Suitcase TV Satellite Dish from Maplin (1 Viewer)

[alan.watson]

:thumb:There is a very economic package for a Satellite Dish / Receiver etc etc in Maplin which fits in a Suitcase for Motorhomes. Two Versions at £79 and £99 for everything except satellite finder

Does anyone have any experience of these and their use in Northern France.

Would anyone recommend other similar budget price ones ?

Off to France next week and need our dose of Eastenders and Corrie !!

 

[Geo]

They work
They are extreamly fiddly to set up for the first half dozen times till you find the knack
You can get them as cheap as £39
You wont get Corrie to far down in France,
This is where someone comes in and says he got Corrie in North Africa with oneoh:set up in 12 seconds:thumb:
Geo
Forgot to add you see many used ones for sale due to lack of patiance in the previous owners dont leave it till 7.15pm to set up for the soap

 

[madbluemad]

This is where someone comes in and says he got Corrie in North Africa with oneoh:set up in 12 seconds:thumb:
Geo

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[madbluemad]

Were off to France next week and if If we can get corrie in southern france I'll be most annoyed.

Jim

 

[greyman]

i have one of the scart lead sat sets from maplins ,(the receiver is the size of a pack of cigs and plugs straight into the back of tv ) comes with dish in sutcase etc works great and cost £29 (b grade) ,would definately reccomend, especially if space is limited .

 

[hallii]

I use one all over Europe and they work as far south as Roses in Spain. The signal gets very weak however and needs careful pointing of the dish.

the first few times of "aiming" the dish cab be a bit trying but just persevere and like anything, it soon becomes quite easy. I take about 2 minutes now.

You will also need to skew the LNB a bit for best reception. Use BBC 1 for finding the satellite,
(Astra , 28.2 degrees) there are other satellites carrying both BBC and ITV some are encrypted and some not, but what you want is 28.2 Astra. You can get some news channels on 28.2 on what is known as the "South Beam" all through Spain and Portugal, but there are many other satellites that carry the news channels, just watch out for the rude ones!

The receiver is made by Comag , a good company and seems to be very reliable.

The rubber sucker mount made of plastic is to flexible and waves around to much in the wind. Best to use the metal clamp supplied if you can.

The stiff cable supplied is a nightmare to roll and unroll, get some softer more pliable stuff and keep it as short as possible. A couple of push on "F" connectors will make connection / disconnection a lot easier, but they can come off with a slight tug, make sure they are a good fit.

Hallii

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[Dalek]

TV on holiday oh:

 

[kenspain]

Like the A frame watching corrie or eastenders is illegal in Spain you will get a fine or be shoot

 

[lebesset]

dish too small
no red button
no EPG
no buy

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[Pablo]

I've got one of these - used it twice for the kids TV when on holiday but they don't come with us anymore :thumb:

It's OK & does the job well, if you're having trouble setting it up look to see where the majority are pointing (If you're not alone) and then fine tune with the easy tune mode - this is tone controlled; when your nearer the correct position for reception the tone will increase in pitch.

This is OK of course if it's relatively quite in the surrounding area and no generators are on the go

Hope you get on OK with it but wait for a Maplin B Grade sale & your get it for £50 :thumb:

P

 

[keith]

dish too small
no red button
no EPG
no buy

Had one for years before crank up Camos.
Got red button all over Europe, including SW Portugal
Sky and other sat, Rec. = EGP ALWAYS available.

What you doing wrong lebesset?

 

[Kon tiki]

Usually on sale for less than £50 at Lidl, Aldi & Maplins. Had one for a few years & can set it up pretty quickly. Can get all the channels down as far as Biarritz after that start to lose some of them or takes too long to get it to find them.

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[lebesset]

perhaps I wasn't clear

the BBC broadcast a lot of extra channels which you access by pressing the red button , like F1 practise , tennis and various other things

when I enquired I was informed that only Freesat and Sky branded boxes access this facility

I would be interested to know if anyone can access these things from any other box , when I looked at the maplins kit last year it was neither of these brands

 

[scotjimland]

perhaps I wasn't clear

the BBC broadcast a lot of extra channels which you access by pressing the red button , like F1 practise , tennis and various other things

when I enquired I was informed that only Freesat and Sky branded boxes access this facility

I would be interested to know if anyone can access these things from any other box , when I looked at the maplins kit last year it was neither of these brands

Correct , only a Freesat or Sky box can access the EPG (electronic program guide )

The FTA (free to air) boxes cannot do this .

 

[hilldweller]

perhaps I wasn't clear

the BBC broadcast a lot of extra channels which you access by pressing the red button , like F1 practise , tennis and various other things

when I enquired I was informed that only Freesat and Sky branded boxes access this facility

I would be interested to know if anyone can access these things from any other box , when I looked at the maplins kit last year it was neither of these brands

Yes you can. We have a Humax freesat receiver and you can't set a timer for a red button event, BUT, what we want always seems to appear on a channel named "301". This PC has a Hauphauge TV dongle, no red button, but channel "301" delivers the goods. "Red Button" also appears as a channel name but I think this is the menu not the content. I've also notice "302" and "303".

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[lebesset]

what's the model number of this receiver please brian

if I understand correctly you can't access these programmes via the red button , but they are available on a channel number

I tried a sky box , doesn't happen there , presumably freesat has a different numbering system

 

[Denny]

Just in case it helps you to set up, think along these lines:-
The Satellite is, for arguments sake, 3,500 miles away and if you miss it by a quarter of an inch you miss it by 500 miles.
Start with an almost vertical dish facing due South and turn it a quarter of an inch, at the most, towards the East. Stop for a second then continue another quarter of an inch, stop for a second and so on.......
Using the tone sound facility is the best way as you can tell if you are getting nearer. A high pitched tone or bleeping is what you are looking for and it will drop lower as you move away from the Satellite.
For some reason, when you first start, you may pick up Satellite 19E which has all german stations on it. If you do, turn the dish a bit towards the South again.
You will become expert after a several set ups, but do be very patient to start with.
They work very well in France and are useful when it is raining as it is here now !!
Bon voyage, Denny.:thumb:

 

[hilldweller]

The Satellite is, for arguments sake, 3,500 miles away

You want an argument do you !

Right.

The orbit is 35,786 km or 22,236 miles above the equator. Add another few thousand for our distance from the equator. Now doesn't that look more impressive !!

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[Denny]

I too can Google accurate information but I think you missed the point !
Denny.

 

[scotjimland]

For some reason, when you first start, you may pick up Satellite 19E which has all german stations on it. If you do, turn the dish a bit towards the South again.


Denny.:thumb:

That should be East ..

Astra 2A, B and D are at 28.2 deg East

If you use a decent compass you're less likely to make that mistake

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[lebesset]

and what is that humax model number brian? see you posted again , probably missed my last post

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[Denny]

You are right Jim, I was thinking of my compass from the wrong point of view as I stand behind it to set up. However if Alan.Watson gets the general idea then all will be well.
Denny. oh:

 

[hilldweller]

and what is that humax model number brian? see you posted again , probably missed my last post

Yes I did, sorry.

This one:

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Pretty pleased with it. Though it did let us down whilst on holiday, there seems to be a limit on how far ahead it looks when set to record a series, or I failed to set it properly. There's no DVD drive.

 

[lebesset]

well , that explains it brian , it IS a freesat box according to the advert !
probably even got the logo on it somewhere

don't forget freesat is a registered brand name

btw , red button +3001 probably gives you the menu

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[keith]

I have a Silvercrest sat. rec. bought from Lidl some years ago, possibly before Freesat came to the market. On the list of channels is a set of numbered channels that broadcast sport which I believe are the channels that are under the red button. I cannot remember the numbers that come up.
You need to make sure you have an up to date list of channels on Astra and then spend some considerable time searching the list to find these. They make no effort to say this is what they are and I have never found a way to find out what is coming on.
As has been said you can get the Red button service with one of these dishes if you use a sky box (plenty cheap on Ebay) and it is easily received by tuning to BBC Parliment and you can get this all over Southern Europe, even with a small dish.