Choosing a Satellite TV System

Last year circumstances led me to research the possibilities of installing a satellite TV system. I had a 'suitcase' model from Aldi which took anything from 2 minutes to 2 hours to set up and lock on to the correct satellite. But the deciding moment was in July last year when I missed England's World Cup match with Algeria (yes, I know I didn't miss much!) whilst at the CC site at Hawes in the Dales. I started with a budget of £500 but this ultimately was exceeded due to various installation difficulties with some models. We are very happy with the result and use a Humax Freesat HDR receiver which we also use at home for recording our favourite programmes in HD, and we are able to watch them when we are away if we are so inclined. We have a 19 inch HD TV with a CD and a card slot for ESPN sports, we don't subscribe to Sky but you can use a Sky box if so desired.
You can see my choices here, Choosing a Mobile Satellite System and the installation here, Installing a Glomex Discovery System and if you want to see how I installed a 19 inch TV then see, Wall Mounting a 19" TV

Regards,

Graham

Good post that Graham with your links/research could save people a bit of time there. We had a go with the suitcase type a few years ago with little success and when we asked the store concerned to swop it as we thought the tuner was faulty the manager offered us our money back as she said there had been quite a few faulty ones and thought cash back to be the best option. We swopped the van and the new one had a built in tv with freeview tuner - end of problem (I know we dont get as many prog's but the leisure battery stays chargedts longer than it would !!! iykwim)

Hi Roger,
Yes I had no end of bother with the suitcase model I still have it and use the receiver as a backup. I left the Status 530 in as well as I would have had to put a blank over the hole anyway so I have quite a number of alternatives The Status is fine if you are in a good terrestrial TV area but there are quite a few places you can't get a signal, I think that's why they introduced Freesat for when the analogue gets switched off.

Regards,

Graham

Very interesting debate this one.

We too bought a Maplin suitcase set up, a few years ago. But I could never get on with it, so it's hardly been used.

In our previous Symbol we had a status 'saucer' areial, which was ok in the UK but not brilliant when in France or Germany.

Our new van has a Telco status type aerial, but we found it worse than useless. So when I was having cruise control fitted a couple of weeks ago and was talking to Phil of Rhino Installs, I talked myself into having a Glomex Dome fitted whilst he was here and the Telco ditched.

What a brilliant bit of kit! As Graham has said, it takes only a few moments to pick up the signal and we are watching tv

Despite what the coverage states, I guess that being only a smallish size dish, it probably won't pick up a good signal in Southern Spain. However as we still both have to work, we are unlikely to get down that far for holidays, it isn't a problem.

What I really like is the ease of the whole set up. I don't do stress when I'm in my motorhome

Dago

Hi Dago,
I totally agree and I also found that the after sales with Glomex was first class, I know they have been doing them for marine use for years.

Regards,

Graham

So what do users think of the system that AS fit to their own motorhomes ?

Robbie wrote:So what do users think of the system that AS fit to their own motorhomes ?

There was only a Status type aerial on mine which was very poor.

Graham

We bought a cotsowld in September but are not picking it up until January so it will be a 2012 model and we had no plans for winter use this year. It comes with a sat dish, not the dome type but the dish that you set by hand from inside the camper. having never used one of these I was just wondering what they are like on the AS

When we bought our van in March, it had a status type areial fitted.
Our first trip was to the Isle of wight where we were on a site within eyesight range of the TV mast in the centre of the island. Could we get a picture? No!
We only received a decent picture when we disconnected the aerial and used the internal aerial in our Meos tv set.

Not being one, who has a very long patience span. I decided to go for a domed system and having had the Glomax installed, haven't regretted it at all ( Although Phil might have some comments about this ).

Sounds like a Camos or Maxview crankup system. I did consider one of these but didn't like the adjustment handle in the ceiling of the M/H so went for the Glomex .( see here). However many swear by them but it is a manual adjustment to lock on to the satellite which at times might be fiddly until you get used to it.

Graham

The Maxview springs to mind from the pictures so its most likely one of those, we dont do a lot of TV when we are away but like the idea of the sat dish for decent reception when required. The tuning bit cant be that hard hopefully

Hi we was going for the max view crank up dish but the fitter pointed out it would foul the sky light plus the handle in the middle of ceiling was not so nice. We want to be able to pick up free view in southern Europe BBC ITV etc. The max view dome they told us was at its limit in south of France which got us thinking of their free standing kit alot cheaper as well. After looking on the net we gather the bigger the dish the better reception. Also when they mount poles to the rear ladder can you get small versions of scaffold clips to hold pole to ladder to get height for the dish. Cheers Colyn

I bought a MULTIMO set from Roadpro about 7 yrs ago and have had no problem with it. It is a small dish and is mounted externally on a tripod and even if it takes a bit of time to tune etc I get very good reception and depending where I am, plenty of programmes.
After all we go away to get AWAY from these domestic thing but some people I've met MUST have their soaps.
In Soutern Spain I get News and on Stream sometimes get sport. Not really interested in the other programmes. In middle France and upwards I can get all main channels as wiffe like to see Strictly etc.
They are at all of the shows so pay them a visit