So Much Going On

A lot has happened in the past few weeks; too much to allow time for blogging. The Peterborough & Newbury motorhome shows have been and gone and now the Crick boat show is under way.
The new RoadPro show set-up is proving successful. It's easier to put up and both looks better and seems to be more customer friendly than the old tent. If you haven't already, please pay us a visit and admire our helpful and handsome staff.


At last, I managed to get my hands on a Grundig freesat receiver. I went through it with Dave Newell from Leisure Vehicle Services. Dave is also a technical adviser on both MMM & Practical Motorhome magazines so and his verdict on the new satellite service was 2 /10. I think that was generous.

The receiver is 230V only so needs an inverter if it's being used in a vehicle. That's a bad start from my point of view and then it locked up twice and had to be re-started. We followed the set-up routine which was pretty straightforward but a lot more complicated than any free to air receiver such as our Zehnder DX65 model. We already knew that there wouldn't be any new channels coming through but what was surprising was just how few there were. BBC, ITV and Channel 4 were all there along with QVC and a few more but, SKY News and many other channels were conspicuous by their absence.

By controlling the design and distribution of the receivers, the freeview controllers can easily restrict the range of channels which are available via the service. You may not want to spend time watching "Essex Birds" or - at the other extreme - the "God Channel" but surely you should be able to if you do want to. Maybe these and dozens of other channels will be added later but, then again, maybe they won't.

Perhaps the only good thing about the freesat box was that it has a 7-day EPG. Whether that makes it worth forgoing all the other features that are available in other FTA boxes is questionable.