Aerial or sat dish. Fitted or not?
just bought a new Adria Adora Izonzo Special Edition and was wondering the best way to go in regards to TVs reception. Going to Spain and France this year so might be a factor to be considered?
Comments
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spelling! Aerial....
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If spelling’s your problem, go for sat dish!
An aerial will get you the local terrestrial transmissions, so you’d still get entertainment (of a sort) but you’ll need a dish to get UK satellite transmissions. They’ve reduced the footprint, now, so even that’s not as widespread as it used to be. As I
tend not to watch on holiday (it’s part of the ‘escape’) I have no recent experience to report. The bigger (85cm) the dish, the better your chance around the edges of the footprint.0 -
Personally I prefer a Satellite Dish on a tripod. The less holes drilled in the roof of my van the better for me and sometimes you will have a better chance of finding that beam when moving the dish around the pitch. Mine will also go on the roof of the
van if needs be with the aid of a sucker base. When my dish is not up there the roof mount takes my log aerial. The only down side is that tiny effort you have to make finding directions but what satisfaction when you do! Practice makes perfect!Other opinions will, I'm sure, be available.
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Dish fixed to your roof caues problems if you are under trees. Go for a tripod mounted 85cm self seeking dish that you can move about to get a clear sight of the satellite.
If you choose the cheap option- manual tuning- you will spend half your holiday trying to find the satellite. Those gismos that supposedly tell you when you are locked on the satellite are useless. IMHO of course with bitter experience.
That will get you most Sky channels across France and Spain, but you won't get BBC, ITV, C4 OR C5 much south of the Dordogne.
And of course a sky box. Freesat box no good in Spain.
Paul
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I agree. If you want to wander further, yet stay in contact, you need Sky (something I won’t subscribe to). As a caravanner, I’d go for a dish on a tripod for the good reasons that nutsytvr gives above, amongst others. I’ve seen the auto seeking ones and,
if you can afford one, they make a lot of sense.0 -
If you choose the cheap option- manual tuning- you will spend half your holiday trying to find the satellite. Those gismos that supposedly tell you when you are locked on the satellite are useless. IMHO of course with bitter experience.
"Will" is I suspect a bit OTT, though I have seem many who can't master it.
With the right tripod and technique some of us get away with a few minutes at the most each time we seek the satellite. Assembling the kit is the time taking bit, not seeking the satellite. But then I have seen people taking an age moving a whole MH around a pitch.
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Download SatCalcLite, which will give you direction, elevation and skew for any place on the globe and for any satellite you have ever heard of. Skew is the least important, set it once and forget. Set elevation when you position the tripod, then point roughly
SE and rotate slowly to get a signal. If this takes more than10 nins you have done something wrong. Try it first at home with lots of time and a nearby fixed dish for reference.0 -
Sat dish, not fitted, - gives you flexibility to position it and the van in their respective best places, which won't always be the same. My dish came with the van, but I set the elevation from a chart, peg the dish level using a compass to point it, then
tweak it using the signal strength on the telly, it's always worked fine and takes 10 minutes tops. Didn't use it abroad though and have never been bothered if I haven't been able to get a particuar channel (the main ones have always been there so OH and
daughter can watch their regular progs, so haven't noticed tbh).0 -
I'm not an expert on this subject but had to learn more last year. I have a motorised dish of 1.1 m and this has the skew correctly set for any satelite as it tracks across - vital in S of France. I carry the dish under the van on the spare wheel carrier because of the size and also carry a 2m alloy pole that is fixed to the jockey wwheel clamp. This allows me to get it above the van and using a clamp I can start the dish motor at the arc beginning or at the due South - depends how you wish to set it up. after that I can either let the motor find the precise lock on or tweek it manually. Gets most of BBC ITV etc at Languedoc region.
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