Last year i bought my hubby a portable satelite kit but just could not pick up anything. Does anyone know if there is other ways of getting tv whilst camping, i think i have heard some people use a sky box, if so do you still need the satelite dish? would appreciate any help with this.
Quote: Originally posted by alison46 on 19/2/2012
Last year i bought my hubby a portable satelite kit...
...some people use a sky box, if so do you still need the satelite dish?
Yes, you'd still need the dish Alison.
Has hubby tried setting the portable kit up again; it's worth persevering with as they do work (in my opinion) very well, but the alignment of the dish can be misleading and easy to completely mis-align. If it's one of the popular 'briefcase kits', the boom arm of the dish needs to be practically horizontal. Most folk starting pointing them up to mimic household dishes, but they're a different design to 'Sky' dishes and don't need such an incline.
Worth setting up at home and see how you get on before setting up with additional kit.
We take our Satellite kit, with us to the South of France, set up is easy peasy, although it can be a bit of a black art.
Firstly practice at home, so that you have the confidence, that your system does actualy work.
After that you will find that your Satellite kit, will work anywhere in UK, and most of Europe for that matter.
Having the correct size dish, goes a long way, to making your Satellite kit work, and I would advise, 55cm minimum for UK use, using a Sky box, just keeps things simple, although a FTA or Freesat box, will work much the same.
I have had portable sat kit for 6 years now, works fine all over the country.I first set mine up in back garden and tuned it all in ,you then have plenty of time to read instructions.Once tuned in i have never had to tune again just get to sites and position dish to satellite direction,first of all with compass then use signal strength meter to get strongest signal.You will need to do this whatever box you have.
would not leave home without it,sky box,sat dish,cables.first time it took me two hours i now set up in 5 minutes.the dish must be vertical (even in scotland as i spotted last week) if you can use a compass it is 140 to 145 degrees.point dish dead south on your compass turn dish really slowly east to 140 deg.you should now have a signal that needs tweaking to get at least 50% bars on your screen.an easy way i was told,on your wrist watch point 12 o'clock dead south and the signal can be found at 5 too 12.keep away from tall trees and walls 6 feet from the dish as these block the signal.one thing i have learned is the top bar (signal strength) comes from turning dish side to side,bottom bar (signal quality ) improves as you move the dish forwards or backwards 10 degrees.
on your sky box remote press
SERVICES next SYSTEM SET UP next SIGNAL TEST .
your screen needs to read about two 50% bars showing / lock indicator OK / network id 0002 / transport stream 07d4
see video
Post last edited on 23/02/2012 10:58:56
------------- the only silly question is the one you do not ask.
point dish dead south on your compass turn dish really slowly east.
Tne thing i have learned is the top bar (signal strength) comes from turning dish side to side,bottom bar (signal quality ) improves as you move the dish forwards or backwards
Wrong wrong wrong!
You must always start from the east and gradually swing the dish towards south. Astra 2D should then be the first satellite that you encounter. If you start from south you will trip over a couple of other satellites before you get to Astra 2.
Remember that the co-ordinates for aiming the dish will differ according to your location
Moving the dish back and forth or laterally does not control strength and quality readings in the way "Michael" describes. These figures are determined mainly by the size and quality of your dish and just how accurately it is aimed at the satellite.
Don’t worry about signal strength, of the two bars, signal quality is the most important and you should try for a minimum reading of about 50% by fine tuning firstly the elevation then the azimuth.
Try to imagine your sat dish as a laser gun with a pencil beam shining up into the sky.
The satellite you are blindly trying to hit is about the size of a dustbin lid floating somewhere in space about 24,000 miles away!
I have written a two page "Idiots Guide" on "Aiming a mobile sat dish" which appears as an attachment to one of my posts on another forum. Unfortunately, there seems to be no way of including an attachment on this forum so if you are interested, just ask and I’ll give more details.
You must always start from the east and gradually swing the dish towards south. Astra 2D should then be the first satellite that you encounter. If you start from south you will trip over a couple of other satellites before you get to Astra 2.
Remember that the co-ordinates for aiming the dish will differ according to your location
Moving the dish back and forth or laterally does not control strength and quality readings in the way "Michael" describes. These figures are determined mainly by the size and quality of your dish and just how accurately it is aimed at the satellite.
works for me,i have three sizes of dish that i use and the same basics are applied.
One point not mentioned is that if you are using a non-sky box then it may be set to the wrong satelitte. Our comag 12v box was set to astra 19.? which picks up the German channels rather than Astra 28.? which receives the English channels. You can change this in the setup menu
PS I always start from the south and move east. I just thought I was being perverse not wrong wrong wrong!
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Topic: satelite tv while camping
