Satellite Dishes

Ranger Mick · Member

Satellite Dishes

RobandFlip · Senior Member

Ranger Mick, are you looking for a portable dish or a permanent fixture on the top of your van? We have an Oyster on our van, automatic and it is superb technology.
Cheers,
Robyn

Dougwe · Chief one feather

Welcome to the gang Ranger Mick, enjoy here and out in the playground.

Not having a Sat Dish and not really interested in getting one I can't speak personally but may I suggest you do a seach in the 'Search' box just above in the thick blue line. This has been discussed many times and sure you will get some very good info.

Keep Safe on the roads and out there.

macka17 · Guru

The trouble is.
AFTER you've spent all that money and time to buy and set one up.
Lo and behold.
There's nothing worth watching anyway.

Take your tv. with a DVD player and large Ext drive (I use 2 terra)

I Have a zillion movies from net. (Incl ones not released here yet)
I've just got "Ghost in the shell" La La land". "Mummy 2017"
"Assassins creed". "Kong Skull island" "King Arthur. Legend of sword"
"Guardians of Galaxy 5", and Alian Covenant".
Last week.
And another couple I'd better not mention.

ALL FREE off NET..
Plus, complete TV shows. with NO adverts in them.

We'll sit with a nice bottle after dinner and go through a full series. or 1\2
then half, time wise.

MUCH better that the tv avail in this country . It's 98% crap.

Just an alternative

Phillipn · Guru

macka17 wrote:
The trouble is.
AFTER you've spent all that money and time to buy and set one up.
Lo and behold.
There's nothing worth watching anyway.

Take your tv. with a DVD player and large Ext drive (I use 2 terra)

I Have a zillion movies from net. (Incl ones not released here yet)
I've just got "Ghost in the shell" La La land". "Mummy 2017"
"Assassins creed". "Kong Skull island" "King Arthur. Legend of sword"
"Guardians of Galaxy 5", and Alian Covenant".
Last week.
And another couple I'd better not mention.

ALL FREE off NET..
Plus, complete TV shows. with NO adverts in them.

We'll sit with a nice bottle after dinner and go through a full series. or 1\2
then half, time wise.

MUCH better that the tv avail in this country . It's 98% crap.

Just an alternative

What a negative answer, The guy is asking a simple question, he deserves a positive answer. Your answer is 100% crap.

vanman · Senior Member

Couldn't agree more Phillipn with your responce.

Can you put people on ignore on this forum ?

Chris

-- Edited by vanman on Friday 14th of April 2017 03:05:22 PM

daffyfrancis · Senior Member

At least Macka17 offered an alternative option which is at least some advice & more on topic than I, Phillipn & vanman have done.

David

villatranquilla · Guru

after a year on the road we bought a sat satup and love it. If we are anywhere for more than a week we'll set it up. There are various dish sizes and we needed the larger size for the Pilbara WA. Some people who had smaller dishes could not get reception up there

Ranger Mick · Member

Thanks Robyn, looking at a portable dish.

Ranger Mick · Member

Thanks for the input, weighing up the options whether to buy one.

KFT · Guru

G'day Ranger Mick

I and many others in here have sat setups. Aside from all the TV stations there are also 120 radio stations on the same service (VAST)

I would recommend you have a look at the setups offered by the following retailers who all have excellent after sales support as well as good advice and pricing.

www.satplus.com.au

www.accessantennas.com.au

you will not go wrong dealing with these companies.

We use a portable dish on a tripod so that I can always get a shot at the satellite by moving just the tripod and dish around.

hope that helps

Frank

macka17 · Guru

Thank's Dave. Some just don't realise how dumb
and spiteful they make themselves sound sometimes hey.

Philip PN And Chris.

Definitely not "crap" as you say.
There really is Nothing much on modern day TV. unless you into that reality rubbish.

You'd have to be brain dead to watch most of the ---- on teev nowadays.
with very few exceptions.
Cooking. Swapping partners, and marrying strangers just for starters. Jeez.
With most of the rest being US based.

I was just giving another alternative.
Which I KNOW. a lot of us do.
I have given links for such to a few, on here and elsewhere.

I have used Sat from when it first came out for us mobiles
All over Aust. Have dish still on tripod in back.
One day it'll go to dump.

PS.

You don't NEED an ignore button on here.

Just don't click on post. Or shut your mouth if you do hey.

Keep us all happy.

Love to all XXXX.

-- Edited by macka17 on Friday 14th of April 2017 11:36:16 PM

Tony Bev · Guru

Hello Ranger Mick
And also a warm welcome from me

I agree with KFT

I would recommend you have a look at the setups offered by the following retailers who all have excellent after sales support as well as good advice and pricing.

www.satplus.com.au

www.accessantennas.com.au

you will not go wrong dealing with these companies.

I have the one from Access Antennas

As you are from somewhere in Perth, they have a shop in Osborne Park

I have a portable one on a tripod from this mob

It was written either on their website, or on my invoice, that they guaranteed it, to work anywhere in Australia, or your money back

I purchased mine from the same people in their Bunbury shop, and each time I wanted TV, it has always worked

I have come across satellite dishes in our North West, that did not work, while mine worked OK

Therefore I can only personally recommend, Access Antennas

Joe50 · Guru

Hi there Ranger Mick, welcome to the Forum. If finances permit I'd recommend you get a digital satellite alignment tool - one that has a small display so you can actually see a picture along with bar graphs for signal level and quality. I got one from Access Antennas which was already pre-tuned to the Optus C1 & D3 satellites that broadcast the VAST signal. Much easier and quicker than the analogue "squealer" meters - had to use one the other day due to a temporary problem with the digital unit. I got a signal, spent a few minutes fine-tuning the dish's alignment then discovered it was pointing at the wrong satellite a few degrees to the right of the Optus duo. Another useful tool is the Wikicamps app for smart phones and tablets which has a mostly accurate satellite finder to help get the dish pointed in the right direction. Both companies mentioned by KFT are highly recommended by many Forum members - all my gear came from Access Antennas in Perth and I've never had a problem.

Cheers, Joe

Phillipn · Guru

As others have said, Satplus give an excellent service.

Macka17, Toilet seats are for crapping, " take a look at your avatar".

pomme · Senior Member

Ranger Mick,
Yes it is really easy to install and setup, you can buy a kit already made up or automatic depending on funds.
I personally bought a satking receiver DVBS2 800ca for around $250 some good coax to join, then got an old satellite dish
from somebody for nothing (people are ripping them off their houses all the time)
Bought a new LNBF tuner for $20, a good signal finder approximately $50 to a $100.
So for under $500 you can watch TV on satellite less if you don't bother with the signal finder
as others have said free on Wikicamps
Pomme.

Onedodger · Guru

Another vote for Satplus. And yes tv is very wanting, but as we are news aholics we use our dish lots.

JayDee · Guru

Foxtel shhhh shhh!!!

We have our foxtel box with us. We get the free to air channels in Brisbane and of course our Foxtel package.

Great for the footy,which game you follow. Not much on tonight re movies. etc.

Our set us cost us around $450 mark.

Jay&Dee

macka17 · Guru

Philip. Philip.

SOME of us have a sense of humour.

Snide remarks have never bothered me.
They normally from brain deads anyway.

Have a great one hey.
I do. EVERY day.

Can we go back to forum and sensible conversations now???.

Sorry Ranger.

we not all like them.

Enjoy the forum hey.

-- Edited by macka17 on Saturday 15th of April 2017 09:31:34 PM

Sylva · Veteran Member

We have been on the road for 4 years and and first i was all for the Tv and dvd option but i have to say we lasted 6 weeks lol.

Going up the stuart hyw from Vic to Darwin and we went 2 weeks not radio nothing, i was in shock!!!

As soon as we got to Katherine we went and saw Johnny he was fantastic, $600 later we had everything we needed and nothing we didn't and we have used it so much in the last 4 years.

I still download movies and shows to watch. As a added bonus the kids got us Foxtel for birthdays this year so we now have the footy, movies, doco's everything. all run of our trusty Satellite Dish.

When not in use it fits under the bed. Pete has gotten so good at finding the signal that it takes him about 5 minutes at the most. Although much easier in the southern part of the country that up north.

My advise is get one, what you can afford and will use, when living on the road full time its not like a holiday that you are getting away from everything so odds on you will want to stay in touch with the rest of the world.

And Welcome to our forum family as you can see we often argue live a real family lol

Sylva

TheHeaths · Guru

Ah! The irony!

Ranger Mick, if looking to live permanently in the van, I would suggest Satellite so that you can at least get some TV. SBS, ABC generally have some good programs, and despite comments form others, some of the other channels have decent stuff during the evening. The other thing to take is a hard drive with selection of movies etc, if you can get one. We have one with about 600 movies on it, as our son studied film production. It fills in blank days.

If you are not going to be permanent then you may find the normal antenna when near towns will be enough. On our trip around northern WA last year, we were without TV for 1.5 weeks, and only missed the news! I mentioned getting Satellite to the child bride when we returned, and she said no, just give her the money as she had a use for it. So, I kept the money!

Whatever, good luck.

macka17 · Guru

Silva.

Is Johnny still there. (Little Vietnamese fella)
Little shop just pass the lights on left?

Does he still give those demo's out the back most nights at 7.

He's the one that got me going on sat around 10\12

maybe 14?? yrs ago.

I agree SBS has some of interest. but the rest. even the news is ho-hum.
to me.
Just maybe 2 movies a month of interest.
and footie when home.

we go away to get away. I reckon

That's why I was a single Hander on my Yachts all my life hey.

-- Edited by macka17 on Sunday 16th of April 2017 10:22:30 AM

valiant81 · Guru

Hi Ranger Mick;

First off, welcome to the forum. Now Just a little bit of advice. The size of the dish does not matter if you want to stay in the southern states. But as soon as you start to head north a larger dish is a must have as the other smaller dishes have more problems the further north you go with lack of signal due to the size of the dish. A old pay television dish will work and is smaller to transport, but the larger dish is a lot easier to set up and point at the correct satilight. 80 cm sized dish is what you need and hopefully all will be good. Self seeking dishes are great if you have the money ( not cheap @ $3000 ) but a ground based dish that sits on the ground ( and peged down ) can work just as well and can be re sited if trees are a problem.

dirvine · Senior Member

I asked the same question here and on other forums, and got a lot of the same negative and uninformed opinions. People ask a question because they want to know the answer. If they want TV then so be it. Why ram down their throats your opinion the whats of TV is crap!. Thank god we are all different. Any way for what its worth I went to Satplus and bought the fold up Optima dish and Satking decoder. $1095. Bit more expensive than the cheaper ones ($550) but the dish is fibreglass and folds in half for less space on storage. I would be quite happy with no TV but SWMBO must have TV to watch her programs and especially the Tennis. Happy wife, happy life. I set it up at home (melbourne) to get an idea of whats involved and when we travel in a few months time..Melbourne to Perth and then Perth to Byron Bay through the middle of Australia, I can assure you my stopovers will be pleasurable with the Mrs being able to watch Wimbledon. Mine is wired so ican watch inside or outside the van and also use the IR remote for channel change. And for those that think DVD is the way to do or USB stick I have that as well to watch movies if the the shows are cr*p.

David

iana · Guru

We got our sat receiver for much the same reason swmbo is footy mad and must be able to see those games. But when we have been out and about, we have been in range of the local TV tower, so except for at home practicing setting it up and renewing my registration, I haven't used it yet. The day is coming though. The unit we brought was from access antennas, and one of the reasons I liked it was the fold up tripod the dish mounts on. The feet have holes in them which could be used to peg the unit down, but yesterday I made up mounting pads, and today glued them to the roof of the van. Now I can mount the whole dish on the roof, and that does away with the risk of it being stolen.
Tomorrow I will set it up and do a smoke test. Post a couple of pictures as well.

Phillipn · Guru

dirvine wrote:
I asked the same question here and on other forums, and got a lot of the same negative and uninformed opinions. People ask a question because they want to know the answer. If they want TV then so be it. Why ram down their throats your opinion the whats of TV is crap!. Thank god we are all different. Any way for what its worth I went to Satplus and bought the fold up Optima dish and Satking decoder. $1095. Bit more expensive than the cheaper ones ($550) but the dish is fibreglass and folds in half for less space on storage. I would be quite happy with no TV but SWMBO must have TV to watch her programs and especially the Tennis. Happy wife, happy life. I set it up at home (melbourne) to get an idea of whats involved and when we travel in a few months time..Melbourne to Perth and then Perth to Byron Bay through the middle of Australia, I can assure you my stopovers will be pleasurable with the Mrs being able to watch Wimbledon. Mine is wired so ican watch inside or outside the van and also use the IR remote for channel change. And for those that think DVD is the way to do or USB stick I have that as well to watch movies if the the shows are cr*p.

David

I am pleased to see that their are more than I, that take offence to people who write comments that has no connection to the question asked.

Happy viewing with your VAST system.

Aus-Kiwi · Guru

A guy over in WA gave me heaps about having sat . The when the AFL came on he wanted to watch it ! What a shame I switched to watch the super 12's Rugby . Apparently I was an a hole for changing the channel !! .

Phillipn · Guru

macka17 wrote:
Philip. Philip.

SOME of us have a sense of humour.

Snide remarks have never bothered me.
They normally from brain deads anyway.

Have a great one hey.
I do. EVERY day.

Can we go back to forum and sensible conversations now???.

Sorry Ranger.
we not all like them.
Enjoy the forum hey.

-- Edited by macka17 on Saturday 15th of April 2017 09:31:34 PM

You are the odd man out, I trust that you have read comments from people who share the same thoughts as me.

dieseltojo · Senior Member

I was looking at a dish and it sort of revolved around the cheapest set up. At that time the info was very confusing and often antagonistic views existed. not like today where we all love each other. smile

So I made a paraphrase of how I imagine a new chum might go about it. Mind you this will test a few folks as to humour.

..............................................................................................................................................

Easy Sat set up.

I cant see a problem setting these things up. I dont have one but just reading the articles it only takes three minutes.

I cant see what the fuss is about. Here are the steps any one can do it. Three min max.

1 Stop the van

2 Lift the bed and take out the dish, and take it out side.

3 Come back in and lift the bed again and grab the tri-pod and take it out side.

4 Go back into the bed room, lift the bed and find the sat finder.

5 Look in the glove box for the sat finder.

6 Look in the centre console for the sat finder.

7 Repeat steps 4, 5, 6, to find the compass.

8 Find the NE with the compass and point the dish at the setting.

9 Now Peg down the tripod.

10 Find the hammer in the van boot.

11 Look in the car boot.

12 Ditto for the three pegs

13 Check the compass bearing, bugger its all wrong.

14 Start again; get it right, bugger compass seem to be spinning. Realise the hammer is throwing it of line.

15 Start again.

16 Install the cable from the dish fly lead to the TV and turn on the sat top VAST (Very Arsy System Truly) box.

17 Request the better half to sit and look at the pic.

18 Bugger forgot to plug in the sat finder to align dish first.

19 Undo fly lead and install the sat meter.

20 Slowly lift dish to around the stated vertical position.

21 Start side way movement to get alignment horizontally.

22 Notice that half the camp is sitting on chairs watching for a result.

23 Placate wife who is getting tired of sitting in front of a blank screen

24 Start turning the dish from side to side to get alignment again, listening for a change of pitch in the stupid thing.

25 Avoid getting rattled when you here the unavoidable smart arse in the distance, saying, It all looks too hard.

26 Meter is obviously a piece of crap and out of order.

27 Go into the van disconnect the lot and put in a DVD and put the volume up. Now you have proved your worth and shut up the crowd. Come out and take a bow.

28 Turn it all off and pack up all the crap, telling the mob you just wanted to practice the art of installation.

29 Tell them with a straight face, you dont really watch much telly any way.

30 Make a note to get an Alden auto dish installed when back home.

Aus-Kiwi · Guru

I just have to turn my Oyster sat system on . The issue is finding the remote ! Ahaha