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We got the Maplin suitcase one - it's a doddle to set up on the front drive at home, but in 3 trips away (2 to Wales, and one to Kingsbury WaterPark), I've yet to be able to pick up a signal!

I'm gonna try it in the back garden at the weekend!

Quote: Originally posted by JohnG on 18/4/2007

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I got a Sky digi box and Sky dish for £5 from a car boot so its worth looking around as many people have gone on to Sky+ and have a spare box

You can get BBC 1,BBC 2.ITV and alot more news etc channels with no card at all

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Not to get those channels I listed above.

I have a digi box in the van for testing with no card and I can get those channels

Have alook here

http://www.wickonline.com/fta.htm

Salient points

FTA means Free to Air, No viewing card is required.

FTV means free to view, You need a viewing card, either a 2nd generation free to view card (Dark Blue) or a Sky Viewing Card. Free to view channels are only viewable on a sky digibox.

I bought a compleat kit yesterday from our local market (Sandbach) £40.00 brand new. It came with various ways to attach it including suckers & clamp, all the cables, 12v & mains. Tried it last night & was very pleased.

I work the markets for a living & see people on here saying that they have got bargains from the various stores, i know that markets are out of fashion at the moment & supposedly full of dodgy dealers (not), you can still get very good value for money if you look around & most traders are only to happy to help. For example i know of a chap who was selling the small gas cookers & heaters for around £10.00 each long before the shops started to discount them. At the moment he is doing gas £4.00 for a pack of four. Cheap at half the price!

Quote: Originally posted by DAVECOX on 21/4/2007

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Can anyone tell me what the difference is with the Maplins B grade dish and I persume the A Grade.

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From Maplins -

"Our B-Grade products offer you the chance to make even more savings at Maplin!

B-Grade includes used and unused returned items, end of line products, slightly marked or refurbished items.
To ensure peace of mind, each product comes with a full 12 month guarantee; having been fully tested by our team of in-house technicians."

I've just ordered a B Grade Sat kit

the maplins one is dead easy to setup -  it has a buzzer buildt into te reciever that sounds when you have agood signal.

it also has a compass that attaches to this dish to aid alignment.

Only problem is that it doesnt have may decent channels.

I take the dish from the maplins kit and my sky box

Hi

Got a free secondhand digibox (amstrad) then got a tripod off ebay with a second hand dish works perfectly  its better to get a card as there are about 50 extra free Channels if you have one. Sometimes the second hand boxes come with a card already. Whole lot cost about £25 .

Just used my dish for the first time (in mountainous Wales !!) and reception was great........ except when it rained and the picture kept breaking up or freezing

It was fine if I ventured out and gave it a wipe but wondered if this is a common problem?

I never had any such problems with my old analogue system on the side of my house.

If this is the governments digital-age future, then I don`t rate it very highly !!

Is the free-view satelite system on low power at he moment the same as the Freeview digi set-top boxes?    If so, why?

I can`t understand the government if they are forcing this on us and trying to promote digital viewing then why are we only offered sub-standard services?

I think digital set-top boxes, at the very least, should be free issue to every household when the anologue system is switched off.

Also, If Film4/E4/More4 and Five/FiveUS/FiveLife are free to cable & Freeview viewers then why are they not yet available to Sky free view satelite ?