Watching TV in the caravan

Tigerchips2 · Member

Watching TV in the caravan

Dougwe · Chief one feather

Looks OK but also looks as though it has been around for a while so could be worth looking into a replacement.

I also notice you have been around for a while and that you have asked a few questions but can't find any replies to let people know if things worked out for you or not.

Keep Safe on the roads and out there.

macka17 · Guru

Hi.

TV is easy to get as long as you go Satellite.

Box. Dish and tripod
But there's nothing much worth watching on Public TEEV
when you get there.

90% that reality rubbish, knocking together old houses.
Or burning food.
Jeez. Talk about hard up for stuff to show.

We signed on for Netflix. Later, Foxtel Now. $15 pm.
Any Tv show of interest you want. Movies. etc.

Plus I have a 2 terra HDD with a LOT of movies on too.
Sat box in bin. and dish been under carport for about 6 yrs now.

It's all repeat. repeat Yankee crap. Basically.
Except when Footie (Rugby) on.

We get a lot of "Half" legal movies, Streamed from States and EU
for free.
That's about the pick in my eyes.

If you on Net. I'd be looking there rather than Teev.
MUCH more interesting.

Tigerchips2 · Member

Thanks Dougwe for asking if things have worked out for me or not.

The sad truth is that I have not yet been able to get going :(

Dreams only, so far......

But today I had the caravan pink-slipped, and re-registered, so there is hope.

The only places I have driven my lovely caravan up until now, is to the service place, and to the mechanics.....

-- Edited by Tigerchips2 on Wednesday 20th of September 2017 07:45:05 PM

Tigerchips2 · Member

Thanks Macka17, yes you are probably correct. A laptop with internet connection would make sure that I only see things that really interest me.

Eaglemax · Guru

it depends on a, budget and b, where you go. We purchased an 17" 12v GVA tv from the Good Guys Wagga for $159. Plugged the "foldaway antenna" (no booster)in and from there to Bundaberg return over an 8 week period we didnt get reception about 20% of the time when in the hills northern NSW. Otherwise great. We just have a view we are not dependant on it. Cheers

Desert Dweller · Guru

If you enjoy TV spend up big and get something decent. You could always stay at home and watch. LOLm

Warren-Pat_01 · Guru

Hello Tigerchips,
What you have is similar to what I had in my Jayco Eagle - the first was handled by Happy Wanderer in Adelaide (it cost around $180). I had it for a number of years & didn't go without being able to watch TV. However, not long before my Eagle found a new owner, the unit failed & I replaced it with a similar unit handled by Jaycar Electronics. See www.jaycar.com.au/outdoor-uhf-vhf-marine-tv-antenna-with-rotation-motor/p/LT3143.
It cost significantly less at around $65 & it worked ok. Both of these required a 12v connection to power the amplifier built into the antenna.

You said it doesn't work at home - does TV work in your house? If the van's TV isn't working, it could be missing the 12v feed.

With UHF digital stations (all of our tv is that now), you do not need to have the single dipoles extended. Most stations have signals that are horizontal polarisation - therefore you put your powered unit in a horizontal plane but some are vertical polarised & you must have the unit in a vertical position. There should have been an adaptor in the kit to enable this. You will need to rotate the aerial/pole for the best reception.

Look - satellite dishes are fine but you need to be able to store all of the gear too. I never had any issues with the system I had in the Eagle - I was always able to see TV in most places.

Hope this helps,
Warren

macka17 · Guru

Tiger.

Yep.
TV is very lacking in this country. Then some.

Actually. By yourself.(Myself)
I find I didn't even bother with Laptop. OK if you already have one though.

I have\had a 10in Samsung Tablet. Officeworks $260 on speshul..

Linked to a free or your own carrier service. it does the same thing.
we took it on O\S trips the last three. In leiu of lappie.
No difference, apart from screen size, and a little slower.

Ear plugs (decent.) the Samsung tablet ones are VERY good.
I use a pr of EBAY $170 Sennheiser. Exceptionally good.

Sitting at table. Up in bed. Screen in front of you.
Just the right size and very sharp piccy I find.

I often sit and watch a movie on it when Di watching something of hers on TV.
Both on Bluetooth sound.

we didn't take TV (21in) last two trips in van. Tablet and Lappie did fine and more versatile.

Have Foxtel Now, so plenty of choice when in range of carriers.
NO boxes req'd.

IF you go Sat.
The dish sat on a vertical pole on my van drawbar. .Short cable to front side of van where TV cable entered.

Travels there. OR face down in bag on bed. Same as you put TV, arial, and such.
Inside all you carry. is a box. and a scanner the size of pack of fags.

I also carried a made up Flat base mount that dish could clamp to and angle up\down.
and turn round for degrees bearing. to suit.
Took up no room.With longer cable.

Jaahn · Guru

Hi Tigerchips smile

Our experience with TV. Every where now is digital so that does not carry far like the good old days. But in most reasonable size towns there is a repeater aerial so if you stay in caravan parks close to towns or populated areas you will get something. If you want to free camp in the parks and forests or down by the river etc then probably no signal. hmm

But as has been said the signal can be horizontal, which suits the way your aerial is mounted, or vertical poralised which needs your aerial mounted on its side. I just look at the other aerials on the houses as I get drive in to the place to give me the idea. Looking at other caravans can be confusing as they often point everywhere and most do not work well most likely biggrin The change of "polarisation" from one transmitter to the next is to prevent interference of the adjacent signals from one area to the next.

Give it a go and try it out or take a DVD player and some discs. Or listen to the call of nature ! Or get a satelite system if you like the free camping after a while. Good luck trying it out.

Jaahn

PeterD · Guru

Tigerchips2 wrote:
Hi, I am a total novice at this, but on the 2001 Jayco caravan I bought is this antenna (I'll try to attach photos) and device inside; "Aussie-Van Easy-Tune". Is this still current for watching TV while on the road? Or is it an obsolete system?

People (particularly salesmen) get hung up on "digital antennas." All an antenna does is pick up electrical signals. It does not worry about the content of the signals, the TV does that. Nothing has changed with the nature of the signals in the 60 years I have been dealing with them, it is just what has been modulated on them that has changed.

You say there is no signal in your location to test things. The problem with amplified antennas such as yours is the amplifier sometimes fails, there is no expiry date, they can last for ever or fail in the first few years of operation. You will not be able to test it until you get into a TV reception area.

One thing you have to watch with amplified antennas is in some cities he signal is so strong that it overloads the amplifier. That blocks signals getting through. Sometimes you can point the back of the antenna to the transmitter to reduce the amount of signal picked up. In some antennas you can switch the amplifier off and get reception. Just recently at Riverside in Townsville I ended up with the antenna on the gas bottles to get a watch-able picture.

macka17 · Guru

After doing it for a while.
Quite a lot of us figured out.

That IF you want a regular TV system. Where you CAN watch decent picture 99.8% of the time.
No matter WHERE you are.

GO SATELLITE.. Forget fiddling with antenna's and boosters. Which MAY give you a picture of sorts.
Occasionally good.

Town\van park dweller.
Forget the above OK.

If there's a transm from station to Sat. and you're gear working.
You WILL get a clear as picture.

I threw my Strong. Box away, yrs ago. When we stopped bothering about tv shows.
Or lack of.
As long as I get the footie. Tom Sellick, (Foxtel now) I'm fine.

JocknNik · Senior Member

This is why I'm on this site. Plenty of good advice here. We mostly stopped in village, town and city parks on our first 'big trip' so had little trouble getting TV nearly all the time with a commonly available van antenna. But our TV also has a DVD player built in and that is a bonus. And yeah you're right Macca. TV is largely a wasteland these days. We mostly put up with the brainwashing ABC and SBS to get the odd intelligent program. We HATE the mindless ads!

Warren-Pat_01 · Guru

Me again, Tigerchips - yes I agree with PeterD's comments regarding the over loaded amplifiers.

Generally these can produce spurious frequencies (ie a signal that wasn't supposed to be present & could jam a correct signal depending on the level & frequency) that can interfere with mobile phone towers. I won't get into the technical bits & the mathematics here. When I worked for Telstra in Townsville, we had a fault come through for Karumba & it took some time for the fault to be allocated to the correct tech based at Normanton (as people who are upset about Telstra's response these days can concur). The fault was traced to a caravan park in Karumba but the culprit left before he could be found.

Peter, you may have got away without an antenna at Riverside as the transmitter was just up the hill on Mt Stuart.

Warren

PeterD · Guru

Warren-Pat_01 wrote:
Peter, you may have got away without an antenna at Riverside as the transmitter was just up the hill on Mt Stuart.

Warren

Warren, I do not have cable that is leaky enough to work that way. I initially got reception lying the antenna along the the top of a gas bottle. The next day I got one of these. I was able to mount it up out of the way and things worked well. It does not have any VHF elements but I think it will work as well as any wet piece of string in areas where strong signals will overload this one.

toglhot · Senior Member

Satelite? Money badly spent in my opinion. I have a phased array antenna which takes all of two minutes to erect and tune in with the help of signal finder. With 15 odd free to air stations we have more options than ever before, they don't all show lifestyle garbage and if it wasn't for the crappy US shows we'd probably only need one station. Not many places where I can't get reception. If I can't get reception I just plug in one of my 128gb USBs and watch one of the hundreds of crappy US movies I have recorded.

boab · Senior Member

Tigerchips2 if you have a access to wireless internet $200 or there abouts will get you an amazon fire stick with kodi installed and you then have access to thousands of movies probly every tv show ever made most sports live all for free it certainly makes fox or stan or netfix seem second rate and you watch it on your tv not through a laptop

PeterD · Guru

boab wrote:
Tigerchips2 if you have a access to wireless internet $200 or there abouts will get you an amazon fire stick with kodi installed and you then have access to thousands of movies probly every tv show ...snip

That sounds expensive. Is not Amazon Fire Stick just one of many devices that connects your TV to WiFi? Many new TV sets will do that without an external device.

If you connect to the net through it then your TV will consume at least 400 MB per hour. That means my wife would be consuming 2 GB of my mobile internet per night. That means that in a month she would be consuming 60 MB of my 15 MB allowance. With the cost of excess usage that would bankrupt me before we complete out trip.

boab · Senior Member

most c/p have free wifi but peter if you would rather pay for fox or what ever please your self it was just a suggestion we use a fire stick here at home and have never gone over our allowed use i have watched the odd movie in a c/p and never had to put an antenna on a gas bottle