We have just brought our first caravan, an Elddis Avante 556 which we are very happy with. We have had a couple of outings which both us and our children loved. We did find however that the reception from the factory fitted omni directional aerial was really poor.
I was looking for some advice as to which way to go to get decent reception so that we can take our freeview box with us. I have seen aerials & pole kits and mini satellite dishes,
We original used a roof aerial on an extending pole with our caravan, the pole also dubbled as a flag pole! I nicked two of the wifes washing poles, the extending type, and took off the top fittings and put the one inside pole into the outside of the top pole and put a bolt through to hold it steady, the TV ariel bracket was then bolted to the top of the pole and the cable inserted through the window nearest to the TV. This worked well for years and it has only been in recent years that we have not bothered too much with the tv and reverted to watching it using a set top aeriel on sites where we can get reception and just using it to play DVD's on other sites, although in the main the TV is just another piece of kit we take along and very rarely use - must clean out the 'extras' in the van this year!
BTW, using this method also meant we had a directional aerial, just turned the pole tille we got the best position and if needed it could be raised and lowered as well.
I bought an outdoor aerial from Screwfix.direct ,clamped it to an extending pole and fixed it to the jockey wheel.Total cost around £15 much the same as papapip and we usually got an excellent signal.The Status aerial on the van was rubbish..regards
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It is a fool who has to say something.
The poles and mini dish option is best, but are expensive.
So I bought a cheap normal satellite dish off eBay, and a standard secondhand photographic tripod off the car boot.Much cheaper that way. Don't know about freeview as I use Sky.
Don't forget you will need a cheap compass and a satellite finder to set it up.
Having a good signal with your arial depends on your situation ,and not all areas have freeview , as one person said you can buy a good digi aerial from screwfix from under £10.00 , i suggest you go on the DTT web site and put in the post code of the site you are going to ,and it will tell you if freeview is available on that site ,plus it will also give you the transmitter compass bearings, i myself just take a normal house hold satellite dish and use a rotary clothes line upside down as a tripod , you can take your reciever with you ,or buy one with a £20 card which lasts a lifetime , have a look at my gallery photo,s and you will see it
Thanks for all your advice, I think I will try to pick up a digital aerial and the tip of using the washing line was a great one, would never have thought of that !!!
I will do some experimenting this weekend time permitting
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Topic: TV Aerial Help
