New aerial?

[barracudabus]

Morning all.

Having had a couple of weeks free over xmas I decided to go on a mini tour in the van. Maybe not the best time of year but at least I now know the heating works fine ;-)

Anyway the long cold nights have meant I've finally used the TV a bit and have noticed that signal is patchy at best even when moving only short distances.

Sometimes I get just BBC, sometimes ITV and C4 as well, sometimes I need to do a rescan on the TV to get anything.

All this has left me wondering whether we should invest in a new aerial or even put on a sat dish.

We currently have a Status 330 which I think is omni directional and was looking for advice, recommendations or experience.

The status 570/580 looks like an improvement, but is it? Are there better alternatives? Or would a sat dish be better?

I have a 12v Linux based sat box at home so can add this into van if necessary. But as we don't have a satellite subscription is there any benefit just for freeview channels. I.e. signal strength is better, it gives the only opportunity for English channels whilst abroad?

Thanks all and Happy New Year

 

[Two on Tour]

Are you using a signal booster on you setup as this is pretty well and essential for these type of aerial.

 

[irnbru]

We rescan channels at each new stopover and even in Scotland get tv in most places.

 

[Stonemags76]

We have an Avtex powered aerial that sticks to the side of the van, and gives a much better picture than the status aerial ever did. It was about £30, and was recommended by someone on here. We recently returned the tv in Spain to Spainish tv when the satellite wasn’t picking up, and got some channels that transmit in English when we changed the tv settings.

 

[Landy lover]

We rescan channels at each new stopover and even in Scotland get tv in most places.

We always have to rescan for channels when we change sites . Hardly ever had an issue.

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[barracudabus]

Are you using a signal booster on you setup as this is pretty well and essential for these type of aerial.

Yes, I think pretty much all Status aerials are coupled with there own amplifier. In this case we have a Status 315 sitting in the wardrobe.

The Status 570/580 also has a DAB / FM feed off of the supplied amplifier so was another option we were considering it; for when I finally get around to sorting out a stereo.

 

[ambulancekidd]

I've had a few Status 330s go faulty on vans over the last 10yrs or so. Now I have a Teleco & its in a different league. That said are you actually turning your 330 towards a transmitter & checking to see if the aerial needs to be horizontal or vertical? Its a rudimentary question but it makes a huge difference. One local site that we use comes up with masses of different channels on horizontal then ever more on vertical, dunno what that's all about?

 

[Lofty1]

Got fed up with having to rescan so fitted a snipe 2 dish easy to fit and works well .

 

[barracudabus]

I've had a few Status 330s go faulty on vans over the last 10yrs or so. Now I have a Teleco & its in a different league. That said are you actually turning your 330 towards a transmitter & checking to see if the aerial needs to be horizontal or vertical? Its a rudimentary question but it makes a huge difference. One local site that we use comes up with masses of different channels on horizontal then ever more on vertical, dunno what that's all about?

The 330 is static is it not?

With reference to horizontal or vertical that's why I was looking at the 570/580 as you can adjust to either.

 

[barracudabus]

@irnbru and @Landy lover

Just to clarify even if we do a rescan we don't get perfect signal or all channels.

Sometimes we don't rescan if some of the channels are OK as the rescan sometimes looses us channels and so don't take the risk.

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[ambulancekidd]

The 330 is static is it not?

With reference to horizontal or vertical that's why I was looking at the 570/580 as you can adjust to either.

Ah yes your quite correct. Time I put my glasses on before replying to posts lol. It was 570 types we've had problems with (water ingress).
Right back to the problem, we have a 330 on my current MH project, I have direct line of sight to transmitter & it struggles, I really don't think they're up to the job of digital tv. The Teleco on my Sprinter works flawlessly.

 

[Hettie's Crew]

The Status 570/580 also has a DAB / FM feed off of the supplied amplifier so was another option we were considering it; for when I finally get around to sorting out a stereo.

We have a 580 and it works very well, very pleased with it. I am considering running the dash radio aerial to the the DAB/FM connection but I'm not sure if the booster would need to be switched on all the time to get a signal.

 

[Two on Tour]

Got fed up with having to rescan so fitted a snipe 2 dish easy to fit and works well .

Yes, we have done the same.

Our van has a factory fitted Avtex omnidirectional whip aerial which was atrocious until I replaced the coax with a decent bit rather than the crap length fitted by Elddis.

 

[barracudabus]

We have a 580 and it works very well, very pleased with it. I am considering running the dash radio aerial to the the DAB/FM connection but I'm not sure if the booster would need to be switched on all the time to get a signal.

@Hettie's Crew that's a great point, I didn't consider that the booster might need to be on for the DAB connection. I would hope not as normal car DAB radio's aerial doesn't need amplification but I think a call to the technical support might be in order first.

 

[barracudabus]

@Lofty1 & @CCC

Do you have the snipe 2 dish fitted to the van or do you get it out of the box each time? I ask as I've just read an advert and it says the mounting bracket is not supplied.

Also do you use these all the time instead of a normal aerial? And is this because you have a SKY subscription or is it purely to pickup freeview channels?

Thanks

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[barracudabus]

@ambulancekidd which Teleco do you have? I've just had a look and there's all sorts out there, omnidirectional and adjustable.

Thanks

 

[magicsurfbus]

The little static Status aerials that look like flying saucers rarely if ever get a good write up on here.

If you're looking for an antenna you can twiddle with and point in different directions, consider going to eBay. The reason I say this is we had one factory-fitted by mistake on our new MH when we'd said we didn't want one. The dealership removed it before handover, put a sat dish in its place and I sold the antenna in good as new condition on eBay for a substantial discount.

 

[Lenny HB]

@Lofty1 & @CCC

Do you have the snipe 2 dish fitted to the van or do you get it out of the box each time? I ask as I've just read an advert and it says the mounting bracket is not supplied.

Also do you use these all the time instead of a normal aerial? And is this because you have a SKY subscription or is it purely to pickup freeview channels?

Thanks

Plenty of suppliers supply with the mounting bracket. We have a Snipe 2 mounted on the roof and never bother with terestrial signals.

 

[Lofty1]

@Lofty1 & @CCC

Do you have the snipe 2 dish fitted to the van or do you get it out of the box each time? I ask as I've just read an advert and it says the mounting bracket is not supplied.

Also do you use these all the time instead of a normal aerial? And is this because you have a SKY subscription or is it purely to pickup freeview channels?

Thanks

We have it fixed to the roof should come with the mounting bracket we use it for freeview as it gets uk tv half way down France

 

[Lenny HB]

We have it fixed to the roof should come with the mounting bracket we use it for freeview as it gets uk tv half way down France

We have had Astra 2 as far south as 40km north of Orange in Provence, drops out further north as you go west.

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[barracudabus]

@Hettie's Crew

I've just been on the phone to a very helpful chap at Vision and he's said that you WOULD need the power on the amplifier in order to receive a DAB signal. It's NOT because you'd need the signal amplified per se but because there is a single aerial input and so there are electronics within the amplifier to route the various signals (TV, FM, DAB).

He was also very upfront and said that they don't market the aerial for use specifically with a DAB head unit as regardless of whether power is supplied to the amplifier the aerial isn't designed for picking up a signal in transit. If DAB on the go is required it would need an upgrade of the existing "car aerial".

However, if you were only going to use the DAB on the head unit on site it'd still be fine.

Hope that helps.

 

[Two on Tour]

@Lofty1 & @CCC

Do you have the snipe 2 dish fitted to the van or do you get it out of the box each time? I ask as I've just read an advert and it says the mounting bracket is not supplied.

Also do you use these all the time instead of a normal aerial? And is this because you have a SKY subscription or is it purely to pickup freeview channels?

Thanks

Ours is permanently roof mounted

I bought ours from an Germany based eBay seller as theirs was the cheapest at the time and it came with the ally roof mounting plate.
We use the freesat satellite most of the time as it's press a button and away it goes rather than re-tuning the terrestrial ever time you move to a fresh location.
The terrestrial only really gets used if we have an obstruction like trees or a building for the satellite.
We just view via freesat and freeview as there's enough crap on there without adding more to it with Sky.

 

[Geo]

The 330 AKA a Frisbee is great when removed and thrown for the dog

 

[Two on Tour]

This is the eBay seller that we bought our Snipe 2 from.

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/112534599633

Yes I know it's all in German but if you look at the bullet point list that says Befestigungsplatte, that translates to mounting plate.

 

[Vansflyer]

I've had a few Status 330s go faulty on vans over the last 10yrs or so. Now I have a Teleco & its in a different league. That said are you actually turning your 330 towards a transmitter & checking to see if the aerial needs to be horizontal or vertical? Its a rudimentary question but it makes a huge difference. One local site that we use comes up with masses of different channels on horizontal then ever more on vertical, dunno what that's all about?

Horizontal or vertical is the polarity of the transmission signal. Most of the big Tv masts transmit horizontally and the repeaters transmit vertically so they are less likely to interfere. You have one big mast with the repeater "filling in" the dead spots, valleys, hills etc.
More info here so you can get an idea. http://www.aerialsandtv.com/suttoncoldfieldtx.html
If you are going to use an aerial it is worth getting a map or an app that points you in the right direction and polarity.
Having said that... I have always used a dish. You can pretty much guarantee a signal from a satellite but it's pot luck to get a good signal from a TV mast 5 miles away if you are stuck in a valley on the "wrong side". 64cm Fold up Triax dish, tripod and 15m of cable along with a sat meter and good to go in 5 mins. If you venture south and still need the BBC get a bigger dish and take it with you but a 64 will do for all the UK and northern France no problem.

I have now got lazy and just fitted a Teleco system on the roof of the van.

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