Now summer is fast approaching and many of us will be setting off for far flung places, some we are revisiting, some are new, but now one thing changes. TV reception. It struck us last year with the tent! We were camped in Bodmin, using an LCD TV and watching terrestial TV.
When wham, halfway through the hoiday some swine switched over to digital transmission only. The signal through the hillside was very poor and we did not have a 300ft mast with us. We looked in an Adtrader and bought a portable satellite system.
Being creatures of comfort we only camp on sites with electric hook up (well I do love the halogen oven, full roast beef dinners etc), so I got to thinking, what is the cheapest you can put together a satellite system for.
This is excluding the television and has actually been done by us, so we have Sky Freeview when caravanning (the wife made me upgrade gov, honest).
First things first you need a Sky dish. We got one which had the LNB (Low Noise Block - the thing that grabs the reflected, focused signal) for £5 from a car boot sale, working too!
Second thing was a Sky box. We got a Thomson, from a different car boot sale, once again all working, for only £2. Now we needed some cable to link it together, I got a 100m of satellite cable on a reel for £3, yes from a car boot sale (well might need some spares, erm, well I might).
I converted a scrapped rotary washing line/clothes line into a tripod and clamped the dish onto it, nice and high and can be pegged out (geddit?)! To track the satellites we bought a compass from Martins Caravans in Wisbech that has the position of the satellites on, so you can use it to line up the dish to the correct alignment. This whizzy gadget is made by Maxview!
Getting your azimuth is just a case of firing the dish up and moving the angle of the dish (10mm spanner, just kicking about). The new things we have bought are the plugs for the end of the cable (any local ariel company will sell you a couple, hell if you are that lazy they could also knock up a 10 metre - 30 foot lead for you).
The remote for the sky box was spotted in a dustbin full of them at a local dump, cheap (cost £0), works (well it did need new batteries) and completes the system.
Extra for those desparate not to appear as skinflint tightwads (a la me). You can get decent little black collapsible tripods, off Amazon for under £25 including p and p. You can also get signal meters for under £15 (beware though get caught using one of those and suddenly everybody on site wants you to zero their unit in).
But to recap, it is possible to get a complete sky system, leads, alignment aid and remote for under £20, just add your own TV and away you go. By the way anybody want to buy a converted rotary washing line clothes airer? Only she who must be obeyed bought a tripod.....
Post last edited on 25/05/2010 17:53:22
------------- Just remember, if it is older than yours, smaller than yours but next to yours, there is probably no credit owing on it...
dish- freecycle
box - freecycle
TV- already had
cables and sat finder £8.90 +VAT from CPC
tripod - I had a spare PA speaker stand (the other one broke) telescopic and everything, can point the dish over to top of the van if I need to.
got set up within 10 mins first time, much easier than trying to use freeview, and no re-tuning required!!
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: Cheap Telly Kits
- mine cost me £100 from Maplins (including the tripod). Must get to a car boot sale...
