Caravan Satellite

[Satsearching]

Posting this to hopefully help others........

For some strange reason, despite slating Caravans for many years, I have bought a tin shed on wheels!

Anyway, obviously I need to have satellite TV access in my tin snail, after many hours googling I came to the conclusion there are limited solutions to satellite dishes on caravans, lots of small dish gizmo's available but thinking ahead I need at least an 80cm dish if I ever dare to go as far as southern France for reception of Astra 2D......

I'm not keen on a ground tripod to hold an 80cm dish as sold for silly money on various shed sites, plus I'd rather have my dish higher up in the air away from thiefs and walkers blocking my signal, so here is my cheaper solution!!

Parts:

Triax 78cm dish + Universal LNB for approx £45 (from wherever)
Labgear 29924LAB 3m Aerial Mast (Screwfix) Quote No: 32094 £14.24
Labgear 29903LAB TV Aerial Fixing Clamps (Screwfix) Quote No: 31499 £2.27
Four Suction Lifter Glaziers suction clamp (Screwfix) Quote No: 38434 £9.19
2 jubilee clamps from wherever
Some 4mm steel plate and a clamp to clamp against the mast (home/work made, with a bit of welding)
A bit of steel tube to jubilee clip around the Suction clamp above and the Screwfix Ariel fixing clamps.

I went for the Triax 78cm dish because the lnb boom arm is hinged and folds back for transporting.

I went for the Screwfix 3m mast because it is well galvanised, very thick/sturdy and comes in two 1.5m sections for transporting.

Ok, starting at the bottom, 4mm plate with a clamp welded to it to park the shed wheel on it to give a sturdy base, pic below really doesn't do the plate justice, it really is thick steel I used and 170 amps of welding with welding rods thick like cuban cigars!

Then the 3m pole in it, supported at the top with the "Orange" Four Suction Lifter Glaziers clamp, clamped on the roof with the Labgear 29903LAB TV Aerial Fixing Clamp, jubilee clips and bit of steel tube.

The two 1.5m poles from screwfix are just the right height for the dish to overlook the roof of the tin shed fitted to the opposite side to Awning side.

I rekon a better solution to the various jockeywheel clamps and other expensive crap I been looking at and a lot cheaper, the mast/dish feels rock solid this way, and the dish is in a better position!

Anyway, just for info, hope it helps someone daft enough to buy a tin snail like me........

SS

[PaphosAL]

Ingenious, m8! So what happened to the scaffold pole then? And how are you going to align the dish when you arrive at a new gypsy encampment each night? It won't only be a case of finding the correct azimuth, but adjusting the altitude angle too, the further south you head, won't it?

You could have included the horse in the photos too...

Cheers- AL

[Satsearching]

The scaffold I was promised turned out to be very heavy steel and not alloy, but turned out better using the mast from screwfix, it is pretty light and splits into two sections.

Aligning is pretty easy, that Triax dish is well marked on the back for azimuth and easy to adjust with an acr sliding bracket (not just a pivot! see pic 2), armed with a compas and alignment meter it only takes 5mins to line it up.

Horses tied up on an A road grass verge m8....

SS

Originally Posted by PaphosAL

Ingenious, m8! So what happened to the scaffold pole then? And how are you going to align the dish when you arrive at a new gypsy encampment each night? It won't only be a case of finding the correct azimuth, but adjusting the altitude angle too, the further south you head, won't it?

You could have included the horse in the photos too...

Cheers- AL

[PaphosAL]

To help you fund your first trip out, I found these for you, m8!

AL

[humforce]

one of these would be good on carvan as its move up down
http://www.irte.it/consumersat/omnisat.htm

[PaphosAL]

Ah, but would it still memorize the 20 sat positions saved at point A, if you then drove 400miles to point B?

[humforce]

Originally Posted by PaphosAL

Ah, but would it still memorize the 20 sat positions saved at point A, if you then drove 400miles to point B?

its easy to just tweak position to the sat to your new location useing remote
with that type being able to move 4 ways.

[krazylegz]

i have a tin shed on wheel SS...and i live in it for about 45 weeks a year (work away).

i opted for the Raven 70cm G70 dish, as it gives as good signal as a 80cm+ dish but it is smaller, lighter and looks just like a standard sky dish from a distance

i just opted for scaffold pole that i got from work and put it in my jockey wheel slot and its been spot on, am tempted to bring my motor down from home though as its not getting used, but for now i'm happy with sky+ in my tin can lol

[Satsearching]

Cool, just got home from our first outing, my dish setup worked spot on with my dm500, tempted to get a disque motor for it but not sure about the extra weight.

How do you go on for internet access m8? I got a vodafone usb dongle, worked ok but couldn't get 3g where I was so was slow on a normal connection.

SS

Originally Posted by krazylegz

i have a tin shed on wheel SS...and i live in it for about 45 weeks a year (work away).

i opted for the Raven 70cm G70 dish, as it gives as good signal as a 80cm+ dish but it is smaller, lighter and looks just like a standard sky dish from a distance

i just opted for scaffold pole that i got from work and put it in my jockey wheel slot and its been spot on, am tempted to bring my motor down from home though as its not getting used, but for now i'm happy with sky+ in my tin can lol

[krazylegz]

i've got a vodafone dongle too SS m8 (contract).

the last caravan site i was on i couldnt get 3g on there or so i thought, one day i messing around with the settings----->manage devices--->click on dongle--->edit--->network preference and changed it to 3g only then it searched and found a vodafone 3g network and connected to it, abliet it was only 1bar on 3g+ but a hell of a lot faster that 5 bars on , so i quizzed this on the voda forum and they said it automaticly connects to the strongest signal...although it was a hell of a lot slower connection it was stronger??? you'd think they'd write the software to automaticly connect to 3g if its available no matter how weak.

however the site i'm on now is right out in the sticks (Aston Cantlow, Warwickshire) and there is no vodafone 3g signal there at all.....infact the only 3g signal there is T-mobile.

But if your dongle is contract then it wont be network locked but only software locked, so i have put a t-mobile PAYG sim and it works spot on.

if you want any software i have T-mobile and 3 software which i can upload if it'll be of any use to you m8