Victor on our equipment - Steer clear of satellite

Steer clear of satellite

Whilst television is the subject, now to aerials. If you are in the position where you are fitting, my advice is steer clear of a satellite system—should you actually want to see anything!

In the old days of terrestrial television we tried satellite for a year, and what a performance it was too. I well remember a trip to the western end of the Trent & Mersey and managing nicely to lock onto that speck in the sky, then after a couple of days the boat must have been tipped to one side as we lost alignment. Two and a quarter hours struggle and still no picture. And yes we had a meter and a compass to supposedly make it as easy as possible.

Then on though Manchester along the Ashton and Peak Forest canals and back along the Macclesfield we had more days without as with. Alteration of the boat caused by using water or the filling of a waste tank or even stacking shopping on one side, and you have lost the picture. And when moored, satellite is still a problem, which is why you see so many moored boats with adjustable straps holding it firm against the bank to stop passing craft moving it, and so loosing the picture.

Luckily digital came along, and a decent aerial solved the problem with Freeview. Mind you, if you must have sport and Sky, there is little you can do about it.

Not very good

Mind you with digital, size really does matter—the larger the aerial the better, as now seen by the plethora of masts on boat roofs, and ours in the picture above, which  can be stored whilst cruising in the empty bow deck, guarantees a picture wherever we go.

A couple of years back Thomas was sent a small aerial for review, taking it with us on a trip to give it a decent test, but alas it failed miserably on our Huddersfield Narrow cruise, managing to work less than half the time. Okay we were in the hills, but the transmitter could often be seen, and our normal aerial worked all the time...

He told the fella, but was 'kind' and did not give a review, though I thought he should to warn prospective buyers.  But I shall—here's a picture of all 16 inches of it, and I admit some must have been sold as they are seen on boats, but I always wonder how they fare? The aerial was a bit of use as we wanted small lengths of wire, so cut a couple of pieces off, hence the missing lengths in the picture!

Lighting

Lighting is often a problem on narrowboats, and many, like us, plumbed for the square florescent 20 watts lights, which are fairly useless if a fairly bright light is desired.

So with the influx of the brighter halogen lighting plus the added benefit of the same output at less wattage, we purchased the round chromium lights with the G4 halogen bulb.

A visit to Midland Chandlers at Mercia for various spares had us buying a couple of spare bulbs, which I thought rather expensive at £4.50 each. After a couple of years use the bulbs started giving up the ghost, but by this time, like I should imagine, many other boaters we were well into Amazon, so searched for G4 bulbs, eventually buying 10—yes 10—for the post paid price of exactly £4.49!  Exactly ten times cheaper than Midland Chandlers! The phase 'ripped-off' springs to mind.

Here's a picture of the bulbs and the invoice. And you may possibly notice they are the much brighter 20 watts. And the extra wattage gives us much brighter lighting.

Should you have the same lights and want to save yourself a packet on bulbs just search Amazon for G4 bulbs.