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The last thing that many people want when they are away is to have the TV on. This is for everyone else.
There are four systems available that will enable you to watch TV in your van.
(1) Terrestrial analogue. This is the system that we have used for the last 50 years. Until recently it was all that was available. Campsites often are in areas where the signal is not strong enough and so caravan club and some commercial sites often have a booster system. For these sites you need 25m of low loss coax with a standard TV coax male plug on each end. This is usually available for about £10-15 from reception and you will save little by making you own. If using an aerial it can be difficult to tune in as you have to get the frequency, direction and polarity correct at the same time, This system is probably the lowest cost and as the signal get weaker the picture gets worse slowly. Only the four or five basic channels are available. This system is being phased out and there are areas where it has been switched off. (Devon and Cornwall go all digital on the 8th April.)
(2)Terrestrial digital. This gives you a choice of many more channels. You either require a digibox or a set with a built in digital tuner. You need a higher aerial gain (e.g. a bigger more expensive aerial;) because the signal at the moment is weaker. Omnidirectional aerials seem at the moment to be unsatisfactory but if, as expected, the signal power is increased after the digital switch over the simpler set up with omnidirectional aerials may be an advantage." When the signal is too weak either the picture breaks up into large squares or it will not work at all. Caravan club sites are changing their boosters over to digital but there are a few areas where it is still not available. (Bath marina for example) It has the same set up problems as analogue.
If you know the postcode of the site you are going to this website will give you a prediction of best transmitter to use: www.digitaluk.co.uk
(3)Satellite. Sky. Plenty of channels and coverage wider that UK only. There are no polarity issues and once you have tuned in your receiver the only adjustment is the direction of the dish. This is almost the same compass bearing and height everywhere and within the footprint of the satellite you will get reception unless there is a building or trees in the way. This is likely to be much less of a problem than with terrestrial aerials. For many channels you need a Sky subscription. <There may be problems getting a card?>
(4) Free-sat. This is essentially another satellite system. The details are different but the advantages are much the same. There is no subscription and you can essentially get the same channels as with terrestrial freeview. There are other satellites available and they may well have better coverage in Europe but have few English programs.
Aerials and dishes.
Terrestrial aerials. There are omnidirectional aerials and some people like them. I would not recommend them and suggest that you get a directional one. (Unless you are very close to the transmitter (e.g. the crystal Palace CC site) when a short length of wire will be more than good enough and any kind of aerial causes the receiver to overload and not work).
So you have arrived at the site and this is the first time that you have set up. Send the family off on a good 10 mile walk while you get it sorted. The camp site warden may well be able to tell you what the channels and direction are but this is far from certain as the wardens move around quite a bit. For some reason the information that they do not publish is the direction and polarity of the best transmitter. This site gives the grid refs of UK transmitters but unfortunately not the receiving area. http://www.dtg.org.uk/industry/transmitters.html For the main high power transmitter the aerials will mostly be omnidirectional but the smaller transmitters often radiate in some directions only as they are designed to “fill in” areas of poor reception. Look round the site at other peoples aerials. If there is any agreement as to direction and polarity try that. Polarity means the way (vertical or horizontal) the rods on the aerial are orientated. Horizontal polarization is used by the largest main transmitters and vertical by the small fill in ones. Horizontal is a good starting point if you have no other information or if possible you can set the aerial to 45 degrees and experiment. Now autotune your TV. It is better to start off with analogue. If you pick up four stations you can improve their quality by swinging the aerial while looking at the screen. If you cannot get anything move the aerial through about 45 degrees and try again. Continue until you have a channel tuned in and the picture is OK.
It is now worth while turning to digital. One of your menu options should give signal strength and quality (Manual tune is common) Rotate the aerial to give the highest quality. Signal strength is not so important. If it is OK very often the bar will turn green. You do not need perfection for a perfect picture but it is worth taking a little time to get it right. Reception does tend to change during the day and it is not uncommon to find that a good picture when you tune in on arrival is not so good when you are in the middle of …… later on.
For motor home use an aerial amplifier is useful. Get a good one – not a low cost one from a DIY store. They do improve analogue but often make digital worse. Omnidirectional aerials try to make up for their lack of signal with an amplifier. The problem is that they also amplify the noise and interference and this is particularly a problem with digital reception.
There are a number of types of Satellite receiver. You can go from the two thousand pound automatic large dish to the suitcase set up at less than £100. If you splash out on the automatic system on the roof remember that you will remove about 25kg from your available payload.
How big a dish should a buy? Essentially the answer is as large as you can reasonably carry. If you want to pick up UK TV in Spain or the south of France you are in a fringe area and will need a dish about 1.2m diameter at least. It will need a substantial stand and careful alignment. you will also find that in a fringe area near the edge of the footprint reception is more variable and one year you may get a picture with a smaller dish the next the full 1.2m is required.
Within UK this system:
<http://www.maplin.co.uk/Module.aspx?ModuleNo=48737>
with a 39cm dish can only be expected to work within the UK.
This website gives the procedure for setting up a dish if your system is not automatic.:
<http://www.ricklomas.com/2007/06/06/how-to-set-up-a-tv- satellite-dish-and-sky-digibox-to-watch-english-channels-such-as-bbc-and-itv/>
This site shows it in pictures:
http://www.caravanchannel.co.uk/v2players/maxview2.html
Last edited by safariboy on Fri Apr 03, 2009 2:03 pm; edited 3 times in total
I have put up the above as a very preliminary effort to make sense of this topic.
I am not happy about parts of it - particularly the section on lining up a sat dish and would welcome someone with more experience writing a better version of this section.
(4) Free-sat. This is essentially another satellite system. The details are different but the advantages are much the same. There is no subscription and you can essentially get the same channels as with free-view.
So glad to read the above. I understand a little more now.
Still don't know what to do though. I have 12V TV with freeview built in. Also aerial socket in the van that says 'mohawk' and has knob on saying 'gain'.
Wires go up through handy 3 ft wardrobe but aerial removed by previous owner. I am at a total loss as to whether to:
a) Get antenna on mast (ones with arm and metal spikes)
b) Use 'status' I have been offered free and pay to have fitted. - But will it receive freeview?
c) Buy sat dish kit I don't really have room for.
d) Favorite! Save for few hundred quid manual satellite crank up through wardrobe one.
Needs: Freeview in UK - Yorkshire downwards. Steady picture with least messing, especially in rain!
Help!!!!!!! This is crucial. Him indoors is using no TV as excuse to stay home alone. As he is happily welded to sofa and no garden or DIY skills, this is a rubbish plan.
Oh! - and:
e) Get new bloke who might fancy me better than the football
For Freeview.The most important thing to arrange is aerial alignment. First use a good directional aerial. Status 530 is as good as they come.
Before you leave for the site, check the site postcode against the Digital UK website:
www.digitaluk.co.uk
On the first page enter the postcode for the site. On the next page click where it says Trade View. The next page will then show you accurate signal strengths and compass bearings for the site that you will be at. It will also show you whether to use Vertical (rare) or Horizontal (normal) polarization.
The other thing to remember is that as you will need to carry out a full retune every time you use a new site, you should always use the option in the menu to set to factory default or reset as new. This will clear the memory and leave space for all those new channels. If you fail to do this you are likely to get the dreaded no signal message.
Gerry
I think that is an excellent piece of work safariboy on what can be a complex subject. I did notice a typing error
Caravan club sites are charging their boosters over to digital but there are a few areas where it is still not available.
I would also say the jury is out on the usefulness of the Status Omni directional antenna (Flying saucer) It will definite work better in the digital environment because the digital transmission standard allows mobile reception without the typical problems associated with analog systems (reflections, distortions, double images, and so on) which the Flying Saucer is so very prone.
With respect to terrrestial digital (Freeview)I am also not keen on the statement "It requires a stronger signal to work" I quote from a digital hand book which I think was issued by the Digital TV Group.
"Received signal quality is higher and does not degrade progressively as
the receiver input reduces but remains constant down to a very low
threshold (the receiver input range is increased by around 20dB with
respect to the level needed for a good analog reception). So it is
possible to use lower RF power or smaller antenna size to broadcast
over the same area."
From a mobile receivers perspective this means for transmitted powers similar to analogue you need less signal for a good picture which is another reason I would not write off the flying saucer which at the end of the day does not require fiddling about with to set up. I have no idea if the digital transmitter powers will be the same as analogue but if they are then clearly the statement "It requires a stronger signal to work" is wrong.
Costs of automatic satellite systems I would place the figure of £1000 to £2000 pounds on it rather than a thousand!
Satellite setting up. There was a very good paper written on this and I will see if I can find a URL reference for it rather than re-inventing the wheel. The author used to post here so if he is still around perhaps he would be happy to reproduce it?
peedee
______________________________________________________________ The best journeys are not always in straight lines
For an account of our journeys click >here< (Last updated 1st March 2012)
I would like to thank everyone who has taken the time and trouble to originally post and add comments to this thread. Aerial technology is as clear as mud to me - but the entries have given me a far better understanding of how things actually work now.
Thank you for your very helpful comments. You are quite right about digital signal powers. I was trying to be simple and in doing so wrote the wrong thing. " You need a higher aerial gain because the signal at the moment is weaker. Omnidirectional aerials seem at the moment to be unsatisfactory but if, as expected, the signal is increased after the digital switch over the simpler set up with these aerials may be an advantage."
Thanks for all the replies. I have now incorporated them into the article.
The area that now needs attention is question of cards and sky. What you need and what you can and cannot do.
Anyone who can send me the information would be very helpful and I will get that bit sorted out.
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