Im really not bothered about watching English channels while im in France, Belgium, Germany etc, just want to get some local channels.
Would a £69 dish from Maplins be good enough for this for example?
Durhamwasp,
This is going to be difficult. The dish is vital because that's what picks up the signal you need. But there's nothing fancy about using it. It doesn't matter how you mount it. On the van, on a tripod; I've even seen a small dish set up on a table and aimed through the window - the guy said it worked perfectly. Different people have different experiences of what they can pick up with this dish or with that one.
I hope you aren't confused, because you say "local" television, by the differences in transmission of terrestial and satellite signals. "Local" terrestial television will need an aerial, not a dish, BUT you will also need a television capable of decoding signals in the format used by that country for transmission. Probably it gets less complicated with digital terrestial transmissions but it gets more confusing for me to talk about that. Your TV set which works in the UK with an aerial might not work in other countries with an aerial. "Local" terrestial television is not for the likes of us. Or not for the likes of me anyway. Anyway, you're specifically talking about collecting signals using a dish.
"Local" satellite television signals will be transmitted to earth, collected by your dish and sent to a decoder which is then sent to your television. Just like home. On each of the satellites you can pick up (except for the one you're probably used to at home) there will be television channels "local" to more than one country. So you see the confusion when you say you want to pick up just "local" TV?
Your difficulty, until you get used to it, which you will, is knowing which satellite you have aimed at and what available channel numbers are. I sometimes, and at first, used my home Sky box in the van. Fine for the channels you get at home. Except that I couldn't get them in Portugal. Other people with dishes the same size as mine could, I couldn't. But I could pick up the European channels from the Astra 1 satellite (at home you'll be using Astra 2). Unfortunately, my Sky box won't pick up the available channels on Astra 1 automatically and each channel has to be tuned in manually. That's provided you know what channel is what. You have to do some research to find out that sort of information. But easy enough to do once you do know.
Luckily, there are fairly inexpensive receivers that will pick up any satellite we are likely to be interested in and will tune into available channels automatically. Mine cost me £40. My dish cost me £20. The LNB. that thing on the end of the boom, cost me £3. Cable and fittings about a Fiver. Except for the cable all the rest came from Lidl two or three years ago.
I've said enough, except for all the rest which would take all night. You can buy little widgets which will tell you when your dish is aimed at a satellite. I've got one; it's almost unused and I'm not sure I could find it easily. Both the digiboxes I might use, that is my home Sky box and my £40 box, have a facility for showing you when the dish is aimed at a satellite. You should know which one you're hoping for but it won't be too difficult to identify which one once you've found it.
You don't have to go abroad to test the equipment. You can test whatever you buy here. I'm guessing that what you want is the Astra 1 satellite. You can buy a dish very cheaply, like I did, and try it. If what you've got picks up Astra 1 here then it will pick it up wherever you're likely to be - within reason; we're talking about central, northern and western Europe, yes?
And last, truly last. I'm no electronics or TV expert but I do use Astra 1 and 2 all the time. Both of them at home and away. So I don't mind trying to answer any questions you can throw at us. Oh, very last thing, if you decide to use your Sky box abroad, don't tell Sky about it. They don't like it. Actually I think they probably ban it in their contract with you.
Tom
