![]() ![]() ![]() If you have a secure place for storage, you can even leave the dish attached to the tripod if you prefer. The whole kit can be packed away into a heavy duty holdall about the size of a sports bag. Then, when it is time to move on, the tripod collapses down and the LNB folds back into the dish to make it easy to pack away. What makes it even more useful is that it can pick up the local news from every region around the UK, so you can find out what's going on in your current region, but you can also eavesdrop on the local news back home. We set the receiver scanning and it immediately picked up hundreds of channels, including some weird and wonderful ones I wasn’t expecting (and some that I'd rather not mention). The 54cm dish we used will receive all UK channels throughout the UK and will also work in Ireland and North-West France (outside that area you will require a larger dish). When it remains green you are locked onto the satellite. When facing south you will see a small red light on the end of the LNB rotate the dish slowly to the left and watch the light change from amber to green. You now need to rotate the dish on its mounting pole to about 11 o’clock, but here’s the neat bit. Imagine a clock face with the dish facing south at 12 o’clock. #EASYFIND PARTS CRACKER#Now you have to find determine the direction of south: this is where that compass comes in handy, that you pulled out of a Christmas cracker five years ago and is still nestling in the kitchen drawer. This is easy in the UK, because merely setting it at 90 degrees to the horizontal will do the trick. We were aiming to pick up the Astra2 satellite, for which you first need to set the angle of the dish. Now back to the dish for what used to be the tricky part. #EASYFIND PARTS TV#Ollie then plugged in the Micro Electronics Free-to-Air EasyFind Satellite Receiver, which plugs straight into one of the caravan’s 12v outlets (you will probably require a double adapter if you also need to run the TV on 12 volts). The first task was to assemble the tripod stand and then mount the Triax dish, to which is attached the folding Easyfind LNB (the bit on the front of the dish that looks like a microphone). Ollie brought along the entire kit, although In21Now will sell you the components separately if you are upgrading from previous equipment. We met up at Grantham Caravans, long-time Proactive Products stockists, who kindly allowed us the use of one of their caravans and provided a slimline Avtec television - one of the industries best sellers. My tutor was Ollie Gwilt, the Operations Director of Proactive Products, which supplies satellite dishes and accessories to mobile leisure specialists, In21Now. However, when offered the chance to witness a demonstration, my curiosity got the better of me. I’m not a habitual TV watcher and have always managed quite happily with terrestrial Freeview. This all changed with the introduction of a revolutionary new system called EasyFind – the name provides you with a clue about its benefits. #EASYFIND PARTS PORTABLE#There have been systems available for quite a while, but they could be so fiddly to set up, that portable AV specialists In21Now refused to stock them. The obvious answer is a portable system one that you can fold up when not in use, that you hide away to protect from theft and damage, and better still, easily transfer from one vehicle to another. The most sophisticated can cost in the region of £2,000 and in any case, you might not want to risk the effects of having holes drilled into the roof of your caravan or motorhome. All very impressive, but unfortunately, the prices can be as stratospheric as the satellites themselves. You’ve probably seen those impressive, roof-mounted automatic systems at shows: they lie flat on the roof of a (usually very expensive) motorhome, then raise themselves automatically and begin searching for the satellite of you choice – all at the touch of a button. If so, a satellite dish would seem to be the obvious answer. It is an unfortunate fact that some of the most attractive campsites tend to be in in the worst reception areas for digital television reception. Are you still persevering with your old-fashioned caravan aerial? If so, your digital television reception is likely to be extremely erratic. ![]()
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