer' fitted to our present van but with a booster as well, it works well when reception is good but some places you won't get good even with a 530. however we are thinking next time we will fit a 530 (!) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Keith T Posted December 3, 2006 Share Posted December 3, 2006 Wew had the Status 530/10 fitted when buying our new motorhome in 2002, having always found lees than good reception wih the old 'mushroom' types. We are very pleased, and despite some of the earlier replies, find we can usually fine tune it to get a decent picture in most places. We also find quite often that despite the CC listing saying 'fair' or 'poor', we can often get a better picture from theStatus than using their 'booster' sockets - mind you, the sockets are very often in poor condition themselves. I do find that you can sometimes get a better picture on a totally different channel number than the CC site info suggests, and very often do set the TV manually. For this reason I have created a database for myself of the best channels to use on the various sites we visit, and keep this updated as we go to new ones. The info provided by Maxview is OK, but somehwat limited as it makes no reference to teh booster stations scattered around the country. Remeber CH5 is not obtainable everywhere, and also that there are some transmitters where you need the Vertical not Horizontal aerial position. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mike Chapman Posted December 3, 2006 Share Posted December 3, 2006 Hello Peejay, To answer your question the Status Aerial was definitely the 530/10 NOT the T300 Omni-directional. It was OK on most sites but not good where the signal strength was poor (eg. Melrose, Grantown-on-Spey etc). We had it checked to make sure the installation had been carried out correctly and that the signal booster was working correctly which it was. Have never so far had any signal problem with the Image 530/18. Regards, Mike. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mansell Posted December 5, 2006 Share Posted December 5, 2006 Hi Kelly the answer is they are not poor, but very very poor. We have had 2 fitted to motorhomes we have bought and both have been totally useless. A fellow motorhomer in the same area we were staying in had an ordinary arial on an alloy pole fixed to the side of his van with pipe clips, brilliant picture all channels while we had very little success. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
breakaleg Posted December 5, 2006 Share Posted December 5, 2006 hi, we just picked our new van up last week, a status 530 aerial was fitted and we tried it out yesterday for the first time. we done this outside our house, copying the direction of our roof aerial, so with it pointing at our house, the picture was great. pete Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Keith T Posted December 5, 2006 Share Posted December 5, 2006 Mansell - not sure on your reply. Which aearials are you claiming to be very very poor? If the Status 530, can only assume there is something wrong with the inernal wiring. We did have a problem at one time, and I traced this to the factory fit wiring to the aerial socket, whcih was not properly connected. Pics given a reasonable signal and correct positional (vertical or Horizontal) are excellent. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Vernon B Posted December 6, 2006 Share Posted December 6, 2006 Have to say I'm not over the moon with our Status 530 (fitted by dealer on new van 3.5 years ago). Picture quality is very variable with very little improvement when using directional facilities. In many cases we find that we get better reception when using the built in aerial on our portable TV. Apart from reception quality another factor to consider is that fitting one means yet another potential water ingress point. In fact we've just had the wardrobe flood this very week by water entering through the centre of the mast. To be fair to the manufacturer (Grade) their service department has been very helpful and has supplied replacement O rings which they recon' will cure the problem. They also have a website www.grade.co.uk where you can down load a technical leaflet which does address some of the other problems encountered in this thread. Would I buy another - no! because my first principle of motorhoming now is "don't cut holes in your roof - they come back to bite you in the ar**" Vernon PS the earlier contributor is not quite correct, "most" CC sites don't have TV aerial points - "some" do. But heck get out and get a life what's worth watching on the box anyway? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Keith T Posted December 6, 2006 Share Posted December 6, 2006 Hi Vernon - sounds suspicously as though they may be a problem with the fitting/wiring of your aerial. When we move the aerial round, we go from nothing to full clear picture, which I assume is the directional bit working correctly. IS yours through a booster, normally included, and sorry to state the obvious, but is it wired in correctly to the 12v and switched on. Also try the alternative setting for the signal strength on the other toggle switch on the booster. Ours sometimes is better with one setting, other places using the other setting.....sorry, not very technical, but trying to do it from 'picture' memory rather than going out a looking at the actual wording. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mansell Posted December 7, 2006 Share Posted December 7, 2006 The 530 it is and it is 2 out of poor [ no very poor ] and I have checked wiring seems ok. I will not be having one fitted on our next van. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Vernon B Posted December 9, 2006 Share Posted December 9, 2006 Short answer Keith is that I don't know! The fact that I have to remove the aerial to fit the O rings will give me the opportunity to check the wiring etc and I'll certainly take your advice into account. Thanks Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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