Satellite dish recommendations anyone?

[sydnsue]

Decided to look at roof mounted dishes to replace my tripod mounted dish but shocked at the prices. The autos are way to expensive for me so hand cranked could be more suitable. Does anyone have experience of these systems? We need it mainly for UK use all the way up to North Scotland but Europe reception would be a bonus. Alternatively we may consider an auto system that runs out by cable to avoid the problem of parking under trees.

 

[Obanboy666]

Decided to look at roof mounted dishes to replace my tripod mounted dish but shocked at the prices. The autos are way to expensive for me so hand cranked could be more suitable. Does anyone have experience of these systems? We need it mainly for UK use all the way up to North Scotland but Europe reception would be a bonus. Alternatively we may consider an auto system that runs out by cable to avoid the problem of parking under trees.

I have had my roof mounted Oyster Karo for 2 1/2 years and parking under trees has never been a problem because as when I was a tugger I don't want bird crap and debris from trees falling on my roof so don't park under trees.
Splash out and go for the roof mounted type, you will not regret it. I park up press the button and 15 seconds later I can be watching the tv.

 

[QFour]

Snipe Megasat .. Works really well in the Uk. It has a number of other Satellites set as well and you can set two of your own. Just come down in price and comes with mounting plate for roof. Easy to remove as well with only 8 allen bolts holding it in place.

..

 

[Tezza33]

This manual one from Maxview is excellent for £500, easy to use and install as well
NEXT GENERATION MANUAL CRANK-UP TOURING SATELLITE SYSTEM {Dish Size:85cm Dish}

 

[TJBi]

Had a Snipe Pro Max, which was cheaper than most automatic dishes when we had it installed and which we found very good in England and down as far as Cahors/Toulouse, where it started losing UK channels due to the footprint. Excellent technical support from Avtex.

Tom

 

[kingfisher1]

Ive just removed my glomex self seeking Due to the amount of software updates I have done because of the satellites moving around .ive just installed the max view crank up and I can lock on quicker than the auto used to it was very simple to fit diy

 

[El Veterano]

Had a Snipe Pro Max, which was cheaper than most automatic dishes when we had it installed and which we found very good in England and down as far as Cahors/Toulouse, where it started losing UK channels due to the footprint. Excellent technical support from Avtex.

Tom

I have asked this question several times on this forum - ie. 'does anyone have experience of using the Snipe in France and how far South were you able to pick up UK channels?' - but until now I still had no idea. So now I have the answer! Were you able to pick up any French TV (or even further on, Spanish) by tuning into a different satellite?

 

[El Veterano]

Snipe Megasat .. Works really well in the Uk. It has a number of other Satellites set as well and you can set two of your own. Just come down in price and comes with mounting plate for roof. Easy to remove as well with only 8 allen bolts holding it in place.

..

Any idea how much it is now and where from please?

 

[witzend]

Maxview Manual for me just a little practice and can find the satellite in under a minute. I use a maxview receiver with a easy find function others also have this Silver Crest (aldi) for one. Got all Astra 28 as far east as Lake Garda and west to Cape Finnister northern Spain south to Toulose. Several channels all around Iberian Peninsular

And no ripoff up dates ever needed

 

[sydnsue]

Maxview Manual for me just a little practice and can find the satellite in under a minute. I use a maxview receiver with a easy find function others also have this Silver Crest (aldi) for one. Got all Astra 28 as far east as Lake Garda and west to Cape Finnister northern Spain south to Toulose. Several channels all around Iberian Peninsular

And no ripoff up dates ever needed

Thanks for the replies everyone. Just joined this forum and nice to see how active it is.
Did not realise auto systems had regular updates. Not good especially if you have to pay for them. A bit like the older satnavs where you had to pay for map updates. I have looked at the smaller (and cheaper) auto systems but they seem to suffer with reception on zone edges. Certainly in north Scotland, even Sky dishes on houses are 80cm. Some have 70cm but they suffer with heavy cloud. It appears I will require around 80cm which rules out the square type dishes. The Maxview hand cranked looks like the best option especially as witzend states he can lock on in less than a minute, which is quicker than some autos.
Now one last question. Does anyone know of a cheap but good fitter in the south of England? I'm sure they are easy to fit but drilling large holes through my roof gives me the jitters.

 

[wints]

My previous 2 vans had the Maxview semi-auto sat dish. I fitted one, the second already had the same on it. The dish is elliptical, and both mine picked up all channels as far south as the med.

It's called semi-auto, but it's nothing like an automatic....you press a button and the dish starts to rise from flat on the roof to a more vertical aspect...and you let go of the button when the indicated degrees on the control box correspond with what you estimate the elevation of astra 2 is (there are other sats), you then twist the shaft to line up with astra 2.

If you've never tuned in a sat dish, say on a tripod, you'll find any manual system frustrating to start with (I certainly did), but after a few goes all will fall into place. You need to know the elevation of the satellite in relation to where you are on the planet, 23 deg in Manchester, 38 deg in Benidorm (you'll need a big dish there)...and make an adjustment to this if your van roof is not exactly level...you can check out dishpointer on the net for this....you'll need a compass for the direction of astra 2 (nominally 28 deg east of south)...and as has been said, no up-dates are required for a manual system.

On my present van there's an Oyster self seeking sat dish..the control box ahs failed to lock onto astra 2 twice in the last 3 months..all due to astra 2 transponder frequencies (which are programmed into the Oyster) changing..it's an easy fix but I had to ring Oyster up for the new freq values. I used to have a bit of a laugh at the motorhomes that rolled upon site and then their Oyster dishes start spinning and not locking on..now I've experienced it.

Hope that helps


Allen

 

[jacquigem]

We use an oyster but have got A box that allows us to access Hispassat satellite and gives us main channels down to Portugal

 

[TJBi]

I have asked this question several times on this forum - ie. 'does anyone have experience of using the Snipe in France and how far South were you able to pick up UK channels?' - but until now I still had no idea. So now I have the answer! Were you able to pick up any French TV (or even further on, Spanish) by tuning into a different satellite?

We must have missed each others' posts, because it's not the first time that I've posted the info.

Yes, French TV in the UK and in France, particularly on Eutelsat 5 West A (known on the Snipe by its old name Atlantic Bird 3), but a very limited range of channels, because many French channels appear to be broadcast only encrypted, even if free-to-air, and you need a special card in order to receive them. I seem to recall that we could get a few France Télévision channels, but couldn't access TF1. Arte was, IIRC, available by tuning in a different satellite. You may find France : Télévision satellite en clair (FTA) useful for seeing what should be available. We tended to use the terrestrial aerial for French TV when we were in a location with a good terrestrial signal, thus saving the time involved in rescanning on the TV when we locked on to a different satellite.

I forget what the results were when I tried finding Spanish TV and whether I did so in the UK or France.

The Snipe Pro Max having been stolen (with the motorhome), I'm going to have to start experimenting with the Teleco fitted by a previous owner to the replacement that we hope to get our hands on within the next few weeks.

Tom

 

[John H]

Another vote for Maxview. At £500 it is considerably cheaper than the automatic ones and often I can get a signal (at less than a minute) long before other vans with automatic systems .

Our system also gets signals throughout the UK and France (but not Spain) and as far east as the Italian Lakes.

 

[jmd100]

Had my snipe fitted by s and g leisure 01582 562277 les works out of Luton don't know how far south he would go give him a ring done a good job on mine.

 

[kingfisher1]

The maxview crank up comes in 2 sizes so if you have room go for the 85cm dish ,there is a fitting video on you tube which shows how easy it is ,dill the roof with a 2 MM. drill bit first then if your happy go through from both sides with the 32 MM hole saw .
signal finding using the dish align app gives the elevation degrees at your location then point the dish in the south direction slow spinning while watching the easy find signal bars from the comag type sat box and you will lock on in less than a minute

 

[Wully]

I've got the snipe with double lnb worked great in France Holland north Scotland I bought van with an 80 cm oyster nothing but problems least bit of wind down it went the snipe is very compact and easy to install
And I've had a signal near trees and in awkward places I got mine on eBay from company called satking can't remember exactly but I think it was £500 hope this helps

 

[El Veterano]

Decided to look at roof mounted dishes to replace my tripod mounted dish but shocked at the prices. The autos are way to expensive for me so hand cranked could be more suitable. Does anyone have experience of these systems? We need it mainly for UK use all the way up to North Scotland but Europe reception would be a bonus. Alternatively we may consider an auto system that runs out by cable to avoid the problem of parking under trees.

I've got a fully auto Maxsat dome system complete with TV sitting in the garage if you are interested. The reason is that is in the garage and not on the roof of the camper is that since they narrowed the Astra footprint it simply does not work anywhere South of Le Havre these days. It works fine on Freesat or your Sky box in the UK though. I wouldn't know about Scotland however. I'm away in France until Sunday, please pm me if interested

 

[sydnsue]

I've got a fully auto Maxsat dome system complete with TV sitting in the garage if you are interested. The reason is that is in the garage and not on the roof of the camper is that since they narrowed the Astra footprint it simply does not work anywhere South of Le Havre these days. It works fine on Freesat or your Sky box in the UK though. I wouldn't know about Scotland however. I'm away in France until Sunday, please pm me if interested

Thanks for the offer of the dome but we definitely need further south than Le Havre. Looks like the Maxview 85 could be favourite for us. Thanks to all or your comments.

 

[El Veterano]

Thanks for the offer of the dome but we definitely need further south than Le Havre. Looks like the Maxview 85 could be favourite for us. Thanks to all or your comments.

No problem. But I think, from the info I have been getting from people in the various areas, that you will have a job to pick up any UK channels much South of Bordeaux, unless you go for an 85cm dish. Certainly once you get down to the Spanish border t seems you will loose the lot.