Hi, looking for recommendations for an aerial to use whilst camping. I bought a cheaply one on eBay that claims it will provide digital channels to free view TV within a 60 mile radius of transmitter but it doesn’t work - get what you pay for I guess! Not usually bothered about taking a tv with us when camping but kids want to watch football
Bought one off Amazon for about £15 for daughter's bedroom tv. Works a treat, but I can see the transmitter from her bedroom (its about 15 miles away) so no question of the signal being poor.
May not be the aerial's fault, but where it's located. TV signals are pretty much 'line of sight' transmissions, if you can't clearly 'see' (as in no buildings, trees or hills etc. in the way) the transmitter, then signal is weakened or non-existent. A domestic TV aerial is usually 25ft of more off the ground and looking 'over' buildings, trees etc., even a caravan aerial is usually 8-9ft off the ground and most have a amplifier built into the system to boost weak signal strength. If you are using your aerial at near ground level, likely there will be some obstruction like trees interfering with signal strength. A great many camp sites have pretty poor TV reception anyway, because of their general location, I've used the TV connection on the EHU bollard (which gets it signal from a 'proper' aerial) on a few sites and it's still pretty poor!
Every possibility you may buy another aerial and find it's no better! I think most caravaners scrape by with some sort of signal, but that is probably because the aerial is raised off ground and the signal is amplified, and of course it's a purpose made high gain aerial in the first place - but doesn't always work!
What often works is directing aerial to an alternative transmitter to the 'recommended' or nearest one, sometimes even though the transmitter is further away and signal theoretically inherently weaker, there are less obstructions and the signal is adequate.
Plenty of people who seriously can't do without their dose of TV use portable satellite systems. Bit bulky to carry, bit fiddly to set up, obviously more expensive, and still require uninterrupted view of relevant bit of sky for the satellite, but you are looking for a generally easier to find bit of unobstructed sky, rather than unobstructed transmitter somewhere on the horizon.
If you are trying it at home you most likely won't get it to work as the buildings around you will almost certainly obstruct the signal.
With a tent you may have trouble getting enough height. Masts fixed to a trailer or caravan jockey wheel are good. Maxview are a good range.
Get a transmitter app on your phone and see what transmitters are in the area. These give a vertical or horizontal aerial requirement and the direction to point your aerial.
There are main transmitters giving a wide range of freeview channels and these usually need a horizontal aerial. Many areas also have smaller local transmitters filling in the gaps. These give a very basic range of freeview channels and usually need a vertical aerial.
Freesat is very good if you can get a suitable dish and set top box. We have one of these at home as we live in a holiday area with a rubbish TV signal.
Yep, another vote for using a satellite antenna, for Freesat and or Sky reception in the U.K. you need only use the smallest of antennas, Vin Blanc’s is a perfect example, you can also use a Flat Plate antenna like the Selfsat, which are also quite small.
We have always used satellite when camping, once you understand the principles of dish alignment, it will only take you a matter of minutes to set the dish up, it’s those that just try to guess which way to point the dish, that give up after predictable not being able to locate the Astra2 satellites at 28.2 Deg East, depending on were you are in the U.K. the elevation varies, were I am near Manchester it is 22.70 Deg, basically the more South you go the elevation increases, in fact when we are in Frejus it is 35.20 Deg.
The dish in my photo is in fact, a German made aluminium “cassegrain” (direct focus) type dish 57cm in diameter.
As Francais has already stated, a dish of this size is not really necessary to receive the Astra 2 (Freesat or Sky) satellite in the UK.
I chose an alloy dish because dishes made of ferrous metals would affect any magnetic compass mounted on or near them. (my article refers).
It should be noted also that “off set” type dishes (like those found on most houses with the LNB arm sticking out at the front), do not point directly at the satellite so are a bit more difficult to aim correctly.
Remember that at 24000 miles distant, if your dish were a Laser, one degree of aiming error would mean missing the satellite by about 420 miles!
Vin Blanc
------------- Now retired from active caravanning. - really miss it!
Hi all and thanks for the replies. I was really looking for a small portable type aerial as I don’t want to lug too much extra kit around. I might see if I can find a small dish that’s compact enough to pack away?
The easiest satellite dish of all to align was the Solarsat 60cm, which had markings on the face of the dish, and there was a guide going from the LNB to the apex of the dish, all you had to do was move the dish around until a shadow was cast on the relevant markings on the dish, Solarsat had a website that gave the number to look for in real time.
The system worked perfectly for any satellite within footprint, the only downside was that you needed the sun to be shining, so not the ideal solution for U.K. campers, and impossible to set up at night anywhere of course.
Solarsat did send me a sample, must have been around year 2000 when I was still working at Sky, Solarsat never took of though.
The antenna I have for portable U.K. use is the Attisat FL500 at 55cm it’s a little overkill, but being a Flat Plate antenna is very easy to find the correct elevation using a Digital Angle finder.
Look for the August DTA240 aerial, about £10 on ebay. It's so good we don't need the factory fitted amplified avtex aerial any more.
It's incredible reception for a small non directional stick aerial, I'd never have bought one but we borrowed one first on a site in Newquay, we got 47 TV and 19 radio stations 😎
Amazing family weekend with old steam engines, classic car displays, market stalls, and full catering and bar. And camping on site - Save £25 by booking in advance.
Topic: Tv aerial for camping
via mobile 04/6/2021 at 4:51pm
