Help! Life without telly is unbearable :(

[Monkey 1]

It is non directional but I find the signal strength does improve slightly when facing the direction of the antenna. It's easily made directional though, a simple wire mesh screen fitted behind the aerial will do it.

[Guest]

It is non directional but I find the signal strength does improve slightly when facing the direction of the antenna. It's easily made directional though, a simple wire mesh screen fitted behind the aerial will do it.

Thanks, gonna knock one up with some brazing rod

[Maffi]

Hi

 

For two months now we've managed fine without live TV, just catching up occasionally with some favorites using BBC iPlayer (downloads), but now even this isn't working - downloads work fine but won't play and the message says "... is temporarily unavailable, please try later" but later never comes and all downloads now have the same message. Nobody has been able to solve this so its bye bye BBC iPlayer.

 

Lots needs to be done to our boat and TV isn't the first priority, so we need to rig up some sort of aerial as cheaply as possible. We already have an aerial socket fitted with wiring up through the roof - looking at other boats the simplest seems to be some sort of magnetic base, a pole and an aerial that looks like those you see on houses. But where do you get these things?

 

Any advice / recommendations much appreciated.

 

Please ignore this, ive accidently put it on twice.

 

 

Learn to live without TV. Do other things. Enjoy life.

[alan_fincher]

It doesn't have to be between black and white folks - there are shades of grey

Actually Ange, you'll even find colour sets have been available for quite a few years now.

 

(But if you go for one, you'll need to budget for a licence being nearly three times as expensive, I think......)

[Guest]

Learn to live without TV. Do other things. Enjoy life.

I understand why you and others say that; it is largely filled with crap and repeated crap at that. That said there are certain things still worth watching for me. Question time is amongst my favourites. I like studying the body language of the speakers, and detecting when they are lying etc. I like cartoons too. We are treated to good documentaries once in a while.

 

Don't watch the box much, but won't be parting with it just yet.

[Monkey 1]

Everything in moderation as they say, there's nothing wrong with watching a bit of telly. My life isn't any less fulfilling as a result, it's just not considered 'cool' is it .

Edited May 31, 2012 by Monkey 1

[Guest]

Everything in moderation as they say, there's nothing wrong with watching a bit of telly. My life isn't any less fulfilling as a result, it's just not considered 'cool' is it .

Actually you make an interesting point. It was quite an elitist thing having a telly when I was a kid, and if you had a colour one you had made it. It seems to be an elitist thing not to have one today.

[larkshall]

The sort of things I like to watch on the box are Discovery Nat Geo, Sky Arts etc. That of course gives me a conundrum. How do I get these on the canals with no registered address ashore, or indeed a fixed telephone line to the box. Ideas anyone?

[dekker]

Can anyone tell me where I can gat a magnetic base (besides maxiview) that is capable of supporting a Satelitte Dish on the boat roof?

[simon&jan]

The sort of things I like to watch on the box are Discovery Nat Geo, Sky Arts etc. That of course gives me a conundrum. How do I get these on the canals with no registered address ashore, or indeed a fixed telephone line to the box. Ideas anyone?

 

We have just upgraded to sky plus at home , had a chat with the engineer about the boat thing and he said there was no problem about the phone line ,all he was worried about was the boat mounted dish rocking too much and loosing signal ,he recomended a tripod arrangment on the bank ? Am sure sky will let you pay for it wuthout a home address , the guy said he was doing loads of boat instilations , so cant be too much of a problem i would think !!

[STUBAG]

I find the title of the OP very sad. Is there not a help group or clinic for this sort of thing?

There was a very interesting program on T.V. last week about this sort of thing, and.....oh, sorry.

[WJM]

The best modification I ever made to my boat was to drive under a low bridge and rip off the tv aerial - life is significantly better now that I don't waste half my life gawping at mental muesli!

[Grace and Favour]

Can anyone tell me where I can gat a magnetic base (besides maxiview) that is capable of supporting a Satelitte Dish on the boat roof?

 

Make a simple base for your Satellite Dish (from Wood, Aluminium. steel - whatever suits you)

 

When you've the construction you're happy with, visit ebay and buy half a dozen circular/flat neodymium magnets, and glue them to the underside of your base.

 

All in all, much more effective than the mag bases you can buy, and much much cheaper (I made mine for £3)

[Neil2]

This isn't very helpful but it amused me.

 

A few years back I met a couple of liveaboards, and the guy explained it was really his wife's idea he only agreed provided he could have the same size TV on the NB as they had at home. You can guess how big it was. It virtually covered one wall of the lounge. I asked him, half joking, if he had to sit on the opposite side of the cut to watch it. And of course he needed shore power to run it.

 

TV these days is simply dreadful. Even some of the more interesting programmes still pander to the masses. The only consolation is that the quality of british radio programmes has risen as if to compensate.

[Monkey 1]

The best modification I ever made to my boat was to drive under a low bridge and rip off the tv aerial - life is significantly better now that I don't waste half my life gawping at mental muesli!

 

A rather extreme approach! I use the on/off button

 

 

 

[Trilby Tim]

This Maplin's aerial is really good and very small: aerial

It was on offer when I bought it, so was about £10 cheaper, but I think it would be worth the higher price. I did have a Maxview flying saucer one which worked fine when there was good signal, but when surrounded by buildings it couldn't receive anything at all. This Maplin one gives almost all the channels. I've also got it feeding a car stereo head unit with digital radio and it works fine there too.

[Lady Muck]

You could fit some knobs below a convenient window opposite your favorite chair and stare at it using your imagination.

or move to Tottenham, so much odd stuff going on here tv is boring compared to real life.

[Barry]

This Maplin's aerial is really good and very small: aerial

It was on offer when I bought it, so was about £10 cheaper, but I think it would be worth the higher price. I did have a Maxview flying saucer one which worked fine when there was good signal, but when surrounded by buildings it couldn't receive anything at all. This Maplin one gives almost all the channels. I've also got it feeding a car stereo head unit with digital radio and it works fine there too.

 

That's an interesting recommendation Tim

 

Do you have to fiddle about getting the direction right or is it a case of stick it to't window and forget it?

[onionbargee]

you sad *********, read a book.

[bizzard]

you sad *********, read a book.

You're Kindle-ing controversy.

[Guest]

you sad *********, read a book.

Funny you should say that, only recently somebody said almost exactly the same thing to me when I was browsing this forum.

Edited May 31, 2012 by Guest

[larkshall]

We have just upgraded to sky plus at home , had a chat with the engineer about the boat thing and he said there was no problem about the phone line ,all he was worried about was the boat mounted dish rocking too much and loosing signal ,he recomended a tripod arrangment on the bank ? Am sure sky will let you pay for it wuthout a home address , the guy said he was doing loads of boat instilations , so cant be too much of a problem i would think !!

 

 

Ooh I had better find me a tame Sky engineer round here then, well when I get back that is. Thanks for the tip though

[RobinR]

I have both the Maplin aerial with amplifier and suitcase satellite kit. All work from 12 volts (I use a power inserter to feed 12v to the amp) and the FTA satellite box also runs on 12v. and then to aim the dish at 142 degrees with the dish vertical (shows 19 degrees on the built in elevation scale). To find 142 degrees, initially look where dishes on houses are aimed then take a compass onto the towpath away from the boat and other large steel objects but stand as close to the dish mounting point as possible. Identify a distant object (tree, chimney etc.) at approximately 142 degrees and stand on an imaginary line between the dish and that object. If the previously identified object is no longer near the 142 degrees line, select another distant 142 degrees object. Align the dish to that distant object. The Maplin FTA satellite box (as generally with COMAG derived boxes) has variable tone (higher audio pitch equates to stronger signal) tuning feature which can be heard with the TV volume high or on earphones with an extension lead from the headphone socket of the TV. If using BBC1 London for set up, the box will also receive a German programme from the Hotbird or Astra 1 satellite. Astra 2 is a little further East and at a very slightly lower elevation. The smaller Maplin dish is less prone to signal loss however, before leaving the dish to watch TV ensure it is aimed at the mid point position for optimum reception both horizontally and vertically. Our mooring mallet or a windlass helps keep our dish secure in moderate wind!

 

We place the dish inside the boat whilst boating and can now set it up more quickly than resetting the TV tuner and aerial where the previous terrestial transmitter is out of reception range plus we can watch our local area news etc from anywhere satellite reception is possible. The Freeview reception provides the "Red button" text and weather and our recently purchased COMAG HD Satellite box (also 21v) can record to a memory stick!!

 

The FTA satellite box will also accept FTA signals from all satellites above the horizon thus usefull for those of us fluent in multiple languages or wishing to watch the BBC World News not on Astra 2.

[NB Alnwick]

you sad *********, read a book.

 

OK - this may be your opinion but on this forum such discourtesy is not welcome. One of the nice things about the forum is that it is made up of all sorts of people and we generally tolerate ech other without posting deliberate insults . . .

[Guest]

OK - this may be your opinion but on this forum such discourtesy is not welcome. One of the nice things about the forum is that it is made up of all sorts of people and we generally tolerate ech other without posting deliberate insults . . .

Onionbargee hasn't got past Janet and John book 2 yet. The social skills are in book 3