Looking for advice on Portable satellite dishes as the antenna on our van is not giving us very good reception even when not far out of towns.We are currently in south east Qld and hoping there are some good dishes available as we don't have enough space on the roof of our van to install an automatic sat dish as we would rather have that but not possible.Apologies in advance as i imagine this question has been asked a million times.Thanks Ian.
yobarr said
06:38 PM Apr 19, 2021
hodgie55 wrote:
Looking for advice on Portable satellite dishes as the antenna on our van is not giving us very good reception even when not far out of towns.We are currently in south east Qld and hoping there are some good dishes available as we don't have enough space on the roof of our van to install an automatic sat dish as we would rather have that but not possible.Apologies in advance as i imagine this question has been asked a million times.Thanks Ian.
Hi Ian...are you sure that you cannot find room for a Satking Promax unit? Fully automatic,it needs only 600 x 600 to fit.My van is small,and I have 1700 watts of Solar,a 4 seasons hatch,plus vents from the ensuite,and still I had room for the Sat dish,so perhaps you could investigate further.When I park-up,I simply press the "Go" button,and by the time I have grabbed a can of beer,I have 114 channels available.Soooo easy. Cheers
Derek Barnes said
07:47 AM Apr 20, 2021
Hi hodgie55
I bought a "Premium Grade Outback Satellite TV kit" from Road Tech Marine. The dish comes with a solid tripod stand but pointing the dish was a bit clumsy. I found that having to undo wing nuts, point the dish until the finder beeped, then tightening the wing nuts provided little control of the position of the dish. So I mounted the dish on a telescope mount with coarse and fine controls. With little tweaks of the fine controls I can get maximum signal to the receiver. We used the dish at Nyngan during an absolute downpour and get good signal through the whole one hour storm. It has always provided good reception.
hodgie55 said
08:36 AM Apr 20, 2021
Thanks Yobarr,would definitely prefer auto dish but with our van only 16x7 and 3 x180 solar panels unfortunately not enough room.So we will have to put up with portable as existing caravan aerial only seems to work close to towns.Thanks Ian
hodgie55 said
08:37 AM Apr 20, 2021
Thanks Derek.
valiant81 said
10:23 AM Apr 20, 2021
Hi Hodgie55; There are several way to get a satellite dish for your caravan. First up is a all singing fully automatic set up the lives on your caravan roof. Push a button and the dish takes over and finds the satellite for you. The downside is that these can cost several thousand dollars, not cheap , but it depends on how deep your pockets are !!
The second way is to have a tripode that would site on the ground and the mounting bracket for the dish bolts onto the pole of the tripode. The alignment, directions from North. The elevation of the dish as well as the skew adjustment can take a little while to get your head around the set up. A good satellite meter and a compass area must have and can make the hole deal work. A 80cm dish is what most people need as in some areas the smaller dishes are not good enough and can make the setting up of the dish a lot harder. I have used a old foxtel/ Austar dish and LNB. But that was a bit hard to set up when camped . I now have a 80cm dish and no problems . The old Austar dish originally came from the local tip but is now on the roof of my mancave for when the caravan is at home.
Whatever way you go when you decide to buy a Vast set up make certain that the salesman teaches you how to do a set up of the dish, lnb, how to read the meter and the connections to the Vast receiver and on to your television. Make certain that you buy from a reputable dealer and can help you with the 100's of questions that you will ask. I like to spend around 1~2 hours with customers that i sell to in regards to a Vast setup. So far all good. A 12 Volt Vast receiver is a must and the same would go for your television. Goon house batteries and solar backup is also a must, unless you want to stay in caravan parks.
AS for transport, the tripode lives in the front boot of our caravan and the dish , compleat with it's lnb live laying on it's back on our bed inside the caravan. it never moves and all the wife does is to place a old towel under the dish so as not to mark the doona cover. The only hard part is getting the dish with the arm for the lnb through the door. We take it easy and it fits no problems.
Good luck !!
-- Edited by valiant81 on Tuesday 20th of April 2021 10:30:14 AM
Wanda said
12:30 PM Apr 20, 2021
Hodgie55 You do realise you have to buy a set top box to pickup signal from the satellite. It is not just another antenna! Not being a smart...se you seem to be referring to problems with your aerial, a satelite is not a replacement for your aerial. Valiant81 above explains the satellite "system" itself. cheers Ian
-- Edited by Wanda on Tuesday 20th of April 2021 12:32:14 PM
hodgie55 said
09:28 PM Apr 20, 2021
Thanks valiant81 and Wanda.We are looking to get a system with vast box and maybe also our foxtel box we used in our house.Was hoping to get some tips on a good portable brand as we don't have a clue only just starting out and auto system on the roof just wont work for us unfortunately.
gdayjr said
09:34 AM Apr 21, 2021
There is another topic in this section called FOXTEL, have a look at that post.
This is what i found when doing the same research.
Thanks valiant81 and Wanda.We are looking to get a system with vast box and maybe also our foxtel box we used in our house.Was hoping to get some tips on a good portable brand as we don't have a clue only just starting out and auto system on the roof just wont work for us unfortunately.
I am not really sure if any of the existing sat dishes are any better than the other. I think the size is important, do not go smaller than an 85cm dish, the smaller 65cm dishes are harder to locate the satelite in "some areas" than the slightly bigger ones. Some owners of the 65 dishes will say they are no different, rubbish they are, just not in all situations depending on the area you are in.
Trust me, less stress with the 85cm dishes when setting up
You can get foldup dishes, good if space is a problem, but they are very expensive at I think around $600(just for the dish)
Satplus, either in Melbourne or Queensland, are very helpful with information give them a call.
good luck
Ian
-- Edited by Wanda on Wednesday 21st of April 2021 11:03:53 AM
Barnesey said
05:55 PM Apr 22, 2021
Portable sat dish is great you just need a little practice and you can have t/v almost anywhere, We have travelled for ten years now and never have a problem with t/v We also take our Foxtel box with us,You will need to duplicate the cables etc as set up on your home t/v , ,Dish must be about 85cm if travelling up the top country' If you are ok with WikiCamps go to Sat t/v program and follow the easy steps and you will soon set your dish up very quickly,Good Luck
Meredith said
05:25 PM Apr 23, 2021
If you are intending to stay mainly in places with good internet reception like South East Queensland have you considered streaming tv instead of using a satellite dish? With the cost of data coming down all the time its a relatively inexpensive way to watch tv in many places where normal tv is not available.
terrola said
02:13 PM Apr 24, 2021
if you get a portable sat dish make sure you get a marriage saver sat finder it only locks on to the right satellite its a small box with a 2" tv screen on it turn the dish till you a channel then you have it makes it so easy my 10 yr old does it
HandyWalter said
03:57 PM Apr 24, 2021
I have the maxview dish with the built in sat meter. If you get that then really you dont need anything else other than to point the dish in a north easterly direction, play it side ways to get loudest noise then up and down to get the noise even louder. If that is too hard the wikicamps app will give you all the settings and where to point the dish. The marriage savere is an expensive piece of kit that is not really needed with the dish I use.
Looking for advice on Portable satellite dishes as the antenna on our van is not giving us very good reception even when not far out of towns.We are currently in south east Qld and hoping there are some good dishes available as we don't have enough space on the roof of our van to install an automatic sat dish as we would rather have that but not possible.Apologies in advance as i imagine this question has been asked a million times.Thanks Ian.
Hi Ian...are you sure that you cannot find room for a Satking Promax unit? Fully automatic,it needs only 600 x 600 to fit.My van is small,and I have 1700 watts of Solar,a 4 seasons hatch,plus vents from the ensuite,and still I had room for the Sat dish,so perhaps you could investigate further.When I park-up,I simply press the "Go" button,and by the time I have grabbed a can of beer,I have 114 channels available.Soooo easy. Cheers
Hi hodgie55
I bought a "Premium Grade Outback Satellite TV kit" from Road Tech Marine. The dish comes with a solid tripod stand but pointing the dish was a bit clumsy. I found that having to undo wing nuts, point the dish until the finder beeped, then tightening the wing nuts provided little control of the position of the dish. So I mounted the dish on a telescope mount with coarse and fine controls. With little tweaks of the fine controls I can get maximum signal to the receiver. We used the dish at Nyngan during an absolute downpour and get good signal through the whole one hour storm. It has always provided good reception.
Thanks Yobarr,would definitely prefer auto dish but with our van only 16x7 and 3 x180 solar panels unfortunately not enough room.So we will have to put up with portable as existing caravan aerial only seems to work close to towns.Thanks Ian
Thanks Derek.
Hi Hodgie55; There are several way to get a satellite dish for your caravan. First up is a all singing fully automatic set up the lives on your caravan roof. Push a button and the dish takes over and finds the satellite for you. The downside is that these can cost several thousand dollars, not cheap , but it depends on how deep your pockets are !!
The second way is to have a tripode that would site on the ground and the mounting bracket for the dish bolts onto the pole of the tripode. The alignment, directions from North. The elevation of the dish as well as the skew adjustment can take a little while to get your head around the set up. A good satellite meter and a compass area must have and can make the hole deal work. A 80cm dish is what most people need as in some areas the smaller dishes are not good enough and can make the setting up of the dish a lot harder. I have used a old foxtel/ Austar dish and LNB. But that was a bit hard to set up when camped . I now have a 80cm dish and no problems . The old Austar dish originally came from the local tip but is now on the roof of my mancave for when the caravan is at home.
Whatever way you go when you decide to buy a Vast set up make certain that the salesman teaches you how to do a set up of the dish, lnb, how to read the meter and the connections to the Vast receiver and on to your television. Make certain that you buy from a reputable dealer and can help you with the 100's of questions that you will ask. I like to spend around 1~2 hours with customers that i sell to in regards to a Vast setup. So far all good. A 12 Volt Vast receiver is a must and the same would go for your television. Goon house batteries and solar backup is also a must, unless you want to stay in caravan parks.
AS for transport, the tripode lives in the front boot of our caravan and the dish , compleat with it's lnb live laying on it's back on our bed inside the caravan. it never moves and all the wife does is to place a old towel under the dish so as not to mark the doona cover. The only hard part is getting the dish with the arm for the lnb through the door. We take it easy and it fits no problems.
Good luck !!
-- Edited by valiant81 on Tuesday 20th of April 2021 10:30:14 AM
Hodgie55
You do realise you have to buy a set top box to pickup signal from the satellite. It is not just another antenna!
Not being a smart...se you seem to be referring to problems with your aerial, a satelite is not a replacement for your aerial.
Valiant81 above explains the satellite "system" itself.
cheers
Ian
-- Edited by Wanda on Tuesday 20th of April 2021 12:32:14 PM
There is another topic in this section called FOXTEL, have a look at that post.
This is what i found when doing the same research.
https://www.satplus.com.au/collections/portable-caravan-pay-tv-satellite-systems/products/maxview-precision-mobile-pay-tv-system?variant=16738193798
I am not really sure if any of the existing sat dishes are any better than the other. I think the size is important, do not go smaller than an 85cm dish, the smaller 65cm dishes are harder to locate the satelite in "some areas" than the slightly bigger ones. Some owners of the 65 dishes will say they are no different, rubbish they are, just not in all situations depending on the area you are in.
Trust me, less stress with the 85cm dishes when setting up
You can get foldup dishes, good if space is a problem, but they are very expensive at I think around $600(just for the dish)
Satplus, either in Melbourne or Queensland, are very helpful with information give them a call.
good luck
Ian
-- Edited by Wanda on Wednesday 21st of April 2021 11:03:53 AM