Club 80-90 Forums

Can anyone give me a bit of advice on what to do. Going away next weekend for a whole week and been pressurised into taking tv with the van
anyway moving on..........which aerials do other folks use , where do you put it (polite replies only pls ) and which are the best for reception,
totally clueless on this one
cheers all,
Jane

jane we got ours from camperlands.it clamps on to one of the front door handles...its adjustable. so it would clamp to a bike rack as well...

m0cki reccomends the magic circle but I can rememeber where from any way entertain yourselves unless you don't want to miss the new Dr.Who starting on Saturday

We just use the telescopic one on the little B&W telly. We're either on a site near a TV transmitter and can watch telly, or we aren't! It all depends how remote you like to go I suppose.

There are sites we've been to that even a full size TV aerial on a mast is no use!

If you've got a pop or high top (fibreglass or canvas) then you'll probably find that any cheap old 'set top' aerial will do if you shove it up in the roof space. Watch out for duff deals in some of the pound shops though. Make sure you buy a UHF TV antenna, as I've seen a few VHF ones about in the shops and they probably won't be much good.

Flibbertigibbet wrote:m0cki reccomends the magic circle but I can rememeber where from any way entertain yourselves unless you don't want to miss the new Dr.Who starting on Saturday

would love to entertain ourselves but got the joys of 2 teens with us this time!
cheers
Jane

JaneH wrote:Can anyone give me a bit of advice on what to do. Going away next weekend for a whole week and been pressurised into taking tv with the van
anyway moving on..........which aerials do other folks use , where do you put it (polite replies only pls ) and which are the best for reception,
totally clueless on this one
cheers all,
Jane

At home on the roof and take a book...

We have one of the small set top types from Argos, Looks a bit like a fish, it also has a built in amplifier, we just stick it in the high top, or occaisionally stick it outside on top of the top. Other option if you are on hook up in bad signal area is to get one of the 25m extension leads and use the camp site tv hook up if they have one.

I bought a cracker from Maplin electronics.http://www.maplin.co.uk/module.aspx?Tab ... 8&doy=12m4

I use this at home on a portable TV and get a good freeview signal.
Not the amplified one.

My Word of wisdom however is if you need an extension lead to get the aerial high up buy a good one
You can loose a hell of a lot of signal in a cheap lead.

T

I'm using a magic circle, as recommended by Mocki, gives a good picture, is battery powered (2xAA) and only cost about £15.00, I got mine online from sailgb.com.
You can get 'em from caravan supply shops too.
Only bind is the co-ax cable is a bit short, i got an extension for £2.

This setup gives a very good picture, unless you are in the deepest darkest corner of somewhere. Where only a satellite would do anyway.

I've got a Magic Circle as well, use it with a USB Digital Tuner plugged into a laptop Great picture.

I felt quite ill after a weekend of TV with the kids in our camper trying out varoius different methods of improving the reception. Most of the time was spent making adjustements, each time they changed channel or aerial.

Still felt awful when we got back & had to go to doctors. After an extensive series of tests he told me that I was suffering from Vanaerial disease!!

We take a DVD players instead of TV now!

SYMCRO wrote:I felt quite ill after a weekend of TV with the kids in our camper trying out varoius different methods of improving the reception. Most of the time was spent making adjustements, each time they changed channel or aerial.

Still felt awful when we got back & had to go to doctors. After an extensive series of tests he told me that I was suffering from Vanaerial disease!!

We take a DVD players instead of TV now!

very good simon!

months go by waiting for a good excuse to use that joke...........vantastic!


Magic circles are great, have a really good amp and little loss because tey are in one unit, and mine has never failed to get a picture, it worked best when velcro'd to the inside of my hitop, right at the top, but as has been said the cable is a tad short......just add digi box to extend!

Yep, first used (by me anyway!) at a SSVC Stanford Hall camp early 80's to describe an antennae festoned splittie owned by a radio ham.

"That van looks like it is suffering from...............

Any other takers with an ealier usage of this classic gag?

[/quote]

VWNZ wrote:

'I've got a Magic Circle as well, use it with a USB Digital Tuner plugged into a laptop Very Happy Great picture.'

Good info. I want to do this too. What tuner are you using ? I want to buy one so any info is useful.

Cheers,

Andy

Has anyone out there tried to use a freeview tv or tv + freeview box
in their van?
What is the best freeview aerial? There seem to be a lot of different types/designs in the shops.

Update
In the end used a vision plus aerial (£23)/mast with freeview box and remained sane for the week as both teens were happy with evening viewing.
Only prob was the aerial came with bracket that 'fixes' to side of van with sticky bits - c**p, ended up securing onto driver's door handle and making sure it was well anchored into ground. Up in Cumbria and survived several gusty nights.
Freeview box was brill, good reception, cheapest one from Argos!
Jane