arzangees Posted June 15, 2007 Share Posted June 15, 2007 Hi, We are to retire end July and hope to spend some winter time in warmer climes. We wonder what satellite dish would be best. Would a stand alone one do or would one fixed to van roof thats automatic be better for novices?( not novices to motor caravanning have been doing that for more years than we'd like to remember!! :-D ) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Frankkia Posted June 15, 2007 Share Posted June 15, 2007 It all depends on the where you are going and how long you stay there. if you are going to change the scenery with any regularity a stand alone one may not be for you as you will be forever erecting it and then finding somewhere to store it on route. Remember that if you are going to spend the winter in warmer climes you will be on the very edge of the footprint and that means that you will require a large dish. For many years I used an 85cm dish with a pole attached to the ladder on the back of the 'van and could actually get on the satellite faster than an Oyster. But now due to advancing laziness have bought an Oyster - I may be faster but it doesn't grumble when being forced to find the satellite in the rain. The down side of any fixed dish is that you may on some pitches not be able to get line of sight because of trees / buildings etc in the way so we also carry a tripod and a spare dish. If you want some info on how to get sat reception at the edge of the footprint, I wrote a piece for motorhometoday which you can find at http://www.motorhometoday.co.uk/index.php?showtopic=95. I hope this helps. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
michele Posted June 15, 2007 Share Posted June 15, 2007 Frankia. For many years I used an 85cm dish with a pole attached to the ladder on the back of the 'van and could actually get on the satellite faster than an Oyster. But now due to advancing laziness have bought an Oyster - I may be faster but it doesn't grumble when being forced to find the satellite in the rain. Brialliant and funny ...Its all true of course and we also have the Oyster and have to say I like all singing and dancing but have been know like frankia said to move or find a pitch that has no tree's other than that and the new Turkish ? Arab station no problems. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Thai Bry Posted June 16, 2007 Share Posted June 16, 2007 arzangees - 2007-06-15 8:55 PM Hi, We are to retire end July and hope to spend some winter time in warmer climes. We wonder what satellite dish would be best. Would a stand alone one do or would one fixed to van roof thats automatic be better for novices?( not novices to motor caravanning have been doing that for more years than we'd like to remember!! :-D ) Hi, and welcome to the forum, we too have the larger Oyster 85 satellite dish, and have found it good.This is the 3rd van that it's been on.Like Michele & Frankkia have said before me, it's O.K. but you must be wary of line of site for trees ect.ect.ect...It also depends where you intend going- touring as even with the larger dish certain areas in the nordic areas - for instance- have poor coverage.Have you looked at the "Domed" satellite systems?Van Bitz are one agent who install these.This may be another option for you, but then again you must be aware of the weight of any dish you put will in a small way eat into your available payload.Hope this helps.Thai Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Frankkia Posted June 16, 2007 Share Posted June 16, 2007 Thai. Don't know if I would go for the dome. They have even worse problems the further north you go as they cant dip low enough and due to to the restrictions of the dome size only have about a 40cm dish so not likely to get much south of Biaritz. Michele Glad you are doing ok with the Oyster. This last winter we watched more Arabsat than Sky - not because the reception was better but the programming certainly was! For those who haven't seen Arabsat MBC2, MBC4 and MBC Action plus Bahrain 55 and Dubai tv show Brit / American movies etc and it's all free! You can get Bahrain and Dubai in the uk but MBC runs out about 2/3 of the way up France. Note Bahrain will be showing a premiership footie match on saturdays from next season. Arab sat broadcast from 26 degrees (right next to Sky) from Astra just move the dish 2 deg south and 2 deg up. For frequency details see www.lyngsat.com. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Clive Posted June 17, 2007 Share Posted June 17, 2007 Maplins latest complete kit is on spercial offer at £69.00! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest caraprof Posted June 17, 2007 Share Posted June 17, 2007 I think that this must be a first on this forum. Someone has posted an enquiry about satellite TV and so far no smart-arse has jumped in with such comments as:"Satellite TV, why do you want TV, I read a good book or look at the scenery."Things are looking up, let's hope it continues! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
derek500 Posted June 18, 2007 Share Posted June 18, 2007 caraprof - 2007-06-18 12:19 AMI think that this must be a first on this forum. Someone has posted an enquiry about satellite TV and so far no smart-arse has jumped in with such comments as:"Satellite TV, why do you want TV, I read a good book or look at the scenery."Things are looking up, let's hope it continues!Very true!! There's also the other sort who say "it's not for me, but 'the wife' must have her soaps". Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Clive Posted June 18, 2007 Share Posted June 18, 2007 Come on Come on Smart Arse here! We don,t have satellite at home or in the motorhome, but are thinking about it for the future so we can watch Corie, Eastenders, Emerdale and The Bill when in Europe. At £69 I might just get one to play with. The DOME I believe is the Camos Dome. D.A. Burleigh did a review on this which is on the Road Pro web site if anyone is interested. SA Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
chigman Posted June 18, 2007 Share Posted June 18, 2007 when I pick my new van up soon sat tv is going to be one of the first up-grades that I put on her.With three kids on board I just dont have a choice,and besides,I like me toys. :-D Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
enodreven Posted June 20, 2007 Share Posted June 20, 2007 Hi, We have one of the Lidls suitcase systems with a dish approximately 300mm and we use this with a Sky box and a free to air card, this dish size worked fine down to Just below "Tours" and we did pick up some stations down as far as Poitiers. We changed at Poitiers to our 620mm dish which we can either mount on a pole attached to our rear ladder or it has its own tripod this worked fine down to Benidorm on the El raco campsite, but any further down the signal was no good even at Benidorm the signal wasn't very good if there were any clouds or rain etc we lost the signal, At Calahonda which is approximately 15 miles from Marbella we had to use our friends 1.3 metre dish with a dual LNB but the signal from this was not perfect ? if the weather was poor, So it would seem to me that you really need to have a idea of where you expect to spend most of your time before you can decide on what dish size you will need. I don't think I would go for one of the fixed systems as even attaching it to the rear ladder I had problems with trees etc, the most handy was the small Lidls dish that had suckers that i could reach out of the large Heki and stick it on the roof in a position that gave me a clear line of sight, and the close second was using the tripod albeit they can be stolen Hope this helps Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
evans88 Posted June 21, 2007 Share Posted June 21, 2007 What channels can you receive on the Lidl systems for £69.99. How far south will these systems with the supplied small dish work in Europe. Would I be able to receive anything in English in the Barcelona area? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
derek500 Posted June 21, 2007 Share Posted June 21, 2007 evans88 - 2007-06-21 8:07 PM What channels can you receive on the Lidl systems for £69.99. How far south will these systems with the supplied small dish work in Europe. Would I be able to receive anything in English in the Barcelona area? All of southern Europe you'll get Free To Air channels in English like Sky News, BBC World, CNN, CNBC, France 24, on Astra 28.2º E (south beam) Astra 19.2º E, Hotbird 13º E (very appropriate name!!). If you've got trees in the way, you can swing your dish round and pick up lots of English speaking stuff on Hispasat at 30º W. You can check all the channels and sats here:- http://www.lyngsat.com/index.html My Maxview Crankup dish (66cm)is larger than the Lidl suitcase one, but in April we got all UK 'terrestrial' channels OK in Barcelona and as far down as Vinarós (Castellón). Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
caradoc Posted June 22, 2007 Share Posted June 22, 2007 Back again after a long absence, traumatised as we have been by a highly unpleasant dealer / manufacturer exercise recently when we swopped our Autosleeper Ravenna and traded up at great expense to an Adria Vision. More about this later in a different place / posting, but for now.....back to satellite systems. We have a Camos Dome system, which I must say, once we eventually fathomed it out, is really good - just like any sat system though, line of sight is essential, trees block the signal, and bad weather kills it.... It adds a fairly large "pimple" to your roof, and a hefty chunk of payload no doubt, and is a hefty price compared to Lidl's suitcase offering. I have one of them and could never really get it functioning properly, but then I could never get the Status 530/5 aerial to work either..... Even now, I carry a 10m coax cable just in case the sat signal is blocked / poor etc and an aerial booster possibly available. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
kevandali Posted July 19, 2007 Share Posted July 19, 2007 Hi All In another thread, someone was talking about roll up chairs from a website and I found this dish on the same site. http://www.worldofcamping.co.uk/shop/Detail.asp?ProductID=387 Has anyone come across this or used it? At the moment I have one of those push up aerials fitted into the wardrobe. Not even got a telly yet *-) Would it be practical to attatch this dish through the same hole add a 12v receiver and a telly and voila away I go??? Or would that be far to eary a way to do it?? Any help much appreciated kevandali Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
John S Posted July 19, 2007 Share Posted July 19, 2007 I bought one of the £69 kits from Maplin about a month ago then promptly went abroad for 3 weeks as I hadn't time to learn how to use it before I left home. Now I am back I am still no further forward having had a couple of attempts to set it up. It would be encouraging to hear that someone has successfully got one working. I'll keep plugging away in the meantime - it's just that the satellite finder they sold me (they admitted that the one supplied with the kit wasn't very good) doesn't seem to register a reading as it is supposed to. John S Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Frankkia Posted July 19, 2007 Share Posted July 19, 2007 We have an Oyster but also carry the same kit as the Maplins suitcase system in case we park somewhere where the Oyster can not see Astra. Using a signal switch we have bothe a 12v Pace "Sky" receiver and the 12v free to air attached and can switch between them for using other satelites like Arab sat, Astra 1 etc. I have used the small dish several times and had no problem getting a signal but it depends on where you are. Don't expect to get all of the Astra 2 channels further than half way down France. You will lose BBc and ITV channels quickly. The other dish is OK as far as it goes but like many dishes with the LNB on the back it can have difficulty when you go a long way south and West. As you move away from the Greenwich meridian and further South you are "skewed" to the horizontal and vertical signals from the satelite which is ponting those signals at mid to northern Europe. When this happens you need to be able to adjust the LNB to take into account the skew. (so that it is receiving the signals H or V and not at some other angle). For most of Northern Europe to half way across Germany and to the West of France there should be no problem but Spain and portugal you need to make the adjustment to get the best signal possible. For 10 years we carried an 85cm cheap dish (£25) which we attached to a pole on the back of the 'van and got signals almost everywhere so you don't have to spend a fortune. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Brian G. Posted July 19, 2007 Share Posted July 19, 2007 Hi John I had problems with mine to begin with, nearly took it back. But then I found http://www.lyngsat.com/index.html. This site will give you the bearing of the satellite from towns in the UK and I think France ( I have not tried my dish on the continent yet. Anyhow once you have the bearing the elevation is easy to get. Can usually have a picture in under 5 minutes now. Keep trying Brian Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
coach2000 Posted July 19, 2007 Share Posted July 19, 2007 I use a Maplins small dish all the time in France. The compass is not very good I agree and now gets left in the case. I find that if you point the dish south at approx. 26 to 28deg with the dish at 90deg. vertical. Turn the dish thru 20deg each way. If no picture repeat this and tilt the dish up by a deg. or 2 and repeat this till you get a pic. After a bit of practice you can do it in less than 5 mns. Always use the maplin reciever with the audio signal to set up and then change to your sky box if you want to. The only problem I have had my dish is with a strong wind and have to keep resetting the dish. THe furthest in France I have tried to receive Itv and Bbc was Bayonne and it was ok but you have to turn the lnb. Clive. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
tonyishuk Posted July 19, 2007 Share Posted July 19, 2007 Just received a Multimo dish an Pace receiver from Roadpro. I'll let you know how I get on with it. (Slight delay as I forgot to order a mains unit for it) Rgds Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Hymer C 9. Posted July 19, 2007 Share Posted July 19, 2007 We got our Oyster for the simple reason its stuck to the top of the van and you done have to carry it in or out / move it around just try to miss the trees when you park up. Carol. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ralph Posted July 20, 2007 Share Posted July 20, 2007 Just to keep Frank happy "Satellite TV, why do you want TV, I read a good book or look at the scenery :-D :-D Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
g4oip Posted July 20, 2007 Share Posted July 20, 2007 I am going through the same deliberations and I am probably going for a top mounted folding dish but operated by strongarm method using chart of direction/angle given and using my satfinder.All the benifits of auto system except you have the satisfaction of diy. Alec Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest caraprof Posted July 20, 2007 Share Posted July 20, 2007 Ralph - 2007-07-20 11:07 AM Just to keep Frank happy "Satellite TV, why do you want TV, I read a good book or look at the scenery :-D :-D Quite right. I wish that I could read properly so that I didn't have to spend money on satellite T.V.Just to add my experience. I thought carefully about the type of dish that I wanted and decided not to go for the fully automatic type. It wasn't so much the cost but I was more bothered about the complexity. It's usually a long way to go to the installer if anything goes wrong.I opted for the halfway solution, which is a Maxview Omnisat semi-auto system. The dish rises by 12v power when you press a button on a little box in my wardrobe. The elevation is marked in degrees on an LED display and you soon get to know the optimum angles, in fact there's a chart on the inside of the wardrobe door, which gives you the best angles for all parts of Europe.All you then have to do is find south using a cheap compass and slowly turn the dish around by hand, using the pole that protrudes down into the wardrobe. There a cute little box which shows you the signal and a quick glance at the Sky setup screen on your TV tells you if it's the correct satellite.I've never failed to find the satellite in a couple of minutes and it's brilliant being able to keep up with all the news.As Ralph knows, I would never watch trashy entertainments programmes and when I've watched the news I go back to studying the Bible or reading Proust!Just one tip. A chap next to me in the Black Forest told me that he was going to move his caravan because his signal had disappeared overnight. It was perfect one day and gone the next. I advised him to switch off his digibox, switch it on again after a minute and try again.Bingo! Full service resumed! Digiboxes are like computers, sometimes they lock up and need rebooting.Ps Just in case anyone thinks that I haven't got a life again, I'm sitting here waiting for my new electric bike to be delivered. I should be playing golf this morning but I can't wait to try my new toy! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dave Newell Posted July 20, 2007 Share Posted July 20, 2007 Not wishing to pee on your bonfire Frank but I've fitted a couple of these dishes in the past and had one fail in the up position. When we stripped it down the gearbox had collapsed and I have to say I wasn't terribly impressed with the quality of manufacturing inside it. I hope yours gives you plenty of good service but my preference would be for the manual crank up dish as its better made. D. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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