TV problem, help please

[Tractor Boy]

Hi all, we are off with the caravan for a few days and while I was getting the van ready, I realised that we have not used the TV since last year and since the digital switch over. I tried to programe the channels in but I am getting no channels, anyone have any idea what I need to do? Thanks, Gary

[Parker]

Daft question maybe but does the TV have freeview built in? if no you need a new digibox.

[HarryM1BYT]

We gave up on terrestial reception in the caravan about five years ago, when I bought a Maplin 'suitcase' satellite kit. We paid £70 for it (though you often see them for around £50). Its a small light weight dish + LNB + varius brackets and clamps for the dish, plus coax cable and a receiver. You also get a sat finder - a plastic thing with a built in compass, where you just dial in where you are, which sat you want to receive then hook it onto the dish. It gets the dish aimed within a few degrees of correct, then you just fine tune the alignment. Basically all you need, apart from the TV, packed in a small suitcase.

The receiver works on 12v or 240v and gives you around 200 to 400 free channels from Astra, depending upon how you count them.

I threw the suitcase and all of the mounting brackets out long ago. I adapted a short bit of spare metal awning to fit the dish bracket and just hammer the the flattened end of the pole into the ground. It is much more stable. All of that now fits into a Tesco type plastic carier bag and we can have reception up and running usually in a couple of minutes.

The best part is that it works almost everywhere (99%), but some pitches might need to be chosen carefully to get a clear view of the sky. We found terrestial only works in about 2% of the places we tend to go. Scottish and Welsh hills, isolated coastal farms forget terrestial, but the sat works fine and you can choose the local programming or your home area programs - BBC North in Cornwall for instance. Pretty much all the terrestial channels are available via the sat and a lot more which are not.

[gefary]

If you don't have a dish you may need a more sensitive aerial than the old "Status" one. And yes, you will need a freeview box.

All those channels on the satelite system may need to be made child friendly as nudity etc is aired more readily from Europe

[CoOkIeMoNsTeR]

This website should be of use to you :smilie_re:Click me! (http://www.satelliteforcaravans.co.uk/) Works a treat with my built in dish, collapsible remote thingy on the roof.:getmecoat:

[sikelsh]

Take a good book instead :)

[llynclaslad]

Hi all, we are off with the caravan for a few days and while I was getting the van ready, I realised that we have not used the TV since last year and since the digital switch over. I tried to programe the channels in but I am getting no channels, anyone have any idea what I need to do? Thanks, Gary
if you have one of the status aerials (space ship looking type on the caravan roof) and the writing on it is blue then sadly thats one of the old analog type and you will need to replace it with a red writing one (digital) paid £105 for mine from a local caravan place but think theyre on ebay for about £80 plus p+p, hope this helps

[HarryM1BYT]

Digital and analogue use exactly the same frequencies, so assuming your antenna is wide band (all caravan TV antennas have to be wide band, to enable them to work all over the UK), there should be no reason to change it.

The TV antenna business is making a mint out of swapping home TV antennas for 'digital compatable' ones, whereas in most areas it is completely unecessary. There really is no such thing as a 'digital compatable' TV antenna, they are just TV antennas.

As a replacement for the spaceship type antenna (which is none directional), many caravanners are replacing it with a directional type - the main reason is that almost everyone found the spaceship one to be pretty useless in all but very good signal areas. Mine came already fitted with one when I bought it, but as already said - I gave up on terrestial (A&D) in the caravan long since and switched to satellite.

[RPWC]

I had an old analogue portable,which was reliable as an old shoe,but certain areas ,struggled to get a signal,so I bought a freeview portable and a directional ariel,mount it on a long pole(old decorator's pole),and it works a treat,try your house tv on the caravan dish,see if it makes a difference

[Tractor Boy]

many thanks for all your replys guys, I imagine the arial to be up to digital as the van is only 1 year old. Does the Maplins suitcase jobbie work in Europe as we spend quite a bit of time in Portugal and swmbo quite likes the idea of being able to watch Eastenders, so it sounds like that might be the way to go.

[HarryM1BYT]

many thanks for all your replys guys, I imagine the arial to be up to digital as the van is only 1 year old. Does the Maplins suitcase jobbie work in Europe as we spend quite a bit of time in Portugal and swmbo quite likes the idea of being able to watch Eastenders, so it sounds like that might be the way to go.

I understand it gets worse the further south you go, beyond the uk boundaries, so probably not.