Tv aerials

nigelm

nigelm

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Due to having 3 younger people on board for 2/3 weeks summer cruise the idea of having a tv on board has been raised , now I have seen a 16" thin tv with built in freeview & DVD player which would go on a bracket someplace but what I am wondering is what do people with tv's on board do about the aerial , a fixed one on a pole , up the mast or suction cups on the cabin top ?? , ideas / thoughts please ..
 
For similar (grandchildren!) reasons I've just bought a Polaroid 15.6" 12 volt TV off fleabay (no DVD) and had an amplified indoor TV aerial from Argos kicking about. Its very similar to the Philex leaf shaped aerial they advertise but not 'exactly' the same so check if it has the 12v socket. Anyway, my one has a 12v socket for the amplifier. I've only used it once this year when moored up in Woodbridge. Turned the amplification up to full when tuning in the TV stations but found I could turn it off once the stations were all tuned in. I would recommend one with an amplifier as signals are often not strong at sea level!

It sits inside the cabin on top of the VHF radio about 2ft ASL when in use. It goes in the cupboard with the TV when not in use and plugs into one of my 12v lighter sockets. Power consumption is minimal - I measured 50ma with the TV taking 1.2A

Er - my TV and aerial combined cost less than the TV aerial above - but I'm a cheapskate (except for safety items!)
 
+1 for Argos - I did the same as Oldgeezer - using the same aerial from Argos that he did.
Works well in Tollesbury Marina, much better than Glomex up mast and also better than typical domestic aerial also up mast.
 
My wife got an aerial from Tesco's for not much. It has worked fine around the coast and at Titchmarsh on a 19" set, often from inside the boat, otherwise from under the spray hood.
 
When we first moved aboard Mermaid, we connected the TV to the aerial at the top of the mast. We got both digital and analogue channels no problem.
When we moved to our new (permanent) berth in the marina, we couldn't even get the analogue signal!!!
So we went to option 2 - a 'caravan' satellite dish, which had suction mount and a secondhand sky box. Like this http://www.towsure.com/product/Multimo_Mobile_Camping_Caravan_Satellite_Dish
This has been replaced by putting the dish on a pole and using an HD Freesat box, which works for us - even in high winds.
Also works wherever we are off cruising elsewhere in the UK and the other side of the Channel/North Sea as long as there is a decent line of sight to the satellite position.
We can (and do) take it down when out at sea and it is a relatively quick process to put back up and get the signal.
 
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Dont bother with a TV. Let them learn what living without one is like. They will find other things to do, especially on a boat.
 
There's no simple answer to this because reception conditions are so variable across the country (and world). Marinas tend to be close to populated places and signal strengths are usually good enough to get away with a simple antenna. If you are planning on anchoring up in more remote locations, you may have trouble.

When we bought our previous boat, the dealer was quoting about £350 to put an amplified omnidirectional antenna at the top of the mast. I decided that this was ridiculously expensive and regretted it for the rest of the time we ownd the boat. I used to haul a One4All amplified antenna up the mast on a flag halyard, but reception was usually quite poor and it was such a pain to get it out, tie it on and route the cable round that we often didn't bother for a short period.

With this in mind, I bit the bullet when we ordered our current boat and paid the £350 (strangely exactly the same price) for the dealer to shove a Glowmex at the top of the mast. It works much better - seems to produce a watchable picture in most places (southern england) and, since it is always there, I feel free to put the telly on for a short period.

Others have reported success with a caravan satellite TV kit - you can get them for seventy quid from Maplins. I've always been a bit sceptical about the chances of keeping the dish adequately aimed at the satellite, but if you can manage it, you should get a good picture from almost anywhere. Also more channels to be had on Freesat than Freeview.
 
Be wary buying cheap satellite kits in cases. At one time, some of these didn't have the decoder for Channel 4 and/or Channel 5 amongst others.
If you are going satellite and want cheap, speak to someone who has upgraded their Sky as the old dish and box are practically worthless on the open market (ebay?) and will be fine (and it saves them going in the skip). If you need to, you can get a card from Sky for £25.
 
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Sandyman said:
Dont bother with a TV. Let them learn what living without one is like. They will find other things to do, especially on a boat.
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Son is the youngest and still happy to go play in the dinghy , girls on other hand are both older teenagers which hopefully won't come for much longer but until they stay at home and leave me in peace anything that keeps em quiet is worth it I think ..
 
We have lots of experience with three children on board. A £20 amplified aerial from Tesco works a treat, can be mounted indoors or outdoors and does the whole Freeview thing. But we dislike visiting marinas and love staying at anchor; so if you have an iPad (and you can pick a 1st generation one up for not much more than a 12v telly and aerial) and a mobile phone with unlimited data, you get all the BBC, ITV, 4 and Netflix; we stick it to the wall with a £5 mount from ebay and it works nicely as a plotter as well. There are times when an internet telly is a good thing, like on a wet cold UK summer afternoon and why should boating be a form of Spartan training? Rest of the time it's sailing and water borne fun but a couple of hours after lunch and hour before bed it just calms and occupies them whilst I read the Telegraph online on my iPad.
 
Lazy Kipper said:
We have lots of experience with three children on board. A £20 amplified aerial from Tesco works a treat, can be mounted indoors or outdoors and does the whole Freeview thing. But we dislike visiting marinas and love staying at anchor; so if you have an iPad (and you can pick a 1st generation one up for not much more than a 12v telly and aerial) and a mobile phone with unlimited data, you get all the BBC, ITV, 4 and Netflix; we stick it to the wall with a £5 mount from ebay and it works nicely as a plotter as well. There are times when an internet telly is a good thing, like on a wet cold UK summer afternoon and why should boating be a form of Spartan training? Rest of the time it's sailing and water borne fun but a couple of hours after lunch and hour before bed it just calms and occupies them whilst I read the Telegraph online on my iPad.
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I'm surprised that you can get sufficient 3G bandwidth to support video streaming in many locations that don't also have a decent TV signal.
 
Last summer we spent 6 weeks in the smallest creeks we could find in the most out of the way places on the East Coast. Never once had a problem streaming Netflix or BBC iPlayer, 4OD was sometimes an issue as their software isn't as sophisticated and unlike iPlayer doesn't tune the picture quality to your signal strength. By using a mobile phone as the modem we could put it high up inside the wheelhouse but that made little difference to the signal. Recommend 3 as a network, it is great for data. You could get one of their mifi's with a data package for the summer.

Highlight was watching the opening ceremony of the Olympics anchored at the Rocks on the Deben.
 
Lazy Kipper said:
Last summer we spent 6 weeks in the smallest creeks we could find in the most out of the way places on the East Coast. Never once had a problem streaming Netflix or BBC iPlayer, 4OD was sometimes an issue as their software isn't as sophisticated and unlike iPlayer doesn't tune the picture quality to your signal strength. By using a mobile phone as the modem we could put it high up inside the wheelhouse but that made little difference to the signal. Recommend 3 as a network, it is great for data. You could get one of their mifi's with a data package for the summer.

Highlight was watching the opening ceremony of the Olympics anchored at the Rocks on the Deben.
Click to expand...

Interesting (and surprising). We actually have a 3 MiFi which my mother uses for her internet connection, but I've never taken it outside her house. While she does not use it for video streaming, my impression of its performance even in North London is that it would not be a reliable medium for watching television.

The highlight of my viewing last summer was managing to avoid seeing a single second of Olympics coverage.
 
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