TV reception

Fr J Hackett

Fr J Hackett

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Following our first wet weekend in Shotley SWMBO was not impressed at the lack of TV reception, so $64,000 dollar question: What do I need in the way of an aerial as I have not bothered much in the past we have only ever used a simple active portable mounted on the coachroof will a Glomax mounted up the mast improve reception, which is as much as I am prepared to do or is it a lost cause :(
 
Incidentally, is that a Hydrovane on your profile pic ?. I would be interested in having a chat about that sometime if so.
 
Yes it's Hydrovane great bit of kit only drawback is shipping and unshipping which means it gets left on when it shouldn't and reduces manouverability a bit. But then I am just lazy and don't loke getting my feet wet:D

No doubt we will bump into each other sooner rather than later hopefully not literally although don't bank on it:eek:
 
Dunno what the answer is Pete, but Shotley is a well known black spot for TV, Radio and wifi signals. Some weeks we struggle to pick many FM radio stations up, some weeks we can't get the wifi, both were true this past Fri evening/Sat morning, yet reception was better Sat evening.
 
CPD said:
Hello Pete,

We had a brief visit to Shotley on Saturday to do a few jobs - hopefully will catch up with you soon. I have been looking at one of these :

http://www.maplin.co.uk/Module.aspx?ModuleNo=48737&C=Froogle&U=48737&T=Module

Alan
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Hi
I would check that you can now get Channel 4 and Five on that kit before buying. You couldn't at one time as they were encrypted.
As we live on board, we decided to get a second hand dish of the type you place on top of caravans and a used Sky dish. We then needed the £20 card from Sky to watch the free to air channels. This has worked around the UK and in Holland and Belgium. We have now upgraded the box to a Freesat HD one and can pick up HD programmes on BBC and ITV.
Cheers
D
 
PaulGooch said:
Dunno what the answer is Pete, but Shotley is a well known black spot for TV, Radio and wifi signals. Some weeks we struggle to pick many FM radio stations up, some weeks we can't get the wifi, both were true this past Fri evening/Sat morning, yet reception was better Sat evening.
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The WiFi was great when I got to Shotley pretty fast but Saterday and Sunday were very poor and kept dropping signal I think that must be down to the broadband connection at the marina ( they lost signal on Saturday) probably a line / exchange connection problem that they need to sort out. Or someone has tied a knot in the telephone line:D
 
You are lucky, cos i am now an expert!
I bought the ALDI deal of the week on Sunday, a Satalite system for £50odd - I am also at Shotley and know the problem.
Unpacked it and scratched my head for some time reading the instructions. Assembled dish etc and chose the rubber sucker method of mounting (stuck it to the top of the life raft) not desperately effective in the strong winds as it kept detaching itself - i am going to use an old barbeque mount, adapting it in someway.
Got out compass (the one they supply is cr..)and pointed it 147deg at about 25deg elevation (this had to be guessed) twiddled receiver thingy 11deg approx (it is marked). Attached signal meter to Satalite end (inline) it consists of 6 leds and you have to tune it so just a couple of lights are showing, move dish around until all lights show and it seems to be in the middle of the strong signal area (it doesnt appear too critical to be honest), disconnect meter and reconnect cable,
go below and select menu, and installation, select Astra 2a satalite and automatic tuning and select free, (free to view) then select scan. it takes about 10 mins to download, i went to menu and selected favorites I then selected all the stations I wanted (100's available) then selected FAV on the handset controller and they were all listed, scroll down and press OK to select. The pictures were of a superb quality I was extremely impressed. it has a 12v car socket as standard (plus a 240v operation via a transformer). The boat was moving quite a lot in the very strong winds we were experiencing and moving quite a bit from side to side probably 10-15deg with out a loss of picture quality, but the elevation seems to be more sensitive.
A no brainer IMO!
 
Thanks David just been to Aldi and bought one looks to be the same as Alan mentions in his reply at Maplin for £120 will be a bit of apffaff setting it up and taking it down but if it keeps Caroline happy!
 
I think that the case it is in is exactly the same and the kit inside looks the same as well, I think that once you get used to setting it up it will be easy. -- happy viewing!
 
Actually I have just had a look at the additional pics and it is not exactly the same, the rubber sucker mount on the Maplin one looks a bit more robust and the control box doesnt look as tinny as the Aldi, but the picture quality cannot be improved on i am sure and the Aldi is half price!
 
I'm a bit tempted by one of these, but don't have a TV on the boat. We normally use a 17" widescreen laptop to watch a DVD or a downloaded TV program. I do have a TV tuner for the laptop, it's a similar size to a USB data stick and can be connected to a normal TV aerial, so i presume i could connect this to the sat box, does that sound about right ?
 
Not sure but I doubt that it could decode the satallite signals think you need to get a cheap flat screen, the output from the Aldi box is either phono or scart so virtually any of the current screens or TVs should work.

The Aldi system fired up OK last night at home with no problems.
 
davidfox said:
Thats practising! its not the same as doing it in the semi dark when it is raining and blowing old dogs - im afraid it doesnt count.
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:p:D:D:D:D Well perhaps I will have a go in a weeks time hopefully the weather will be more like my childhood memories of the east coast and not like last sunday when I discovered a leak in one of the liferaft mounting bolts just as we were planning on leaving which ensured that we stayed till Monday when it was dry enough to sort out.
 
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