Satellite dish - help needed

[DomX]

Hi All,

 

Apologies in advance as I see there are a few satellite dish threads on here, but I have a specific question.

 

We've only just got our first boat and it has a round white arial on the roof with a pull out radio antenna on it. The boat was built in 2006, so I'm not sure how modern it is, but it doesn't seem to work. I've just bought a new LG 22" TV which I took down to the boat today. I plugged in the arial and switched on the booster box in the cupboard before running the autotune feature on the telly. Needless to say, it didn't find a single channel or radio station!

 

Anyway, a bit of tinkering didn't seem to fix the problem, so I gave up and came home. Can anyone think of what might be wrong? I don't think the TV has a built in 'free view box', but I don't think this should be necessary if I just want the mainstream 'terrestrial' channels, or is it? I'm guessing there might be a fault with the arial, so I'm thinking of getting a satellite dish with a freeview box that I can just setup, plug into the TV and start watching. Can anyone recommend an easy to use complete kit that will fit the bill?

 

Thanks in advance,

Dom.

[mrsmelly]

Hi All,

 

Apologies in advance as I see there are a few satellite dish threads on here, but I have a specific question.

 

We've only just got our first boat and it has a round white arial on the roof with a pull out radio antenna on it. The boat was built in 2006, so I'm not sure how modern it is, but it doesn't seem to work. I've just bought a new LG 22" TV which I took down to the boat today. I plugged in the arial and switched on the booster box in the cupboard before running the autotune feature on the telly. Needless to say, it didn't find a single channel or radio station!

 

Anyway, a bit of tinkering didn't seem to fix the problem, so I gave up and came home. Can anyone think of what might be wrong? I don't think the TV has a built in 'free view box', but I don't think this should be necessary if I just want the mainstream 'terrestrial' channels, or is it? I'm guessing there might be a fault with the arial, so I'm thinking of getting a satellite dish with a freeview box that I can just setup, plug into the TV and start watching. Can anyone recommend an easy to use complete kit that will fit the bill?

 

Thanks in advance,

Dom.

 

Could well be your location. Boat tv is notoriously bad most of the time due to its obvious low down instalation of the aerial. Things have become much worse since the digital age. Give in and go tut pub

 

Tim

[nb Innisfree]

If your TV has no freeview box then you won't be able to receive digital TV which is the only sort available now analogue has been switched off. Free satellite TV is called Freesat and needs an appropriate box.

[OldGoldy]

Hi All,

 

Apologies in advance as I see there are a few satellite dish threads on here, but I have a specific question.

 

We've only just got our first boat and it has a round white arial on the roof with a pull out radio antenna on it. The boat was built in 2006, so I'm not sure how modern it is, but it doesn't seem to work. I've just bought a new LG 22" TV which I took down to the boat today. I plugged in the arial and switched on the booster box in the cupboard before running the autotune feature on the telly. Needless to say, it didn't find a single channel or radio station!

 

Anyway, a bit of tinkering didn't seem to fix the problem, so I gave up and came home. Can anyone think of what might be wrong? I don't think the TV has a built in 'free view box', but I don't think this should be necessary if I just want the mainstream 'terrestrial' channels, or is it? I'm guessing there might be a fault with the arial, so I'm thinking of getting a satellite dish with a freeview box that I can just setup, plug into the TV and start watching. Can anyone recommend an easy to use complete kit that will fit the bill?

 

Thanks in advance,

Dom.

 

Your new TV will almost certainly have FreeVIEW built in, however it will probably also have the old analogue set-up too, so you have to check carefully which menu you are auto-tuning on. I would suggect that you have a 'play' with it at home and then take it to the boat, which if not in the same area/using the same transmitter, will need auto-installing again to suit. If your boat location is in a poor reception area then the saucer? shaped thing on the roof will be no good to you. You will then need a hi-gain wideband UHF aerial on the boat, or need a FreeSAT box and dish or one of those digital box and dish set-ups (not marketed as free anything) that are typically sold at Maplins or Aldi etc.

 

HTH

[twbm]

There's FreeView and FreeSat - the former needs an ordinary sort of aerial albeit designed for digital, the latter a satellite dish. So don't get a satellite dish and freeview box! Freeview is vulnerable to signal loss from 'ground clutter' especially in cuttings, whereas with FreeSat you need to know where the satellite is and avoid mooring under trees.

 

Here's a link to maps of the terrestrial digital sites (FreeView) that might help you decide which way to go.

 

http://www.digitaluk.co.uk/transmitternetwork/tools__and__resources/switchover_maps

[DomX]

Thanks for the quick feedback all. It's a brand new latest model LG HD TV, so I guess it has Freeview, but will bring it home to check the auto setup here.

 

Assuming I decide to go for the Freesat option, can anyone recommend a gook package that provides the arial, freesat box, stand and other associated bits?

 

Thanks,

Dom.

[nb celestine]

Thanks for the quick feedback all. It's a brand new latest model LG HD TV, so I guess it has Freeview, but will bring it home to check the auto setup here.

 

Assuming I decide to go for the Freesat option, can anyone recommend a gook package that provides the arial, freesat box, stand and other associated bits?

 

Thanks,

Dom.

 

Theres a 12v tv out now that has freeview and freesat combined in it so you dont need a freesat box. I used to run my 240 telly and the 240 freesat box, plus inverter to run it all. I didnt think getting the 12v tv would make a big energy saving compared to the price of a 12v telly with built in freesat box but I was wrong.

Last year these tv,s were over £400 but in towpath talk, there was an advert where you could pick one up for £219 fron ac/dc tv.

I think the dish I got a few years ago was about £25 on ebay.

Oh and it had a built in dvd player and I think you can pause the telly and have a cuppa.

[Martyn Hicks]

Thanks for the quick feedback all. It's a brand new latest model LG HD TV, so I guess it has Freeview, but will bring it home to check the auto setup here.

 

Assuming I decide to go for the Freesat option, can anyone recommend a gook package that provides the arial, freesat box, stand and other associated bits?

 

Thanks,

Dom.

 

 

Hi yeah there is a good chance the TV has FREEVIEW built in which is only going to work in conjunction with a digital aerial how ever good your aerial is on the roof of the boat and also the location your in, certainly hit and miss and youd have no logical reason for being that way...the other option is SATELLITE tv caslled FREESAT or if you wanted subscribe to SKY...With satellite tv just make sure you have a clear line of sight to the South East and as long as you have things set up correctly it should be on and working and brilliant pictures...

 

Martyn...

[dor]

There are any number of options out there now for a HD Freesat kit including sat finder for under £60. Very easy to set up and install and will get you good reception in most places. Those that it can't would probably struggle with freeview anyway.

 

A basic £15 satfinder will have you locked on in a couple of minutes, but most of the kits include one anyway.

 

 

[Alan de Enfield]

There has been a lot of comment (and various threads on here) regarding the effect that the 4G system will have on Freeview - it has been 'muted' that 1.8 milion homes could be affected.

 

Here is a 'cut & paste' from the Shropshire Star newspaper (August 22nd) - apparently Shropshire is one of the areas to be affected :

 

But 4G won’t be welcomed by everyone. Almost two million UK homes are likely to face disruption to their digital television signal due to interference from forthcoming 4G mobile signals. Approximately 1.9 million homes that presently receive digital terrestrial television will suffer when 4G LTE services are launched in the UK. The cost of putting things right will be at least £180 million, a bill that the Government will have to fund. Many homes will need to fit a filter to their Freeview TV sets and there will be free support for support for over-75s and people who are registered disabled.

 

The households that are worst affected could each be offered up to £10,000 each to “find a solution”, although no more than 500 homes are expected to fall into that category. Problems caused by 4G interference could lead more people to SKY, which could lead to a windfall of up to £1 billion for Rupert Murdoch’s communications group

[dor]

The households that are worst affected could each be offered up to £10,000 each to “find a solution”, although no more than 500 homes are expected to fall into that category. Problems caused by 4G interference could lead more people to SKY, which could lead to a windfall of up to £1 billion for Rupert Murdoch’s communications group

 

Ha! The more cynical part of me was just thinking the other day that disrupting Freeview could make more people go for Sky. I can just hear it : " We're really sorry about all this phone tapping mess Rupert- tell you what, we'll get more people to take up Sky by messing up the terrestrial TV."

 

Of course, you can always go Freesat - no need to feed the dirty digger.

[Keeping Up]

Yes your TV will almost certainly include Freeview, so you don't need any other box, but it's a very good point from Dave69700 that it may default to "analogue" when setting up.

 

Actually I find that boat TV is better now that the digital switchover is progressing towards its conclusion, as the transmitter power has been generally increased, and we can often get a digital signal in locations where previously we couldn't get an analogue one. Whether your "saucer" aerial will work depends mainly on your location - for example on the southern half of the Staffs and Worcester it is quite difficult to get a good signal - but we find that we can get a good signal on our 20-year old old Omnimax almost everywhere. The saucer should normally be fine - it may not say "digital" on it but there is no such thing as a digital aerial (it's just hype from the aerial manufacturers) it just needs to be "wideband" which an aerial such as yours will definitely be - but note carefully in case your system it needs a 12v supply to a preamplifier, which has to be switched on.

 

This year for example we covered from Milton Keynes to Coventry, Stoke-on-Trent, Macclesfield, Middlewich, Llangollen, Birmingham, and back to Milton Keyens. During the whole of that 2 month trip there were only 4 locations where the Omnimax wasn't enough for a full Freeview signal; at 2 of those we just needed to swap to the bigger aerial so we only had to resort to the Satelite dish twice (and one of those times was when we were buried so deep in Bugsworth basin that even the daylight struggled to find us)

[KenK]

Hi All,

 

Apologies in advance as I see there are a few satellite dish threads on here, but I have a specific question.

 

We've only just got our first boat and it has a round white arial on the roof with a pull out radio antenna on it. The boat was built in 2006, so I'm not sure how modern it is, but it doesn't seem to work. I've just bought a new LG 22" TV which I took down to the boat today. I plugged in the arial and switched on the booster box in the cupboard before running the autotune feature on the telly. Needless to say, it didn't find a single channel or radio station!

 

Anyway, a bit of tinkering didn't seem to fix the problem, so I gave up and came home. Can anyone think of what might be wrong? I don't think the TV has a built in 'free view box', but I don't think this should be necessary if I just want the mainstream 'terrestrial' channels, or is it? I'm guessing there might be a fault with the arial, so I'm thinking of getting a satellite dish with a freeview box that I can just setup, plug into the TV and start watching. Can anyone recommend an easy to use complete kit that will fit the bill?

 

Thanks in advance,

Dom.

 

My boat used to have one of those things, the're rubbish, buy a decent aerial, log perodic and an extending pole, sort of thing used to wash upstairs windows, B&Q sell them.

 

Ken

[OldGoldy]

snip

 

it may not say "digital" on it but there is no such thing as a digital aerial (it's just hype from the aerial manufacturers **) it just needs to be "wideband" which an aerial such as yours will definitely be - but note carefully in case your system it needs a 12v supply to a preamplifier, which has to be switched on.

 

snip

 

Yay - someone else who's not been brainwashed!

 

** add "and installers taking advantage of low power whilst digital being set-up, to make a 'killing' - You need a DIGITAL aerial, sir"

[LEO]

Hi All,

 

Apologies in advance as I see there are a few satellite dish threads on here, but I have a specific question.

 

We've only just got our first boat and it has a round white arial on the roof with a pull out radio antenna on it. The boat was built in 2006, so I'm not sure how modern it is, but it doesn't seem to work. I've just bought a new LG 22" TV which I took down to the boat today. I plugged in the arial and switched on the booster box in the cupboard before running the autotune feature on the telly. Needless to say, it didn't find a single channel or radio station!

 

Anyway, a bit of tinkering didn't seem to fix the problem, so I gave up and came home. Can anyone think of what might be wrong? I don't think the TV has a built in 'free view box', but I don't think this should be necessary if I just want the mainstream 'terrestrial' channels, or is it? I'm guessing there might be a fault with the arial, so I'm thinking of getting a satellite dish with a freeview box that I can just setup, plug into the TV and start watching. Can anyone recommend an easy to use complete kit that will fit the bill?

 

Thanks in advance,

Dom.

 

hi,

 

This summer purchased an Avtec TV with built in decoder, a Maplins 'suitcase' satellite type ariel, (includes basic sat.finder) for £40 off eBay and off I went.......had lots of help from some Forum members, but get the Azimuth right and the unit facing 20 odd degrees East of South and off you go.

 

Brilliant picture, no trouble with passing boats causing signal to break up, easy set up, had to move once as it was a poor signal by the Globe at Linslade.

 

Total cost about £370. good picture and not too much battery drain.

 

L.

[OldGoat]

Confused with all the replies - I certainly was, folks drifting into satellite TV etc.

 

My suggestions:-

 

first go to digital UK and key in the postcode(s) where you are likely to cruise. If the predicted reception is said to be good, then get yourself a log periodic aerial like this one - from £9.99, plug it into your telly - and oiff you go. BUT you will need to point in the direction of the local transmitter.

 

 

 

If the reception said to be poor or worse, then get yourself:-

A FREESAT saltellite box (NOT just a satellite receiver); a s/h sky box will do just dandy

A dish kit (dish plus cables and a sat finder)

 

Install it properly and off you go