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I have a manual system but can't seem to get on with it – when the wind blows, I have to go and re – set the dish etc… is there a dish that you can use whilst on the road.

Also looking to have a solar panel fitted, but unsure of the type of panel I need for 2 days trips without hook up, would like to run TV and lights, everything else works on gas.

Any advice from pro users would be gratefully received

Dave

http://www.roadpro.co.uk

This company does a range of satellite dishes and domes, ( in fact a whole lot of things ) well worth a look. 

Hi,

 If you only want power for 2 days at a time and you want this all year around the cheapest option would be extra batteries, and run the engine during the day to recharge them or you could purchase a small generator albeit as with the vehicle engine please think of your neighbours before starting and never run it in the evening. 

As for satellite systems you also need to consider where you intend to use it,  as if you are thinking of heading to the south of Spain around the Malaga/Marbella area I don't know of a fixed system that has a big enough dish,  we carry a small Lidl's dish with its suction pads which we reach out of the Heik and stick on the roof which works perfectly well with our Sky box as far down through France as Poiters {futurscope] and then we reverted to our 600mm dish which we can either mount on the rear ladder or on a movable tripod [so no worries about trees etc and this worked as far down as Benidorm but when we got to the area I mentioned above we had to use a friends 1.3 meter dish and even with that the signal wasn't that good ?

Hope that helps

The fully automatic dish costs plus or minus £2000 and they are subject of course to the same constraints as manual dishes on poles/tripods

There must be a clear line of sight to the satellite with no trees etc in the way

This is why you see the dishes twirling when an outfit first arrives on site as its too late to move the van when the awning etc is erected.

I have the Maxview Semitronic which needs a meter to find the satellite but remembers the angle of inclination and is turned by hand from inside the van by hand

I like it because its wired up permanently but wind can be a problem as its not as sheltered on the van roof

During gales in France I had to guy it from behind and I have seen other on the roof automatics so guyed

It does say put it down in high winds

There is a dish that you can use on the road called the Camos but last year when I enquired it could not be used with Sky+

D3101 CAMOS 30CM IN-MOTION SAT-DOME CSA 230M   If you want to watch TV , even when your vehicle is moving, here’s the equipment you need. The sat-dome is compact in size, light in weight, reliable in operation and incredibly easy to operate and install: there’s just one co-ax cable to run. Even if the in-motion facility isn’t needed, the system’s simplicity, neatness, low power-consumption and ease of installation and use make it an attractive alternative to conventional dish systems. The system can be used with or without a SKY digibox (some kind of receiver must be used). It will pick up all popular U.K. TV & radio programmes over all of the British Isles and over most of France & north-east Spain, Holland & Belgium. Over the rest of Europe it has a similar performance to any satellite dish with a diameter of less than 0.9M as shown on the official ASTRA 2D footprint maps. (To the inner edge of the outermost orange area.) For ASTRA 2A & 2B, performance is similar to dishes of 50cm as shown on the official ASTRA footprint maps. (The inner blue area.) To see these maps, look at our "Beginners Guide to Satellite TV" in the Tech Tips section. NOTE: If the areas covered by this dish as described above sound odd, we know: they do. But this unit has been thoroughly tested by us and these are the facts, strange but true!

Click on image to enlarge Price £1,769.99 Quantity

An Oyster vision claimed to be the most reliable on the market You know instantly if you cant receive a signal and move to another pitch. costs £1633.00 all in  85 cm dish fully automatic I know because i have just had it fitted. if you want a pace receiver it will cost you another £200. works exceptionally well with sky receiver.

Dont forget the dish has a height advantage over the tripod version and as Derek said its a press of the button and locks onto the satelite. The same time the kettle goes on.

I had the tripod version and it became a pain to set up plus its not very good when wild camping or parked on aires for the night its advertising you are attracting the wrong sort of interest in you. on three ocasions this year in France it would have been nice to watch TV so I decided to take the plunge.

I run the TV  and box off 230v on hook up or an inverter the dish has its own 12volt supply. retracts automatically when ignition on.

The box is fitted neatly in a cupboard with a magic eye receiver next to the TV to change channel.

The oyster can be removed and placed on another camper all you need is the base plate.

Pete

A good investment with 5yrs guarantee.

We have a Camos satellite sytem already installed on our Mac Louis when we bought it.   The instructions are not very helpful, neither was the installer.   The advert claims to receive TV anywhere in Europe.

We had a lot of trouble trying to set it up in UK but it worked very well in France especially the pyranees during a thunderstorm.   However we cannot track any sattelite from Spain, we live for part of the year on the Costa Blanca, which is very disappointing.  Any tips or has anyone else had problems in this area (or any area) of Spain

Amfia

Hi we have just changed from a caravan to a motorhome and we also have had the fitted before delivery.................we are really impressed and it certainly was nice just to push the button, we have managed nicely for three and half years setting up manually but thought we would treat ourselves and I am so glad that we did.

One of the most economical on the market is the Alden, got mine from JMB additions, fitted myself - very straight forward. Works great. This one also able to pick up all the other satallites very easly, just press the button on the recevier box as to which sat you want and away you go.

http://www.jmbadditions.com/alden.php

Got solar panel also, works great, recharges the batteries very nicely, (just changed all internal lights to LEDs, now it hardly registers any current draw when the lights are on, fantastic)

Thanks UZ2S,

I,ll give it a go. I,ve used the Caro twice since I got it fitted and have had no problem on site. Seems to lock on to Astra in less than a minute. I,ll see if it can find hotbird whilst its on my drive. I cant get Astra at home due to a huge tree in the back garden but I have picked up hotbird on my original cheapo sat in a bag system. I know what you mean about the Caro, it looks nicely in proportion, particularly on a small van like mine.

cheers

John