In Search of Astra 2D

It was time to leave Gibraltar and having first visited at a time when the Spanish were conducting a vigorous campaign of intimidation against the Gibraltarians and, in the back of my mind ,I had thoughts of having the motorhome taken apart and being left to put it back together. As it happened, there was one immigration officer on duty and he just waved us through without a second glance. So, off we went back towards Torre del Mar, east of Malaga, where I had a feeling that we might be able to pick up TV from Astra 2D. For those who don't know, this is the satellite that carries most BBC & ITV TV channels as well as Film 4 and some others. When we got there, I visited both the campsites that are just near the beach and got chatting to various Brits who were staying there. Everyone agreed that, in order to get BBC & ITV reliably, a dish of well over 1M is required and most people were using 1.2 or 1.5 models with some making absolutely sure and using 2M models.
I parked up outside the campsites, switched on the Kathrein CAP 900 and there, just like that, was BBC 1 coming through loud and clear with no break up at all. It was the same with BBC 2, News 24 and ITV although some ITV regions work better than others. When I told some of the people I'd been talking to, they were sceptical to say the least and I invited them into the 'van to prove that I wasn't hallucinating. Fortunately, they confirmed that I wasn't. Of course, not everyone feels the need to keep up with the action in Coronation Street, the East End or Emmerdale. At Torre del Mar I saw a Multimo perched on the roof of a brand new Swift motorhome.
Stewart, its owner, was quite happy to be able to pick up the radio, SKY News and whatever else he came upon by chance. He said that it was easy to set up and had worked well all through France and Spain. Because it wasn't fixed, he could put the dish through one of the roof lights and twiddle it around until he found the signal. Even at Torre del Mar, with all the trees, he hadn't had a problem finding and keeping the signal.

We then drove inland and then west towards Marbella, stopping at intervals to check the signal and discovered that the Kathrein would get BBC & ITV everywhere. Pictures got a little shaky at times but we just switched to a different region - BBC 1 & 2 were both best using the Scotland, Wales or Northern Ireland regional variations. ITV was best from the Borders. Film 4 came and went depending on where we were. I set up an 85cm dish and couldn't get 2D at all, no matter how precisely I aimed it and no matter how I adjusted the LNB. Even the Alden 90cm dish couldn't pick up Astra 2D this far south but I did use it to connect to my Slingbox at home via the Internet and then we could watch absolutely everything that we could watch at home. Kathrein say that the CAP 900 will work as well as an ordinary dish with a nominal size of approx 1.1M and they have achieved this by ensuring that all the components of the system, dish, LNB, controller and receiver work together to achieve maximum efficiency, Judging by the results I've seen, I think they're right.