Another confused newbie....

[hallii]

Hello all, I am Geoff and I live in Worcester, I go camping in my VW Camper to Spain via, France.

I want somesort of sytem for FTA channels, having looked around and done a few searches I am more confused than ever!

It has to be compact ( .65 metre dish?) as it has to fit inside my camper, 12v cause thats what I got, and get English Language channels.

What would you recommend as a receiver, dish, and what sats channels could I expect? Manual is fine by the way.

Being a mean old git I dont want to spend a fortune but if I gotta, I gotta.

Thanks all you experts, I know you are happy to help, I do much the same on a couple of other forums, must be the same questions time and again?

Geoff

[BGonaSTICK]

Hi Geoff, welcome to the forum

Hmm. Tricky.

Firstly, I'm going to take you at your word on the following:

FTA only
65cm dish
English language.

I know you said that already, but bear in mind that the following advice relates only to the above.

The 12V thing is going to limit your choice of receivers considerably. Now, you could write what I know about camping and 12V supplies on the back of a fag packet, but can't you just buy an inverter?

Satellite receivers don't draw a lot of power, so I don't see a problem with that :?

I'm sure you'll tell me there is

To get the maximum number of English channels, you need a dish pointing at the Astra2 satellite cluster at 28.2E. Many of the English channels here can only be had in the UK or nearby on a 65cm dish. The rest somewhat further. France may well be OK, but any further, and you will be losing plenty. Only a bigger dish will fix this.

There are a few 'boxed' systems suitable for camping. Lidl sell them off in batches one or twice a year. eBay then gets flooded with them.

Have a search for some of these keywords: Comag, Silvercrest, camping, Porty, portable in the satellite section of eBay. Pretty much all that will come back is the one neat little set in a hard case.

It's cheap and cheerful, but gets plenty of FTA.

You may also choose to buy a dish and take a Sky digibox, but you'll have to solve the 12V problem.

Hope that's enough to get you thinking. Please ask any other questions you like

[imported_Newbee]

Hi there, if your thinking of buying a Lidl's reciever, they are or will be on sale there soon as they have

a flier advertising this (receiver only) the dish deal will probably be next year.

[hallii]

OK Guys, thanks for the info. The inverter is an option, but I draw all my poer from a 140 amp hour battery and the inverter will not be very effecient, might be an option though, and it would come in useful for other things.

Yes, my research indicates that the Astra (South Beam?) would be best, but it needs a 1 metre dish in the south of Spain?

I have had a look at Hotbird but the English channels are few and far between, seems I could pull that in on a 65cm dish!

Does anybody know of a folding dish? Something like the one on the USA moon buggy might do, old umbrella and a bit of Mylar film :-))

Any way I am off to study Lidl site to see what they have, I havnt seen the flyer yet, where was it?

Thanks Geoff

G4LXI

[hallii]

Just had a look at Lidl, no news there, on ebay they want £70 for the Lidl package, which sounds OK,I dont know how much Lidl were selling them for?

I might buy one and use the small dish for home and buy a bigger dish that can be broken down to a reasonable size.

Can two dishes be "phased" to increase the gain?

Geoff

[BGonaSTICK]

Ahh, a radio man

No, don't know of a way to phase more than one dish at home, though it's obviously possible with some expensive kit.

Have you checked out the astra2d.com website for reception reports in the areas you're interested in?

Although the site is primarily concerned with 2D, many folks report on other Astra transponders/beams.

Reception can be very patchy in Spain, with odd localised effects.

As for dishes, if you want to go bigger than your original 65cm, then the Triax TD88 is a fine budget dish - the LNB arm folds flat against the dish face. Some other dishes have removeable LNB arms. Might not be large enough though, depending on where you're based.

I think the Lidl kits originally went for £60 or £65, so you wouldn't be getting ripped off at £70. Haven't seen the latest offer in print myself.

STICK

[hallii]

Thanks Stick, I think its got to be a dish around 90cm or so,I had a look at the reception reports and it seems to vary a bit, then I had a look at the Triax TD88 and it looks fine, but then I need an LNB, saw this on Ebay Item 260062302837 looks cheap though, I have asked if it has a folding arm, if so then it will fit on my bike rack together with a tripod. Then I might buy one of the Lidle Comag receivers.

The small dish can go on my house wall.

I move around a lot when I am abroad, France, Spain, Portugal, Med Coast, Atlantic Coast etc. it gets dark at about 8.30 pm when I go over (out of season) so the Sats TV will be very welcome.

Also off to Latvia, Estonia etc, later in the year, but that will be longer days so might go without TV!

I guess that "aiming" a 90cm dish might require precision? I think they show a 2 degree beam, might need a steady hand!

Geoff

[BGonaSTICK]

Don't think the Orbit arm folds. The Inverto LNBs you mention are quite good though. I have a few on my Triax TD110. Very small and light.

A 90cm dish isn't hard to align if you have a nice steady mounting pole and a cheap meter.

STICK

[hallii]

Thanks Stick, I have been reading your posts re: reception in Spain (and others) I am now getting a "feel" for things.

I have now finalised what I think I need,

Something Like:- Inverto LNB, 90cm dish aluminium with folding arm, tripod with level, signal meter, and a sensitive receiver perhaps a Pace?

Any comments or suggestions most welcome.

I am quite looking forward to having a look some of the other sats (other than Astra) to see whats on.

Geoff

[BGonaSTICK]

Yes, it's a bit touchy-feely in Spain. You need to kiss a lot of frogs, read a lot of reception reports and take quite a few pinches of salt before you can even set your expectation levels.

I won't bull**** you - really you need a large dish, but camper vans being the size they are, I reckon you should be able to while away some time in the evenings searching out some TV with a 90cm. You'll certainly do well closer to home with that sort of setup, or on other satellites.

The LNB's not critical. Anything around the £10 mark or better will do the job. If you want to do the best possible, the Invacom quad is still king, but it's not cheap. The single is good, but the quad is better for fringe reception. The advantage on a 90cm dish will be small though. You'll find it difficult to find many dishes with folding arms, but undoing a couple of bolts is no great hardship. The Gibertini ally dishes are superb. Check eBay.

Yes, a tripod is a sound move, or to save money and space, a short length of 2" scaffold pole and a 2lb club hammer would suffice

You don't need a level on the mast for a fixed dish. Just get it near enough by eye. It's only the dish alignment itself that's critical. You can 'twist' the LNB in the holder to maximise the polarisation alignment.

A signal meter is also a good investment at around £10 for a mobile setup.

Outside of the 12V receivers (which I don't know much about) Technomate make a sensitive version of the TM-1500 called the TMS-1500. The Techno 75xx and 76xx series are known to be quite sensitive too.

For digiboxes, the Pace DS430N is in the top 5 as is (still) the Panasonic DSB30. A digibox will limit you somewhat, but these two models are known performers in Spain. No good for other satellites on the arc.

There are a lot of radio folks in satellite. Be careful though - it's very addictive!

STICK