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 Topic: Tv aerial for camping
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04/6/2021 at 5:58pm
Location: London
Outfit: Lunar Cosmos 524
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May not be the aerial's fault, but where it's located. TV signals are pretty much 'line of sight' transmissions, if you can't clearly 'see' (as in no buildings, trees or hills etc. in the way) the transmitter, then signal is weakened or non-existent. A domestic TV aerial is usually 25ft of more off the ground and looking 'over' buildings, trees etc., even a caravan aerial is usually 8-9ft off the ground and most have a amplifier built into the system to boost weak signal strength. If you are using your aerial at near ground level, likely there will be some obstruction like trees interfering with signal strength. A great many camp sites have pretty poor TV reception anyway, because of their general location, I've used the TV connection on the EHU bollard (which gets it signal from a 'proper' aerial) on a few sites and it's still pretty poor!
Every possibility you may buy another aerial and find it's no better! I think most caravaners scrape by with some sort of signal, but that is probably because the aerial is raised off ground and the signal is amplified, and of course it's a purpose made high gain aerial in the first place - but doesn't always work!
What often works is directing aerial to an alternative transmitter to the 'recommended' or nearest one, sometimes even though the transmitter is further away and signal theoretically inherently weaker, there are less obstructions and the signal is adequate.
Plenty of people who seriously can't do without their dose of TV use portable satellite systems. Bit bulky to carry, bit fiddly to set up, obviously more expensive, and still require uninterrupted view of relevant bit of sky for the satellite, but you are looking for a generally easier to find bit of unobstructed sky, rather than unobstructed transmitter somewhere on the horizon.
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05/6/2021 at 7:18pm
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Yep, another vote for using a satellite antenna, for Freesat and or Sky reception in the U.K. you need only use the smallest of antennas, Vin Blanc’s is a perfect example, you can also use a Flat Plate antenna like the Selfsat, which are also quite small.
We have always used satellite when camping, once you understand the principles of dish alignment, it will only take you a matter of minutes to set the dish up, it’s those that just try to guess which way to point the dish, that give up after predictable not being able to locate the Astra2 satellites at 28.2 Deg East, depending on were you are in the U.K. the elevation varies, were I am near Manchester it is 22.70 Deg, basically the more South you go the elevation increases, in fact when we are in Frejus it is 35.20 Deg.
Post last edited on 05/06/2021 19:24:22
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06/6/2021 at 1:29pm
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The easiest satellite dish of all to align was the Solarsat 60cm, which had markings on the face of the dish, and there was a guide going from the LNB to the apex of the dish, all you had to do was move the dish around until a shadow was cast on the relevant markings on the dish, Solarsat had a website that gave the number to look for in real time.
The system worked perfectly for any satellite within footprint, the only downside was that you needed the sun to be shining, so not the ideal solution for U.K. campers, and impossible to set up at night anywhere of course.
Solarsat did send me a sample, must have been around year 2000 when I was still working at Sky, Solarsat never took of though.
The antenna I have for portable U.K. use is the Attisat FL500 at 55cm it’s a little overkill, but being a Flat Plate antenna is very easy to find the correct elevation using a Digital Angle finder.
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via mobile 04/6/2021 at 4:51pm
