Satellite TV set-up
I have an Avtex 16" TV in my campervan which has built-in satellite receiver, according to its description. According to where I am, I am quite happy with the reception I get in the UK on Freeview. I have done a couple of trips abroad in the last 6 months and intend to do more as my retirement looms. Am I right in saying that in order to get UK channels (BBC, ITV for example) I will need to use a satellite dish to get a signal? As most of my trips tend to be to Spain I think I need a fairly large dish, 85cm I think. My question is, is it fairly straightforward to set up a portable satellite dish, connect to my TV and get a decent signal? Please bear in mind that I am a complete lemon when it comes to technical matters so I need a simple explanation. PS I am thinking of a portable dish as mine is a small van (Wildax Pulsar - 5M) and I don't want any additional kit on the roof.
Comments
-
In short, and in simplistic terms the further you go South in Europe the bigger the dish required. There does come a point where it becomes impossible to pick up British SAT broadcasting stations. Much of southern Spain is out of range with our equipment and the satellite footprint provided.
0 -
'UK channels' are broadcast on two separate beams from Astra 2 group...
the 'uk spot beam' which contains the likes of BBC/ITV/4/5 etc and is narrowly focussed on the uk is viewable into Europe, but as PD says, the farther you move away (south) the bigger the dish. However, your 85cm dish 'should' be able to receive these over almost the whole of France, especially if you set the LNB (the receiver on the end of the arm) to the correct 'skew angle' as this changes as you move south.
the other beam is known as the 'pan European beam' and this is very easy to pick up over most of Europe...however, this is used to carry channels like Sky Sports, Movies and other Sky Package channels. We have Sky at home, and a spare Sky box on our MH so I move our card there for our European trips and can watch these channels without issue.
if you don't have Sky, Astra 2 group won't give you much (anything, Sky news?) beyond say Narbonne, but there are other satellites which can be tuned to and contain a variety of 'interesting' channels in various languages.
once you move away from France, the best way to get uk via is to use streaming, see the other tv thread in this section for more help.
0 -
Have you seen this thread which is currently ongoing, perhaps no need for a satellite dish at all? https://www.caravanclub.co.uk/club-together/discussions/sites-touring/overseas-sites-touring/tv-in-europe-2
On our previous motorhome we had an 85cms automatic dish and got most UK channels down as far as Carcassonne, didn't really go to Spain so have to bow to others experience which has been contributed here. The idea of doing everything via the internet, rather than dish has its attractions.
David
0 -
"The idea of doing everything via the internet, rather than dish has its attractions."
....but certainly it's drawbacks...can you imagine what would happen to CC wifi if there were a requirement for everyone to stream? That doesn't happen in the uk as a simple aerial and tuner delivers what most folk want.
start ramping up the numbers who want Netflix and Amazon Prime and the strain on any site wifi rises...
...but, of course, you could use your own data to escape the squeeze but this has its own issues as mentioned in the other thread...data is consumed pretty quickly, overseas allowances can be small and watching UK Home channels requires a VPN...
So not as easy as one might think...
of course, I can press a button, the dish locks onto Astra 2 group, turn on Sky box and hey presto....
like many tech things, it's horses for courses....whatever suits best.
0 -
I love sats & all the paraphernalia but whilst away it’s the wild & the outdoors rather than stuck inside-that is for winter not summer. I too don’t like the faff😕
1 -
We are currently on the South of France in our caravan. We have a 85cm satellite dish on a tripod. OH is good at getting it aligned to Astra 2, he has a gadget to assist him (not a squealer)
At Marseilan plage he managed to get ITV channels 3 days out of 7, no bbc at all. The weather plays a big part in fine tuning and receiving these channels especially the manual type of dish.
We moved sites all of 12 mls, still same weather, still perfect line of sight to satellite but no ITV or any spot beam channels at all, just pan European channels the likes of Challenge, Pick, Sky news, Together and Blaze.
Now we have been to this site before, last September with our MH which has a roof mounted automatic 85cm dish and received ALL the English channels including BBC.
Manual tripod dishes are great for dodging trees but they are not so great this far south in France I'm afraid. A lot of skill and buckets load of patience are required.
In Spain and Portugal an 85cm dish will not get you UK TV spot beam channels. At Alicante you need a 1.2m dish and in Murcia a 2m dish is need, as stated far to big to carry around with you. Some sites however you can rent a dish or just plug into the sites system.
Data and something like a Firestick is the way forward if you want to watch English TV channels in Spain.
0 -
...agree with TG re traditional 'home' channels.
For info, Sky subscribers can access pretty well all of their Premium service (Sports, Movies, Atlantic etc) as they are easy to find on the Pan Euro beam of Astra 2 group.
0 -
Hi with bbc you now need hd sat reciever to pick up there channels they have changed from sl
0 -
My understanding is that the SD channels will still be available until 2024 but not on the Freesat menu. Currently they are available on transponder 10803Ghz horizontal polarised, coded 22000. All that is required to receive these SD channels is to pick up this free to air transponder. First check the reveiver is set up to receive this channel and then either do a complete search for all free to air channels or manually search for this individual frequency.
peedee
0 -
I don't have a Freesat box, just a Sky+ HD box and recently 'channel 1' has become (for us) BBC 1 SW HD...The former generic BBC 1 (sd) has now moved into the 800 range...
this was to allow the HD version (required by more customers I guess) to become the default and therefore sorted to the top of the list.
another change is that the local programs after the news have all become HD versions, something the BBC have been moving towards for a while.
0 -
I bought my hd box on Amazon £39 use it at home and in motorhome .my mate also uses this method with his avtex tv which he had trouble with having to reprogram each time he switched it on .works perfect now
0
