satellite systems on the caravan

Hastings campers
Hastings campers Forum Participant Posts: 15
First Comment
edited June 2018 in Parts & Accessories #1

Which is best to use with our caravan, please? Put on roof or portable and which sat TV would cover Germany, Holland and France. which offers the best value. 65cm, 75cm or 85cm?

Thanks in advance of replies.

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Comments

  • Simon100
    Simon100 Club Member Posts: 666 ✭
    500 Comments 100 Likes
    edited June 2018 #2

    If you have a portable dish you can move it around the pitch to get the best signal and avoid trees or other obstructions. If it is on the top of your caravan that is not so easy to do.

    You will still be able to get Sky and FreeSat in France and Holland but the further south you go the bigger the dish needed. Not sure about Germany.

    There are many web sites and threads on this and other forum about this topic, easily found if you use Google.

    Try this one as a start

    https://www.sky4caravans.co.uk/why-do-i-need-a-larger-satellite-dish-as-i-travel-around-europe/

    And this

    https://www.practicalcaravan.com/forum/technical/50688-what-size-satellite-dish-do-i-need-for-france

     

  • DavidKlyne
    DavidKlyne Club Member Posts: 13,864 ✭✭✭
    5,000 Likes 1000 Comments Name Dropper Photogenic
    edited June 2018 #3

    This image will give you an idea of the Free to Air UK spot beam coverage. Whilst a larger dish should get programmes down to the South of France as you can see from the map it doesn't go that far East in Germany. If you are using Sky that may well be different but I don't have any personal experience of that.

    David

  • ocsid
    ocsid Forum Participant Posts: 1,395
    1000 Comments
    edited June 2018 #4

    The easier bit of the OP to answer is which "offers the best value".

    Unless you put an immense value on investing just a few minutes of your time to deploy and "focus" the dish, then a basic portable dish is going to be the best value, costing a fraction of those using all levels of automation.

    Some TVs have built in satellite decoders, using one of these avoids the investment and clutter that comes with using a more basic TV and a standalone decoder box. Though the latter can be cheap.

    Of those TVs with a built in decoder the Avtex range also feature an aid to focusing the dish, a licenced system called "Easy Find". This then only requires fiting the dish with a matching LNB [the sensor on the dishes arm], these cost about £20 compared with £10 for a simpler LNB. Easy Find uses a traffic light LED on the LNB to guide aiming the dish at the satellite we need. Very much more expensive offerings also exploit Easy Find, but buying with care a big outlay is not needed.

    Satellite being digital means it works or does not, the more money spent only buys easy of use, and sometimes that is questionable, not quality of viewing.

    Buying just a cheap big enough dish for where you are using it, or even having two sizes, can be an option not to carry around too big a dish when it is not needed, and the hassle doing so might bring.

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