Satellite Again!

[ScruffyDuck]

Hi All - let me start with an apology My first post here and I am picking up on a subject that already has many threads. I have tried to read most of them before posting. I had no intention of getting a satellite system for my boat until I went to Lidl last Saturday for a new box of cling film. Big mistake - saw their camping sat system and failed to resist. Actually I then took it back. The TV I have is new and has Freeview. OK so I also now know that you don't get Freeview from a satellite - the nice man at Currys explained that to me at the same time he explained that you can't get a converter from SCART to RF...... Why would I care? well this lovely new TV does not have a SCART socket, hence the problem.

 

That got me thinking and since my very expensive mistake of buying a Gazelle aerial fails to deliver Freeview I have got it into my head to get a Sat system. I would like your thoughts on my plans. First I need to explain that I do not have a narrow boat but a Hardy Pilot - lovely and just right as my 'floating shed'. Spend nearly every weekend on it summer and winter. It is, however very skittish and not at all a stable platform for a sat dish. So here is where I am. I have about £200.00 to spend

• Sat Dish - Kerstan Mini Mobile. My reading indicates that smaller dishes are less susceptible to movement and easier to set up.
  
• Receiver - either a Manhattan Plaza XT-M or a Technomate TM 3500. Both have RF (I assume a UHF loop is the same thing?) and can take cards. I am looking for Free To Air but having card slots seems useful. The Technomate can also record onto a USB hard disk - would I ever use that I wonder?
  
• Extras - A sat finder such as a Digisat and a compass!
  

I am mulling over using a pole for the dish. I have a bit of room next to the boat in the marina are could easily fit a socket to take a pole - on the canal I thought perhaps to pop the pole in the bank next to the boat. This would overcome the tendency to spill the G&T every time someone passes upsetting the aim. Close to the boat I figure I could use the sat finder to set up - In the marina it is pretty easy to work out where the satellite is. In the bank I can set the pole vertical and that just leaves the heading. I know there are tripod dishes - might be OK on the bank but definitely not OK in the marina.

 

Am I talking twaddle or does this all have a chance of working?

 

Thanks

 

Jon

[larkshall]

ER some marinas prohibit harware stuck into banks etc.

 

Have a look at aldi.co.uk thy have an offer on

 

ANd many people here swear by the mapln suitcase product.

 

I@ve missed something here ie scart to rf. exactly what inputs doe the tv have?

[Gary Peacock]

Scart to RF is perfectly possible using a external RF modulator.

 

One EXAMPLE

[ScruffyDuck]

ER some marinas prohibit harware stuck into banks etc.

 

Have a look at aldi.co.uk thy have an offer on

 

ANd many people here swear by the mapln suitcase product.

 

I@ve missed something here ie scart to rf. exactly what inputs doe the tv have?

 

No I'm fine in the marina - I am on a pontoon and the owners do not mind some hardware in the pontoon. We have mooring rings etc and a smallish socket would not arouse any worries.

 

TV has the usual RF Coax and a small jack for AV. I got a SCART to AV adapter but could not get the Lidl box to work with it. I would prefer to connect reciever to TV via the RF Coax. All the 12V offerings such as Maplin and Lidl have SCART only TV connectors as far as I can tell. I have no problem with a 240V receiver since I have a decent sized inverter on board

Edited May 20, 2008 by ScruffyDuck

[whammy]

The Kerstan dishes are excellent dishes - a bit more expensive at just over £120 but well worth it. You also can't go wrong with the Technomate boxes and with one of those you will not need a sat finder gizmo as the technomate has a satellite set up on screen menu which lists all the available satellites and is superb for setting things up - done in 2 mins max. The best website for any info re satellite tv is www.alsat.co.uk - they have seperate technomate section as well as a plethora of good information.

[larkshall]

OK, Gary is of course correct, There are many scart to RF modulators about.

 

But just one thing, if you can use your av in jack the picture will be better than rf.

[ScruffyDuck]

Scart to RF is perfectly possible using a external RF modulator.

 

One EXAMPLE

 

Well that is something I did not know of course!

 

 

But just one thing, if you can use your av in jack the picture will be better than rf.

 

Something else I didn't know Are all AV jack input sockets the same? Somehow I lost the spare cables to the TV probably because I did not think I would need them. Also I got the impression (probably wrongly) that with the Lidl receiver I would not get the menu system unless I made a SCART to SCART connection.

Edited May 20, 2008 by ScruffyDuck