Caravan TV Aerial

[Luke_374367817]

Hi,

We are away at present for our first outing in the caravan.

The aerial mounted to the van is a round one and cannot get freeview at all. It picks up some channels, but won't display them properly if at all.

A lot of people on the site have external pole mounted aerials. Where's the best play to one of these from (cheapest?)?

Your comments would be appreciated.

 

[Damian]

B&Q, High Gain aerial and pole, plus coax cable and connectors.

 

[LMH]

Hi Luke

As we have a status ariel (round ariel on top of van) and we also have a high grain ariel with deflectors, it all depends on the signal. If you are surrounded by mountains or trees, that can affect a signal.

Using the status, if we are in a good reception area, the picture and free view is perfect. Ditto using the convential ariel. However, if the signal is poor, I'm afraid you won't get a decent signal at all. Unless of course, you can put your high grain ariel on a pole 40 foot up in the air, that might make it slightly better.

Lisa

 

[Paul_374370244]

I remember going through this a couple of years ago when we first bought our caravan. I thought surely they must work - otherwise they wouldn't be fitted to almost every caravan would they? Well I'm sorry to have to say that they are totally rubbish (as the number of external aerials seen on caravans suggests)

Try this link: http://www.practicalcaravan.com/product/jan05.html for some info - it's a bit old but still reasonably valid.

 

[AlanJ]

Hi

Have been through this many times over the years. Now the best answer by far is to get a portable satellite dish and receiver (Lidl, Aldi, Maplin) you will get picture everywhere in UK providing there are no building or trees between dish and satellite of course.

I always have compass in hand when going on site and just check line of sight to Astra Satellite when siting caravan.

All caravan aerials are rubbish (being polite) and that includes the very latest status one fitted as standard on my new caravan.

 

[Tram]

Alan J has the best answer. A portable satellite system. I got mine from Aldi and it works perfectly. You can receive Italian, German and French too if you are learning a language.

 

[Johnh2]

I agree with Alan and Tram. Portable Sat dish. I got mine from Maplins; works great. I was at a site on Anglesey recently. Most of the permanent vans (both statics and permanent tourers)had huge poles (10 metres plus) with normal TV aerials on them. They were blowing about in the wind, despite the owners best efforts. I had a 1.5 metere tripod from Screwfix with my Maplins sat dish bolted on it. Perfect picture. 100% on signal strength and 70% on signal quality.