aerial vs satelite dish.

[MHS]

F1 ? If you like something involving that much speed and noise, are canals for you?

However I have no wish to drive you away.

The cars are hybrids this year. Fans are complaining they are just too quiet!!

Yeah definitely. Touch wood vettel gets a decent car soon lol. Or least a decent engine. Made good progress Sunday though.

Please let someone else have a chance. Vettel's had it all his own way for too long. Come on Hamilton!!

 

Ps back to the OP. If you can afford a self seeking Satellite, they are great. You soon learn where to moor to get a clear line of sight for the dish.

[Pykebird]

I also purchased a led tv and am surprised at how much little power they use, mine is rated at around 40w.

[Naughty Cal]

Just dont bother.

 

We bought a nice 12v TV and aerial and then never watched it. So after three years of the TV being in the way and the aerial getting knocked off we finally took it home. Where it has stayed for the last two years.

 

There are far too many other things to keep you occupied on a boat that TV just doesnt matter

[OldGoat]

It would be worth throwing it in a scrap metal bin and getting a proper, log periodic directional aerial.

 

If you can sniff out points of the compass accurate to within a fraction of a degree, then try out satellite TV if you want. We used to have the kit, but could never align the dish properly except one occasion where we got German Tennis, but that was it. So we threw that in the bin too.

Bless you - that reinforces my oft repeated comments that it's most important to make sure that the axis of the dish mounts are absolutely vertical and that the declination (?) is pointing at the right group of satellites - yours wasn't and was pointing at some satellites serving European needs.

I blame Brussels.....

 

The difference is tiny.

[OldGoat]

TJ - I tried to get a decent prediction for Sawley marina and UKFree says Waltham transmitter is the preferred one for your location

 

Here are some - seemingly gobbledygook - figures:-

 

http://www.wolfbane.com/cgi-bin/tvd.exe?DX=L&HT=5&OS=NG10+3AE

 

I looked at the marina site and some folks said TV was a bit iffy. If you look at the above site you'll see '*' for Waltham. That means the possibility of interference - confirming the above comments. Given that fact, I don't think an omnidirectional aerial will give good results. They are much more expensive anyway.

 

SO my suggestion is:-

Get a log periodic aerial from ebay, this chap is inexpensive and his kit is as good as anyone else's (I have a posh one from Antiference and it no better).

 

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/MINI-DIGITAL-TV-AERIAL-WIDEBAND-LOG-PERIODIC-for-Caravan-Motorhome-Boat-Etc-/160717288748?pt=UK_ConElec_TVAerials_RL&hash=item256b7f352c#ht_1019wt_1077

 

Or if you think size matters:-

 

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/DIGITAL-TV-AERIAL-WIDEBAND-LOG-PERIODIC-designed-withstand-winds-up-to-75m-h-/160719534822?pt=UK_ConElec_TVAerials_RL&hash=item256ba17ae6#ht_1073wt_1077

 

(Actually for three quid more it's a bit of a no brainer)

 

You may need an aerial amplifier (try the basics first).

 

 

Last point -

A dish is for satellite TV which means you either need a TV with a satellite reception (more expensive) or a Freesat / Sky box (more expense and power consumption). So forget that for starters. Play with a cheap log periodic aerial for starters, perhaps add an amplifier if the picture breaks up or the TV signal strength system gives a poor reading).

 

None of the above is rocket science, but does require you learning a bit of what's it all about, which means doing a bit of ferretting around the Web for information.

 

 

 

[Psycloud]

I'm purchasing an LED tv.

 

We have an LED TV with built in Freesat & Freeview - we use it with a dish and because it has built in freesat we don't need any set top boxes which is nice. TV also records to USB sticks

[tjderby]

Sounds gd. But all led TVs come with at least freeview. That'll keep me happy.

[Ex- Member]

We have a Freesat with dish which is set up on the boat roof in such a way that we only need to turn it as it's horizontal setting is now fixed.

 

We can now tune in the sat dish in less than 30 seconds, but even prior to that it wasn't really that much hassle.

 

We've now decided to primarily use Freesat, but for the past 7 months we've used the Omnimax and got perfect picture everywhere we've moored. It's now a perfect back up for Freesat if there's no clear view to the satellite where we're moored.

 

 

The Omnimax has been brilliant and gets as good a picture as we do on Freesat even without the booster which we don't bother using. The other bonus is you don't have to faff around tuning it to the mast. You do need to retune the set when you move to another area though. We've had a perfect picture with it just laying on the boat roof. It does have it's own spot though.

[steve hayes]

I'm jealous of my mate, he has a 40" top spec Samsung smart TV with Digital / FreeSat and Internet (mind you you do need to sit outside the boat to get far enough away from the screen ).

Moored in a built up area at the weekend no TV via digital or sat but we watched the F1 using his MiFi dongle to the TV

[tjderby]

I'm but a 23" tv. Big enough for me. Don't wanna get square eyes lol.

[steve hayes]

I'm but a 23" tv. Big enough for me. Don't wanna get square eyes lol.

Agree ours is 22" and is perfect for the boat.

[tjderby]

Definitely. Seem bigger when your only a few feet away lol

[Alan Saunders]

A log-periodic aerial (always wideband) has less gain than a similar length wideband Yagi but being flat, no reflector, is easier to store when cruising and less liable to damage.

 

You can get a perfectly good labgear 28 element log-periodic from Screwfix for £7.50! Plus it comes with wing-nuts so it is easy to mount/dismount from a pole and the right-angle bracket allows vertical polarisation when you can only receive a local repeater (maybe only the main BBC & ITV Channels). It also includes an 'F' connector and weathershield that screws on to the coaxial cable that is commonly used. £2 gets you ten 'F-connectors' suitable for larger diameter, lower loss cable.

 

The rule-of-thumb is to check the TV aerials of local houses: height, size, polarisation. If that log-periodic does not work on a permanent mooring you may need a large Yagi in the apropriate band (A,B,C/D or E) on a higher pole but you may still fail to get some channels (MUX). I have this problem in my current location, Mendip transmits on channel (MUX) 48, 49, 52, 54(HD), 56 but, depending on atmospheric conditions, wind, rain any of these channels may fail but chances are that I will get BBC South on 45 from Hanbury after pointing the aerial in almost the opposite direction.

 

I bought my first boat in 1995 from a Marina only a few miles from Silverstone. I was too busy/knackered to bother with getting the TV working until the Sunday of the British GP. I lashed the aerial to the ten foot pole and relaxed in front of the 10" monochrome TV. Shumacher, infamously, took out Damon Hill and they both retired. I see no conflict of interest between canal boats and F1. I like machines, the better they are engineered the more I like them. Digital, flying, mechanical, on water, air or land I love them all. F1 is stupidly expensive, it doesn't, due to the formula, actually produce the fastest cars, no human driver could survive the gee forces. Whatever rules the FIA make up and however crap the tyres are it is still British engineers who make Mercedes, Renault etc. the winners. If Brunel was alive today he would want to be associated with a winning F1 Marque.

[Ssscrudddy]

As long as I can watch f1 at the weekends I'm happy lol.

For those races that aren't live on the BBC http://www.eplsite.com/f1.html

[jenlyn]

I use both, a dish (though it's lock on motorised), and a pig ugly high gain domestic ariel. The pig ugly one has more or less made the dish redundant. I cruise between London and Warwick.

(Williams and massa 100%).

Edited April 3, 2014 by jenlyn

[bag 'o' bones]

Buy yourself a motor home aerial. Don't bother with a dish. Problem is the Astra satellite its too close to the horizon. couple that with the high hedges and the low level of the boat and most of the time the signal will be blocked; well that's our experience anyway.

[Ex- Member]

Buy yourself a motor home aerial. Don't bother with a dish. Problem is the Astra satellite its too close to the horizon. couple that with the high hedges and the low level of the boat and most of the time the signal will be blocked; well that's our experience anyway.

 

The reason we use both Omnimax and Sat Dish. Having solar as well though we tend to only moor where there's little obstruction. The K&A does seem to have quite a good few good open spaces. I think the only place we couldn't moor and get a sat signal was B.O.A even freeview signal is tricky there in some places as well.

[Redeye]

Buy yourself a motor home aerial. Don't bother with a dish. Problem is the Astra satellite its too close to the horizon. couple that with the high hedges and the low level of the boat and most of the time the signal will be blocked; well that's our experience anyway.

 

Not the case, we have satellite only and can normally get a signal unless there is a tree in the way. That is with a Kerstan dish on the roof of the boat. Just takes a bit of practice.

 

Redeye