Maxview Manual Crank Up Satellite

[derek500]

Just about decided to buy one of these. Can't seem to get one here in Spain so I've been looking at UK websites for prices.

 

Best price so far is SDS £349 but they want £100 to send it!!! Total £449.

 

Melksham Satellites do it for £399 but their postage only £39. Total £438.

 

Maxview charge £419.99 but only send to UK.

 

Anyone out there have any ideas of other suppliers I could try?

 

 

[Mel E]

The same kit is sold in Germany and very similar kit is sold by Alden in France. You will need to use the Internet to find a supplier, though.

 

Another alternative is to appeal for anyone making the trip to Spain for the Jan-March period so popular that all the camp sites are full!!

[Guest peter]

Why not look at Kathrein. Lovely piece of kit with flat dish. It's German so you might be able to get it more local. It's what I've got and am well pleased, great quality. (well it's not British so it must be)

[Pat]

Towsure ell them for £345.50p page 139 in their book.

 

Regards Pat

[Bill Ord]

I too had a Katrein 50cm and though it was fine before the transfer of BBC and some other channels to Astra 2 with its narrow focus on the UK after this change it became difficult in bad weather conditions to get a signal in eastern France and impossible to get BBC south and east of a line Lyon Bordeaux the 66cm Maxview I have seen working on the Cote d'Azur when my Katrein would not recieve BBC but would receive ITV, Channel 4 etc. I now use a 85 cm Oyster; a revelation but not a lot different in performance from the 66cm Maxview

Bill Ord

[JohnP]

The Maxview Crankup tend to be sent direct from Maxview to the customer regardless of where you order from in the UK. I suppose this saves the dealer having a lot of units in stock. Melksham was the cheapest when I ordered a few months ago.

 

A good piece of kit and I have found mine much easier to set up than the Katerine I owned previously.

[derek500]

Thanks for all your input.

 

Best deal so far LCS Autosat £339.99 + £38.02 P&P to Spain. (£378.01)

 

Best German deal (they call it 'Omnisat Twister) 558€ inc P&P (£375.90) from Yatego - but they don't take CCs, so need to do a bank transfer which'll cost a few quid.

 

Still waiting for shipping costs from Towsure who charge £345.50 for the unit.

 

It certainly pays to shop around.

 

 

 

 

[andysav]

Been thinking of having one of these dishes aswell, but having spoken to a few owners on sites, they complain of being awkward to set up and lock onto a satellite. Presently am using a multimo dish, sometimes tunes in straight away, other times takes alot of tweaking etc., has anybody else found this? Also dont look very easily transferred if you change van, or is it not posible?

[Randonneur]

We have a Teleco Voyager 65cm manual crank up dish on our van (on when we bought a few weeks ago). After the initial hiccups of not knowing how to use it and being shown by a very kind fellow motorhomer this is working brilliantly. There are various sizes available here in France and I am sure the same system can be had in Spain.

[derek500]

Also dont look very easily transferred if you change van, or is it not posible?

 

It either sticks or screws or both to the roof, so I am not expecting it to be transferable.

 

One thing, before I order, is that there seems to be no adjustment for skew.

 

As the roof on my MH has a slight slope back to front, will this be a problem if I am parked side on to the line of site to the satellite?

[Guest starspirit]

Does anyone have any experience of the Multimo satelite systems available from Easy Vision (www.easy-vision.co.uk)?

Priced from £245 they seem like good value - but not if they don't work too well in difficult areas like Southern Spain.

I can only imagine what fun trying to tune an outside free standing satelite dish would be which, added to the need to bring it in at bedtime makes a fully fitted roof mounted dish system sound like the best solution even if you can't take it off when you sell the van.

 

Thanks

[derek500]

Does anyone have any experience of the Multimo satelite systems available from Easy Vision(www.easy-vision.co.uk)?

Priced from £245 they seem like good value - but not if they don't work too well in difficult areas like Southern Spain.

I can only imagine what fun trying to tune an outside free standing satelite dish would be which, added to the need to bring it in at bedtime makes a fully fitted roof mounted dish system sound like the best solution even if you can't take it off when you sell the van.

 

Thanks

 

I think that one is a free standing dish that you just put out when you need it. It is not controlled from within the MH.

 

The Omnisat 66, is the only 'fitted' model they do, but you can get it a lot less than £419 at other dealers.

[JohnP]

One thing that can make setting up difficult is that a compass has to be used to set the direction of the aerial. Compasses can give a false reading if they are near to a mass of metal. It took a while for me to realise this. Once a neutral place (not giving an artificial compass swing) is found in the van the setting up is easy.

[Basil]

Derek 500,

 

I was going to fit one of these and was advised against, by the retailer, for the reasons you give i.e. our roof slopes front to back. It apparently makes it very difficult to set up on site as the angle of the dish varies as you rotate it, so the angle showing on the readout inside is not accurate. That is what I was advised anyway if someone else can say that this is definately not so, as it sounds feasable to me, I may reconsider but I don't want to lay out that kind of money only to be disatisfied with it.

 

Bas

[colin]

starspirit - 2007-01-07 12:22 PM

 

I can only imagine what fun trying to tune an outside free standing satelite dish would be which, added to the need to bring it in at bedtime makes a fully fitted roof mounted dish system sound like the best solution even if you can't take it off when you sell the van.

 

Thanks

 

Thats when its easier to use a 'satfinder meter', had to realign dish at home last weekend, dish to tv around 60yds, did it with meter no problems.

[Guest starspirit]

I have a satfinder meter and a compass, but it seems to me that a free standing floor or ground based dish is prone to being knocked or wind blown slightly off target whereas a roof mounted one should remain still and we ought to be able to compensate for a sloping roof by adjustment as the dish must rotate in both horizontal and vertical planes to be able to locate any satelites? Or am I missing something here?

The roof one won't get nicked if you leave it out but it does tell every scumbag that you have expensive kit on board and you can't easily take it off when you sell the van - unless you can replace it with an old Omnimax maybe?

[colin]

If the mount is square to a sloping roof then in certain directions the dish and lnb will be 'skewed' to satellite, this may comprimise reception. Have not looked at the mount but two answers spring to mind.

1 if a pole mount some have a ball arangement throu roof, this allows you to adjust pole to verticle. I remember seeing this type but can't remember name.

2 fit a wedge or similair to create a horzontal fixing plane.

[Guest starspirit]

I know I can be a bit thick - BUT - as I see it a sloping roof (even a compound slope) is only sloping on the horizontal plane. This in turn makes the dish slope on the vertical plane.

If both planes are infinitely adjustable on the dish why is there a problem?

What am I missing - apart from a few grey cells?

[colin]

When the dish is at right angle to slope it is leant over, you will be able to point dish ( may be a bit more difficult ) but LNB will be 'skewed' this may affect recieved signal dependant on amount of slope and signal strenght. If you did not know LNB switches horozontal/verticle usualy at ajacent frequencies, this switching should be true hor/vert on a satellite due south as you swing away from south the LNB is skewed to suit, usualy it is small amount and has no great effect, but sometimes it can be, so a dish at angle might work worse in some situations and sometimes better, unless you clamber on top and adjust skew

[Basil]

Thanks Colin,

 

That was what I was told so you have really confirmed my understanding, additionally they said something about the dish not being circular but oval exagerates the problem as well?? I could not see the point of going to the expense of buying one of them only to have to, even on occasions, clamber on the roof to line it up I have to do that anyway with the one I 'sucker' on to the roof so there is no advantage unfortunately.

An earlier post was saying about stability of a floor mounted dish not being as good as a fixed dish, a freind who has a fixed dish recons that just moving about in the van to make a cuppa can be enough to knock his off the satellite track and that it can be unusable at all in high winds. Does anyone else find this, only as it will lighten the disappointment of not getting one myself!! ;-) ;-)

[derek500]

It arrived yesterday, (thanks Chris at LCS Autosat) and today I installed it. Not a too difficult job, apart from the nervousness of drilling two holes in the roof, one of them 32mm!!

 

First I set it up using my FTA Lidl box, which has a built in sat finder. Found Sky News straight away,well impressed. Apart from a few news channels and shopping channels that's about all I can get here in Valencia (we have a 1.9m dish in the garden for BBC/ITV etc.).

 

I then swapped the box for a Sky Digibox, changed the default transponder to a south beam and got a signal with just a bit of twiddling.

 

Regarding my worry of having a roof that slopes back to front, I needn't have worried. Astra 2 is side on to where the van is parked and everything works fine.

 

Out of interest, if you are out of range for BBC/ITV etc, BBC Parliament on 504 is on the south beam, and if you press the red button you can get BBCi which includes a picture-in-picture version of News 24 as well as interactive teletext.

 

Would recommend this dish to anyone.

 

Derek