"I am interested in satellite TV. for my boat. Please tell me all you know
that will help me buy the right system and which one works best. And how
about the follow me types."
Hi Al.
Miss Muffet came with a small satellite dish fixed to a little mast mounted
on a corner of the transom. This was never satisfactory, the sea had to be
dead calm to get a reliable image. We live aboard and there are often strong
winds here (mistral) so I bought a small household dish for less than a
hundred bucks, screwed it to a five foot length of scrap pipe -- and then
lashed that with two web belts to the housing that covers the electric and
water supply on the dock..The important thing is that the dish is on the
dock, not the boat. We make small adjustments with our finger tips every few
days. Except on very windy nights we have a good picture.
For travelling, riding at anchor and so on a follow-it system would seem to
be the only way to go -- which would probably be very expensive, at least
over here.
This summer we plan to be in Spanish ports down the coast. There I will
sandwich the dish on its mast between the two biggest freshwater containers
I've got, lash them together and put that on the dock.
I guess the decoder box and the satellite dish came to 200 bucks between
them. More reliable than satellite TV is a good supply of VHS cassettes which
we often rent as we go.
Hope this is of some use to you.
John Cook
Miiss Muffet, Port Camargue,
France

Al:

I have a Direct TV setup that we really enjoy especially it the Bahamas for
weather and news. I simply made some brackets and hook it up when we dock
in a marina. It will normally work on the boat. If you have a flybridge,
the helm seat is a easy place to rig up something. And since it swivels, it
makes aiming the dish is easier. We only had to use a dock piling once when
we were docked next to a mega-yacht in Harbor Island and the dish could not
see the satellite. The picture quality is wonderful and once you get use to
it you are no longer happy with cable or regular broadcast reception.

One point that may help you, if you decide to go the cheap route and just
get the regular dish from Best Buys etc and aim it yourself each time you
go to a different marina. Sony equips their dishes with a small LED that
flashes slowly and then speed up when it sees the satellite.  It makes
aiming the dish a one person job, a big advantage in my view.

Another feature that you might want to consider is a RF remote if you have
more than one TV set on the boat. Using the dish both TV sets will always
be on the same channel. If you get a unit with an RF remote instead of the
usual infrared then the remote will work in any cabin as opposed to just
the one where  the Direct TV box is located.

Frank Burrows  1979 43' Viking MY  Piney Narrows Chesapeake Bay