Hi chaps, here's some friendly advice from me regarding satellite TV when you're camping. I've been an electrical engineer all my working life, timed served from 16 years old and now rapidly approaching 40 ! I've been a sat TV hobbyist for the last 6 years.
So, what are we going to talk about ?
Theory of Receiving a Sat TV signal
What equipment do I need ?
What channels can I watch?
Aligning the dish
OK here goes.
Receiving a Sat TV signal in the UK is pretty easy but it can be a little tricky for the beginner. Up there in the sky are many satellites broadcasting many different channels to many different regions of Europe and the world. The satellites are lined up across the sky in an arrangement known as the Clark Belt. Each satellite has a name but is more commonly referred to by its orbital position in degrees. See attached pic. (pic is a little old, but explains the theory well)
Each satellite has a footprint on earth where it is aimed at. This is the intended area of reception for that particular satellite. The satellite we are interested in is the Astra 2 satellites located at 28.2 degrees east.
The Astra 2 satellites footprint covers the British Isles and somewhat further east and south covering much of europe. A simple rule of thumb is, the closer you get to the edge of the footprint, then the bigger your dish needs to be to receive that satellite. For us in the UK looking for 28.2e we only need a little dish because that sat is intended for us. One other thing here though, the bigger your dish, the more room for error, or in other words, a bigger dish is easier to align than a smaller one.
What equipment do I need.
There's a simple list of required parts.
1. A satellite dish. You may want to mount this on a tripod.
2. An LNB , this is the thing on the end of the dish arm that receives the signal from the satellite.
3. A satellite receiver. ( SkyTV box, FreeSat box, or other)
4. Some high grade coax cable. (DO NOT USE TV ARIAL CABLE)
5. Oh and a telly !
6. You may want to try using a sat finder. This is a device you can use to help align the dish.
7. A compass sometimes helps too.
My first recommendation is to consider the size of the equipment you need to transport when compared to the ease of use. I personally use a normal house hold sky dish, known as a Zone 1 dish mounted on a small tripod. It fits in the camper for transport no problem. Some of the suit case packaged kits have a very very small dish and can be very difficult to align, I'd recommend you stay away from them. There's some great kits on ebay based on standard zone 1 dishes. Check out this guy for example. Its very common for dish kits to include the LNB. The LNB is on the end of the sat dish arm and is where you connect the coax to. LNB,s can have 1 or more outputs. For most camping applications I should imagine 1 or may be 2 is enough. LNB's are known as singles, twins, quads and octo's. Referring to how many coax connections they have. Having a twin is essential if you want to record one channel whilst watching another. Like Sky+.
Now, satellite receivers. Obviously mains voltage is not always available in the FC. There are 12v receivers out there but my only experience of them is actually the one I use. Problem here is, it's most definitely not for the beginner. I use a Dreambox receiver, it's a very advanced hobbyists receiver and not aimed at the plug and play audience. Here a quick example of a 12v sat box.
The best thing to aim for is a sky box or freesat box. They are simple to use and pretty robust, however they do require 230v mains. Again, the link above is offering a full kit missing only the tripod for £40 !!!!. Yip £40. That's dish, LNB, receiver and some coax.
What channels can I watch ?
Now, most people know some channels are free and some are not. You can watch the free channels with any receiver. A Sky box, FreeSat box or other. Obviously if you want to watch sky then you need a sky subscription and the viewing card. Here is a very important point though. If you have sky at home, and you buy another sky box to take camping, YOU CANNOT USE YOUR SKY CARD IN ANOTHER BOX. You card is digitally paired to the box it lives in at home. If you want to take you sky card camping then you must take the box with it.
Aligning the sat dish.
Alignment can be very frustrating for the beginner. However with a couple of trips and some practice you'll soon get it down to a tee. Line of site is obviously the most important thing to consider. Any obstructions will kill your signal completely. Bare in mind that you'll be siting the dish very low to the ground, usually on a 3foot tall tripod. This is absolutely fine as long as you're not under a tree !
A compass can be very useful to get a basic guide of where you should be pointing the dish. There's also some clever tools and equipment you can employ.
The first one is Dish Pointer , you can enter your location and select the sat you want to receive and the map will show you the direct your dish should be pointing. You can prepare this at home for your intended location , print it out and take it along.
There's more clever ways of doing also. There's a great app for the iPhone and android called Dish Pointer. This shows a picture of the sky using your phones camera and it superimposes the location of all satellites onto the picture , all in real time. You can move your phone around and see where you should be pointing. I use this all the time now.
Now, although your intended satellite is in geostationary orbit, in other words it follows the earths rotation, your position in the country can make a slight difference to alignment. As a general rule of thumb the satellite at 28.2e can be found at approx. 140 degress on your compass. However, this will differ very slightly by a degree or 2 depending wether your further north or south.
So, you get pitched, and everything sorted. Time to set the dish up.
Plant the tripod in open space. Peg it down.
Attach the dish.
Grab your compass and find 140 degrees.
Spin the dish to the approx position.
Connect up the coax and power up the TV and sat box.
Most sat boxes have a option to show reception levels, this obviously changes from box to box.
Pull up this menu so you can see what level your receiving.
Now, elevation of the dish is also very important. Don't be tempted to point the dish up into the sky. Stand to the side of the dish and position it so the dish is perfectly flat, 90 degrees to the ground.
This is the best starting point and it won't need moving more than 2 mm in either direction in most cases. Again, extreme north and south locations will require greater adjustment but never much.
Making tiny adjustments in one plain at a time, watch your signal menu on the tv for signs of response and improvement. Once you have the best signal in one plain, lock it down and try moving the other plain slightly.
You can also use a satellite meter that goes in the coax circuit that will also show you reception levels.
I hope this alignment description makes sense, obviously it's difficult to explain without seeing it. I'll try and get some pictures from my upcoming Easter trip.
Post last edited on 29/03/2012 10:38:33
* This post contains affiliate links. If you click through and make a purchase, as an eBay Partner Network member we may earn a commission from qualifying purchases, at no extra cost to you.
------------- Best Regards
B16MCC
Elec. Engineer & Sat TV Expert
Question for you, Can i just use a small digi box (like in the kids rooms at home) and a standard digital arial, rather than a dish? bearing in mind we may as well try and get the best quality picture available if possible.
We don't watch to much tv whilst camping, but it does keep the kids quiet at times. (Not worried about a 12v system)
I also have an old working sky box in the loft, can i pick up any channels on this with a dish/arial, even though it has no sky card? I am currently turning two FC's into one good one, so this will be the ideal time for me to get the wiring correct.
Regards
------------- A San Miguel, Camp Fire, Good Company and the Stars above - Life is Good.
Receiving 'FreeView' digital TV can be very problematic in certain areas. However, the simple answer to your question is yes you can, however Satellite will always give you better results than a digital aerial.
Let's not get too much into Freeview as it's a very different system to Satellite TV and much of my intended content for this thread is not relevant.
Using your old sky box will work fine to receive the basic free channels.
------------- Best Regards
B16MCC
Elec. Engineer & Sat TV Expert
I don't want sat TV in my camper but I do appreciate the time and effort in the post details and found it interesting
We take the laptop for DVD's and WIFI use if applicable, and have removeable in car DVD's for the kids aswell so covered for occassional wet day useage
I can see how your topic might be useful to several FC or caravan owners.
I do get the the urge to ask though. The eBay site you refer to. Is that something you recommend as a disinterested buyer and user of related equipment or might you have a financial or other interest?
It may appear rude of me to ask but it would have been ruder to form an opinion without asking.
Perfectly understandable question Tow Itch. As a web master and forum administrator myself I'm more than familiar with people posting to try and drum up business and interest. When I started to write the tutorial this morning I did a quick search on ebay because that's where I got my tripod from. The link I've included was simply to show how cheap the kit is to achieve good results. I guess you can only take my word for it that I have no idea who runs that ebay shop.
As a new member of ukcampsite I'd like to take this opportunity to say thank you for your recognition of how long it took me to make the post. At least you had the grace and decency to comment unlike others who post smart comments that are of no use not interest to anyone.
------------- Best Regards
B16MCC
Elec. Engineer & Sat TV Expert
Hi B16MCC, excellent post, and thank you very much for sharing the advice and for taking the time to put it together ( and thank you for clarifying the situation! )
No problems in accepting your word and it wouldn't have been for me to criticise if you had an association. You were at least giving value as you were explaining a subject to the forum.
So others have accepted it's a valid subject for the FC section.
We have established your probity.
Given that a camping forum won't have the same sensitivities as a satellite forum.
I'll make a request for your second tutorial. How to obtain snide sky signals for the above and will I have to limit myself to campsites with wifi signals.
The only kind of tv we take is our Micro-wave oven as it looks like a tv in photo's when looking inside the fc from the door. BUT.
We do take an 8inch screen Wharfdale DVD player to see very old Ealing comedy films and some others on a rainy day.
I wish I could get an old computer screen to use as it is 15inch against the 8inch. But it will not go, no media player is on it or anything else, just games. It accepts certain cd's to read from but no films. Now that would be a asset as we could view in more comfort.
Use your smart phone connected to laptop, bluetooth or usb software on both deices. 2 weeks use last year on holiday no charge from isp or phone company
------------- If it ain't broke don't try to fix it!
Sterling 1999, I think wan69 was referring to the dish pointer app I mentioned. Please note though, the dish alignment app is available for iphone and android.
------------- Best Regards
B16MCC
Elec. Engineer & Sat TV Expert
Quote: Originally posted by sunshinetours on 29/3/2012
I don't want sat TV in my camper but I do appreciate the time and effort in the post details and found it interesting
We take the laptop for DVD's and WIFI use if applicable, and have removeable in car DVD's for the kids aswell so covered for occassional wet day useage
I watch too much TV at home!
And I was talking about this part of the thread
------------- If it ain't broke don't try to fix it!
A day of all things motorhome and campervan. The show is held both in the main indoor arena and across the grounds. Catering, hot drinks and food options are available. Easy access to the site and free parking included. Win one of five pairs of day tickets
Topic: Do you want satellite TV in your FC ?
