What Satellite Dome do you recommend?

[Lorryman100]

My advice for what it’s worth, is what are you looking for, TV in the UK or Europe. Once you decide where will dictate what size dish you will require to receive a signal and what satellites you can target. 4g is good as there are loads of deals about especially EE’s 100 gb deal however I hope you have good luck at getting a signal in a majority of locations off the major city and trunk routes. As a comparison this is a route I have went. Oyster Cytrac satellite dish as we live and tend to MoHo in Scotland, first for its ability to stay uptight in a slight wind, recorded 60mph at Dunnet bay and apart from a slight vibration during the gusts our MoHo was the only van that had a dish up and also picks up some Astra 2 channels almost to the Spanish border. We also carry a firestick and have the 60gb deal for £20 a month from EE. This gives us access to BBC iPlayer, amazon prime and Netflix when we can get a decent 4g signal. I turn down the video quality when in a low signal area so we don’t get any or little buffering. 4g works great but from personal experience once you go off grid the signal can be very hit and miss. The Big advantage of a satellite dome is the wind isn’t an issue but looking around the site we are currently on at Troutbeck head in the Lake District is how high they are. The cytrac dish is 14cm which is just a baw hair above the height of the Heiki roof Vents which on a MoHo is negligible.
When we had a tin tent we had the Roadpro dome fitted and it worked flawlessly for the 4 years that we had it. Only downside was the height of the dome as it only worked in the Uk and Calais. As we have a Rapido there is no tv aerial fitted as standard so I bought an avtex aerial which has never been used but I still carry it in the garage in case we can’t find a satellite and are in a cell phone blackspot.
At the end of the day the only sat dome I would recommmend is the roadpro as that is the only one I have ever owned or used. If I could influence your decision give Vanbitz a call and get the Cytrac system, it does what it says on the tin.

 

[russ the rambler]

My maxview satellite dish has caused problems ever since I bought the van. Had various bits replaced and now the LNB arm doesn’t drop down. I don’t fancy climbing up on the roof every time I use it.

The next step is to get rid of it completely and buy a Avtex TV with ‘Freeview Play’ built in. This will rely on getting a MiFi signal but I haven’t had too many problems so far

Apparently, ‘Freeview Play’ means you can open the TV Guide, scroll backwards through all programmes broadcast in the last week, and stream any one of them.

Does anyone have the Avtex TV with Freeview Play please? What happens when you go to Europe?

 

[MisterB]

my dish is an oyster III, 85cm auto skew - works pretty good so far all over France and so does the Netgear Nighthawk M2 for data streaming

fitted it all myself as it was a 'pre loved' sat dish for about a third of the cost of a new one. i doubt i would have one if i didnt get it at the price i did and would prob have looked for alternatives. As has been mentioned, you can get a hell of a lot of data for the price of a top class sat system. however if youre happy to get a sat signal in the UK and in some places on the continent, then a second hand smaller one might be an option

 

[tinkerbell]

Try Jackson’s, always very helpful and will come to your home to fit

 

[MisterB]

My maxview satellite dish has caused problems ever since I bought the van. Had various bits replaced and now the LNB arm doesn’t drop down. I don’t fancy climbing up on the roof every time I use it.

The next step is to get rid of it completely and buy a Avtex TV with ‘Freeview Play’ built in. This will rely on getting a MiFi signal but I haven’t had too many problems so far

Apparently, ‘Freeview Play’ means you can open the TV Guide, scroll backwards through all programmes broadcast in the last week, and stream any one of them.

Does anyone have the Avtex TV with Freeview Play please? What happens when you go to Europe?

i think i would be taking it off completely and getting it to work while its off the van before refitting it !! i'm sure it could be sorted

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[russ the rambler]

i think i would be taking it off completely and getting it to work while its off the van before refitting it !! i'm sure it could be sorted

true enough. i took it to a 'motorhome handyman' sort of chap a few weeks ago for a wholelist of things. He got the LNB arm to work but it dodnt last long - it got stuck again this week. Even when it does work on Astra 28 i only seem to pick up a few channels

 

[PaddyM]

Got a maxview self seeker 80cm dish but having the Roam fitted on Tuesday , gonna use each as a redundancy . TV in UK is important to me for my love of cricket .
when we r in hot climes we never even take the TV sets .

 

[bigtwin]

I have this fitted and tried both 3 and EE sims when in the Alps both worked but weak signal causes buffering
EE only let me have 20Gb a month abroad although unlimited in the U.K.
3 have a similar policy
20GB would only last us about 5 days would be not enough for our usage

You can select a different signal (in the settings menu) rather than accept the default. This often results in a much stronger signal being available.

Unlimited data plans usually have a limit on overseas usage HOWEVER, if you have, for example, a 100Gb plan then ALL of this is available overseas.

Ian

 

[MisterB]

true enough. i took it to a 'motorhome handyman' sort of chap a few weeks ago for a wholelist of things. He got the LNB arm to work but it dodnt last long - it got stuck again this week. Even when it does work on Astra 28 i only seem to pick up a few channels

28.2 should give you all FTA channels. does the control box need an update?

 

[Deneb]

My advice for what it’s worth, is what are you looking for, TV in the UK or Europe. Once you decide where will dictate what size dish you will require to receive a signal and what satellites you can target. 4g is good as there are loads of deals about especially EE’s 100 gb deal however I hope you have good luck at getting a signal in a majority of locations off the major city and trunk routes. As a comparison this is a route I have went. Oyster Cytrac satellite dish as we live and tend to MoHo in Scotland, first for its ability to stay uptight in a slight wind, recorded 60mph at Dunnet bay and apart from a slight vibration during the gusts our MoHo was the only van that had a dish up and also picks up some Astra 2 channels almost to the Spanish border. We also carry a firestick and have the 60gb deal for £20 a month from EE. This gives us access to BBC iPlayer, amazon prime and Netflix when we can get a decent 4g signal. I turn down the video quality when in a low signal area so we don’t get any or little buffering. 4g works great but from personal experience once you go off grid the signal can be very hit and miss. The Big advantage of a satellite dome is the wind isn’t an issue but looking around the site we are currently on at Troutbeck head in the Lake District is how high they are. The cytrac dish is 14cm which is just a baw hair above the height of the Heiki roof Vents which on a MoHo is negligible.
When we had a tin tent we had the Roadpro dome fitted and it worked flawlessly for the 4 years that we had it. Only downside was the height of the dome as it only worked in the Uk and Calais. As we have a Rapido there is no tv aerial fitted as standard so I bought an avtex aerial which has never been used but I still carry it in the garage in case we can’t find a satellite and are in a cell phone blackspot.
At the end of the day the only sat dome I would recommmend is the roadpro as that is the only one I have ever owned or used. If I could influence your decision give Vanbitz a call and get the Cytrac system, it does what it says on the tin.

Have to disagree. I recently fitted a Panorama external MIMO antenna and 4G router. Been touring Scotland for the last few weeks and never failed to get a signal, although on one occasion I could only get 2G, but that was one day out of 23. Every other day we have had a good enough signal for streaming, either on 3G or 4G, and mostly this has been in remote areas, not on main roads. If the router connects to a poor 4G signal, forcing it to 3G only often gets a faster and more stable connection that is still capable of streaming. I've been using a combination of a Smarty unlimited SIM and an EE SIM, saving the latter for occasions when I can't get a signal on 3 (Smarty) as EE do have better coverage in the Highlands.
For me, I can no longer see any point in a sat dish.

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[Smudger27]

Has anyone got a Road Pro Mini-Dome? For use in UK only. I have used a Camos Crank Up for over 10 years but fancy something just a tad simpler.

 

[Duckato]

Has anyone got a Road Pro Mini-Dome? For use in UK only. I have used a Camos Crank Up for over 10 years but fancy something just a tad simpler.

I have the original Camos which cost me £200 it has very outdated firmware and will only lock onto Astra S which always takes several minutes to do so. It was the only thing in Scotland that worked 100%

The downside is the controller draws around 2A constantly.

WiFi via Smarty was truly awful verging on useless especially on Mull so £20 down the drain last month. I ended up teathering my O2 phone instead most of the time.

I also have a vision plus 570 and that worked about 40% of the time but improved once I started using an app that showed whether to use horizontal or vertical polarisation. The downside was many of the low power transmitters only broadcast a handful of channels

Reception here from Northern Ireland was very good though!

 

[Theonlysue]

None. Too expensive and footprint very small in europe. Just get a push up and twist. Just as good and save yourself £1,000. I've had both .

Tv so bad now have gone to streaming!

 

[Deneb]

WiFi via Smarty was truly awful verging on useless especially on Mull so £20 down the drain last month. I ended up teathering my O2 phone instead most of the time.

That's why I have both Smarty and EE SIMs, since EE have much better coverage in the remoter parts of Scotland. EE costs more though, so I always try the Smarty SIM first.

Our mobiles are both on EE, but there have been several occasions where we've had no signal at all on the phones but still pulled in a decent 3G or 4G with the MIMO antenna.

Only failed once, but still got a 2G signal on EE!

 

[Madcaravanner]

WE have an automatic 85cm dish (from Falcon) - we can get UK Freesat South of Bordeaux
It lays flat on the roof and doesn't increase our 2.94m height

WE did consider a manual dish except we realised it would intrude in the hab part of the van too much due to the roof area left for it -
We also went for their 19" TV with built in Tuner everything fits where it need to and works well

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[Ian Bosman]

I have an Oyster with an 85cm dish which finds the satellite quickly provided you have a clear line to the satellite. A coupe of times I have had to move the van a few feet to get the signal. So far we have had good signals in Germany as far as Heidelberg and well into Spain but we were blocked by trees in Portugal. All the different technologies have pros and cons so if you want TV at any time you may have to go for various technologies which obviously builds up the costs. I wished that this last weekend I had taken my Sky box as we wanted to watch something on a Sky channel. Will look at the options there.

 

[Wack]

There’s a camos for sale in the classifieds

don’t know how old it is, the legs would suggest victorian to me

 

[footscray188c]

Snipe

 

[Wanders from Glos]

A manual 85cm dish and a good app on your phone which gives you your location and azimuth and compass direction is the cheapest and easiest option, plus you can track other satellites in various locations of abroad and nothing to go wrong motorwise and no power drain, just practise and you can often get a signal before an auto system has tracked

What apps do you use to identify the direction of satellites? We have just bought a new van that came with a satellite. So far we have only got TV once out three attempts, although on the two occasions we couldn't get it to work we were surrounded by trees. As a complete novice how do you decide which satellites to select and know the direction so we pitch in a sensible spot?

We also have MiFi although I haven't set it up yet. The recommendation we were made is to use Smarty because it is unlimited data for £20 per month, with not contract. I think there is a limit of 20gb abroad though. We'll see how good it is. We also have an Amazon Firestick which works perfectly in the TV and is so easy to use because you just tell it what you want to watch.

 

[The Coops]

Dish Align you chose a satellite astra etc it then gives you the direction and azimuth for the satellite, your satellite dish should be marked with numbers when you crank it up, get a compass to define north or an app and its easy peasy , best way we have found it to turn telly and sat box on, check app and about 20 sec later result and no motor gps etc to go wrong! It just takes practise, do it at home or in a few local areas a few times and don't lose temper once you have twigged it you will LOL at those who have spent a fortune on tracking systems and can't get a signal, okay you might not want Algerian TV 1 but you can always get the world service for Uk news etc Get a list of azimuths etc off app just need to see what TV they pick up

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[The Coops]

Oh and the intrusion onto the van? About a 4 cm by 10 cm locking /turning thing in the van , no intrusion whatever!

 

[gus-lopez]

ou can select a different signal (in the settings menu) rather than accept the default. This often results in a much stronger signal being available.

Or you can come to our house & have no mobile signal whatsoever.Even a UK phone roaming rarely gets a signal.
If I want to make a call or know I am going to receive one I have to go down the end of the garden where I have a great signal.
If I could get a decent signal here I¡d be able to get rid of the tat that passes for adsl here.

 

[Wanders from Glos]

Dish Align you chose a satellite astra etc it then gives you the direction and azimuth for the satellite, your satellite dish should be marked with numbers when you crank it up, get a compass to define north or an app and its easy peasy , best way we have found it to turn telly and sat box on, check app and about 20 sec later result and no motor gps etc to go wrong! It just takes practise, do it at home or in a few local areas a few times and don't lose temper once you have twigged it you will LOL at those who have spent a fortune on tracking systems and can't get a signal, okay you might not want Algerian TV 1 but you can always get the world service for Uk news etc Get a list of azimuths etc off app just need to see what TV they pick up

Thanks, good advice

 

[roadwarrior]

ok, i am confused as buggery here, if i do without satellite on the roof, and use my phone and stream to my tv ? i have the normaL Avtex , but i know it dont take a stream so how does it work ? i have a firestick so is that how its done when im sitting in a field somewhere ?

also sitting here in the middle of the peak district, the phone signal is pants and worse than any time in france...
so are you saying rather that continue with satellite i stream to my tv from my phone ?

 

[hymerman]

I agree with 'roadwarrior,' I'm totally confused with all this streaming.
How many minutes of TV can be watched with 20 Gb bought ,and I have no idea when hearing about 2G, 3G, 4G , as messaged by 'Deneb' ?

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[Neil S]

I agree with 'roadwarrior,' I'm totally confused with all this streaming.
How many minutes of TV can be watched with 20 Gb bought ,and I have no idea when hearing about 2G, 3G, 4G , as messaged by 'Deneb' ?

1 Gb of data is approximately about an hours worth of TV i think

 

[Gellyneck]

I agree with 'roadwarrior,' I'm totally confused with all this streaming.
How many minutes of TV can be watched with 20 Gb bought ,and I have no idea when hearing about 2G, 3G, 4G , as messaged by 'Deneb' ?

About 1Gb for an hours TV. 2\3\4\5G is the mobile internet connectivity with the latest being 5G. As you go backwards in the numbering the capability \ download speeds get poorer.

 

[Neil S]

About 1Gb for an hours TV. 2\3\4\5G is the mobile internet connectivity with the latest being 5G. As you go backwards in the numbering the capability \ download speeds get poorer.

we would need at least 150 Gb a month for our requirements , then we would probably have to have sim cards from different networks as not all providers cover all areas .
I've yet to find a UK network provider who will allow you over 100Gb of data per month abroad for up to 3 months at a time
Waste of time , to much hassle

 

[Carolyn and Kev]

Snipe as previously mentioned

 

[hymerman]

Thanks 'Neil S' and 'Gellyneck', for the info,.
I'll look more into it and decide what to do as I rarely watch the tele when away, but it would be good when the weather really bad .

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