BSIBC

LOW COST SATTELITE TV FOR CRUISERS

By Tom Murphy

We have never been satisfied when boating with our off the air TV signals with poor picture quality and limited channels. In some locations there were simply no broadcasts available. I have to admit that I'm a TV junkie, to be specific, I'm a Sci-Fi addict. We come in all shapes, sizes, genders and interests but the bottom line is we have to have our favorite programs. Local broadcasts are hit and miss (mostly miss). I'm sure many of you cruisers have seen the "real" boats with the satellite domes that come with their multi-thousand price tags and the monthly subscription costs that approximate your mortgage payment. Well, here's an alternative for those on a budget.

We recently completed installation of Satellite TV system onboard PERSISTENCE (See Photo) The system uses Direct TV equipment (it could also be Dish Network) that I already have in our home and a subscription that we already pay monthly for service in our home. Assuming we use a receiver from our home there is no additional cost for satellite TV service on the boat. An additional receivercan always be added for another $5.00 per month. The key to the onboard installation is a Satellite tracking system known as Follow MeTV, Follow Me Company, P. O. Box 101, Royal Oak, MD 21662-0101, Tel: 877-365-5696 or 843-681-6274 (see www.follow-me-tv.com ) The approximate total cost for the system came to $1000, well below the cost for the alternative big boat domes.
I first saw this system several years ago on sailboats and also on trawlers. I spoke with many of the cruisers about the system and never encountered a negative opinion. Some of the sailors told me it worked great even in The Bahamas. I put the system on my "must have" list where it remained until now.

The system is pretty simple in form and function. It is essentially a 4" PVC pipe with a stepping motor in it along with a built in flux gate compass. Once the correct direction for the satellites is determined (234 degrees) then the system points the antenna toward the satellites regardless of the heading of the boat. Follow Me TV does not have an active elevation control so it may not work well while underway or in sloppy conditions. Any serious rocking and rolling will cause the signal to drop or fade in and out. However, the system should be fine in calm seas, at the dock or while hanging on the anchor.

GETTING ORGANIZED
The electronics and hook up relating to Direct TV (or Dish Network) are as simple as moving one of the receivers in your home to your boat and hooking it up to your TV on the boat. That's it. We had an old Direct TV dish with a single LNB (Low Noise Blocker) which is the signal collection point in front of the dish. I learned that the new systems today use dual or triple LNBs to pick up multiple satellites simultaneously. One satellite is for local channels (channels 1 -100), another for regular programing (upper channels) and a thrird for foreign language progaraming. In fact, if you subscribe to local channels and we do, you need at least two of the LNBs to get local channels and the normal channel lineup. So we trashed the single LNB dish and called direct TV to come and install a new Phase 3 dish with triple LNBs (See Photo) with multi-switch built in to feed a single coax cable down into the boat for connection to the Direct TV receiver. The new dishes have two adjustable settings. One is tilt (see photo) so that all three satellites can be lined up together. The tilt setting in this area is 48 degrees. The other setting is for elevation (see photo) so that the dish is pointed properly just above the horizon. The elevation setting in this area is 46 degrees. The azimuth is found by rotation of the dish to 234 degrees. The new dish cost $ 65.00 with installation from Direct TV. We purchased a Satellite Finder meter part number PVSF22K ($19.95) and a Sat Alignment Compass part number 22-1196 ($11.49) ( see photos ) from PPL Motorhomes 10777 Southwest Freeway, Houston, TX 77074, tel 800-755-4775, www.ppmotorhomes.com to have available to help align and fine tune the adjustments for the antenna. The compass was unnecessary but the satellite finder meter was useful for adjusting the antenna for peak tuning of elevation.

INSTALLATION
The tricky part is getting Follow Me TV installed with the antenna and running the wires near the TV, connecting to power and getting the wired remote control properly attached. We have three TVs onboard Persistence and we decided to feed all three TVs with a single receiver. We hired Tom Joseph 941-276-9028 of Florida Marine Systems, a marine electrical specialist to do some wiring on Persistence. Tom had never worked on Follow Me TV before but found the project interesting and agreed to do the installation. In our case we wanted to mount the tracking system on our aft hardtop. We selected an area next to the Radar arch to provide solid support. Since the system is literally made from a 4" PVC pipe, Tom made an extension and base mount (See Photo) from pipe that he bought at Home Depot. If you check the Follow Me web site you will find some good suggestions for mounting in a downloadable PDF file. In our case, our aft hardtop has a typical crown and pitch to the side and aft which added a little complexity to making a level and plumb installation. A clever solution that Tom created was to take a PVC female to female couling and fill one end with epoxy about 3 to 4 inches deep. The end of the coupling was then cut at a slight angle (about 20 degrees) about half way through the epoxy (1+ inch up from the end). This angled wedge gave us the ability to rotate the top half of the coupling on the base and compensate for the pitch angles of the aft hardtop. He drilled a half inch hole through the center of the cast epoxy base and countersinked the bottom of the hole in the base so that base would sit flat on the hardtop with the bolt head recessed. A half inch nut and bolt would hold the two pieces of the base together and allow them to rotate to compensate for the pitch angle of the hardtop and give us a level and plumb pole on which to mount the dish. Additionally, three additional screw holes were drilled in the base to secure it to the hardtop. A drain hole was also drilled into the base to drain off any moisture that might possibly find its way into the PVC pipe assembly. Standard 4 inch PVC pipe was used to make an extension to raise the height of the assembly so the antenna dish would clear the radar arch. Tom fabricated aluminum stabilizer bars to secure the top of the PVC tube to the radar arch (See Photo). The power, control and signal cables were fished down into the boat for connection to the electronics (See Photo).

DISH SETUP
A wired remote control is used for rotating the antenna. The instruction manual details the setup and calibration procedure for setting the direction of the dish antenna. The remote control has a FIND button that rotates the post that the dish is attached to. The FIND button will always rotate the post to 180 degrees. When the boat is in a fixed position (such as in a slip) after the FIND button has been pushed, manually move the antenna on the post to pick up the 234 degree bearing for the satellite. The Satellite finder meter will help for this setup procedure. When the signal is optimized, tighten the antenna clamps on the post. This is a one-time setup procedure. At any time in the future, to find the satellite just press the FIND button. (See Photo). We also have a Shakespeare TV broadcast antenna and a cable TV inlet for dockside use. I doubt that we will use the old hookups but we ran them through an ABC selector switch just in case.

Adjustments for elevation will have to be made to compensate for travel out of your home area. An adjustment of approximately 1 degree for every 60 miles in lattitude will be necessary. Here again the Satellte Finder meter will come in handy for doing the fine adjustments.

Follow Me TV comes with a detailed installation and operating manual. The Direct TV or Dish electronics work just as they do in your home and the end result is that you will have crystal clear TV reception wherever you go.

JUSTIFICATION
This is perhaps the really difficult aspect of the decision to "BOAT" (break out another thousand). I came up with what I believe to be a universal solution. Both Direct TV and Dish Network offer The Weather Channel (See Photo) as part of their standard channel lineup. Weather knowledge is an extremely important safety issue. In addition, the ability to receive local channels and their weather forecasts and local news helps to justify the purchase. The underlying desire to stay plugged into Sci-Fi (Stargate SG-1), Desperate Housewives, the Super-Bowl or whatever must watch program may not convince the other decision maker in the family. Enjoy!

POST INSTALLATION PERFORMANCE
It works as advertised. We found that the tracking unit worked well while underway in calm seas and at anchor. We anchored overnight in Pelican Bay at Cayo Costa in a good east breeze. In spite of our anchor bridle the boat was swinging in the breeze 30 to 40 degrees in the wind shifts. Soon after sundown the wind shifted 180 degrees and was westerly. The TV signal never dropped out and the tracking unit worked perfectly. We added an illuminated power switch (not supplied with the unit) that we bought from Radio Shack. This allowed us to kill the 0.5 amp drain to operate the stepping motor and compass electronics. It is not necessary to run the unit when the TV is not in use.