No frills set up (1 Viewer)

[Peter & Elaine]

What I need is is some practical advice
I would like a satellite system for our burstner van it needs to be cheap and simple
Able to receive uk channels mainly in Europe down as far as southern Spain and maybe into morocco I am not bothered about all the sky channels but need news and coranation street for her indoors
no frills and no running costs ideas please?
Why is something so simple so confusing

 

[pappajohn]

you wont get UK channels in southern Spain and definitely not in Morocco without a very large dish of maybe 1.2 meters or more, if then.

see HERE http://www.uk-satellite-tv.co.uk/satellitefootprintsinstallation_103674.html for sat footprints

 

[Hollyberry]

That far south you'd be better watching online if you are on a site with wifi.

Cheapest way is to download Expatshield then you can use I player and suchlike and I think get live TV.

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[Don Quixote]

Well, you can get Sky channels across Spain as we do with a 80cm ground mounted dish.
From Denia across to Alicante down to Seville and across into Portupal were we spend December and January. You will not get all the channels, but BBC 1,2 ITV 1,2,3,4 work fine and if you have sky card loads of the channels decode fine like sports and some movies. Total cost for dish and LNB and tripod was 85 euors.
We are going back to UK in JUne for 3 months and having a maxview 85cm manual dish fitted.

John

 

[keith]

Well, you can get Sky channels across Spain as we do with a 80cm ground mounted dish.
From Denia across to Alicante down to Seville and across into Portupal were we spend December and January. You will not get all the channels, but BBC 1,2 ITV 1,2,3,4 work fine and if you have sky card loads of the channels decode fine like sports and some movies. Total cost for dish and LNB and tripod was 85 euors.
We are going back to UK in JUne for 3 months and having a maxview 85cm manual dish fitted.

John

Things are set to change this year so it may all be different by the end of the year.

Mixed reception here in Tavira, on night OK then other nights not so good. It's the start of the big satellite change/upgrade.

 

[Peter & Elaine]

And I thought this would be easy
How wrong can you be
Cash in pocket untill change over and see what happens then

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[Daveo2006]

Ive been told today satellites are all being moved around,i was steered towards the oyster system by many.Not cheap though.To be honest i dont know much about the things but after searching am still none the wiser as such varied opinions on all systems.

 

[Don Quixote]

Ive been told today satellites are all being moved around,i was steered towards the oyster system by many.Not cheap though.To be honest i dont know much about the things but after searching am still none the wiser as such varied opinions on all systems.

Well I'm still going for this in June whilst in the UK:

Link Removed

Spending 2.500 pounds on an automatic system for something I don't watch all day every day or for that matter use the MH everyday seams to much, however 600 pounds for a manual system that I can use as and when seams a better idea.

John

 

[pappajohn]

Things are set to change this year so it may all be different by the end of the year.

Mixed reception here in Tavira, on night OK then other nights not so good. It's the start of the big satellite change/upgrade.

The new Astra 2F satellite is already up there and will take over the services provided by the 1N satellite.

as i understand it nothing should change...except some channel number swapping and some new ones maybe.
according to Astra 2F's new footprint, once you get past Paris your gonna be disappointed without a minimum 60cm dish...time will tell.

then it all starts again later this year when Astra 2E is commissioned...but again nothing should change.

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[MikeandCarolyn]

We have a Kathrein self seeking system that 'came with the van' however here in Spain it's useless,so,I've been looking at this site http://www.satelliteforcaravans.co.uk/ and think I may well go down the route of a manual set-up.

Mike

 

[Don Quixote]

We have a Kathrein self seeking system that 'came with the van' however here in Spain it's useless,so,I've been looking at this site http://www.satelliteforcaravans.co.uk/ and think I may well go down the route of a manual set-up.

Mike

Mike, not sure were your are in Spain or the size of your dish, but you should be receiving something on anything from 60cm up. Have you tried twisting your LNB a little?

As I have stated in my earlier post we are going for this one:
Link Removed

I cannot find an installer or supplier here in Spain so it's waiting until we visit family in UK around June.

John

 

[MikeandCarolyn]

Mike, not sure were your are in Spain or the size of your dish, but you should be receiving something on anything from 60cm up. Have you tried twisting your LNB a little?

As I have stated in my earlier post we are going for this one:
Link Removed

I cannot find an installer or supplier here in Spain so it's waiting until we visit family in UK around June.

John

I'm on Marjal eco site nr Catral-our system is 'self seeking' and it is not possible to make any manual adjustments.
we do have a few channels from the sites 'plug in on the pitch' system.

Mike

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[Don Quixote]

I'm on Marjal eco site nr Catral-our system is 'self seeking' and it is not possible to make any manual adjustments.
we do have a few channels from the sites 'plug in on the pitch' system.

Mike

Mike, sounds like the software within the sat system needs updating. That is the problem over the next year or two with all the satellite changes the software on the "auto" systems will not lock on. This should not be a problem with a manual system.

I have used since September last year when we got our MH a 80cm dish on the ground all over Spain and Portugal. It takes 10 minutes to get out / set up / find sat and we are watch TV. With the system on the roof that should be 2/3 minutes total.

John

 

[Larby]

This site gives you direction, azimuth and LNB skew.
http://www.dishpointer.com/

You enter your location and all the details you need.
Best take note of the advice of others regarding dish size and expected coverage, not tried it myself that far South

I use an old Sky dish (£5), an upturned whirly line as a tripod (free from tip) and the home Freesat decoder.
Direction is found by walking on a bearing from my Garmin GPS or even a compass. My antics proved to a source of amusement to a couple of Frenchmen who approved my efforts of a picture very quickly.

Good luck

Peter

 

[scotjimland]

No frills and cheap.. you can have it, what I started out with

A basic 12v "Free To Air" Satellite receiver and a domestic 80cm dish .. shop around and it can be had for under 100 quid..

You can buy a 'camping kit' from the likes of Maplin or occasionally from Aldi for about £70 .. this will have a 12v FTA receiver and a small 40 cm dish that will be fine for the UK and France..

When you go south, pop into a Spanish supermarket and buy a domestic dish , 60 cm or bigger..
To mount my big dish I used the rear ladder with a TV pole and a couple of jubilee clamps.. you could also use a tripod.. home made or bought.. I even clamped mine to a pole on the pitch .. the only limiting factor is your imagination.. It's not rocket science nor does it need to be expensive.. the beauty of this simple system is that if you find the view obstructed by trees you can move it where needed..

As mentioned, you won't get UK channels in Morocco.. but that doesn't mean you won't find something to watch ...
While there I found Nile Sat .. a satellite that transmits news and movies.. many in English .. I assume for the ex pats in Arabia and else where..

A photo taken on a Spanish site showing my 65 cm dish clamped to a pole ..

BROKEN LINK

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[oldfozzie]

Sat TV reception in Spain

The new Astra 2F satellite is already up there and will take over the services provided by the 1N satellite.

as i understand it nothing should change...except some channel number swapping and some new ones maybe.
according to Astra 2F's new footprint, once you get past Paris your gonna be disappointed without a minimum 60cm dish...time will tell.

then it all starts again later this year when Astra 2E is commissioned...but again nothing should change.

We have a house in Almeria province (SE Spain) currently using a fixed 1.2 m dish professionally installed with a LNB & Feedhorn. We cannot receive the various Ch 5 channels and some regional ITV channels recently moved from Astra 1N to Astra 2F (UK Beam); the other channels which are still on 1N Pan-European beam work fine. These channels are expected to move to Astra 2E (UK beam) when that satellite is launched later this year so will probably disappear in a similar way. Local experimentation would suggest that we will need a minimum 1.5 m in future.
I would emphasize that reception seems to vary greatly from place to place I presume due to side lobe scatter from the satellite beams; rumour has it that these moved channels are unreceiveable further west past Gib.
There is a very good website which I have found a great source of info on all matters Sat TV and would suggest you have a look, its Broken Link Removed.
I do use a MaxView 85cm on a tripod with the motorhome and sometimes I can get some UK channels but never BBC, often ITV Channel Islands and plenty of shopping channels.
Good Hunting

 

[Peter & Elaine]

See I knew someone would come with a bodge and scarper set up this is what I want need and can afford especially if things are going to change this year I don't mind spend the money to do it right just don't like getting it wrong and spending my hard earned cash 3 times on some thing that won't work

 

[Reallyretired]

SWMBO follows Coronation street. Just set the box to record and she catches up when we get home. No cost at all and no fussing about trying to get a signal.

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[HymerB544]

satellite

Hi,

Don't know if this will help, but when we bought our currrent van it had an automatic Oyster 85cm system and we thought it would be perfect for our trip through France and Spain to Morocco and back last year. How misguided! we couldnt get a signal in southern Spain and noticed that the old hands who stay down there for the winter all had free-standing monster sized dishes [more than 1m diameter]. Before that, we had one of those small, boosted, free-standing dishes which worked OK en Angleterre, but required much falling about, even with the aid of an electronic satfinder.

I have no idea how much the monster dishes cost; some vans had them secured to the bike-rack for transit; guess they will not fit inside! We have reconciled ourselves to doing without TV once out of range.

Gary