Thoughts on removing satellite system due to need being needed

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Tony68000

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Our MH has a nice Oyster Satellite system. Looks like I need to spend £140-ish on getting it updated. This has prompted the question, is it worth it, or should we ditch it altogether?

Like many, we have a FireTV, connected TV, unlimited data, so it's not like we need the dish. I like gadgets though :)

I've looked on eBay, and I'm not sure they sell well second hand, so probably wouldn't get any much for it, and will probably have to spend money on the update anyway before selling.

Would it lower the resell value of the MH significantly. Is satellite a selling point now? Or just a waste of weight?

Are they easy to remove? :)
 
It wouldn’t lower resale value we have just made the same decision sat dish stopped working could need a new ECB @ £500 so decision made for us😊
 
We've never had a sat dish. I wouldn't buy one and if I wasn't using it I wouldn't upgrade it. On the other hand if I had plenty of payload I'm not so sure I'd get around to removing it either!
 
They don’t sell well second hand as it’s old technology now .
However, we have been to a few campsites with no internet signal and no TV signal .
In these circumstances the satellite set up should still work .
 
Tony68000 said:
Our MH has a nice Oyster Satellite system. Looks like I need to spend £140-ish on getting it updated. This has prompted the question, is it worth it, or should we ditch it altogether?

Like many, we have a FireTV, connected TV, unlimited data, so it's not like we need the dish. I like gadgets though :)

I've looked on eBay, and I'm not sure they sell well second hand, so probably wouldn't get any much for it, and will probably have to spend money on the update anyway before selling.

Would it lower the resell value of the MH significantly. Is satellite a selling point now? Or just a waste of weight?

Are they easy to remove? :)
Click to expand...

I have to make a similar decision, not only will the removal increase payload but also lessen wind drag I think?
What I might do is remove the dish and leave the base but then it will look untidy? :unsure:
 
Bear in mind if you intend going to France your unlimited data wouldn’t be so this would limit your streaming.
I think I would go with the update.
 
Don't use ours much...but as it was updated last year we decided to keep it.... I'm a steamer...but when data signal or allowance was bad last year, up went the Oyster...glad I kept it in place for now.... couldn't imagine it would be an attractive sale here in Spain...80cm dishes are not needed for Astra 1 signals....
 
The Wino said:
We've never had a sat dish. I wouldn't buy one and if I wasn't using it I wouldn't upgrade it. On the other hand if I had plenty of payload I'm not so sure I'd get around to removing it either!
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Payload isn't a major issue. It's also in the way of where I want to mount an MIMO antenna, so it'd definitely come off the roof!

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Swifter said:
They don’t sell well second hand as it’s old technology now .
However, we have been to a few campsites with no internet signal and no TV signal .
In these circumstances the satellite set up should still work .
Click to expand...
Good point, I could live with a TV for a while. We've running a 2 sim setup, so I could hope that we'd get a signal from one of them.
 
I would bin it but we have turned our motorhome TV on a grand total of 3 times in the last 6 years. Once to set it up, once for the grandchildren to watch a film and once whilst parked on the north coast of France to watch a football match on U.K. TV. If it ever breaks we’ll not be replacing it.
We don’t go away to watch TV.
 
We've just paid £700 for a new Oyster pcb. I am experimenting with mifi as I don't want to pay that again. BUT I am hoping the Oyster will come into its own in Europe.
 
glenn2926 said:
I would bin it but we have turned our motorhome TV on a grand total of 3 times in the last 6 years. Once to set it up, once for the grandchildren to watch a film and once whilst parked on the north coast of France to watch a football match on U.K. TV. If it ever breaks we’ll not be replacing it.
We don’t go away to watch TV.
Click to expand...
Ours comes out maybe 1 night in 4 so we're not TV addicts either. I think it makes a big difference to how much you want to spend on TV kit but also on batteries solar etc.

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I had a seeker system on my last Motorhome and it came in handy when WiFi / signal was poor. They are handy systems to have even as a fall back to the effect that now we have a caravan I’ve purchased another seeker system.

Me, yes I would remove it and use it and between WiFi, data, tv and Sat dish the worlds your Oyster (no pun intended) so to speak.
 
The Wino said:
Ours comes out maybe 1 night in 4 so we're not TV addicts either. I think it makes a big difference to how much you want to spend on TV kit but also on batteries solar etc.
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Very good point re solar etc. We don’t have solar and only one leisure battery but have never run out of electric. The only draw on the battery is lights (all led), water pump, and not much else. If we watched TV it would be the biggest draw on our electric.
I just never thought of it that way.
 
one of the first things I did was to remove the sat dish and all its boxes/modules. It wasnt as heavy as id expected, but I dont need it.
 
We're in the same kind of situation: our sat has a signal error and has stopped working so we're currently waiting to see when/if Mecatronic can pop by when they have someone in the area to take a look and give us a quote on how much it'll cost to fix (they don't have any service agents in our area and we don't really want to pay a call-out fee). We hardly use it so I can't justify spending much on getting it fixed - about the only thing it'd be used for is for watching the news or if there's a football match hubby wants to see. I expect we'll probably end up removing it.
 
Manic said:
Bear in mind if you intend going to France your unlimited data wouldn’t be so this would limit your streaming.
I think I would go with the update.
Click to expand...

Just buy a local sim for a month of data. Prices are a lot cheaper than the UK. Easy to do. Did for us for 2 months in France and Spain.

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Jim said:
Bin it, and your payload will increase by a case and a half of wine :D
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Who do you know in Customs?
You can only bring back two cases each.

Oops? I forgot the case of Bubbly as well.
 
Looks like I am one of the few people who would suggest keeping it.

Looking at it from a different perspective, would you pay £140 to have an oyster satellite system supplied and fully installed? It may come in handy in the future or might help as a plus point for selling your van to someone who may want to tour abroad and still receive UK TV?
We have used ours for the last 5 nights in France for a couple of hours each night. The daytime temp on the Vendée has been great during the daytime but gets a bit cold and damp in the evenings, being able to snuggle up in bed and watch some TV without worrying about data is well worth £140.
Would I spend £2500++ on a new system though .....??
 
MisterB said:
Looking at it from a different perspective, would you pay £140 to have an oyster satellite system supplied and fully installed? It may come in handy in the future or might help as a plus point for selling your van to someone who may want to tour abroad and still receive UK TV?
Click to expand...
That's a really good point, and its why we haven't removed ours yet and are waiting to see how much it'll cost to repair. I don't see us selling the MH any time soon, but it doesn't have a terrestrial aerial so even if a buyer didn't want to tour abroad, they might be put off by the lack of TV options.
 
DangerMousy said:
I don't see us selling the MH any time soon, but it doesn't have a terrestrial aerial so even if a buyer didn't want to tour abroad, they might be put off by the lack of TV options.
Click to expand...
I doubt anyone would be put off but it might be the difference between buying yours and buying someone else's.
If you really wanted to remove it, see if it can be detached from its mounting plate, but don't remove the wiring internally, you could always then reattach it and have it updated/reprogrammed for salling, but then you might aswell have the benefit of it being reprogrammed yourself?
 
Big sports fans here , had our dish updated to SkyQ . We however don’t take the TVs abroad .

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L' Hobo said:
I have to make a similar decision, not only will the removal increase payload but also lessen wind drag I think?
What I might do is remove the dish and leave the base but then it will look untidy? :unsure:
Click to expand...
I'll be taking mine off soon and replacing it with as big a solar panel as I can fit. If I wasn't putting a panel its place I would find the nearest colour matched piece of sheet metal and fix it over the hole left. I reckon it wouldn't look too bad.
 
L' Hobo said:
I have to make a similar decision, not only will the removal increase payload but also lessen wind drag I think?
What I might do is remove the dish and leave the base but then it will look untidy? :unsure:
Click to expand...
Depending on the system, you may be able to get a blanking plate for that model?
 
Emmit said:
Who do you know in Customs?
You can only bring back two cases each.

Oops? I forgot the case of Bubbly as well.
Click to expand...
Thats the UK rules, however nobody seems to be checking. More bothered about stowaways.

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