Just back from a week at Camping le Tedey nr Bordeaux in France where we tried our new Maplin satellite system for the first time - what a shock - it works!
All the pitches on the site are in amongst the pine trees and the dish is only 39cm so I wasn't expecting much tjhis far south but the weather was lousy so with not much else to do I got it out to have a play with it while the wife and kids were playing board games in the kids room (Bailey Pageant Bretagne)
I've never set up a satellite system of any sort before so I had a fairly good read of the instruction book (Well the bits that seemed necessary!)
Set the dish up on the ground with the crescent shaped stand and plugged in the satellite finder that Maplins had sold me as an extra (£10 earphone type) had a guess at where south was from the compass rose on the campsite map and aimed just east of it. Plugged in the earphone and could hear a tone which immediately turned to a wail as I moved the dish - looked in through the van window and we had a picture! Must have found a gap through the tree tops!
Carefully steadied the dish and went inside to check it out - perfect picture quality and quite a few channels but they all seemed to be in German and no BBC or Sky news. Sat down and checked out the instructions and the on screen guide again and finally realised I must be on the wrong satellite - back outside, earphone in and slowly rotated further to the left - sure enough tone dropped away and then picked up again - BBC News on screen! I'd been picking up the Astra 19E satellite and was now on the Astra 28E one.
Fine tuned for the best signal then pushed some pegs in to secure the dish stand and enjoyed free TV for the rest of the week despite some heavy rain and wind.(Freeview channels)
System cost £79 (on offer, normally £99) and apparently does everything the normal sized box does in a package about the size of a pack of 20 cigarettes. Plugs directly into the SCART socket on the back of the set so took up no shelf space and can be left in the drawer of the van with the remote control when not in use. It comes with a mains adapter and a cigar lighter socket lead as well as it runs on 12v.
Verdict Excellent piece of kit!
Problems: Very awkward removing the in line audio satellite finder without disturbing the dish - it's connected via 'F' connectors into the coax which have to be screwed together. I cut my coax cable and positioned the finder about 6" from the dish end - once tuned in the finder is removed and the coax connected directly to the dish (LNB)All difficult to do without moving anything. Apparently a push fit adapter can be used with the F connector so need to pick one up next time in Maplins. (maybe sounds more complicated than it is!)
The other part of our package is a Technika 15.6" HD ready LCD TV with built in Freeview and DVD which also proved to be an excellent buy (£110 Tesco Direct On line) Very attractive set - great picture - sound seemed OK.
Only (slight) down side was viewing angle seemed more restricted on darker pictures in certain light conditions. This was only a problem when all 5 of us tried to view from diferent angles and elevations. Very minor issue especially as couldn't find anything anywhere near this price and specification even on eBay.
An unexpected bonus was the discovery on taking it out of the box that it too runs on 12v. Specification only lists it as 230v.
All the pitches on the site are in amongst the pine trees and the dish is only 39cm so I wasn't expecting much tjhis far south but the weather was lousy so with not much else to do I got it out to have a play with it while the wife and kids were playing board games in the kids room (Bailey Pageant Bretagne)
I've never set up a satellite system of any sort before so I had a fairly good read of the instruction book (Well the bits that seemed necessary!)
Set the dish up on the ground with the crescent shaped stand and plugged in the satellite finder that Maplins had sold me as an extra (£10 earphone type) had a guess at where south was from the compass rose on the campsite map and aimed just east of it. Plugged in the earphone and could hear a tone which immediately turned to a wail as I moved the dish - looked in through the van window and we had a picture! Must have found a gap through the tree tops!
Carefully steadied the dish and went inside to check it out - perfect picture quality and quite a few channels but they all seemed to be in German and no BBC or Sky news. Sat down and checked out the instructions and the on screen guide again and finally realised I must be on the wrong satellite - back outside, earphone in and slowly rotated further to the left - sure enough tone dropped away and then picked up again - BBC News on screen! I'd been picking up the Astra 19E satellite and was now on the Astra 28E one.
Fine tuned for the best signal then pushed some pegs in to secure the dish stand and enjoyed free TV for the rest of the week despite some heavy rain and wind.(Freeview channels)
System cost £79 (on offer, normally £99) and apparently does everything the normal sized box does in a package about the size of a pack of 20 cigarettes. Plugs directly into the SCART socket on the back of the set so took up no shelf space and can be left in the drawer of the van with the remote control when not in use. It comes with a mains adapter and a cigar lighter socket lead as well as it runs on 12v.
Verdict Excellent piece of kit!
Problems: Very awkward removing the in line audio satellite finder without disturbing the dish - it's connected via 'F' connectors into the coax which have to be screwed together. I cut my coax cable and positioned the finder about 6" from the dish end - once tuned in the finder is removed and the coax connected directly to the dish (LNB)All difficult to do without moving anything. Apparently a push fit adapter can be used with the F connector so need to pick one up next time in Maplins. (maybe sounds more complicated than it is!)
The other part of our package is a Technika 15.6" HD ready LCD TV with built in Freeview and DVD which also proved to be an excellent buy (£110 Tesco Direct On line) Very attractive set - great picture - sound seemed OK.
Only (slight) down side was viewing angle seemed more restricted on darker pictures in certain light conditions. This was only a problem when all 5 of us tried to view from diferent angles and elevations. Very minor issue especially as couldn't find anything anywhere near this price and specification even on eBay.
An unexpected bonus was the discovery on taking it out of the box that it too runs on 12v. Specification only lists it as 230v.
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