im not sure which direction to go for best coverage....if i want my foxtel box i think i need sat dish ... but does anyone out there do this..also which way is best for tv coverage
I have a Sat dish and my Foxtel box and encounter no issues getting service, a couple of must haves dish 80cm or bigger, a proper tripod stand is the best option, a good Sat finder. Auto roof mount dishes are expensive and work well, but if park under shade it's a 50/50 chance you may not get a Sat lock.
Yes a Satellite dish is the way to go and as other people have said Vast and Foxtel use the same satellite. The trick is how to inter connect the two services and there are several ways to do that.
One way is to use a satellite switcher and this interconnects between the dish, foxtel, the vast receivers, This alone can cost a bit of $$$$$. But once set up, the set up just works, this is only used on big MATV systems and were money is not a problem.
One other way is to only connect the dish to what you want to the receiver you want to watch, this gets messy with changing over the cables back and forth and can be a pain in the u know what !!
The other way that i have installed for a few people is to use a quad LNB, this has four outputs and they work independent of each other and this solves all of your problems with no amount of cable change over between the two receivers and so four cables go to where you Vast and Foxtel receivers live in your caravan.
One of the cables would go to to your vast service, while the other two would go to your foxtel receiver. The fourth would be a spare/second vast receiver or could be used with your satellite meter for setting up the dish direction and angle.
One problem that a lot of people will not tell you is that while vast use vertical polarized signals and the LNB detects the vertical signal by the voltage that is sent up your coax cable ( 13 Volts ) On the other hand with a horizontal signal the voltage that is sent up the coax cable is around 18 Volts. This change in voltage is determined by the channel that you wish to watch and is done automatically by the satellite receiver.
With the vast service and using only vertical signals the LNB only sees 13 Volts so no problems. The only problem comes with adding foxtel in to the mix. Foxtel use both vertical AND horizontal signals and this depends on what channel you are watching, so the voltage going to the LNB also changes and if one was to use a splitter in the coax cable from the foxtel receiver and you were to watching if the voltage change were to go horizontal you would lose your vast service until the voltage returned back to 13 Volts. Your Vast Receiver would then reboot and reload it parameters.
When we have traveled ( mainly free camping ) i also use a 80Cm dish and while i do have foxtel at home, i do not travel with the foxtel receiver. My dish only has a single output LNB and the dish is also mounted on a tripod and peg the stand down to the ground ( it amazing some people will come along in the night and knock your dish of direction ). I also have several lengths of RG6 quad cable that can be joined together that get used if i have a problem with trees and need to move the dish to a better spot. I find that when i start to set up camp i look for a spot that gives me a good view of the sky and have even been known to taken a compass to get the directions to point the dish, followed up by using the satellite meter to get the correct direction, dish angle and also the LNB skew angle.
Thanks everyone...we've decided on getting an automatic sat dish roof mounted by jayco..which comes standard with a dual lnb...so we just need to hook up foxtel box ..told no need for vast..as they do the same thing..
Davos, Foxtel along with there own channels also have the ABC and SBS as part of their package !! IF you want the commercial channels 7,9 and 10 you will need the vast service to be able to receive these channels. If unsure why not give foxtel a ring and find out from the horse's mouth what is available !!
-- Edited by valiant81 on Thursday 30th of July 2020 10:26:52 AM
-- Edited by valiant81 on Thursday 30th of July 2020 10:27:40 AM
Dont tell Fox your traveling ! I use the sat box from home . A few years back when I inquired. They didnt supply service if your mobile. May have changed ?
Davos, Foxtel along with there own channels also have the ABC and SBS as part of their package !! IF you want the commercial channels 7,9 and 10 you will need the vast service to be able to receive these channels. If unsure why not give foxtel a ring and find out from the horse's mouth what is available !!
-- Edited by valiant81 on Thursday 30th of July 2020 10:26:52 AM
-- Edited by valiant81 on Thursday 30th of July 2020 10:27:40 AM
Commercial channels come with the Basic Foxtel packages.
Personally I would only use Foxtell because of all the extras BUT also because if we don't travel with it it still costs money sitting at home.
Just want to throw my 2 cents worth in. To my knowledge fox only includes commercial channels if you live within the metropolitan broadcast area.
I live in a rural area and the only non fox channels in my system are Abc & Sbs. I could connect a terrestrial antenna to the fox box and scan the local channels in but I prefer not to.
When travelling I use a VAST box and our fox box all hooked up so we can view either.
Frank
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Avagreatday.
Kathy and Frank currently at Home near Quirindi NSW
I casually mentioned it to a very nice Aussie Foxtel lady about five years ago when we were moving home and they couldn't do it in a reasonable time, and apart from a bit of a giggle she made no further comment.
KFT-we live about 40 k's out of Sydney so probably what is considered Metropolitan.
