Satellite Dish

[Bannedtom]

Having used the crank up system previously i know how good they are but having recently changed the van I am loathed to spend so much money again so was considering a standard dish on a tripod which a lot of people use on sites.

So what size dishes are you guys using and is there any benefit from twin lnb's and what;s a good st finder or are they just a waste of space??

 

[Dustydog]

Tom

Have a look at "http://www.satelliteforcaravans.co.uk/"

I've used a 66cm eliptic maxview dish with tripod successfuly for the last 6 years.

Scrap the sat finders, not worth the money imo unless you spend a few hundred and buy the real professional version.

A good compass will get you onto the Astra 2 sat. Plenty of info available about angles of elevation on the web and indeed on here. Sproket gave details of a site a couple of months ago but I can't find it!

I use a quad LNB only because it was no dearer than a twin. Why? Because we use Sky + and FIL can also use my dish / LNB for his caravan.

Cheers

Dustydog

 

[Bannedtom]

Hi Dustydog

so I assume that you have it on a tripod outside your van. Also I thought with twin Lnb's that would give a better reception. Pardon my ignorance

Tom

 

[Lutz]

Single, twin or quad LNB has nothing to do with quality of reception but only the number of receivers that you can connect to one dish.

 

[Sproket]

Tom

This is the site that Dustydog is on about UKSatellite Help if you scroll down the page & put you street or post code in a X comes up, you then drag it to where you would like to put your dish, it gives you all the information at the top of the page, you will notice that it gives you the direction to point your dish..

If you use your street or road it seems better than using the post code.

Example:

Elevation:25.4

 

[Sproket]

Have a look here

satellite dish 1

satellite dish 2

 

[Sproket]

This is what it looks like on the pole at the side of the van.

You can see that the bubble is in the middle in picture 4.

satellite dish 3

satellite dish 4

 

[Bannedtom]

Thanks sprocket I,m getting the jist of what you are doing but on a slightly different note how are you attatching the pole to the caravan?

 

[Sproket]

Tom

I bought a pair of stops that fit in the awning rail for a porch awning, i then bought some stainless eye bolt wood screws, i gripped the wood screw thread in the chuck of my lathe & turned the remaining shank down so that i could put a 4mm thread on, took a fair bit of head scratching, but it works very easily, i have two fitted in the top rail & all i do is fasten the alloy pole to the side with a few cable ties, the dish can rotate right round,one of the reasons i made this was the dogs wont be able to knock it over.....

stainless eyebolt mount 1

stainless eyebolt mount 2

stainless eyebolt mount 3