You will struggle with a 66cm down on the Med, there are a few hot spots (not the climate), were it will work, also on most sites you will be trying to find line of site through the tree shade, which will reduce the signal to the dish, we found an 80cm best for Antibes, and last year in the Ardeche, did try a 60cm which did work in those areas but only for the Sky pay channels, but not the BBC/ITV channels as they are on the UK spot beam, what you have to remember is that there are around 5 satellites at 28.2Deg East carrying all the UK stuff, also a little known fact is that the satellites alter there attitude later in the day, to optimise there solar arrays, to collect energy, which can cause loss of picture at the fringe of the signal area (footprint) if using an undersized dish. although this satellite movement does not effect the target area, which is UK of course as there is plenty of signal to spare, so a little loss does not alter reception for UK based folk. hope that helps.
Thanks for that. I'm very confused as a lot of the maps appear to show 60cm as being sufficient, but don't want to get down there and wish I'd got a larger one.
From what I can gather from this and other forums, 80cm would seem to be better option - we're going nr Sete so will be on coast and dont' want to chance it.
Any other views welcome from seasoned southern france satelliters!
Hi. Had a quick look at it. Can't comment on the dish size, but £214 does seem quite a bit to spend on a dish. Surely you can get a better price by sorting out your own.
On Ebay:
Dish, 80cm - £28
LNB - £ 2.50
Stand - £24
Finder - £5
Cable and plugs - say £10 max
Total £70 ish
But then you won't get a bag to put it in!!
Please hote, these are just quick looks - I'm not saying they are the cheapest or best.
Thanks very much - yes just phoned Maxview and very helpful lady.
However still not sure - they have said that the 66cm dish will be fine. In fact said that they have tested as far as Barcelona and it works fine. There still seems to be contradictory opinion so not much further forward.
Pete as you say it will be cheaper to source separately. I'm just a novice at this so I suppose not sure what I need, but haven't thought about that route just yet but may do as it's quite a saving.
I have that very 66cm dish. It got me a good strong signal in a disused quarry near Cambridge when the camper next door could not get a signal on his sky tv home dish. That alone made the extra cash worth it. Plus it has a folding lmb arm to make it easier to pack away, and the tripod is sturdy and easy to use. Cannot comment on use on the continent, but i have been the length and breadth of the UK, with trees, caravans and campsite buildings all in the way of a clear view of the sky and i have always had nothing worse than excellent reception. Something to remember though is aparently the bigger the dish, the more accurate you need to be setting it up to get a decent signal. But the bigger the dish, the better chance you have of getting a decent signal in a weak signal area. As usual, you pays your money and takes your choice....
------------- Why am i doing this instead of camping??!!
Hi Ben I'm biased of course, but I think our 80cm kits are great value considering we pre-build them and provide full support. This is the 78cm premium kit for £189.95 (Equivalent features to the Maxview, but with the bigger 78cm dish). We guarantee it down to Barcelona (don't try that with a 65cm dish, it's not big enough).
If you are on a budget the 80cm self-build kit for £109.95 is probably a better bet. I has the same performance as the Premium kit, it just doesn't come with a bag and you have to assemble the dish yourself, like you do with the Maxview kits.
If your going for an 80cm try and get hold of a solid Aluminium Dish, the cheap ones tend to be made from steel, also don't go for a mesh dish, reasons for this are as follows, cheap steel dish's can under perform, so an 80cm steel may only work the same as an 60cm Aluminium, as for mesh dish's they are not designed to be lugged around, and quite soon become deformed, not always obvious, and again a 80cm mesh can soon start working like a 60cm solid, of course a good spec LNB can make a difference, but not as much as a larger dish, they qoute noise figures on the LNB's to give you an indication of performance, but unfortunatley the figures quoted are often nonesense, as they are what is known as a typical measurement, unlike commerial LNB's which quote a maximum noise figure, having said that you can pick up a decent LNB for well under a tenner these days, and a decent 80cm Aluminum dish say £40.
Thanks all for help. Have gone for the 88cm Triax from Satellite Wizard, who had excellent service and explained what I needed.
Will report back - the dish will be huge but erring on side of caution. Will probably get a smaller one for UK travels so don't have to lug around in this country.
88cm is a little OTT, but not to worry, just remember though, it is harder to align a larger dish than a smaller one, due to the more narrow beamwidth of larger dish's, it only realy becomes an issue when you get to say 1.5m upwards, so just pesevere, and do a few practice goes in your back garden before you go, don't want you comming back from France saying you couldn't get a picture lol.
Andy.
Also for those looking to upgrade the LNB on there Dish, I picked up a Universal LNB, with a claimed noise figure of 0.3db yesterday for £2.99! from Lidl.
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Topic: Maxview Portable Satellite Kit - views?
