Freesat Tv

[boatcrazyoli]

i was wondering if there is any affordable ways of putting a freesat tv system in my boat so that i could watch it in the bays or marina's?

 

[sailorman]

i was wondering if there is any affordable ways of putting a freesat tv system in my boat so that i could watch it in the bays or marina's?

a £120 box-o-tricks

 

[elton]

Maplin do a freesat 'camping' kit. But I would wonder how you'd keep the dish aligned to the sat without one of those very expensive automated tracker things.

Maplin Freesat camping kit

 

[DavidJ]

Maplin do a freesat 'camping' kit. But I would wonder how you'd keep the dish aligned to the sat without one of those very expensive automated tracker things.

Maplin Freesat camping kit

The camping kits work very well but your boat needs to be quite still. Can you mount a pole to your pontoon?

 

[bobgarrett]

Depends how rough the sea is.

 

[bendyone]

Maplin do a freesat 'camping' kit. But I would wonder how you'd keep the dish aligned to the sat without one of those very expensive automated tracker things.

Maplin Freesat camping kit

It's not "freesat" as in true HD but you get the freeveiw channels of the sky sat.

 

[DavidJ]

It's not "freesat" as in true HD but you get the freeveiw channels of the sky sat.

No reason why you shouldn't get HD with an HD TV and something like a Humax box for decoding using a camping style dish. However a bit over the top for a small boat TV.

 

[rosssavage]

I use one of these from these guys:

http://www.roadpro.co.uk/retail/product_detail.aspx?prod=KERSTAN+MINI+MOBILE+SATELLITE+DISH&id=479

Clamped to a standard Glomex pole on the radar arch. Works very well if the boat is secured to something, anchoring is a bit iffy. It will tolerate a few degrees of drift, so if you are alongside moving in the wind it's fine, but swinging on anchor it wont do.

I use this box:

http://www.roadpro.co.uk/retail/product_detail.aspx?prod=+’FREESAT’+HD+SATELLITE+RECEIVER&id=1157

Gives a few channels in HD, but probably not worth paying the extra over a non - HD box in hindsight.

 

[oceanfroggie]

Bought a freeview protable sat box + dish from Maplins some years back for about £100 which works fine when moored in a marina or harbour once she's tided up properly and we have a view of the SE horizon. It's surprisingly tolerant of slight boat movement when moored, but would be useless at anchor, on the move, or if not tied up securly to a mooring. Works a treat though for BBC1-4 and ITV1-4.

Similar kit below

http://www.maplin.co.uk/Module.aspx?ModuleNo=48737

 

[U4]

I use one of these from these guys:

http://www.roadpro.co.uk/retail/product_detail.aspx?prod=KERSTAN+MINI+MOBILE+SATELLITE+DISH&id=479

Clamped to a standard Glomex pole on the radar arch. Works very well if the boat is secured to something, anchoring is a bit iffy. It will tolerate a few degrees of drift, so if you are alongside moving in the wind it's fine, but swinging on anchor it wont do.

I use this box:

http://www.roadpro.co.uk/retail/product_detail.aspx?prod=+’FREESAT’+HD+SATELLITE+RECEIVER&id=1157

Gives a few channels in HD, but probably not worth paying the extra over a non - HD box in hindsight.

Can you leave the dish up all the time or do you have to clip in on everytime you want to use it?

 

[DavidJ]

Can you leave the dish up all the time or do you have to clip in on everytime you want to use it?

Not a good idea to keep it up while blasting along at 30knots and also the fittings will be cheaply plated so rust will set in quite quickly in a salty enviroment.