What is the best dish for VAST?

aussie_paul · Guru

What is the best dish for VAST?

Bruce and Bev · Guru

Hey Paul. Posts about Sat dishes have been flogged to death here before - do a search of satellite dishes and theres heaps for you to scroll through - some of the earlier posts are only a couple of months old. But make sure you get the bigger of the two dishes (sorry, cant remember the sizes off-hand) as the smaller one wont work in the more remote locations

chopit · Senior Member

You can spend $$thousands on a self aligning,roof mounted dish or a few $$ hundred on a set yourself tripod mounted dish.
The bigger the easier to align. 80 cms or larger is good.
Don't know if one brand is superior to another.
We have an "Azure" brand and does the job.
I hear that the tripod base is superior to the triangle flat on the ground type. ( Easier to get it level )
A tip we use is rather than tent pegs to hold the base in place. We got "Photo studio" type sand bags & spring clamps to hold the bags to the tripod legs.
Got the empty bags for $18 off Ebay & got 20Kgs of sand to fill a set of 4. ( Yes, you have a spare)
Hope that helps.

exa41 · Guru

900mm ,from itechworld is the one we have Paul works a treat.

Onedodger · Guru

Hi this is the one we have from Sat TV.

We have been around Australia 2 times with this and have had TV in most places using it. The others we had TV via the ordinary antenna.

My idea in having the fee standing fold up dish was so that I could park the van where I liked, then run the cable out to the dish for reception.

I also have the sat finder shown below which allows me to set the dish up where I can best see the northern sky, connect the finder and adjust the dish for the best signal before running any cable as the Sat finder has it's own inbuilt battery for running the LNB etc.

Another great help in finding the satellite is to get the wikicamps app on your smart phone which has an inbuilt compass etc to help. It also gives the elevation and the degree's from nth plus & minus to line the dish up. It also allows one to use the inbuilt camera lense to actually see where the sat is.

minimaxdish.jpg?v=1437017623 ClearSat 3240 Pro Handheld Meter

Moonraker · Senior Member

Best you contact Access Antennas they are very good and will assist and supply what you need. I have no interest in them.
Just google Access Antennas for their web site.

Desert Dweller · Guru

Our favorite DISH while watching TV is Spaghetti Marinara accompanied by lashings of grated Parmesan cheese washed down with a glass or two of Rhine Riesling. LOL.

banjo · Senior Member

Stay away fro Itech dishes they are so thin and flexible it's a joke ! Any reasonable quality dish can be had for around $60 plus lnb.

The tripod stands are far superior to the built in trianguar bases and much eaasier to set up and find the sat. A common phurfy is you have to have a big dish, we have done Australia all over with an ex foxtel 65cm dish no problems anywhere setting up.

A decent quality dvb-s2 compliant meter is essential, forget the micky mouse type with inbuilt screens that are no good for Vast (see the Satplus site and the clear-sat item mentioned above in Onedodger's post, on why these Satlink meters are not suitable)

dvb-s2 transmissions for Vast are different than Foxtel even though on the same satellite. Yes they can find the Optus satellite but no they cannot peak the signal for best signal quality for Mpeg4 vast transmissions, and the silly screen can only show Aljazeera anyway !

The Clear-sat meter mentioned above looks an excellent alternative to the regular SF500 model previously from Satplus and is dvb-s2 compliant.

Baz421 · Guru

Purchased our old sat system from VANSAT and the new VAST box when it came into being.

Kept the same antennae on a pole with a X base that you peg down into the ground. Ex choice IMHO.

Agree go with bigger antenna 78 cm versus 64cm for improved reception.

http://www.vansat.com.au/whatuget2.shtml

Best ever support if you need help with a problem.