Tracvision R4 sat dome

[Guest JudgeMental]

any one any experience with this roof dome?

 

it is American and available here from a company called PHLY. and conrad anderson also supply it (they have dropped the camos dome for the tracvision) but without additional software/hardware that PHLY claim extends the reception area....

 

http://www.phly.co.uk/

 

the price is good compared to others and they claim it works in southern spain etc..

[Puzzled]

Just after reading PHY "test" of their tracvision system with its "clever box of electronics". I have a Camos inmotion System and have had KVH in the past. I find with the Camos dish & receiver passing under a bridge on motorways signal loss is barley noticable. I have received BBC & ITV in Northern Spain out near Santander and also over inSwitzerland near Lucerne and down as far as Milan.

[Guest JudgeMental]

Puzzled - 2007-09-28 2:19 PM

 

Just after reading PHY "test" of their tracvision system with its "clever box of electronics". I have a Camos inmotion System and have had KVH in the past. I find with the Camos dish & receiver passing under a bridge on motorways signal loss is barley noticable. I have received BBC & ITV in Northern Spain out near Santander and also over inSwitzerland near Lucerne and down as far as Milan.

 

hi pet, are you saying the reception is worse with the R4 and why did you change?

 

they do say that size matters when it comes to satellite dish reception. and have seen domes criticized in the past - I think because they are limited in the angle they can attain? Just wondering if PHY claims are true....

 

Google'd KVH and dishes in the US are a staggering £500!

[Frankkia]

Hi Eddie

 

Phly Audio are a good team. (They fitted our alarm).

 

The problem with dome dishes are that in more northern latitudes they can not depress low enough so northern Scotland Norway etc could see a problem. Also the dish within the dome is constricted by the size of the dome ( in the case of the Camos 30 or max 40cm dish). There fore at the edge of the footprint they have more difficulty than a larger dish (Oyster 85cm for example).

 

Sky (Astra 28deg) has 3 footprints for the Northern, Southern or UK beams so abroad there are many places where you are at the edge of 1 footprint or another.

[Guest JudgeMental]

there is a bit of a ding dong going on over on MHF between PHLY and other sat companies at the moment *-)

 

this system appeals, on price (£1500 for complete system) and I like the enclosed dish - as less to worry about. if only there claims are true and it performs as well as bigger dishes.

 

But perceived wisdom seems to say on edge of footprint you need a bigger dish to capture a signal. So if their " box of tricks" is an amplifier? to quote Bernie "If the signal is not being received because the dish is too small it doesn't really matter how much you amplify it you still won't get a picture (remember twice nothing is still nothing)."

 

 

will have to wait and see if anyone reports back that actually has one.

 

how do you pick up arab sat as I understand they have good US programs and films. are they still broadcast within the same footprint of astra? or is it completely different. eg can you pick it up south of Spain and Italy?

[colin]

As you say they claim it works in south of spain, but its a question of what works, certainly not BBC or ITV and from next year C4 when it goes fta. Clever box of tricks, yes it needs that to lock on satellite, they won't do anything to boost signal except if they get a better lock. Internet access, they conviently miss out the bit about having to connect by phone.

It may well be quite a good product for the price, but the spin put on the salesmanship makes me start questioning the whole thing

[colin]

JudgeMental - 2007-09-29 12:04 PM

how do you pick up arab sat as I understand they have good US programs and films. are they still broadcast within the same footprint of astra? or is it completely different. eg can you pick it up south of Spain and Italy?

There is arabsat the satellite which I believe at moment has very little on it, or arabsat the broadcaster which has these http://www.lyngsat.com/badr.html

The sat maps are here click on badr3 or badr4 http://www.lyngsat-maps.com/europe.html

If you look down r/h side you will see dish sizes recomended for signal strenght

 

[Frankkia]

Arabsat is situated just next to and slightly above Astra 2 (Sky). The footprint like Sky is not just one are but 3 beams. Some of it can be received in the UK. With a dish of around 85cm you can get it easily up to the midlands. The best programmes are on the MBC bouquet but that runs out about half way up France with an 85.

 

In Southern Spain and Portugal all of the progs on Arabsat (BADR) can be seen and I recommend MBC2, 4 and MBC Action. Also Bahrain55 and Sport. Also Dubai 1.

 

To get Arabsat you need to Have a receiver capable of tuning to the channels (a sky box is possible but not easy but other FTA receivers are available). Once you have the equipment elevate your dish by 2deg and turn it south 2deg from the Astra position. Now using the frequency, polarity and SID and FEC info from the Lyngsat link above get your receiver to search the frequencies for the programmes you want to watch. Sounds complicated but once you have done it once it is easy. Your Sky box will then have the stations listed in "other channels" which you can find by pressing the "services button".

 

Eddie when you have all your kit PM me and I will send you full instructions on how to do it.

[Thai Bry]

Frankkia / Colin - Help & advice please.

Just back from a 3 week tour of Germany - well we've been back only 3 weeks!!

Our new Oyster vision 2 worked really well even in deepest Bavaria. Also even with trees in the way.

 However, every now & again after we settled down from a days touring, the dish would find Astra 2 very quickly - BUT on going through our favourite channels we often did not get BBC1/ITV and some other channels..

But after I shut down the Oyster dish & then restarted the auto set up it would find Astra2 again. Then upon viewing the TV, ALL channels where available.

Any advice please. Also enclosed a photo of trees being in the way but still got ALL channels.

Hope you can help

Thai

[Guest JudgeMental]

 

Nice van Thai, lovely colour

[Thai Bry]

Judgemental

Ta for your comments

Thai

[colin]

Brian, I'm not sure why it would do this unless it was aligning slightly differently, BBC and ITV would be a bit more difficult to pick up in germany. As for picking up throu trees, are you sure, foliage is a very effective block for satellite signals, remember for astra2 in germany dish is 'looking' up around 30deg, this is not where it is pointing, i.e. on your photo it apears to be 'looking' at trees, wrong, where it is actually 'looking' is out of sight in photo, to see where it is 'looking' take a line from LNB to middle of dish and imagine that reflecting off as a mirror would, that is where it is 'looking'. As an example of how effectively trees block signal, I have a 1.2m dish, if I point it to a satellite close to my silver birch in summer I get a signal of around 65%, if the wind blows branchs signal drops below 37% which is the minimum threshold for my reciever to work

[Thai Bry]

Colin

Here it is from another angle. We were getting all channels, but as stated before sometimes straight away, and on other occasions we had to close the dish down and restart the auto set up.Sometimes more than once.

Now I'm confused!!Hope you can still help.

Thai

[michele]

Thai ,

Nice van lovely colour . We were having the same problems and this is when we ended up taking it to have the patch done back up to Newark.

Bernie very kindly told us how to do it manually . Sorry Thai I dont retain things so easy its this dyslexia I get it all in a fuddle . Anyway it now all works all the time .

I hope you get it sorted. ;-)

[colin]

I obviously didn't make a good job of explaining that, I'll try again, but must say this is my best guess as I'm not that familier with Oyster system.

On Astra2 some stations are on a widebeam and are easily picked up across a lot of europe, others such as BBC and ITV are on a narrow beam more focused on UK, i'm guessing when the system is locking on to signal it may not always be exactly 100% spot on, in this case you would struggle to pick up BBC or ITV as you move away from UK, but the other stations would work fine, how does it work in UK, I bet it works every time?

I think you will have been close to limit of reception of BBC, so would be good to get feed back from others who have been to area.

[Frankkia]

Once past the middle of Germany (west to East) you are on the edge of the Aatra2D signal. Thats the sat that BBC and ITV are on. AS you are on the edge the signal is weak for those channels whereas Sky News is quite strong.

 

When the Oyster searches for the Sat it looks for the strong signal on the default transponder which may be slightly to the right of Astra 2D. Note Astra is not just one satellite but a group of satellites co located between 28.2 and 28.5 degrees east of the greenwich meridian above the equator. When you do a second search it is possible the dish has centred itself in the middle of the satellites.

 

When travelling East it is a good idea to adjust the LNB slightly. For the UK the cable on the LNB should be slightly past the 6 o'clock but for the middle to east of Germany it would be better to have it just before the 6 o'clock. This change alters the "skew" (the angle at which you are pointing at the satellite) and brings the horizontal and vertical signals into alignment.

 

The same applies if you move west, so say if you were in Lisbon you would alter the skew to 7 o'clock.

[Thai Bry]

Colin / Frankkia

Many thanks for your invaluable input.

I working on the principle that all is OK with the system and it's something I'm going to have to live with.

Yes Colin, in the UK it works perfick every time.

The Oyster vision2 system just puts the dish up into auto search mode and then looks for the Astra 2 signal. There is no way of adjusting the skew or putting it into manual search mode. I've had this confirmed by the 2 Bill's @ Transleisure and other Oyster fitters. I think it's a case of waiting to see what the latest firmware upgrade is available from Tenhaft.

Many thanks once again to all you experts.

Thai

[Frankkia]

Hiya Thai

 

You alter the skew by undoing the two screws on the clamp of the LNB (just a half to threequarter turn will do) then manually move the LNB. The more expensive Oyster will do it automatically but it is not worth the extra.

[Guest JudgeMental]

 

Bernie wrote: "To get Arabsat you need to Have a receiver capable of tuning to the channels"

 

So which make receiver are we talking about?

 

and do they have memory function so that other sats can be selected at the press of a button?

 

As this is all looking very complicated..... *-)

[Frankkia]

Any FTA receiver such as the Porty 12v that Lidls do now and again is capable of getting Arabsat. "Dedicated" receivers like the SKY box can get most of Arabsat but you have to tune in each frequency separately. The Sky box also has a habit of occasionaly forgetting all the "Other channels" you have tuned in so you have to do it all again.

 

The FTA boxes and those with other CAM slots (card slots ) than Sky can automatically search all channels on a Sat and then retain them in memory.

 

The best thing to do is get your system up and running 1st and practice with getting sky then once you are proficient have a go at getting other satellites. Remember that most of the other sats are broadcasting in foreign languages and some of the programming leaves a lot to be desired. We complain at some of the rubbish served to us on UK tv but you should see some of the cr*p served up abroad. Arabsat is an exception but it is better to try and get it whilst on the continent. As I said before it is possible to get some of it with an Oyster as far up as the UK midlands but that is only Bahrain tv and Bahrain 55 the better MBC channels are lost about half way up France.

[Guest JudgeMental]

Bernie, The "porty 12v from lidll" is this the same box as the Maplin " comag" ?

 

Maplin have quite a selection if you have time would you mind having a look and commenting on which you think is best?

 

I would prefer one that can be programmed once with all sat positions (if possible) then selected when away at a press of a button.

 

In the meantime, my sisters back so will get sky box next week and have a play with that to get to grip with basics....

 

 

http://www.maplin.co.uk/searchtemplate.asp?criteria=SATELLITE%20RECEIVER

 

 

[Frankkia]

Hi Judge

 

The Lidl box is like this one http://www.maplin.co.uk/Module.aspx?TabID=1&DOY=search&ModuleNo=48737&criteria= It has all the sat name and frequencies in it so when you go on to the appropriate satellite it can update the broadcasters on those frequs.

 

It is not the press of a button though as you still have to find the satellite for the prog you want to watch. If you want to do it at the touch of a button you will have to part with rather a lot of dough for a top of the range Oyster.