Aerial recommendations?
Having parked too close to the trees for my old sat-dish to pick up any signals on our last outing I'd really like to simplify life and lessen the load of goodies and gadgets by buying a decent relatively simple roof aerial to replace the old Vision 315 that came with the van. The array of aerials and their claims is bewildering, so any tried and trusted recommendations would be greatly appreciated!
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The Aerial you have is fitted omnidirectional you would be better with the directional type which can be adjusted to vertical and horizontal and would give you forward gain ie just point in the direction of the transmitter (get the phone ty finder app ) but its still not 100% as you found with your satellite dish with trees, hills and buildings blocking the signal. you could of course just attach a pole to the jockey wheel and fit a normal TV aerial with a signal booster
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And there was me thinking whether I should go back to an automatic satellite dish because I have not particularly happy with the results from our Vision Plus 570 direction aerial!!! Funnily enough we found the old round Vision Plus a bit better than the directional but that was some years ago in the early days of digital TV. What we find is that we get perfect reception up to about 5.00pm but then we start to get interference for the rest of the evening. I am about to buy the Vision Plus Digital TV Amplifier with the signal indicator to see if I can improve things.
David
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Hi, Well there could be an array of answers to your question! First thinh, you mention a roof aeriel and a sat-dish so not sure which but if roof then I would go for a directional.
We have just decided that we wont be taking our sat-dish away next month and instead will be signing up to the 'watchtvabroad service.
Did look at the VPN route but have tried, albeit free ones, in the past and they didn't work plus with this service you can access SkyGo, Netflix and Amazon which my sat-dish wont give me.
We are hoping that the possible internet issues will be no more frustrating than trying, and often failing, to get a satellite signal, and as its something we can live without not willing to spend a lot but its worth the £6.99 monthly fee to give it a try.
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For UK use we do not bother with a dish. We use the stick it on the side of the van Avtex and it has not let us down. If you have an Avtex TV it feeds the amplifier in the aerial. https://www.avtex.co.uk/antenna/sth3000
Colin
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thanks for all so far, correction to my OP it's a Status 315, not Vision. But yes it's a very old pre-digital omnidirectional unit and clearly was not up to much, even with the onboard booster or I'd have never bought the satellite system. Just to assure David, I have no intention of chucking the dish away until/unless I get a really good, reliable reception from a new aerial.
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Thing is it’s the quality and strength of the signal coming in from the local transmitter to your very pitch that is far more of a factor than the aerial itself. In areas with strong signals a coat hanger will do in many instances. In areas where it’s poor then a directional aerial which allows for polarity to be changed as required from horizontal to vertical may be essential. It’s not an exact science as topology has an effect as do surrounding trees, buildings etc,. Now as far as boosters go that can confuse things even further as it’s really gain thats the issue and sometimes too much gain can be detrimental.
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I find if I cannot get a signal from either my sat system or omni aerial (rare) then streaming to my tablet using my phone's hot spot gives another alternative. If you have a smart TV or firestick you could also try those. I have found it to work quite well even with quite low 4G signals.
peedee
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