Camping ,what size of dish will I need ?

 

Bronze Member
Username: Lokbongtom

Post Number: 27
Registered: Jun-06
Hi There
I plan to buy a big dish for my camper , last time with the 20 inch diamter I cannot receive any signal from veb because there are many big tree in front of my camper .my question is if we located behind the big tree or in the forest what is the ideal size of dish to receive a sigal correctly ? Anybody has an experience during camping ?

LBT
 

Silver Member
Username: Edenman

Post Number: 395
Registered: Aug-06
Trees can mess you up! I use a 15" plastic mini-dish when in the country and it works fine, just needs a little more care positioning..
 

Gold Member
Username: Lklives

Post Number: 9642
Registered: Jan-06
NO dish will work if it has an obstructed line of sight..
 

Silver Member
Username: Runnerguy

Pluto

Post Number: 277
Registered: Sep-06
Once you get a dish and a place to set it up (no trees) The followung info may help:

If your dish mount has an elevation scale on the back bracket I would use that to set the dish elevation. For polarisation there may be a scale on the feed throat at the LNB clamp or possibly behind the dish if the entire dish is designed to be rotated for polarisation (skew) adjustment. For azimuth, a compass will be useful on cloudy days.

If you have a laptop PC or some hand held PC type device this small screen web page: Satellite Calculator can be downloaded and stored for use offline. Before you go travelling, for known planned locations, you can check out the latitude and longitude coordinates here: http://www.satsig.net/maps/satellite-tv-dish-pointing-usa.htm This page does require that you be connected to the internet to use it. Write down the locations and lat/long coords using the degrees/minutes notation if you are going to use use the sf.htm calculator.

An inexpensive signal meter will be a useful aid if you cannot see the TV screen while adjusting the antenna. If the wanted satellite is approx due south of you will quite likely peak up on the wrong satellite as you swing in azimuth, as several satellites will be at about the same elevation angle. You need the receiver pre-tuned to the a known wanted TV programme, to recognise the correct satellite.

Most important I would say is to get some practice beforehand. Make a note in a diary of the sites and the actual elevation angles after you are peaked up. Soon you will be just setting the elevation scale for the new site and then boldly swinging the dish till you find the satellite in a couple of minutes.
 

Silver Member
Username: Cntrlaltdel

Post Number: 146
Registered: Nov-06
Shouldn't you be sitting around a campfire roasting hotdogs and drinking beer... not watching T.V.?
 

Silver Member
Username: Cartier1

Post Number: 510
Registered: Feb-07
if u r camping you are supposed to enjoy it and forget about tv . camping = no signal
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