Satellite Dish reception

[Idle Days]

I'm considering purchasing a Maxview VuQube 2 automatic satellite dish and fitting it to our narrowboat.  Does anyone here have any experience of this product?  I particularly concerned whether signal drop-out is a problem due to boat movement when moored and would welcome comment on this aspect. 

[Hudds Lad]

43 minutes ago, Idle Days said:

I'm considering purchasing a Maxview VuQube 2 automatic satellite dish and fitting it to our narrowboat.  Does anyone here have any experience of this product?  I particularly concerned whether signal drop-out is a problem due to boat movement when moored and would welcome comment on this aspect. 

 

once you're moored up and as long as it has LOS to the sat it should not be a problem, our manually aligned dish once set is fine and only affected by high winds nudging it round, being enclosed the VuQube should not suffer from that.

[waterdog]

1 hour ago, Idle Days said:

I'm considering purchasing a Maxview VuQube 2 automatic satellite dish and fitting it to our narrowboat.  Does anyone here have any experience of this product?  I particularly concerned whether signal drop-out is a problem due to boat movement when moored and would welcome comment on this aspect. 

The biggest problem with this system is finding a mooring free of trees so that the system can find the satellite. Otherwise it works extremely well.

We have one coupled up to a Humax box & smart tv and can usually get the full range of Freesat channels, when trees get in the way the alternative is to stream providing there is a strong enough signal.

 

Loss of signal due to boat movement when moored  only causes us a problem if its a poor satellite signal in the first place.

 

 

Edited May 4, 2021 by waterdog

[enigmatic]

What are people's opinions on the more budget end of the satellite dish market like this?

https://www.satgear.co.uk/satgear-premium-high-definition-40cm-portable-suitcase-satellite-kit-with-easyfind-12-240v-hd-receiver.html

 

I don't watch much TV, continuously cruise and am pretty good at not mooring under trees.

I'm also aware there might be less setup involved in a standard omnidirectional aerial or continuing to stream over 4G and not bother with TV receiving equipment or |Freesat/Freeview

 

But am considering satellite as an option which might be better in hillier areas of the country I hope to visit later in the year  (and I'm finding a few places where I get some 4G for web browsing but not enough bandwidth for streaming). Are the [budget] omnidirectional aerial signals weak enough in places like the Pennines or Llangollen to make [budget] satellite a worthwhile option, or is portable budget satellite losing signal due to boat movement (and needing setup at every location) a bigger issue?

[Hudds Lad]

I suppose it depends on how much cash you have to spend and how averse you are to fiddling about on the roof in all weathers once moored, self-seeking dishes to me seem vastly expensive to do a simple job and are just another lump to avoid knocking off in bridge holes etc. At the end of the day they will both point at the same satellite and receive the same channels.

 

We have an entirely manual dish, when not in use it's neatly stored under the TV unit. It's quite rare we use it to be fair, but it's easily set up using a combination of an iPhone app and a decent signal meter. It can be set up using just the meter, but i use the app just to check if it's even worth bothering as it overlays the sat direction on a Google Earth type map so you can see if trees etc. are going to be a problem.

 

The dish you link to above, my only worry would be the stability of it's tripod, you could ditch that bit if you have a suitable point on the boat to mount the pole. We have a small cup on the roof that the pole sits in then tightens down once aligned. Looks a bit like https://www.midlandchandlers.co.uk/products/flag-socket-vertical-1-brass-ab-063 but has slits down the side and a sort of wing-nutted jubilee clip on. This would not be good for any pole over a couple of feet long.

 

Other methods of mounting and sat finding are available, @Keeping Up has made a Satellite Sundial for example.

 

If you don't intend to use it much, my gut says save the money and have a portable kit.