Dish or Dome (2 Viewers)

Clive

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Thought it would be nice to have some English TV in France. Just need some comments on whether to go for a dish or a dome. All comments welcome
 
Feb 24, 2013
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not long enough
I have a dome which I bought mainly for UK use, I got good pictures as far down as Le Mans but have been told since I was lucky

I have not been further south in this MH to try yet

I did think the dome might look neater than a dish, but when down I now think a dish is better, for being more hidden, I have a white lump on my champagne MH at all times!!

I too will await other replies
 
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laneside

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nowhere near long enough
If you can possibly hold back until the New Year then do so as there is lots of change about to happen especially with Astra 2 and you may get a better answer, currently I would say the dome will be the least practical but watch this space.

We are currently down at Zahora near to Cadiz in Spain and receiving most Sky channels on an 80/85 cm roof mounted dish which people say cannot be done.

It really is all change at present and if we were in Blighty all the time I would not hesitate in choosing the dome, once across the channel I guess no one can be sure at present

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Dec 6, 2011
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there are pros and cons for all;

dome, not affected by wind and bad weather, looks ok! but probably good only a short way down into France.

roof mounted dish, can be quite big so can get good reception a long way south in europe. but, affected by winds.

all sat dishes need line of sight to the sat, therefore anything roof mounted is of little use in tree shaded areas in the summer.

at the moment i'm sticking to my tripod mounted ( Arcon 57 cm ) dish until all satellite changes have been finalised ( soon i believe ).
i have had a full set of uk channels down to the spanish border and can move the tripod when in shaded pitches.

but i will revisit my set up requirements when the sat movements are sorted. i'd sit tight for a month or so before you part with the hard earned :thumb:
 
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Clive

Clive

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there are pros and cons for all;

dome, not affected by wind and bad weather, looks ok! but probably good only a short way down into France.

roof mounted dish, can be quite big so can get good reception a long way south in europe. but, affected by winds.

all sat dishes need line of sight to the sat, therefore anything roof mounted is of little use in tree shaded areas in the summer.

at the moment i'm sticking to my tripod mounted ( Arcon 57 cm ) dish until all satellite changes have been finalised ( soon i believe ).
i have had a full set of uk channels down to the spanish border and can move the tripod when in shaded pitches.

but i will revisit my set up requirements when the sat movements are sorted. i'd sit tight for a month or so before you part with the hard earned :thumb:

I do have the connection for a tripod mounted dish, just a lazy sod but still might go down that route as not a lot of roof space with the solar panel
 
Dec 6, 2011
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i currently use one of these 0nly 57cm dia but "thinks" its 80cm :Doh:

and with a decent meter takes 10 mins to set up tripod and dish:thumb:

however, i do like the THOUGHT of a roof mount

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DBK

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We have a roof mounted dish. It works fine except, as already noted, in strong winds you have to lower it. It copes with normal weather but anything like a gale needs caution. However, we have only had to do that one night this year and that was in Cornwall with Force 8 forecast for the coast.

We got all the normal BBC/ITV channels in France this September, but we only went as far south as the Dordogne. As I understand it the coverage in France will be much less once the BBC have made their planned changes but you should be able to get BBC World more or less anywhere - which is fine for keeping in touch with major events but not much else!
 

LickeyEndBlues

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Hmmm!

Based on what we wanted we were pointed in the direction of "domes" so that's what we have. Previously I had a tripod mounted dish and when it worked it was fabulous but all too often external parameters made it almost impossible to gain good signals.

What are the proposed changes?
 
Dec 6, 2011
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Hmmm!

Based on what we wanted we were pointed in the direction of "domes" so that's what we have. Previously I had a tripod mounted dish and when it worked it was fabulous [HI]but all too often external parameters made it almost impossible to gain good signals.[/HI]

What are the proposed changes?

do you mean problems with set up, or obstacles in the way. i have "never" failed to get a good reception on any location UK or France.

on the changes, in basic terms tightening of the beams for UK channels. so this is likely to affect how far south you can get what and probably increase the size of dish required to get them. but others will give you a more reliable answer.

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John & Joan

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Further Astra 2E Update

Further Astra 2E Update

For some unknown reason the Astra 2E satellite is still sitting at it's test location of 43.5 East even though testing was completed a couple of weeks ago.

However the satellite operators SES issued a statement which is as follows:-
"As part of SES' ongoing fleet renewal programme, we will be transferring all the UK Spot Beam transponders currently operating on ASTRA 1N across to ASTRA 2E.
This move at the 28.2/28.5ºEast orbital location will take place over several weeks beginning early February 2014.

The transfer will have no adverse implications for viewers in the UK and Ireland as the affected channels will continue to operate on the same frequencies and will be broadcast at the same, or slightly improved power levels, across the UK and Ireland.


TV viewers outside the UK and Ireland may see an impact and may not be able to receive channels from ASTRA 2E UK Spot Beam, which has a smaller footprint than ASTRA 1N. The new footprint on SES' replacement fleet has been designed to meet the requirements of UK and Irish broadcasters who target their channels for distribution in the UK and/or Ireland. UK and Irish broadcasters hold broadcasting rights only for the UK and/or Ireland but not for other countries."


So for reasons only known to SES they are waiting for around 3 months to make the move to 28.2 East and to put the satellite into operation. It begs the question which many are asking "Do they have a problem?" We have plenty of time to wait and see.


BBC Entertainment is also available on Eurobird Satellite at 9º East. Frequency 11996 MHz Vertical polarisation. To get this in Spain you will need a 1m dish and a digital box with Viaccess slot and a BBC Entertainment descrambling card which costs about £100. Now say its not about making money.
 
Apr 25, 2012
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Ours is a roof mounted automatic OYSTER 85, linked to a humax box (previously linked to a Zehnder box). It was already fitted when we bought the van, so no choice to make, though interestingly, we had ordered and paid for in full, a dome from RoadPro for our previous van, who kindly gave us a full refund when I explained we had pxed it.

The reception has always been very good except in high wind, Right down to Northern Spain but since we changed the box it has been much better so I am hoping for even better results on our trip to Murcia in January.

The pros and cons have been well covered, but I'd add one more. Without the dish our van was comfortably under 3m high, and with the dish is still just below that mark, but if we had a dome I'm sure we would be over 3m........and maybe attract a higher ferry toll?

Incidentally, we have a sky box with full channel access at home. Does anyone know if I can put this in the van for the trip to Spain? ::bigsmile:

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LickeyEndBlues

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do you mean problems with set up, or obstacles in the way. i have "never" failed to get a good reception on any location UK or France.

It was mostly to do with getting the dish aligned. We still have it and after reading the rest of this thread we may still need it! By the time we are on southern Spain and the likes we'll have lots of time to fiddle!

tbh....we mostly want the tv for catch up on box sets and dvds. tbreallyh.....I hope once we are touring proper we don't ave time or the weather to want to watch tv.:Smile:
 

Rapide561

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Hi

I have had three systems, an Osyter, a Camos dome and a Kathrein. My comparable thoughts are Link Broken

I would not commit to buying any new system that is primarily for use overseas until all the programs have moved to Astra2E - I think this is February 2014. Only then can accurate reception reports be obtained etc.

Russell

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Biggles

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i currently use one of these 0nly 57cm dia but "thinks" its 80cm :Doh:

and with a decent meter takes 10 mins to set up tripod and dish:thumb:

however, i do like the THOUGHT of a roof mount

I have one of these Multimos on the boat and it is brilliant. But I am in the UK. Not sure how well it would work in more southern climes especially with the changes.

Never does it take more than a minute or so with no sat finder to get a lock just using the sky box signal strength meter.

If I find nothing better I will have one on the van too.
 
Sep 21, 2012
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Hi all I'm currently in Benidorm with lots of other Funsters. I have a roof mounted Oyster 85cm auto search dish which was on the van when I bought it. Perfect reception in UK and down through France, Andorra, Northern Spain and into Portugal. Then they changed the frequencies but Oyster emailed me a fix on request and back to normal. ( I did post contact details etc on this forum early October).

Everything worked well alway a good picture but in the Algarve I found it better to tune to Astra 1 (19.2) first and then change satellite to Astra 2 (28.2). Excellent quality and good channel choice. Whilst in Portugal just outside Sagres I heard of a guy who did Satelite retunes and repairs and offered overnight accommodation on his small holding. I called him and he fitted a new LNB, retuned my system, deleted all the dross and sorted all the channels for me. Plus I stayed overnight on his site all for about €40.

Perfect reception when others including many with domes could no longer receive UK channels on Astra 2 right down to Monte Video on the Spanish border.

Whoever the minute I moved into Spain I could not get my dish to lock onto anything. I tried various Satelites including Hotbird and Atlantic 3 with no success. I tried in the Spanish Interior in the Ronda Region, in Marbella, Fuengerola and Torremolinos with no success. I assumed I must have a bad connection or that I had caught the dish on a tree or something similar. I did a little research and the consensus seemed to be the angle of the LNB. I checked the angle (skew) on mine. I'd marked it when it was replaced in Portugal and it had not moved. It was set at about 8 o'clock when viewed looking into the dish. (The angle that they cable came out of the fitting) this was adjusted to approximately 7 o'clock and eh voila the dish locked on straight away. A few final adjustments using the "info button" on the Tuner/TV and I'm sitting here watching "The Great Train Robbery" on BBC 1Wales in HD. It was a bit iffy earlier when the rain was really pouring down, but otherwise excellent.

I suppose I'm trying to say that I think dishes are much better, they're bigger and you can physically get to them to adjust and repair.

Have a great Christmas one and all and a happy healthy New Year.

Daiboy. Xx
 
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Techno

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I have a dome 40cm roadpro but only paid £700 new :thumb: if only we could buy from the wholesalers instead of lining the pockets of dealers

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Sep 21, 2012
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When I bought the van the receipts for the Sat dish and a Telly amounted to £2700. I could never have justified that cost. They wouldn't offer me a warranty on it but it has worked fine for me.

Daiboy. Xx
 

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