ADVICE PLEASE ON AN EASY TO TUNE PORTABLE SATELLITE DISH?

[williamsontour]

Hello,

We're new to caravaning but are already fed up with problems in tuning the current TV aerial after 3 trips out. As we already have a freesat tuner we're looking at investing in a portable satellite aerial that is extremely easy to tune in.

Any advice would be appreciated

Thanks

 

[TonyG]

Hi William
we use one of these, fantastic peice of kit, point anywhere between south and east and press a button..

 

[ianb1]

I bought a dish, LNB, tripod along with cable from ebay, the whole lot cost £50 and I have been using it for over 2 years without a problem (The seller is Digitalis Direct). The kit does exactly what it say 'on the tin'
A simple cheap compass will do the trick, point the LNB to South and turn the dish left to the East.
I would highly recommed the following site for more information http://www.satelliteforcaravans.co.uk/skymain.htm#bbc
I hope this is of some help.

 

[JTQ]

I cant understand the issue some quite clearly have with setting up a satellite dish. I think it's normally an easy task if approached systematically rather that aimlessly [pun intended] moving it about.
The difficulty, if I have it, is finding a sight line through the vegetation, as the fundamental is the dish must 'see' the satellite. Here fixing it to say the jockey wheel screws your options as it is harder to move a fixed dish around a pitch to get that sight line than move a portable one.

I use a small ground hugging dish with its own built in tripod.

http://shop.satelliteonline.co.uk/fast-finder-portable-satellite-dish-kit-330-p.asp

An asset this brings is you can hold it just off the ground, with one hand and turn it till its 'right' before planting it down. You might then need to refine the elevation and alignment but only by fine amounts.

My technique is to use a compass and lay a thin cane* on the ground at an azimuth of 140 to 145 degs. Compass put away then with the cabling set up, 'finder' in place and box powered hover dish over the cane and if things don't immediately burst into life slightly move the dish a fraction further to the south [ie towards 150 deg]. In that arc you will fine the right satellite cluster for your UK programs. I had pre set the dish elevation to about 26 deg.
The cheapo 'finders' like mine scream at any healthy satellite signal, not uniquely at the right one. So it does not detect anything more than the strength of the signal, not that it is the right signal. This however is useful in fine tuning the optimum position to leave the dish. My 'finder' is also far to sensitive for that fine tuning, it screams blue murder if its anywhere near right even with it's gain turned down; I want more finesse and for this I have found installing an in line attenuator in the LNB to finder cable a great asset.

http://www.screwfix.com/p/vhf-uhf-6db-in-line-satellite-attenuator/24426?cm_mmc=Google-_-Datafeed-_-Electrical%20and%20Lighting-_-VHF%2fUHF%206dB%

For us Brits the true “Freesat” tuner is a good start as unless you have fiddled with the menu settings you are only going to get it to work with the 'right' satellite cluster. A generic decoder can more easily fool you as it will happily find any number of satellites.

• 
  I use a garden cane as it does not screw up the compass as the dish or any steel will.
  I also borrow and use my veranda pole which is GRP, and often easier to find than my cane.
  
  Edit: for judging that sight line through and over hedges and trees etc a useful rule of thumb is the beam in the southern half of the UK is coming down at approximately one in two . Therefore if you are setting up at a distance more than twice the trees height away the beam will miss that tree.

 

[Martin24]

Come on guys you know what my answer will be!! Take the scrabble board and leave the TV behind

 

[Surfer]

Come on guys you know what my answer will be!! Take the scrabble board and leave the TV behind

Why? Who on earth would want to play scrabble when on holiday? You are supposed to be relaxing not taxing the brain. Any how the OP was asking for advice on a satellite dish and not about scrabble whatever that is!

 

[williamsontour]

Thank you all for your comments and advice. Due to the simplicity of it I'm probably going to go with the AVTEX system but it is a tad pricey.

Cheers

Nick

 

[Martin24]

Scrabble is what a HiLux Surf does on damp grass until a Defender comes along to tow it out.

 

[crazyguider]

we don't take a telly, even the kids don't miss it. We do, however, take Scrabble! and cards, snakes and ladders etc, and have a lovely time talking to each other!

 

[Martin24]

Well done!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Our three are quite happy without it all and enjoy all sorts of games instead. The current favorites are a wordseach game from smiths and something or other to do with shaun the sheep!

 

[Parksy]

Come on guys you know what my answer will be!! Take the scrabble board and leave the TV behind

The OP actually asked for advice on an easy to tune sattelite dish and not for advice on what you think that he and his family should or shouldn't be doing with their own time in their own caravan.
I'm not quite sure why you have begun to tell people that your family don't watch the telly Martin, it's your own business what you do with your time but it's not particularly helpful when you trot this line out every time that a technical tv related question is asked on the forum.

 

[PR]

Before we set off for any site, I download the direction and elevation for the satellite system for the site we are staying on. Then using a compass and a long cane, laid on the ground, pointing in the right direction. I line the satellite up. I make sure I can see the tv through the caravan window, so that I can see the strength etc. Then just a few, very small adjustments sorts it out. Never taken us more than ten mins to set up on any site. And we only have the cheap Aldi system!

Hope that helps.

 

[Sproket]

Hello,

We're new to caravaning but are already fed up with problems in tuning the current TV aerial after 3 trips out. As we already have a freesat tuner we're looking at investing in a portable satellite aerial that is extremely easy to tune in.

Any advice would be appreciated

Thanks

Have a look at this Easyfind satellite system .........

 

[SirRogerFFS]

Here we go its that time of year again satellite system. I think its Sunday Aldi will have them in at £59.99 now if you want to go down this route Im sure Parksey has Sir Rogers easy set up guide and once you have set the system up the second time becomes easier I always say around ten minutes to set up thats putting the dish on tripod feeding the cable in and connecting up to power. I hope this helps if you have a problem Parksey can give you email adress and I will help
Sir Roger

 

[Parksy]

Im sure Parksey has Sir Rogers easy set up guide and once you have set the system up the second time becomes easier I always say around ten minutes to set up thats putting the dish on tripod feeding the cable in and connecting up to power. I hope this helps if you have a problem Parksey can give you email adress and I will help
Sir Roger

I saved your set up guide at the time Sir Rog, unfortunately the link that I have no longer works because it's to the old forum but you wrote:
'If you have the Maplin set up then it is easy.
Fist tip tho make sure you put the wing nut in that secures the dish.(lesson learnt )point dish south ,compass on the back of dish is good guide line
Right now you have done that set the arm to near enough vertical.
Set TV to AV channel switch on Sat receiver and press info button (SAt hand set )followed by button 1 you should have a humming noise from your TV gently move you dish one way or the other until you get the tuning bars on screen into the higher figuresw of say 70 the top and in the 60 on the bottom scale and listen the hum from tv change from a humming to high pitched whistle , the clearer the and louder the whistle the better your picture , now secure it all .
Good luck and have fun chaneels come down in no particular order.
Mark if you have any youngsters around while you are searching some adult sites will be seen '

Now that I've re-posted it I can save the new link for future reference

 

[Sproket]

Here we go its that time of year again satellite system. I think its Sunday Aldi will have them in at £59.99 now if you want to go down this route Im sure Parksey has Sir Rogers easy set up guide and once you have set the system up the second time becomes easier I always say around ten minutes to set up thats putting the dish on tripod feeding the cable in and connecting up to power. I hope this helps if you have a problem Parksey can give you email adress and I will help
Sir Roger

Should have looked at my e-mails earlier

Portable satellite from ALDI on the 13th May

 

[SirRogerFFS]

The Aldi satellite system is just as easy to set up as the Maplin one.I set up several last year for caravanners on site.As I have said earlier the first time set up is a bit fiddly but once you have done the set you will be like the rest of us up and running in minutes.
Sir Roger .( Thanks Parksey )