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 Topic: Do you want satellite TV in your FC ?
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29/3/2012 at 7:43am
Location: North West UK
Outfit: Pennine Pathfinder 2005
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Hi chaps, here's some friendly advice from me regarding satellite TV when you're camping. I've been an electrical engineer all my working life, timed served from 16 years old and now rapidly approaching 40 ! I've been a sat TV hobbyist for the last 6 years.
So, what are we going to talk about ?
- Theory of Receiving a Sat TV signal
- What equipment do I need ?
- What channels can I watch?
- Aligning the dish
OK here goes.
Receiving a Sat TV signal in the UK is pretty easy but it can be a little tricky for the beginner. Up there in the sky are many satellites broadcasting many different channels to many different regions of Europe and the world. The satellites are lined up across the sky in an arrangement known as the Clark Belt. Each satellite has a name but is more commonly referred to by its orbital position in degrees. See attached pic. (pic is a little old, but explains the theory well)
Each satellite has a footprint on earth where it is aimed at. This is the intended area of reception for that particular satellite. The satellite we are interested in is the Astra 2 satellites located at 28.2 degrees east.
The Astra 2 satellites footprint covers the British Isles and somewhat further east and south covering much of europe. A simple rule of thumb is, the closer you get to the edge of the footprint, then the bigger your dish needs to be to receive that satellite. For us in the UK looking for 28.2e we only need a little dish because that sat is intended for us. One other thing here though, the bigger your dish, the more room for error, or in other words, a bigger dish is easier to align than a smaller one.
What equipment do I need.
There's a simple list of required parts.
1. A satellite dish. You may want to mount this on a tripod.
2. An LNB , this is the thing on the end of the dish arm that receives the signal from the satellite.
3. A satellite receiver. ( SkyTV box, FreeSat box, or other)
4. Some high grade coax cable. (DO NOT USE TV ARIAL CABLE)
5. Oh and a telly !
6. You may want to try using a sat finder. This is a device you can use to help align the dish.
7. A compass sometimes helps too.
My first recommendation is to consider the size of the equipment you need to transport when compared to the ease of use. I personally use a normal house hold sky dish, known as a Zone 1 dish mounted on a small tripod. It fits in the camper for transport no problem. Some of the suit case packaged kits have a very very small dish and can be very difficult to align, I'd recommend you stay away from them. There's some great kits on ebay based on standard zone 1 dishes. Check out this guy for example. Its very common for dish kits to include the LNB. The LNB is on the end of the sat dish arm and is where you connect the coax to. LNB,s can have 1 or more outputs. For most camping applications I should imagine 1 or may be 2 is enough. LNB's are known as singles, twins, quads and octo's. Referring to how many coax connections they have. Having a twin is essential if you want to record one channel whilst watching another. Like Sky+.
A good Sat TV Seller on Ebay.
Now, satellite receivers. Obviously mains voltage is not always available in the FC. There are 12v receivers out there but my only experience of them is actually the one I use. Problem here is, it's most definitely not for the beginner. I use a Dreambox receiver, it's a very advanced hobbyists receiver and not aimed at the plug and play audience. Here a quick example of a 12v sat box.
The best thing to aim for is a sky box or freesat box. They are simple to use and pretty robust, however they do require 230v mains. Again, the link above is offering a full kit missing only the tripod for £40 !!!!. Yip £40. That's dish, LNB, receiver and some coax.
What channels can I watch ?
Now, most people know some channels are free and some are not. You can watch the free channels with any receiver. A Sky box, FreeSat box or other. Obviously if you want to watch sky then you need a sky subscription and the viewing card. Here is a very important point though. If you have sky at home, and you buy another sky box to take camping, YOU CANNOT USE YOUR SKY CARD IN ANOTHER BOX. You card is digitally paired to the box it lives in at home. If you want to take you sky card camping then you must take the box with it.
Aligning the sat dish.
Alignment can be very frustrating for the beginner. However with a couple of trips and some practice you'll soon get it down to a tee. Line of site is obviously the most important thing to consider. Any obstructions will kill your signal completely. Bare in mind that you'll be siting the dish very low to the ground, usually on a 3foot tall tripod. This is absolutely fine as long as you're not under a tree !
A compass can be very useful to get a basic guide of where you should be pointing the dish. There's also some clever tools and equipment you can employ.
The first one is Dish Pointer , you can enter your location and select the sat you want to receive and the map will show you the direct your dish should be pointing. You can prepare this at home for your intended location , print it out and take it along.
There's more clever ways of doing also. There's a great app for the iPhone and android called Dish Pointer. This shows a picture of the sky using your phones camera and it superimposes the location of all satellites onto the picture , all in real time. You can move your phone around and see where you should be pointing. I use this all the time now.
Now, although your intended satellite is in geostationary orbit, in other words it follows the earths rotation, your position in the country can make a slight difference to alignment. As a general rule of thumb the satellite at 28.2e can be found at approx. 140 degress on your compass. However, this will differ very slightly by a degree or 2 depending wether your further north or south.
So, you get pitched, and everything sorted. Time to set the dish up.
Plant the tripod in open space. Peg it down.
Attach the dish.
Grab your compass and find 140 degrees.
Spin the dish to the approx position.
Connect up the coax and power up the TV and sat box.
Most sat boxes have a option to show reception levels, this obviously changes from box to box.
Pull up this menu so you can see what level your receiving.
Now, elevation of the dish is also very important. Don't be tempted to point the dish up into the sky. Stand to the side of the dish and position it so the dish is perfectly flat, 90 degrees to the ground.
This is the best starting point and it won't need moving more than 2 mm in either direction in most cases. Again, extreme north and south locations will require greater adjustment but never much.
Making tiny adjustments in one plain at a time, watch your signal menu on the tv for signs of response and improvement. Once you have the best signal in one plain, lock it down and try moving the other plain slightly.
You can also use a satellite meter that goes in the coax circuit that will also show you reception levels.
I hope this alignment description makes sense, obviously it's difficult to explain without seeing it. I'll try and get some pictures from my upcoming Easter trip.
Post last edited on 29/03/2012 10:38:33
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Best Regards
B16MCC
Elec. Engineer & Sat TV Expert
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