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Hi, I'm very new to this game, could someone please give me some advice on choosing a satellite system for my Hymer that i could fit myself.
I'm not bothered about getting lots of channels and don't won't to pay a monthly subscription.
Could i purchase a system for around £250-£300 and use it in europe or am i just dreaming!
Not dreaming at all.
Our first system was done completely for less than £25 and worked all the way down to Italy no problem.
For £300 you're a little short of a decent wind-up dish mounted on the van roof but why not try a tripod mounted dish or even a Maplin/Lidl/Aldi portable system? They'll work fine but you'll just need a bit more time, patience and practice to set them up. Once you've done it a few times you'll soon get the hang of it - and they'll work OK over most of Northern Europe. Cost from £60 upwards depending on what you want and who has what on offer at the time you buy.
At rock bottom, buy a used Sky Digibox and mini-dish off the local car boot sale and set the dish up on a pole mounted to your bike rack or rear ladder. It works, I've done it and the missus has sat on the shores of Lake Garda watching East Enders with the set-up.
______________________________________________________________ If you lend someone £20 and never see that person again, it was probably well worth it.
Get a crank-up dish (choose Alden, Globesat, Camos, Maxview) and either a Free-to-view satellite receiver or a Sky digibox (don't need monthly subscription).
There are a few things to consider when buying a system not only cost.
if you have a roof mounted dish and you cant see the satellite because of trees etc, and you cant move the nav than you wont get TV. If you have an external tripod mounted dish which you can move then you can possible move the dish to a place where you can. This is a choice of convenience you have to make.
This made, then the most costly item is likely to be the dish itself as free to air sat recievers can be had for £30 brand new or less than that off ebay for an ex sky dish.
You have to have something to aid you finding the satellite. an ex sky box would have this built in (to a degree) as would a maplins type free to air sat set up.
The other choice of course is a fully automated self seeking dish and reciever where you just turn on and go but thats the most expensive option and as mentioned if you cant see the satellite with a clear path then you wont get the tv anyway.
So theres a few choices to be made and it all depends on how much work you want to do setting up the dish and your budget.
Phill
______________________________________________________________ Just when i found out my dad was right I had a son that thought I was wrong.....Henry winkler.
hi stuart1 im quite new to all this aswell and i have a tripod mounted dish and the full set up cost me around £25, ive just got back from europe and it worked perfect. but as gaspode said they can be a bit tricky until you get the hang of it, but it doesnt take long i now can have it all up and running in 5-10 mins
hi stuart1 im quite new to all this aswell and i have a tripod mounted dish and the full set up cost me around £25, ive just got back from europe and it worked perfect. but as gaspode said they can be a bit tricky until you get the hang of it, but it doesnt take long i now can have it all up and running in 5-10 mins
Connsider getting the now famous lidl laser level tripod system. This is the laser level that lidl sometimes sell for £9.99 much smaller and beats all these dedicated tripods coting £30 plus into a cocked hat.
The beauty of this system is that the rotating head that would normally be used for holding the laser level can be used to hold the dish in most of the suitcase systems. I have attached a photo which a kind member on here kindly let me download. This allows you to set the dish up quite quickly. Firstly set the dish vertical (by eye) then rotate the rotating head slowly whilst listening to the set up beeper on the reciever. Finds it in seconds. Everytime i do it the missus says. "i cant believe how much trouble we used to have before we had that and the old sky box"
Photo supplied my MHF member...,this is not my van.
Phill
______________________________________________________________ Just when i found out my dad was right I had a son that thought I was wrong.....Henry winkler.
I had a similar dilema recently - I decided to plump for the maxview crankup system - in total with receiver this has cost me £425 (only arrived yesterday) - but that doesn't include fitting (having a go at that myself)
I've heard good things about it on this forum - but proof is in the pudding - setting up this weekend.
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Greece
