Telvision via dish or terestial aerial

Hi im thinking about installing TV in my van via the above sources. I had a portable dish previously which gave pretty good results but I now have less storage space and I am now minded to go for a fixed system tuneable from inside the van. Bearing in mind the digital switchover, it appears that you need a relativley strong signal to avoid getting the "NO SIGNAL" message. On my limited budget the state of the art autotune dishes are out of reach and I am drawn to going terestrial route. The status range look more affordable but are any good for digital use. Any suggestions most welcome. thanks tony

Hi there,

We used a manual satellite dish on the boat all the way down to the south of France with no problems except "trees". Put the dish in front of a block of flats and we got the signal OK - let there be one leaf waving on a branch within 50 metres and we couldn't get a signal. Weird!!!

Good news is that on top of a MH there is better exposure so that problem is easily solved.

The angle of the dish "Up and Down" and the "skew" (which is the amount that the LNB needs to be from vertical) changes very little within the UK so once the MH (or the tripod holding the dish if you are using that particular system) is level it is just a matter of finding out where the satellite is relative to South.

All GPS systems have a "direction" facility and most Smart phones have a compass App so finding the right direction to point the dish is again pretty simple.

Add on to this that there is a Satellite Finder gizmo that whistles and/or gives you a read-out of when you are pointing in the right direction and "Bingo" piece of cake.

After getting used to the system it should take no more than five minutes to find and lock on to a satellite; the joy of which is that you have a crystal clear picture.

Hope this helps.

Best regards,


PS We now have a fully automatic Caro system which is even better - especially when it's raining!

We have the good old Status 315 flying saucer and very rarely are we unable to get a good picture. During the switch over to digital, it was rather hit and miss but as each area switched and the signal strengths increased, we had fewer and fewer failures to get a picture. I know these saucers get knocked by many and 'the directional ones are better' but I've had these saucers on 5 caravans and now the Symphony and I'm happy with them. There are still thousands in use on caravans, so we can't all be wrong.

hi we went for the max view hand crank roof mounted sat at the peterbourgh show. fitting seems alot to me at 150 quid is this normal? Waiting for fitting so not know how good yet went for the 800 dish in case we ever go to spain. cheers colyn

Hi Tonyd,
I have had the basic Status dish on my last 2 vans and found it perfect, certainly do not need an expensive set-up, and now we are all mainly digital I find I rarely have to extend the mast
"H"

Hi Tonyd.
We too have the standard Status with a signal booster and found it adequate so far. Although, I find when parking up a few feet either way can make a big difference to digital signal reception. Also, when in Spain last our neighbour spent 3 days playing with a 3ft dish and could only get Sky News, however we managed to pick up more than 15 channels but it was all in the native language, so now I have a choice - learn Spanish or get a big dish next time. Bearing all this in mind I'm sticking with my current setup but we do take a few Dvds just in case - either that or we have to talk....
RML..

Hi Tony,
We use a Status 530 directional aerial which works well in most areas of Britain unless you are in a poor signal area and surrounded by trees. Somtimes you can raise the aerial, switch on, and you get a perefect picture, and at other times you have to retune and plough through the channnels to find somthing, but if you plan to travel outside the British isles I would recomend some sort of satelite setup. If you go for a Status or similar get the long pole version if there is room for it, approx 5ft against 2 ft for the short version.


Brian

On the site where I am a Seasonal Warden, different systems have different reception issues on different parts of the site. There are some areas where nothing works, not even big self seeking dishes. Here we have plug ins so not an issue. However elsewhere on site there are areas where status type will not work (no matter how high), and those big self seeking ones go round and round/up and down with no luck, moving the van just a few yards and it can lock on no problem.

The campers who seem to have the most luck are those with a small household type with extension poles which they fit onto the bike rack for example, or a fence post with the aid of some zip ties donated by me

When we go out in Tommy, we don't take a TV due to the problems we used to have on our narrow boats. It would take us longer to find reception than the time spent watching it, and apart from that there is all worth watching anyway. No, it is Radio 4 extra on the DAB radio for us or weather permitting sitting outside with beer in hand watching the sun go down

Ian

Hi All,
I have both though the dish (a Multimo) does not get much use, though I expect to use it on our trip to Italy in Septermber,as our language skills are poor and I dont want to watch continental TV anyway. With any dish or aerial it must these days have a clear view of the source of the signal. An example was when I wanted to watch formula 1 whilst parked in the Coop car park in Skegness, I parked out of the way close to a tree, rotated the aerial until I got what I wanted ( aerial pointing towards the tree) and sat down to watch, picture started to jump about so moved to a different place in the car park away from the tree and got a good solid picture. Same with the dish, anything between it and the satelite and no picture. At home with the MH parked in its normal place no picture, move itabout 5ft [/b] so that the neighbours house is not in the way and bingo perfect picture.

Brian2

Hi Tonyd.

Having had dealings with Status I can confirm that they can not faulted in their fairness and quality advise in all things TV. They are a top company and put customer satisfaction before profit. Rare to find today. Give them a call they will help you make the right decision.

Not connected in any way with Status. Whisky.