Sat TV In Carribian

[insatiable]

I'm taking my boat to virgin islands from florida and have been told sat tv will only work down there if i have a HUGE antenna. does anyone have suggestions for sat tv in carribbian?

[mbianka]

Originally Posted by insatiable

I'm taking my boat to virgin islands from florida and have been told sat tv will only work down there if i have a HUGE antenna. does anyone have suggestions for sat tv in carribbian?

My advice is be careful you don't entertain yourself to death!

[GordMay]

Greetings and welcome aboard to the CF, insatiable.

[Travelnik]

Originally Posted by insatiable

does anyone have suggestions for sat tv in carribbian?

A dinghy anchor?

[Rubikoop]

Originally Posted by insatiable

I'm taking my boat to virgin islands from florida and have been told sat tv will only work down there if i have a HUGE antenna. does anyone have suggestions for sat tv in carribbian?

How do you define huge?

[bobconnie]

Ive got a few old VHS tapes I will loan ya !!

[Auspicious]

Beach bars?

[AnchorageGuy]

insatiable, Since no one wants to seriously answer your first question posted on the board, I will try. I do know that KVH builds a specific LNB for their systems that will pick up both US and Caribbean satellite tv. Their dish is not "huge". If you want some definitive info you might contact them. I'm sure they would be helpful. The KVH M7 is a 24" dish and I believe it can be used for DirecTV Puerto Rico. This seems to be the most popular option in the northern Caribbean. Depending on which provider you choose, you may need up to a 40" dish. Chuck

[Auspicious]

Originally Posted by Auspicious

Beach bars?

Originally Posted by Waterwayguy

insatiable, Since no one wants to seriously answer your first question ...

Chuck's point is well taken. My apologies for piling on. I do think for most people on most boats beach bars are indeed the practical reality.

Depending on how far South you are going you'll end up needing an 18" to 40" dish. If you want to use it underway you'll need a very expensive "fire" control director covered by an even bigger radome - KVH among others sells the units all made up. At anchor you can set the elevation on the dish and use a less expensive Track-It-TV unit to account for the boat swinging at anchor. If you're staying in marinas you can just clamp your antenna to a piling or set up a stand.

You'll find that the satellite TV companies are not particularly accommodating of mobile consumers. They want a fixed address somewhere and your channel selection will be driven by that address, regardless of where you are. You may also find limitations to the spot beams you can access. It's a frustrating thing to get sorted.

If you can throw money at the problem there are some quite good integrators that solve the problem for the megayacht crowd.

If it's particular football games or operas you want to see you're probably back to the beach bars, or maybe schmoozing a mega-yachtie crew.

[tbodine88]

Having lived in the Caribbean, I can say from experience renting movies and now downloading them is better. Also visiting beach bars gets you more in contact with the locals and is usually a good thing.

[Stumble]

My moms house in Jamaica has DirectTv with a standard dish and works fine. Further south you may need something larger.

For service, the best option is to have DirectTV at home, and add a second dish on the boat. It costs about $5/month for the second box, and they don't care where it is.

The self tracking dishes can be expensive, but auto elevation is pretty much required even if you want to use it at anchor. Swells can knock the dish out of alignment pretty quick, and there is nothing worse than only getting to watch a few seconds at a time of a game.

[Auspicious]

Originally Posted by Stumble

For service, the best option is to have DirectTV at home, and add a second dish on the boat. It costs about $5/month for the second box, and they don't care where it is.

If you HAVE a home address. *sigh*

[insatiable]

thanks for all the feed back, i was hoping someone has or had a boat in virgin islands with sat tv on it to see how theirs works, don't worry i spend plenty of time downing pain killers, my favorite!

[Lexxy]

It was years ago but our satellite radio worked much longer than we ever expected but we never much used it. We don't even watch all the movies we have. Tv is a total waste of anyone's time anywhere, anyplace! We are finishing our circumnavigation soon and average 100 or so books a year each....and we get out there and have a real life. We sure don't miss politics and won't even be able to vote for the first time ever.

We do listen to podcasts for some news and mostly financial decisions. I know we will not be able to resist the media temptations when on land again but absolutely nothing in any media can compare to anything on a boat....I mean fixing stuff, polishing stuff, sunsets, sunrises, fish, mammals, weather and not in the least the most fantastic people, both on other boats and in all the countries.

If you can't leave media behind, why leave?

[FSMike]

Originally Posted by Lexxy

---

If you can't leave media behind, why leave?

Lexxy, I really like that.