Maplin's Camping Satellite Kit

Chaps · Jan 25, 2009

Thanks for your replies Sir Roger and JTS.

We're a little confused too! We've looked back on previous forum postings regarding aerials and satellite dishes and the general opinion seems to be don't bother with aerials and just go for a dish. We've got a status aerial (think it's a 530 but not sure) and on all bar one of our holidays so far we've had very little watchable TV. Rob gets a bit twitchy when he can't keep up to date with his football news on teletext and kids TV is always a good distraction when the weather isn't so good so we'd like to stand more chance of decent reception.

Where the aerial lead plugs into the caravan aerial wall socket, we have another socket at the side (marked 'SAT') which is the screw type you get on the back of Sky boxes so we're assuming that we'd connect the satellite dish cable there and the TV signal would route itself through the status and back out through the aerial lead into the TV.

It's really hard to experiment where the van is stored at Rob's parents house because we've very close to a TV transmitter so the picture on the drive is just about perfect with the Status anyway.

Really sorry if we sound a bit thick but don't want to get this wrong. Thinking of buying a dish on the internet as they're so much cheaper but this will mean it won't be as easy to return if we get it wrong.

Thanks for any help you can offer.

Cheers, Claire & Rob

Chaps · Jan 25, 2009

Just thought of something else! We could take our Sky digibox on the road with us if this makes things easier. Our son has a standard box in his room that we pay multiroom for and we've got a Sky+ box downstairs so either would be an option

Robtel · Jan 25, 2009

Claire & Rob,

Re multiroom set up and taking one of those boxes. Somewhere in your contract it will state that to qualify for the reduced rate both boxes must be connected to your home phoneline at all times. This is apparently to prevent neighbours getting together and getting cheap SKY. I have multiroom and when my grandson (who lives full time with us) was "re-rganising" his room he disconnected his box from the phone and didn't bother to reconnect. First I knew of this was when a polite but firm letter from SKY arrived reminding me that I needed to have both boxes permanently connected to home phoneline. I don't know if they would bother about it if it was only for a short time and only occasionally. Worth bearing in mind though.

I have a t.v. with freeview but did upgrade to sat dish and digibox. Rather than take one of the home boxes away I got hold of a second hand one and bought a card from SKY. This card cost

Chaps · Jan 25, 2009

Yes thinking about it we had one of those letters from Sky too, Robert. When we had the multiroom installed, there wasn't a phone socket in our son's room and the engineer just left us some telephone wire to sort it out ourselves. We didn't think any more about it until the letter from Sky arrived so we then installed a DIY socket. Think we'd probably be ok taking the box with us as we'd only ever be away for 2 weeks at a time maximum and we could just play dumb (not difficult!). Might only get away with it once though.

Thanks for your suggestions.

robin munro · Jan 25, 2009

Yes thinking about it we had one of those letters from Sky too, Robert. When we had the multiroom installed, there wasn't a phone socket in our son's room and the engineer just left us some telephone wire to sort it out ourselves. We didn't think any more about it until the letter from Sky arrived so we then installed a DIY socket. Think we'd probably be ok taking the box with us as we'd only ever be away for 2 weeks at a time maximum and we could just play dumb (not difficult!). Might only get away with it once though.

Thanks for your suggestions.

worth noting, you are only contractualy obliged to have a phone line connected for the first year of your subscrption.

robin munro · Jan 25, 2009

worth noting, you are only contractualy obliged to have a phone line connected for the first year of your subscrption.

Robtel · Jan 25, 2009

Robin,

Not for multi room you're not. You can only get the reduced subscription cost if you stick to the terms and conditions,otherwise full subscription for both digi boxes.

What you say is correct for single box subscription fees

JTS · Jan 25, 2009

Claire & Rob.

Connecting a cable to your sat socket will get you nothing. As I said before you need a sat receiver with a dish. I have recently kicked Sky into touch and the house and caravan are on FREESAT and we are so pleased with it. No subcription and all freeview programmes plus some others also free HD on BBC and ITV. This is what I would go for if I were you. Check out Argos, you can get a FREESAT box for under fifty quid or more if you would like a HD box. You can also get a 60cm dish and tripod on Ebay for less than

Duggie_374362603 · Jan 25, 2009

claire&rob re sky sat the plug next to your areal is no good you should have sat dish outside van, cable from LNB to whatever de-coder you are using (you can use your Sky plus one from the house)cable goes into No2 inlet then you will need a Scart lead from Decoder to your TV but you willnot get to record anything unless you use a double cable LNB you must have 2 cables going into your Decoder to allow you to record anything (P.S.) remember to take your Sky card with you as they are decoder specific(will not work in any other box)or anyones card will not work in your Decoder

hope this clears up everything

cheers Duggie

JTS · Jan 25, 2009

Claire & Rob.

I forgot to ask you about your digital connecter in your caravan. I can not see why the manufacturer would have put it there, I can only assume that you have a further digital connecter somewhere on the outside of your van. If you have an outdide locker check in there, or the battery box, in fact have a good look all around your van. If you have, this is where you would connect your dish and the inside one is where you would connect your digibox. If you have multiroom from sky at home you must leave your Sky boxes connected at all times, even after 12 months. They are very quick to detect a disconnected box and can impose further charges on you. Also, the alternative to buying a "FREESAT" box you could buy a Sky+ box and receive "Freesat+ from Sky" at

Dustydog · Jan 26, 2009

Woah!!!! That kind of reply from Sophie is one which I would find highly insulting as a member of the forum, and even more so if I were a new member.

Whilst I uderstand that the same questions are asked time and time again, and the more long term users have the answers, we all have to start somewhere and helpful replies are all that are needed.

Yes there is a lot previously written, but the search system is not good, not easy to use and if you do not pick the part of the forum where they are posted you get no results.

In direct reply to John, yes the Maplin and Lidl systems are good value for money and relatively easy to use, once you master finding the satellite!!!

There is a very good work through at the web site satelliteforcaravans, and I also believe that there is a good one somewhere in the forum, but I cannot find it off hand.

Hi Damian

It was acid comments like Sophies' that made me ask the Archives question. I really don't think members on this forum appreciate the problems you guys have with the archives and hence the need for all to be patient and repeat a lot of the items.

Hopefully , one day old Hezza will put his hand in his pocket and improve things.

Cheers

Alan

Bri2 · Jan 26, 2009

Hi John

I also use one of the Maplin setups and have used it quite successfully just stuck in the case sat on a table in the awning.

You just need a clear line of site to the sat i.e no buildings or caravan in the way, so pick your pitch with this in mind and use a compass, simple one in the kit. Also reccomend buying the sat finder from Maplins, approx

SirRogerFFS · Jan 26, 2009

WEll John I dont think this topic got 34 replies first time round.

So I really hope we have been of some help towards your maplins satellite sysytem.

If you still need any help let me know

Regards Sir Roger

bob_374419934 · May 1, 2009

Hi I'm a new comer to the forum and have the same question as John re the Maplins kit. Having looked at all the posts no one says if the kit is Ok for use in Europe? We are planning extended travel to France, Portugal Spain and Switzerland in the next year or so.

we are total newbies so please feel free to advise as much as possible

Thanks

Bob

Steve L · May 1, 2009

Hi Bob.

You should be perfectly fine to take your dish kit to europe and still recieve uk/sky tv.

Both maplins, Aldi and Lidl sat kits all work fine once you've mastered the compass set up proceedure. I have a Lidl kit which I have now adapted to accept the sky+ LNB reciever. After taking about 2 hours setting up the dish the first time, I put two lines on the compass dome to indicate direction and elivation (tilt angle). Now by setting the dish to these lines and then using the sky remote and selecting "services" then option 4 (system setup) then option 6 (signal test), I can set up in about 10 mins. I have found that in the signal test screen, signal strength seems to be direction horizontally and signal quality seems to be related to the tilt angle of our dish.

Hope this is helpfull, unlike the snappy, off the cuff belittleing responce the thread got initially.

Personally I will offer advice on any subject that I can, and I don't mind how many times I repeat myself so long as it helps others to understand.

I had a nasty piece of work of a chap where I worked who thought threatening me was the way to keep his job as he was not qualified and he rapidly found that I was far more educated than he was. Revenge was sweet one day when I came across him broken down with a flat tyre on the side of the road in the pouring rain. He quite obviously had a flat spare as well.

I stopped about 200 yards up the road and watched him running up the road, then my mean streak kicked in! I waved and drove off. Naughty I know but it taught him a lesson on being nice to people get's favors in return, especially as I had told all the lads at work inreadyness for his grand entry the next day.

Funny thing there, nobody ever got insulted, threatened or belittled ever again.

I went on to become a shift supervisor and no matter which team I lead, the out performed the rest of the company. when asked by the Md why I always had the best team? I said, it's amazing what a little respect can achieve when you know how to use it properly.

Regards.

Steve L.

paulktnichols · May 1, 2009

I've had the Lidl one for several years - and had no problems. The dish may - however - be a little small if your "way down South". I only as 'cause we were near the camargue last year A nd I couldn't pick up a signal for love nor money. Looking at the other dishes on the site they were all significantly larger.

Having said that near Royan the year before no problems.

Dave111 · May 1, 2009

Hi John

I have the Maplins satellite kit. They do two versions one with a plastic dish and one with a metal dish - or they did three years ago when I bought mine. I have the plastic one as it was on offer at the time at

Parksy · May 1, 2009

Sorry for not posting this earlier

This is Sir Rog's guide:

http://www.practicalcaravan.com/newforums/fm_messages.asp?FO=11&FM=413343
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

http://www.practicalcaravan.com/newforums/fm_messages.asp?FO=11&FM=413343

mistermac · May 1, 2009

Hi John

Get one - they're great.

But wait till they're on offer (which is quite regularly) - I think I paid about

bob_374419934 · May 1, 2009

Thank you all very much indeed - I will see if any offers are on the maplins kit after the weekend and will know that if i cant get a picture it is me doing something wrong rather than the kit!

many thanks - based upon the responses received I will certainly be looking for more advice again soon.

bob

missdiamonique · May 4, 2009

Hi Just got back from the van having spent all Saturday afternoon trying to get our Maplin's satellite in a suitcase going to no avail. We eventually found Astra 28.2 and got the background picture but kept losing it and in the end it flipped back on to 19.2 (?) (German). What are we doing wrong? We can't seem to get the dish to hold the position so it keeps going off the satellite. We have a satellite finder which is better than the compass that came with the kit. Sorry if we sound a bit vague but we work for lawyers and don't understand practical matters. We had thought of taking our Sky+ box to try that but we have multiroom boxes and have only just read that you have to keep all the phone lines connected. Any more suggestions please? Thankyou

Woody3 · May 6, 2009

Right, let's clear this one up once and for all shall we?

Satellite and DTTV (Freeview) are two entirely different things. You receive Freeview from normal TV masts on a normal TV aerial. If your TV is not 'Freeview ready' (i.e. has built-in Freeview) you will need a Freeview set-top box which is usually connected to the TV with a SCART lead (often known as a Peritel lead in Europe.) Freeview is (supposedly) compatible with DVB-T, the standard more commonly used in Europe, but over there sat is a better bet.

For satellite you need a dish, something on which to mount it, a low noise block or LNB (the bit of electronics on the end of the arm) and a satellite receiver. There are TV's around now with built-in Freesat receivers but generally they are of the huge sizes - not too good in a caravan!

There are three lots of satellite reception, all from the same source.

FreeSat from Sky uses a Sky box with a card to view the free-to-view channels. These channels (such as the siblings of five, Sky 3, M&M etc) are free to watch but are encrypted so can only be seen with a Sky box and appropriate card. One downside of Sky boxes is that - generally - they are not the most sensitive.

Freesat - the satellite equivalent of Freeview - shows many of the same channels plus BBC1 and ITV high definition, but requires a Freesat box. A grade A HD box can be bought from www.humaxdirect.co.uk for

MagsAlan · May 6, 2009

Almost off topic but not quite, I bought the Maplins suitcase system last year but as yet haven't had the chance to set it up as we have only been away for 2 night breaks so far and i didnt want to spend valuable time learning how to set up.

However, last week we set off to Cornwall for 5 nights with 2 additional nights stopover at the CC site at Cheddar. On arrival we noticed that the bollards had tv booster sockets so went to hire a cable (ended up buying it but thats another story) plugged everything in and we were rewarded by perfect digital reception of the Freeview chanels. So no need for satellite set up again.

Off we went to Padstow. The site didnt have tv boosters but plugged in the tv in the normal way to find not much in the way of digital reception so retuned analogue and got the usual grainy/ snowy picture that we usually get from our mushroom aerial.

Before setting to with having a go at setting up the satellite system i decided to have a go at retuning the digital channel.....absolutely perfect pictures appeared.

I know Cornwall is in the middle of switchover with some areas having already gone but the Padstow area doesn't go over till July.

Im wondering if, when the whole country has gone digital,whether the sat systems or indeed the more modern aerials, will be necessary if you only want to see the freeview type channels when you're in the uk.

chenzhen · May 19, 2016

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Maplin's Camping Satellite Kit

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