Help in selecting equipment, complete newbie

[klyne]

Hello everyone, my first proper post. Now that we are retired we are thinking of spending longer in Europe, perhaps up to two months at a time in our caravan. In the past we have not bothered taking a TV with us but think it would be a good idea. It seems that satellite is really our only option as we would prefer English programmes. From a storage point of view I want to get away with the smallest dish I can however we will be venturing to most of the near European countries including Spain and Italy but maybe not to the south of these two countries. So what dish size can I get away with? Secondly I understand that receivers come in two main sorts, free to air and the Sky variety. I know that on the non Sky ones you can't get channels 4 and 5 (although is this due to change next year?). So if I was not to bothered about 4&5 what are the advantages/disadvantages of the two? Also can I buy Sky if I don't have it installed at home?Finally is there any real differences where and what you buy. I don't want to spend a fortune but I do want it to work and be reliable. Sorry to ask so many questions and I would appreciate your advice.

David

[klyne]

Can no help, even if its only to part of the question?

David

[robbo71]

Hi Klyne, Welcome to the forum,

The forum is a little quieter over the Christmas period, so you post probably disappeared from view before anybody had a chance to reply.

I will try to answer some of your questions.

Not being a caravaner I'm not clear on some of the practicalities, but I would have thought a 88cm dish wouldn't be too bad a choice. I think Triax do one with a folding arm.

The problem with travelling around Europe, is that the further away you go from the UK, the less likely you are to pick up the English channels from the UK.



The FTA english channels are on Astra 2D.

Have a look on Lyngsat for the footprint and channels.

Eurobird 1 & Astra 2A/2B/2C/2D at 28.2°E - LyngSat

Astra 2D at 28.2°E - LyngSat Maps

Eurobird 1 at 28.5°E - LyngSat Maps

A Sky box is just for the UK Sky Channels and any free to air off the same satellite, plus the FTV channels( ch4 ch5 etc).

A standard digital satellite receiver is more versitile as you can use it for the other satellites over Europe as well ( but not Sky).

Yes, you can have Sky and not have it installed, you woul need to buy your own box and dish etc. The cheapest way to do it is to have it installed, Sky were doing a deal for £70 ish recently.

Robbo

[klyne]

Thanks Robbo, I appreciate that there will be places where it will be more difficult to get a signal than others. When you caravan space is usually at a premium so the more compact it is the better so there are always compromises to be made. My difficulty is that I have no experience of satellite so I don't know whether I should pop down to Maplins and buy a complete st for £80 or should I go for Maxview caravan set which might be a little less bulky but cost at least three times as much?

David

[robbo71]

Well, its down to your choice.

There are satellite dishes designed specifically for caravans that fit on the roof, and wind up and down, and can be set up from the inside. I don't they are too cheap though. The cheapest way certainly is to buy an ordinary setup, like from Maplin and either fix it temporary to the caravan when you park up, or get a tripod and plonk it on that. Obviously whenever you want to stop and watch, the dish will need to be lined up on your chosen satellite. But I expect that after I while, you would get it sussed in a few minutes.

You can also get motorised dishes specifically for caravans that find the satellites automatically, but they are very expensive.

There may be some caravan type dishes on www.southernsatellite.co.uk

Have a look. I think satellitesuperstore also do some dishes that would be suitable.

[klyne]

Thanjs again Robbo. I have made a note of the links and will look at them more closely. I don't think a fixed dish is something we will go for because you can't take it with you if you sell the van. More than likely it will be on a tripod.

David

[robbo71]

One thing you obviously want to look out for is a receiver that runs off low voltage. Some of the comag/silvercrests do that, from Maplin and sometimes lidl.

[Jimdefruit]

Like robbo, I dont have a caravan but if I did, I would go for a Dreambox 500. It operates at 12v and with a ftv card will open all the uk free channels including 4, 5 and the others normally only obtainable via a SKY digibox. In addition to getting the UK channels it will also get the Continental channels which is something the digibox wont do.

The Dreambox is not a staight out of the box operating receiver because it is really a linux computer with a satellite tuner. Therefore a bit of programme loading is needed but if you can add programmes to a computer via windows explorer then you should be ok.