Sattelite dish & freeview??

[DanPaula]

Hi all.

I'm thinking of upgrading to a sattelite dish set-up for caravan. At present I use an image vision plus aerial on a pole but on most sites it's not brilliant.

The question is can I plug a sattelite dish into a normal freeview box to receive digital tv? Reason being I'm not bothered about hundreds of channels but would just like a good signal.

If this is not possible does anyone have any other recommendations?

Many Thanks, Dan.

 

[ColinA]

No Dan a freeview box will not work with a satellite dish. You need to use a satellite box like the ones availible from maplin or a Sky box.

Colin.

 

[Tony A.]

dan,

You can pick up a cheap sky digi box off Ebay, or where ever, connect sky dish to digi box and you will recieve free to air channels with out a viewing card, buy a one off twenty quid card from sky if you want channels four and five,

To check what you can receive take the sky card out off home digi box ( if you have one)and have a look. I`m sure you can find out off the internet.

Good luck mate

TONY A.

 

[DanPaula]

Many thanks for the help. I'll get sorted for next season. Dan.

 

[WatsonJohnG]

You can pick up Sky boxes from car boots

I got a nearly new dish,brackets,cable and digi box for

 

[clive_5040082]

Dan,

Have been using a Kerstan sat dish for a while. When the caravan is levelled off with the stabilisers down I wind up the jockey wheel and attach the Kerstan aeriel to the raised post via the supplied clamp. The angle is correct because the caravan is level having preset this at first use, so it just remains to turn the clamp about the post (just off South ) to get the perfect signal. If you turn the tv so it is viewable through the front windows you can easily do it on your own.

The dish comes in white and at 30cm is the smallest dish available so on the jockey wheel is hardly noticeable. It also works abroad apparently as far south as Gibralter. Waudby's sell them @

 

[Woody3]

Sounds a good idea Clive but for two things:the further south you go the more the dish needs to tilt (up) - it will probably generally work in your style for most of the UK but it does change as you travel through Europe; a 30cm dish for Astra 2D will work OK in the UK, but as it has a spot beam aimed at the UK as you go south the signal will rapidly decrease. 60cm is OK for much of France except for the far south, 80cm would do better in Spain, you might need a 1m dish in Italy and Portugal.

 

[DanPaula]

Thanks to all.

 

[philip_5109302]

Dan, as per the above, Sky dish off e-bay

 

[DanPaula]

Dan, as per the above, Sky dish off e-bay

 

[Cerbera]

I bought the whole lot from ebay. Dish and tripod live in the gas locker at the front when not in use. I just unplug the Sky + box from home and take it with us. Takes no time at all to set up once you have done it a couple of times. Absolutely no point in spending a fortune on dishes and boxes, the cheap ones work brilliantly and to be honest it's going to live in your van so you don't want to shell out loads.

 

[Ian_5040591]

Hi dan

With reference to your first question it looks like ITV and BBC are rolling out freeveiw sattelite spring 08. see link

http://www.freesat.co.uk/home.php

 

[JeremyClarksson]

Ian a Freesat reciever will already pick up all the BBC and ITV channels as they are FTA (free to air) only ch4 and ch5 channels are unavailable at present and ch4 will be FTA shortly.

General opinion amongst the media, industry and user forums is that ch5 will follow shortly after.

 

[waffler]

Are you running on 12volts or mains? Most sky boxes are mains. I've helped many people set up their systems, inlcuding oen as I left a site today and my advise is that you get what you pay for. I have Maxview dish, tripod and digiatl box. Not cheap but easy to use even in the dark and wet. (We are 12 volt.)