Yes, lots of folk - but - whatever you do, DON'T get one of these Peak usb sticks; I bought one; useless on the laptop, and even plugged in at home on the desktop and to the main TV aerial, I could only pick up three TV channels....
It would seem only the more expensive ones are any good, and even then I think you would get better results with a normal aerial on a pole rather than the mini aerial supplied.
However, my son bought this PCMCIA card, and this works very well indeed - even sometimes with the mini-aerial...
There are also PCIExpress card versions, if your laptop has that slot rather than PCMCIA....
Gram
------------- What's the difference between a chicken?
Will you have an internet connection? Both BBC and ITV now broadcast all of their various channels live over their respective internet sites. Sky do as well, so if you have a Sky subscription at home then you can watch online while you're away.
I have a Peak USB (as per the link above) use a little lap top and it's been ok for us. I agree the portable ariel it comes with is pretty hopeless, but I use mine with the 'vans boosted omnidirectional UFO status ariel and can get as much TV as I need. I'm not a big TV watcher so providing I can get a news/weather report and Cbeebies for the kids I'm happy.
To date, we've used it in parts of the North Wales coast, East Lincolnshire coast, Devon and Isle of Wight. Touch wood it's not failed me yet!
I've got an avermedia slot card thingy (bought it from dell when I got my laptop, not cheap though) and generally its been great. Works well with the little ariel in good signal areas and with the caravan ariel as well. Currently on a site with very poor TV reception and haven't bothered to buy an ariel cable to connect up to the bollard but I'm sure if I did it would work. Only problem I've found is the limited viewing angle on the laptop screen compared to a TV - we all tend to end up on one side of the caravan to watch things!
I find that its better for us to use through the Vista media center instead of the dongles own program, and even with the Ariel on top of the van it works, some places better than others.