Reception - not; it's driving us mad ?!

[JohnI.Stephen]

OK, I admit that this has been asked before but it's driving me mad. The status omni 315 'saucer' was so pathetic in Dorset that I was unable to receive even listenable FM radio; the TV was non existent. A few pitches away was a chap with a Status directional but he had obviously decided that that wouldn't cut it either as he had then erected a pole on which a standard 50 element directional TV aerial was attached !

My wife and I discussed this as some length and concluded that what we both want is an aerial that will provide us with DAB digital radio; FM if necessary and Freeview TV on occasion.

Ideally I would have a single aerial that replaced the Omni 315 but I am open to suggestions. I was considering satellite but really we want to tune in to local radio on DAB (quality) and just occasionally watch TV is there is something special.

So, faced with this, can any of you point me in the right direction for DAB, FM and Freeview TV (in that order) ?

Thanks

 

[WatsonJohnG]

Hi John

Its going to be down to trial and error at the end of the day (or beginning of stay)

I would try the cheapest option first.

I got a really good aerial and aluminium pole for a friend for

 

[rob_jax]

John,

A good question. All you need to do is correct the issues that conspire to make the Status 315 a pile of poo (not directional, small aerial not optimised for the reception frequencies, and a noisy amplifier)

No Signal Booster - a weak signal amplified by a cheap amp just produces a higher level signal with even more noise that the weak signal had originally. High or good quality amplifiers are expensive and a bigger aerial (usually more reception elements) is the best way to go - more signal strength.

Directional TV aerial - household external TV aerial from B&Q or Homebase or wherever - even the smallest and cheapest "roof top" aerial will beat the Status - mount on an aluminium pole as JohnG suggested.

FM and DAB radio - I'm guessing that you don't want an individual aerial for DAB and a second aerial for FM, and luckily you can take advantage of the fact that the FM frequency is half that of the DAB broadcasts. They are harmonics of one another, so the aerial will resonate on both frequencies - it won't be perfect but it should still work

DAB is so heavily compressed the sound quality is very, very poor compared to FM - don't get me wrong I like all the extra channels on DAB, but if I want to listen to music - then it has to be FM

So I'd be tempted to buy an FM aerial, but that's quite large, so in the end I bought an external DAB aerial (omni directional - vertical aluminium dipole) and this still works OK on FM

So for our Eriba, we have an external DAB aerial that provides both FM and DAB reception for the micro HiFi / CD player - and we never take a TV with us.

Merging the TV and radio signal onto a single cable - buy a pair of joiner and splitter boxes from B&Q or Maplin type place. Then join the coax cables on the aluminium mast and split them again near the TV and radio

Robert

 

[JeremyClarksson]

John

Hello again

We have a Status 530 with amplifier and find that in most circumstances reception is excellent and reception of the main channels is almost always better on digital than analogue.

I did a dit on getting a good signal a while back - I think you may have been involved in that thread.

As RJ I think the main advantage for DAB is number of stations not quality of sound.

If you want more stations try freeview or freesat.

You know about freeview but have a look at freesat there are hundreds of TV and hundreds of Radio stations available.

Try this link for free TV stations (CH4 and CH5 not available at present).

http://www.lyngsat.com/freetv/United-Kingdom.html?PHPSESSID=cfcaf99d687204b5a401d2589e7dd676
Free radio stations (including lots of local ones)

http://www.lyngsat.com/freeradio/United-Kingdom.html
This is a very timely request because yesterday I noticed Maplins are doing a B grade (returned) satellite suitcase system(all you will need) for

 

[JeremyClarksson]

One other point with the lyngsat website - they mention satellites you would have difficulty getting with a permanently mounted 1 meter dish.

Satellites you should be able to get are

Astra 2 and Eurobird (effectively the same satellite as far as we are concerned with the most english channels on)at 28.2-28.5 deg E (of south)

Astra 1 at 19.2 E

Hotbird at 13 E (childlock required on lots of channels, even during the day)

Atlantic Bird at 5 W - nothing much on here unless you want to learn French

The main one for us would be Astra 2 but I always look for Hotbird first as it is the strongest and closest to south and then pan east through Astra 1 to Astra 2 - you can then almost gaurantee you have the right satellite as you have located all three.

Setting up takes no more than 5 mins longer than a conventional ariel and probably less time in weak terrestrial signal areas.

My preffered mounting is a short length of windbreak pole banged into the ground but the kit does come with a sucker type fixing.

I have a 90cm dish at home fitted with a motor drive and recieve over a thousand free channels from the three satellites above.

If you take out religious, foreign, duplicate local (ITV west, ITV caentral etc and sales channels there would be approx a hundred watchable TV channels on Astra 2 alone.

The Maplins box has several favourite menus to organise best channels into manageable folders and all settings are kept when the box has no power.

 

[Lord Braykewynde]

While I was incarcerated in our van for 3 months before Christmas my daughters friends lent us their Skybox (freesat) and aerial. They set it up for us and I watched him do it. When we moved I did it no problems at all and I'm not tech savvy. They did have a sat finder which they bought off EBay which made it easy finding their locations. I did what Garry said after finding where east was with the supplied compass. Found the one that he said is Hotbird then panned east until I picked up the signal then tweaked it. The finder he had costs about

 

[JeremyClarksson]

The Maplins kit comes with sat finder and cables etc

This is the same kit that Lidls sell every so often.

p.s. always check that you have the sat finder connected the right way round unless you want to waste a lot of time finding false satellites - I know this from experience!

 

[JohnI.Stephen]

OK thanks chaps; Garry the Maplins Satellite suitcase seems to be the kit to buy. Do you have any recommendations on how one would (or should) attach this to the caravan. Would it be on a long pole attached to the jockey wheel (for instance)?

Thanks (for your patience !!)

John

 

[JohnI.Stephen]

OK thanks chaps; Garry the Maplins Satellite suitcase seems to be the kit to buy. Do you have any recommendations on how one would (or should) attach this to the caravan. Would it be on a long pole attached to the jockey wheel (for instance)?

Thanks (for your patience !!)

John

OK Garry; bought it! I shall look forward to trying it out at home initially. I may well get hooked and then decide to add it to our home (freeview) setup !

Thanks again

John

 

[JeremyClarksson]

OK Garry; bought it! I shall look forward to trying it out at home initially. I may well get hooked and then decide to add it to our home (freeview) setup !

Thanks again

John

The kit comes with a clamp for attaching to horizontal or vertical poles, a permanent fixing and a sucker device.

I did use the sucker device on the roof but it flexed a bit - I now tend to use the clamp on a broken windbreak pole hammered into the ground.

Advantages - less affected by wind and van movement, simple quick, cheap and easy to adjust.

Disadvantage - more prone to theft and can be affected by people walking very close to it.

 

[JohnI.Stephen]

Fixing the satellite to a pole sounds dodgy because any breeze will surely blow the dish off its precise angle to the satellit?! So my wife ask if there is a type of caravan 'roof rack' which will allow the satellite to be fixed to these horizontal bars securely?

It sounds good; I can visualise it; but can I buy it ?

Thoughts?

 

[Lord Braykewynde]

You can buy a tripod which anchors to the ground like the one here

http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/Omnimax-Satellite-Dish-Tripod-Caravan-Motor-home_W0QQitemZ200047162217QQihZ010QQcategoryZ76066QQrdZ1QQssPageNameZWD1VQQcmdZViewItem
although this one seems to be expensive.

 

[COLIN_5095629]

I use an old vidio camera tripod ,fix your sat dish by using the g clamp,then peg the tripod to the ground,works ok for me.

 

[Lord Braykewynde]

You can buy a tripod which anchors to the ground like the one here

http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/Omnimax-Satellite-Dish-Tripod-Caravan-Motor-home_W0QQitemZ200047162217QQihZ010QQcategoryZ76066QQrdZ1QQssPageNameZWD1VQQcmdZViewItem
although this one seems to be expensive.

p.s. the one I used was fixed to a tripod and in gales it never moved and had good picture. The downside to a satellite dish is if there are any trees in the way, they may cause the signal to break up.

 

[JohnI.Stephen]

Garry "The Maplins kit comes with sat finder and cables etc" I have ordered the Digital Mini Satellite Kit from Maplins. I cannot see mention that it contains a Sat Finder tool; a separate kit is available for another

 

[JohnI.Stephen]

Garry "The Maplins kit comes with sat finder and cables etc" I have ordered the Digital Mini Satellite Kit from Maplins. I cannot see mention that it contains a Sat Finder tool; a separate kit is available for another

 

[JohnI.Stephen]

Thanks Lord B and Colin; I will investigate tripods; as you say though; expensive !

 

[Lord Braykewynde]

The one I fancy is -

http://www.maplin.co.uk/Module.aspx?TabID=1&DOY=18m1&ModuleNo=48737&criteria=
but I'm not sure of the quality, I would like to hear if someone had bought first one and found it o.k. It says a sat finder comes with it although the tripod would be added expense.

Although, unlike Her Ladyship, I don't watch much T.V. it has now spoilt me for when I do. The Status 315 is cr*p.

 

[Damian]

I have the system you are looking at LordB, and it is very good.

The dish is plastic, so light, and the rest of the kit is good.

It does have the digibox with it, but you cannot get Ch4 or 5 as they are still encrypted for the next year or so , until their contract runs out with Sky.

The sat finder is a plastic frame with a compass in the centre, and a slide scale of major cities, you line up the major city, for the UK its London, with an arrow, then turn the dish to align the compass arrow with the city. It also has an elevation marker to get the right elevation.

Its a bit fiddly to start with, but it works.

I take the sky box from home and use that in preference to the supplied one, then I can get Ch4 and 5 and all the other services I have from sky.

If you do use the supplied one, when you first go to set it up, all the built in instructions are in German, so you need to set it to English in the options menu.

 

[JeremyClarksson]

I have the satellite suitcase kit as LB's link.

JIS I can recommend this one, I think the one you are looking at may not have the same level of suitability without buying extra kit.

When I posted yesterday they had a B grade returned one for

 

[JohnI.Stephen]

Can we please clear this up; the one I have ordered from Maplins is the Digital Mini Satellite Kit for

 

[JeremyClarksson]

The one you have ordered would probably do the job - but it only has an U bolt mounting and would not come in an impact resistance case to transport it.

It may also weigh more if it comes with a steel dish.

I would cancel it and wait for the satellite case at a cheaper price - but that would be my choice.

 

[JohnI.Stephen]

Thanks again for all the helpful advice. The unit I ordered is on it's way and, as Maplin's said when I called them; if I'm not happy I can return it !

I am really looking forward to this and I thank you for the helpful replies !

John

 

[Robtel]

I have been thinking about going down the route of putting satellite t.v. in the van especially for longer trips to France and Spain. I have read the information in David Sullivan's very informative website http://www.satelliteforcaravans.co.uk/

Amongst the information there are comments regarding the size of dish needed to receive the satellite signals. A minimum size of 44cm appears to be required for the south of England, increasing to 60cm for up here in Scotland. The same increase in size applies when going to France and Spain with 80cm and upwards being advised.

I see that the kits from Maplins etc included a smaller 39cm dish, can anyone who has purchased one tell me how they perform in areas deemed to require a larger dish.

Thanks

Robert

 

[COLIN_5095629]

I have been thinking about going down the route of putting satellite t.v. in the van especially for longer trips to France and Spain. I have read the information in David Sullivan's very informative website http://www.satelliteforcaravans.co.uk/

Amongst the information there are comments regarding the size of dish needed to receive the satellite signals. A minimum size of 44cm appears to be required for the south of England, increasing to 60cm for up here in Scotland. The same increase in size applies when going to France and Spain with 80cm and upwards being advised.

I see that the kits from Maplins etc included a smaller 39cm dish, can anyone who has purchased one tell me how they perform in areas deemed to require a larger dish.

Thanks

Robert

i got my sat kit from towsure, it does not have a sat finder .i used the info from sateliteforcaravans web site, the first attempt to set it up took 1/2 hour now i can have it working in 10 min. on a site last year watched someone using a sat finder to set up took him a hour, so are they worth the money?