Right, it's very important that you mention france. If you go beyond the British Isles you start to move towards the edge of the foot print of the satellite. This basically means the further away you go, the bigger your dish needs to be. In France a standard Zone1 sky dish may be on the limit of a good reception. I too have seen that kit you mention and it does look pretty good for freeview channels. The dish also looks to be a little larger than a zone1 dish. It will most likely be fine for reception in France. I'd say a good bet for receiving UK TV in Europe would be a 60cm dish.
As you can see from the attached foot print image a 60cm dish will indeed cover almost all of europe.
------------- Best Regards
B16MCC
Elec. Engineer & Sat TV Expert
As a new member that is a great post (so much useful information and if your typing skills are as bad as mine, it must have taken you a considerable amount of time) and hopefully you will find this site extremely usefull.
I have an Oyster sat dish (automatic), but have not used it since the end of August last year. I am now getting the van ready for the new season, but the dish searches, but cannot lock onto the sat signal. I heard somewhere that the signal shifted/changed at the end of September!
My system was installed in April 2008, can I reprogramme it or does it need an upgrade from the webb site?
The footprint you post above is for Astra1N, which is good news, as that means a 60cm dish is now good for anywhere in France.
Downside of course is that Astra1N is to be moved to the Astra1 slot at 19.2East at the end of the year, to join the rest of the Astra1 Fleet.
That will happen when Astra 2F arrives latter this year, with what is rumoured a tighter Spot UK beam than the retired Astra2D satellite, so no doubt it will be back to using a 80cm dish again, or worse Astra 2F may render reception impossible in the South of France, let's hope not as many expats would not be happy with that.
Francis, the footprint is indeed astra1n. I included it in the post simply to illustrate the theory. I should imagine most campers will never have a problem using a 60cm dish. I don't go outside the uk with my camper and so my zone 1 is all I need.
sja1951 I've no experience of those systems I'm afraid. I can tell you nothing has changed with the satellite arrangement at 28.2e.
As mentioned in this thread astra1n has been added to the cluster and many channels have been moved over to that new sat, however, all moved channels have kept all the same parameters so receivers don't see any difference.
If you're still struggling to get reception, it would help me advise if you could show me some info on your system. Can you align it manually for example, that would at least test all parts of the system.
------------- Best Regards
B16MCC
Elec. Engineer & Sat TV Expert
OK, so here's some pics of my sat tv installation in my pathfinder. Here's what I used.
Maxview Weatherproof Twin Cable Entry
CBE Cigar Lighter Socket With S & F connectors
A length of high grade WF100 shotgun coax and snap&seal connectors.
I mounted the weatherproof entry box on the offside of the FC right at the rear next to the water heater gas burner vent. Not too close though.
I then made the single socket in the table to the right of the door into a 3 way. I split the mains circuit using a junction box and installed a 2nd socket. I used the 3rd way to mount a cigar lighter socket with TV and Sat connectors.
I ran the cable from the weatherproof socket through the rear enclosure by simply removing the indicator lamp fittings and pulling the cable through. As the weather proof socket came with pre-made cables I had to joint these to reach around to my socket location. This was a very simple job and only required 1 hole to be drilled in the nearside under seat cupboard to run the coax. The offside has an existing hole. I've attached a few pics to show the installation. The upshot of this mod is to give me an extra mains socket, an extra cig. socket and no more trailing cables for sat / tv connections.
------------- Best Regards
B16MCC
Elec. Engineer & Sat TV Expert
can you tell me the best place to get the parts to do the same setup like yours i have a conway cruiser so i dont think i can do it through the lights as there different, my next question is the iphone apps i dont have an iphone but i have an ipod touch and there are 2 dish pointer apps which say can be used with the ipod touch the dish pointer pro is £13.99 and the dish pointer augumented wich is £6.99 can you tell me are they any good for the ipod touch many thanks
What a great series of infos B16MCC!
Like others, I've always tried to reduce tv time on hols ..
This year ... with the olympics ... I'm sorely tempted ...
I may just rely on campsites having a TV showing the olympics .... many do ... I recall watching previous olympics and world cup football on communal site tv's.
But, thanks for all the info ... very interesting and meticulously compiled!
Hi again everyone. The only difference I can see between the 2 dish pointer apps is the function to add and delete sats in the pro version. Defo not required if you just wanna line up 28.2e
Kelper, thanks for the feedback. I use the tv in the camper sometimes for the kids in a morning for an hour and perhaps a game of footy or the F1. I agree , tv should be kept to a minimum when out and about.
If I get chance this weekend I'll take some pics of my dish setup.
Grizedale Forrest tomorrow.
------------- Best Regards
B16MCC
Elec. Engineer & Sat TV Expert
I usually use an aerial and freeview.I am now thinking of getting a sky box and Dish similar to those on ebay. Would I need to get a Sky card to view the channels such as BBC, ITV etc or is that only for premium channels.Thanks
You would be best to get an HD freesat reciever I use a Goodmans GFSAT200HD with a dish on tripod. Also use it at home with the smallest of sky dishes that I got off Freecycle
------------- If it ain't broke don't try to fix it!
Hi B16MCC, although I don't watch tv on holiday, I am so full of respect and admiration that you have joined an on-line community and made such a fantastic contribution. I am sure I am not the only person who has thought 'it might be nice to have, but I'll leave it alone' because the technology can seem so mystifying, I know I look at those suitcase satellites on ebay and in aldi and think 'yes, but how the hell does it all work?' Your explanations are so clear you have made it all look very un-scary.
I don't know how long information on these things stays current, but do wonder if it would be possible to pin this thread so that all this information is there for people to refer back to?
I am really grateful and might even give it a go! Thanks!
------------- August - Carsington Water CC Site. Don't know where else yet - only picking up the caravan on Friday!