Omnisat satellite dish

[jo3]

We are thinking of buying a satellite dish for the van and have seen Omnisat dishes on ebay. Would welcome any advise on them and would we need the 66cm model or would the 54cm do? The 54cm are much cheaper and would be easier to store.

 

[WatsonJohnG]

I have the 66cm one on the van roof and the 54 cm one as a back up for tripod use if trees etc are in the way

There is little difference in picture quality in England and Wales but in the far North of Scotland or Northern Spain you would be better with the bigger dish

The smaller dish is slightly easier to align with the satellite but the bigger dish will pull in a weaker signal better as you get to the edge of the satellite footprint

So it depends on where you want to use it really

 

[jo3]

I have the 66cm one on the van roof and the 54 cm one as a back up for tripod use if trees etc are in the way

There is little difference in picture quality in England and Wales but in the far North of Scotland or Northern Spain you would be better with the bigger dish

The smaller dish is slightly easier to align with the satellite but the bigger dish will pull in a weaker signal better as you get to the edge of the satellite footprint

So it depends on where you want to use it really

Thanks for that. Is it easy to attach it to the van? I was only really thinking of using the tripod.

 

[WatsonJohnG]

I would use a tripod like this one

http://www.towsure.com/product/2477-Satellite_Tripod_Stand
The one I have on the roof is a Maxview Semitronic and its made just for roof mounting

Sometimes its possible to mount the ordinary dish on the jockey wheel but you can't always get a pitch that faces the right way so I would get the tripod

 

[Dustydog]

Jo

We use a 66 cm on a tripod. Works very well.

Cheers

Alan

 

[WatsonJohnG]

Jo

We use a 66 cm on a tripod. Works very well.

Cheers

Alan

They are good but the 54cm dish was said to be cheaper and I think that would for that reason be the preferred choice if it was OK

 

[WatsonJohnG]

By chance I just read this in a Maxview brochure and I thought it interesting

"Smaller dishes have larger reception angles than larger dishes.For example a 38cm offset dish (offset--that's like the Omnisat)has a reception angle of 5deg whereas a 60cm dish is only 3deg.With larger reception angles it is easier to locate the satellite and dish will only need fine adjustment.However a smaller reception angle will give greater immunity to interference from adjacent satellites and receive more signal"

 

[Frank_374237154]

I have a 66cm dish.In use it was excellent,however it is a large area and the dish blew over twice at Pembrey,breaking the lnb.

The supplied fixings for tacking down the Maxview tripod are inadequate and I ended up drilling holes in the legs of the tripod to take screwpegs (both types,two different holes sizes in each leg to cover all pitches).

Worked a treat ,never blew over again.

The dish is very easy to set up,particularly if you set an initial elevation on a flat surface at home.

 

[WatsonJohnG]

We had the 80cm dish blow over in Spain and had to guy it well

The 66cm Semitronic on the roof is affected by strong winds and needs guying if Coronation St is not to be missed!At other time it needs folding down in high winds