TRAVELSAT PREMIUM PORTABLE CARAVAN SAT TV SYSTEM

The Travelsat Premium portable sat kit enables the user to travel throughout Australia and receive perfect reception of ABC, SBS, Seven and Nine networks as well as radio channels such as BBC World Radio and ABC/SBS FM.  Although some sellers claim that their systems offer 'hundreds' of other channels, nearly all are foreign language on other satellites and only add confusion to the dish alignment process.  We prefer to setup our systems so they can be easily aligned to the correct satellite and used in minutes.  Once you get accustomed to using the system, we are more than happy to assist you with aligning to other satellites as well.

The Dish

The Travelsat Premium system includes our unique removable arm SP65 satellite dish.  Unlike other dishes on the market, the SP65 dish requires no tools whatsoever to remove the support arm at the front and is fitted with wingnuts all round for easy elevation and side to side movement.  The rear bracket on this dish is probably the simplest but most user friendly bracket on any dish on the Australian market.  The dish is white in colour to compliment your caravan but this purely for looks and has no impact on the performance of the dish.

As you can see from the picture to the right, the elevation of the dish is adjusted by simply loosening one single wingnut.  The dish can then easily elevate from 20 to 90 degrees in one easy action.  We've seen some very poor and cheap designs on the market and many travellers drop into our stores for assistance with these inferior dishes.  Most end up upgrading though their own choice to our dish.  Be cautious when you do choose your system as satellite dishes are NOT created equal.  Many resellers supply typical household dishes that require spanners and screwdrivers to pull them apart when packing up.  This is a waste of time and adds to the overall setup and pack up time.  

The LNB

The Optus C1 satellite broadcasts the free to air programs.  It is recommended by Optus and Foxtel, that a 10.7GHz LNB is used for this satellite.  We have supplied these LNB's in our kits for the last 4 years to ensure long term compatibility with the free to air Aurora satellite service.  We also mark our LNB's with the correct graduations so you know the exact rotational position depending on where you are.  Our excellent instruction manual includes the elevation charts and LNB positions for all over Australia.

The Tripod

Our adjustable leg tripod is custom built for the sole purpose of supporting a satellite dish.  These units feature fold up galvanized legs and main upright shaft, powder coated centre, bubble level, adjustable legs for uneven ground and anti theft chain link.  These tripods are compact and easy to pack up requiring only 60cm x 20cm of space.  Each leg is pre drilled and is easily pegged to the ground for added stability in windy conditions.   You may have seen the large black aluminium tripods around, these are actually speaker stands and are flimsy and thin walled.  They'd be lucky to last one season.  Worst of all, if a gust of wind takes you by surprise, these speaker stands will blow over and as they are so tall, your dish is likely to smash to the ground.  We've had plenty of people come in looking for replacement holders for their dishes due to this.  Buy the best unit around, and that's a fact.  Throw ours in the back of a ute or the front of your van. 

Drawbar Clamp (optional extra)

We have also introduced a new adjustable drawbar clamp that will fit ALL drawbars from 50mm up to the larger 150mm chassis.  These units can be permanently bolted to the drawbar and enable you to have the dish attached to the caravan while at camp.  Click on the image below for more information.

Cables

We supply as part of our system, one 15 metre cable, one 6 metre cable and a single 1.5m cable.  The 6 metre cable will be the most commonly used cable.  This connects from the dish to the van wall.  If you have obstacles such as trees or buildings in the way, the longer 15 metre cable will enable you to move your tripod clear of the obstacle.  The 1.5 metre cable is used to connect the satellite decoder to the internal connection on the wallplate. 

All of our cables are fitted with 'proper' weatherproof compression connectors that minimise the ingress of moisture into the cable. 

Satellite Finder

The all important satellite finder.  But not just any old satfinder.  We only use and recommend the Digi7 satfinder.  This satfinder is a true digital satellite finder with onboard micro chips.  We've seen resellers calling their analog needle type satfinders 'perfect for digital'.  These inferior analog finders are difficult to use and need constant adjustment to fine tune the alignment of the dish.  Our digital satfinder is set by pressing the offset button to bring the lower row of LED's down to 2 or 3 then pressing the offset and mode buttons together to activate the tone.  As you move your dish closer to the satellite, the single LED on the top row will move up.  When it rises past 9, the bottom row will increase 1 LED.  The best feature of the Digi 7 though, is the excellent tone.  As you get closer to the required satellite, the tone gets higher in pitch and when you pinpoint the correct satellite, it will emit a very high pitched tone that makes finding the correct satellite a breeze.  There is no guesswork with this unit.  If the bottom row of LED's is not reading at least 7 bars and the tone is not high pitched then you are on the wrong satellite.  Don't mess around with anything less.  That's why we sell the analog finders for $25.00 and the Digi7 for $110.00. 

Satellite Decoder

Introducing our new S100 12/240V decoder.  This unit is a licensed decoder that is Irdeto approved (the encryption type used on the Aurora smartcard - we'll get to that shortly).  Having an approved Irdeto licensed decoder simply means that regardless of whether a service provider (such as Optus) upgrades their system, the decoder will accept the changes and continue to read the smartcard as it should.  This type of scenario could prevent non-licensed decoders from reading the smartcard correctly.  We've had a lot of input into the design of the S100 software and have implemented some very useful features.  One such feature is the satellite calculator function.  Rather than read from a chart of elevations, the S100 will calculate the direction, elevation and LNB skew (rotation of the small device on the front of the dish).  This is a unique feature not found on any other decoder in Australia.  Simply enter the Satellite Calculator via the menu, select the nearest town in the list and click CALCULATE.  We have also implemented a CONNECTIONS page that shows how to best connect the decoder to your TV.  Furthermore, the S100 has twin composite outputs as well as component out for best picture quality, improved electronic program guide and best of all 12V DC and 240V AC operation.  Cigarette plug included as well as 240V transformer and quality remote control.  Screen shots below:

Image above shows location calculator.

Image showing easy to read signal quality bar for easy alignment.

Smartcard

The Aurora smartcard when activated, will enable access to ABC (5 time zones), SBS (4 time zones), Seven Central (channel Seven from Townsville) and Imparja (channel Nine from Alice Springs).  There are also numerous radio channels available through the system as well.  After you setup your system, simply insert the card into the S100 decoder.  When you change channels to ABC for instance, you'll see the message "E16 scrambled channel". Now you're ready to activate the card.  Simply email or FAX the included form to Optus.  They will switch on your card for permanent access to ABC and SBS channels.  Now send the included commercial channel forms to Imparja and Seven Central.  Seven will enable their service for 6 months and Imparja for 12 months.  If you wish to re-activate your card after this period, simply send the same form off again...easy.  No ongoing fees or charges and you can re-activate an infinite amount of times.  Beware of pirate smartcards.  Pirate cards will be disabled in 2008 and will no longer offer access to the free to air programs. 

For people travelling throughout Western Australia, GWN and WIN TV will be available to you however, Seven and Imparja will be switched off.  You cannot have all four commercial channels activated on your card at the same time.  To further our service to you, we will activate your card for you for ABC and SBS when you purchase a Travelsat system from us. 

Through the wall weather proof wallplate

It is important, when dealing with high frequency RF signals via coaxial cable, that the connections are pristine and of a low loss type.  If you have a WineGard antenna with external connection, you will NOT be able to use this.  If you have an external connection that has a splitter in the line within the van wall cavity, this will NOT work.  If you have a direct connection from outside to inside, this MAY work.  To maximise connection and minimise loss, we include in our kit, a genuine, through the wall weatherproof wallplate and socket that is easily installed by drilling a single 12mm hole though the wall and inserting the wallplate through from inside.  The external fitting is finished with a rubber seal washer, stainless washer and nut and a rubber boot that weatherproof's the fitting.

Compass

A compass is used to locate the general direction of the satellite in accordance with the instruction manual.  On the east coast of Australia, the satellite is located due North.  However, as you move more Westerly, the satellite becomes more Easterly.  A good quality compass certainly helps.  Our compass includes a torch and backlight so you can even align the dish in the dark!

Instruction Manual

Everything is easy when you know how.  We include in our kit the best compiled instructions out of any other system.  Concise and thorough, our instructions take you step by step in plain English through the process so you'll have it working in no time.  Others offer a 1 page 'best of luck and don't call us' info page.  As long as you own the kit, we'll provide tech support no matter where you are at no charge. 

In summary, if you do purchase our Travelsat Premium system, you'll get to see other systems out there and realise how crude and flimsy most of the systems on the market are when compared to yours.  You'll have a system that will stand up to abuse and you'll be amazed that you can truly be in the middle of nowhere and still receive incredible picture quality.   Satellite TV is the solution and remember that the TravelSat is "the perfect kit for a perfect picture".

Aurora Channel Line Up

The following TV channels available to travellers are:

• ABC TV Western Australia
• ABC TV South Australia
• ABC TV South East
• ABC TV Queensland
• ABC TV Northern Territory
• SBS Western Australia
• SBS South East
• SBS Queensland
• SBS South Australia
• NITV - National Indigenous Television

An ABC TV guide can be found at the following link.

An SBS TV guide can be found at this link.

• Imparja Television - Programs from the Nine Network and based in Alice Springs. 
• Seven Central Television - Programs from the Seven Network and based in Townsville.

Imparja's TV guide is here.

Seven Central TV guide at this link.

If you travel in WA  you will have access to:

• GWN Television
• WIN Television

GWN TV guide at this link.

WIN TV guide at this link.

There are also numerous radio channels available depending on your locality.  These include (but not limited to ):

• BBC World Radio Service - Available to all
• Arrow FM - Available to all
• ABC Radio - Regional Radio, Radio National and Classic FM for 5 time zones
• Triple J and News Radio for Eastern time zone only
• SBS Radio for 5 time zones
• UCB -United Christian Broadcasting - Australia Wide