You have choices, if you go the dish route then look on the Maxview website, and other satellite websites, size of dish will govern where you can pick up a signal, so for Europe you may need a larger dish, and parts of Scotland too. If you plan to stay in England a smaller dish, the size of Sky dish will do, then you need a way to covert the signal into pictures, so either a TV with built in Freesat, or a Freesat box, or a Sky Box. We use a 70cm Maxview dish, on tripod, linked to LG TV with built in Freesat, works well for us.
I saw a motorhome on sight once and it had a white dome shaped thing, sitting at the front of vehicle outside. Was that a dish, receiver?
@woodsieboy
Thanks bud, I have been looking at 2 options, as per below can you recommend one of them?
We plan to be in Scotland most of the time, but are in England presently for a holiday… Europe possibly next year
Or
Thanks bud, I have been looking at 2 options, as per below can you recommend one of them?
We plan to be in Scotland most of the time, but are in England presently for a holiday… Europe possibly next year
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We have a 85cm Oyster dish which we use with our Freesat box. It can also be used with the Sky+HD box and will receive signal way down in southern Spain. Trees do not seem to cause much of an issue.
Satellite dome. Previously we had the Satfi dome which was quite good if you pitch with clear line of sight to Astra and work oaky in the UK.
Our Satfi could work way down in Spain, but limited Sky channels and definitely no BBC, ITV etc. Sadly they have seized production probably due to streaming so no demand anymore.
I know that things have moved on but our sat system came from Melksham Satellite Services and comprised a 45 cm dish that sat in an adjustable frame and was placed on the ground. It had a meter for finding the satellite and a decoder box, a bit like a Freesat box, plus a length of cable. It worked as far south as Beziers. But since then the the satellite footprint has changed and larger dishes are required if you head south in Europe.
At one site a Dutch couple came over to us and asked what this thing sitting on the ground was. They couldn’t believe it was a sat dish that would pick up British tv for us.
At one site a Dutch couple came over to us and asked what this thing sitting on the ground was. They couldn’t believe it was a sat dish that would pick up British tv for us.
We started off with one very similar which worked okay, but it was always a hassle when it was raining which seemed to be every time we went out. LOL!
Just went for the Falcon QuickSat QS65
Looks like it can do most of the areas we would plan to visit in Europe next year.
Looks like it can do most of the areas we would plan to visit in Europe next year.
Be carefull as reception for many Freesat channels like BBC, ITV, CH4 & Ch 5 can be limited in Europe due to the footprint. No issue if you have Sky.
On the OPs caravan I don’t think that would impact his payload very much. It could travel in the car as an option too.
Our 85cm sat dish is fixed on the roof and altogether with control box, it weighs about 14kg. The dome was a lot lighter. We removed the large heavy folding table from the caravan and also switched to a Safefill bottle adding about another 20kg to usable payload.
I think that weight includes the packaging? On the Falcon website it states 5kg. However 1.8kg is neither here nor there.
If it was raining that hard we would probably not have the tv on, as neither of us are lip readers. 😂We started off with one very similar which worked okay, but it was always a hassle when it was raining which seemed to be every time we went out. LOL!
OK. lets go with the full Monty on satellite.
Firstly, since the UK footprint was reduced in size for the same transmitted power from the bird, you should be able to get coverages anywhere in the UK and RoI with a standard Zone 1 Sky dish which is the equivalent of an ovoid dish of around 43cm. The Zone 2 dish is pretty much the same size but the equivalent of a 55cm ovoid dish.
I would suggest buying a 60cm or 65cm ovoid dish which are readily available with LNB at reasonable prices. It is u-bolt mounted and I would replace the nuts on the u-bolts with wing nuts which makes life significantly easier when it comes to alignment. Most 60cm dishes use 5mm u-bolts. (The LNB (low noise block) is the bit at the end of the arm to which you connect your cable.)
To mount the dish I bought (in France) a telescopic worklight tripod without the lights - cost me about £11. I also got three suitable pegs to go over the feet given that the dish will tend to pull the tripod in one direction and to stop the tripod blowing over.
You need to get a 25m reel of xF100 cable (where x is another letter - N is a good one), a pack of 10 F-type plugs, and a similar bag of F-type 'barrels' to link pairs of plugs together. The cable should have a copper foil screen between the insulation around the centre core and the copper outer braid. DO NOT buy cable that has aluminium screening foil as these tend to oxidise if it gets damp. You will pay considerably less if you buy it from Toolstation or Screwfix rather than a DIY shed. You could make two cables, one of 10m and another of 15m so that you don't use a longer cable (and thus loose signal) than you need.
Finally, if you have an Android phone download Satellite Director which you can use to find the satellite direction (about 144deg in the UK - mag and true are about the same at the moment), and then you can use it with the phone camera to ensure the satellite will not be blocked by trees etc.
If you want to look at the coverage pattern go to lyngsat.com and look for the plot of the Astra 28F or G sat.
Firstly, since the UK footprint was reduced in size for the same transmitted power from the bird, you should be able to get coverages anywhere in the UK and RoI with a standard Zone 1 Sky dish which is the equivalent of an ovoid dish of around 43cm. The Zone 2 dish is pretty much the same size but the equivalent of a 55cm ovoid dish.
I would suggest buying a 60cm or 65cm ovoid dish which are readily available with LNB at reasonable prices. It is u-bolt mounted and I would replace the nuts on the u-bolts with wing nuts which makes life significantly easier when it comes to alignment. Most 60cm dishes use 5mm u-bolts. (The LNB (low noise block) is the bit at the end of the arm to which you connect your cable.)
To mount the dish I bought (in France) a telescopic worklight tripod without the lights - cost me about £11. I also got three suitable pegs to go over the feet given that the dish will tend to pull the tripod in one direction and to stop the tripod blowing over.
You need to get a 25m reel of xF100 cable (where x is another letter - N is a good one), a pack of 10 F-type plugs, and a similar bag of F-type 'barrels' to link pairs of plugs together. The cable should have a copper foil screen between the insulation around the centre core and the copper outer braid. DO NOT buy cable that has aluminium screening foil as these tend to oxidise if it gets damp. You will pay considerably less if you buy it from Toolstation or Screwfix rather than a DIY shed. You could make two cables, one of 10m and another of 15m so that you don't use a longer cable (and thus loose signal) than you need.
Finally, if you have an Android phone download Satellite Director which you can use to find the satellite direction (about 144deg in the UK - mag and true are about the same at the moment), and then you can use it with the phone camera to ensure the satellite will not be blocked by trees etc.
If you want to look at the coverage pattern go to lyngsat.com and look for the plot of the Astra 28F or G sat.
At the moment we do not know if they will be using a Freesat, Sky+HD box or plugging directly into the TV. A lot depends on whether they want to record one program while watching another. It seems that the twin LNB is an optional extra?
Nope no need for recording, this isn’t really needed, as long as we have TV is the main thing
And to @Woodentop, we went for the Falcon and I’ll use my 15M cable as per below, or the one which comes with the Sat
And to @Woodentop, we went for the Falcon and I’ll use my 15M cable as per below, or the one which comes with the Sat
A satellite dish isn't a simple alternative to a TV aerial.
I use a 60mm satellite dish, bought before the UK service switched to a "spot" beam, mounted on a tripod with a swivelling centre post to make alignment easy with a cheap signal meter, a 25m length of "shotgun" twin cable and the Freesat box from home - if you already have a Sky dish/receiver at home you can use that receiver.
If you only caravan in the UK then a smaller 40cm dish would now be adequate.
We use it primarily as a PVR to "video" programmes to watch later but it takes over when we tour into remote areas where there's little or no DTV signal
Has anyone heard of people stealing dishes which are on a tripod?
I mean, it’s sitting on the ground and only takes a quick snip and away it goes!
I mean, it’s sitting on the ground and only takes a quick snip and away it goes!
It's probably as infrequent as theft of water barrels, waste containers and steps.
yes hes known as the PDS, phantom dish stealer, i heard he was related to the phantom flan flinger, and of the opera.
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