However, one thing I did was to buy a satellite TV kit and thus the saga begins.
For some time, I have been contemplating replacing the TV aerial with a Dish, as the aerial was mounted at the back of the boat, with a long cable clipped to the port handrail running all the way to the front where the TV is and when on the move, the aerial lay on the cabin roof, and acted like a magnet for the centre rope when mooring etc. ... it had to go. The dish could be fitted to some existing holes where the roof overhangs the front doors, just above where the TV is.
Now I know that every spring for the last few years, Aldi have sold the Ross Satellite kits, so I waited, and waited .... I am not, unfortunately good at patience, so I soon started to trawl Ebay ... Bingo!
A couple of weeks ago, I got one for £40 + £10 p+p, never used and in perfect condition said the seller .... I should have been a bit dubious of the seller, as, not only was he called " Sexysam", but he was obviously a caravan owner to boot! :o)
To cut the long story short, the kit was indeed in pristine condition, but after about 4 hours of trial and error trying to find a satellite signal I was beginning to think that boats and satellite dishes just don't work together. I looked on both TV and boat forums without any real conclusion .... and then, last Sunday, Aldi started selling the kits again, so I took a gamble and bought a new kit for £59.99.
After the trials of the previous kit, I knew exactly what needed to be done to set it up and within 5 minutes, I was watching Freesat TV in high definition .... hurray!
The Ebay kit was obviously faulty, so substituting parts from the working kit to the duff one, I deduced that the LNB was the problem, and rather than prat about posting the kit back, the seller agreed to a £10 refund, part of which I used to buy a new LNB ... so I now have a spare, fully working kit .... any takers?
We went over to Quo this afternoon and I completed the installation, removing all the old aerial cabling, and re-routing and tidying the new ones. I was surprised by how "movement-proof" the system is, no amount of rocking the boat interrupted the picture, and I think that the dish can stay up on the move, by turning it sideways on it will act like a gun-sight.
Tomorrow, we hope to fill the water tank for the first time this year, and have a quick spring clean ready for a family outing later in the month. With luck, the weather will be OK in the afternoon, and friends Bob and Lesley will join us for a cruise down to Bridge 61, hoping to play some music in the garden later, can't wait!
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