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Hi pds400 and Mike.

                             Sounds like you are both getting very good results with those 45/35 cm dishes, are you both using the dish suplied with kit, and when in France do you get ITV/BBC channels which are coming from Astra2 D, unlike Sky news etc which are not on the spot beam transponder of the Astra 2 Fleet at 28.2 East.

Andy.

i went over to the daughters to try the  new dish etc out. tuned it to the followinf: 

ok -- 0002 ---07d4.

and managed to get different channnels on sky using our grandaughters old sky card.. i've locked the elevation so i only have to swing dish side to side tomorrow.

question? will i be able to use my sky + card when i go away tomorrow?

len

Hi Len.

          The elevation changes, if you go South it increses to a steeper angle, if you go North it decreases, not a lot but it does, think of it this way, the satellites sit directly above the eqater, the closer you are to the eqater the higher up you have to look, the further away you are the lower you look. hope that helps.

Andy.

Francais

Yes I did get all BBC & ITV channels, I have freesat at home as well using a SKY dish. With the smaller dish when camper unless there is a major downpour or a large tree in the way then the reception is as good. Bear in mind that I was in Brittany, if you go further south you may need a larger dish to get Astra 2 channels.

Hi pds400.

              Thanks for confirming that,a good result none the less. Those small 35cm Dish's were realy designed for reception from HotBird (Eutelsat) 13 East, Astra 1, (19.2 East), and Hispasat 30 West, all of which put down a much stronger signal than Astra2D over Europe, probably why Aldi/Lidl list them, I was down in the Southern Ardeche this summer, using a 60cm I could pull in Sky news etc, but to get the ITV/BBC channels I had to resort to a 80cm, although the site did have a lot shade cover (gallery), which was most welcome due to the heat, but did compramise clear line of sight a little, the 80cm delivered picture perfect with no breakup, which of course you would expect from a dish of that size, and to be fair the pack size of an 80cm compared to a 60cm, makes little difference. but it would be nice if those little Dish's could work so far South for Astra2D, but hey ho, that's satellite.

Andy. 

Quote: Originally posted by Francais on 14/8/2009

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Hi pds400 and Mike.

                             Sounds like you are both getting very good results with those 45/35 cm dishes, are you both using the dish suplied with kit, and when in France do you get ITV/BBC channels which are coming from Astra2 D, unlike Sky news etc which are not on the spot beam transponder of the Astra 2 Fleet at 28.2 East.

Andy.

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We were able to get All SKY channels including Sports and Hannah Montanna (only for when it rained) on a 60cm dish in the Vendee last year. I use Dishpointer.com and a £3 compass to find the satellite at each site I go to, usually head for 140 degrees and you will be close to a signal.

Andy,  what effect do trees have? We were near Perpignan this year and the pitch had a lot of trees giving welcome shade. There was a few gaps but I wondered if I would be able to get a signal.

Hi Trooper Man.

                      Even water droplets and mist/rain will attenuate the signal, and this will show if your dish is either to small or not aligned correctly, as for leaves, well to be fair if they are bone dry then the signal will pass through, problem is that most foilage contins water, and rain will add to this, and this will reduce the signal even further, so if your on a shady pitch on a rainy day, you will be lucky to get a signal, also when the wind starts to blow, this will add even more to signal degredation, as all those branches and leaves become condensed together. hope that helps.

Andy.

got a dish kit from maplins a couple years ago and stick to roof of caravan with suction bits that come with it and just run cable through window noooooooo problem