Satellite television in a motorhome - is it an unnecessary luxury or an undoubtable must-have? In this article I will explain many things about mobile satellite television but as for the question of its necessity; I will leave that to you to decide.

There are two basic forms of sat TV available in Australia: Subscription based (eg FoxTel and AusStar) and so called free-to-air television. In this article we will be dealing with the "Optus Aurora" free-to-air offerings, however much of this discussion applies equally to the various subscription services offered by FoxTel and AusStar.

Optus Aurora was launched to provide free-to-air television to remote communities and Australians that live outside of the areas covered by normal broadcast television. It is carried by a satellite called Optus C1 and provides coverage to almost 100% of mainland Australia.

Equipment

The smart card
The Optus Aurora service, strictly speaking, is not truly free-to-air. It is encrypted and you will need a smart card to allow you to view the 15 or so channels it provides. The smart card can be obtained from Optus by providing proof of residence outside a standard television broadcast area (motorhomers are not officially catered for so you will need an address somewhere in the outback). The card is coded with your state and will not receive broadcasts intended for other states - it costs about $100 and there are no on-going charges. Alternately, you could try to find someone with the equipment and knowledge to produce a fully open card allowing you to receive broadcasts destined for all states (these are often referred to as 'Goldies').

The dish
A 65cm dish seems to be large enough - we have used our 65cm dish all over the country travelled thus far- (see travel map at www.hobohome.com) and have never had trouble getting good signal. Our dish is mounted in the lid of a galvanised box, the lid raises to adjust the dish angle. We have a 20m coax cable on our dish to allow us to locate the dish away from the motorhome if for example trees are a problem. A 65cm dish (and LNB) will set you back about $150.

The decoder
Almost any decoder will receive the Optus Aurora service. We use a Topfield TF3200IR, this is a very basic decoder but works very well and costs less than $350.

The Sat Finder
This little device is attached to the dish during alignment; it provides feedback as to how close you are to pointing at the satellite. A reasonable satellite finder will cost you about $45.

What can you watch?
With the equipment discussed above (i.e. a 'goldie' card) you will receive:

• ABC for each state except Tasmania (shifted programs to allow for time zone differences)
  
• SBS for each state except Tasmania
  
• WIN WA (similar programming to the Nine Network)
  
• GWN WA
  
• Imparja (programming from both 7 and Ten networks)
  
• Seven Central
  
• Plus some indigenous and some religious programming
  If you are applying for a genuine Optus smart card, be sure to ask what channels you are entitled to receive.

Conclusion
If you are prepared to do a little engineering work and shop around, you can put together a very basic mobile satellite TV system for less than $650. Alignment of the dish takes about 3 minutes using a compass and the sat finder. The decoder requires 240volts so you will need an inverter or generator to run it and obviously you will need a TV or monitor with AV-IN ports to watch the programming.
We have had our system for over a year now and while we only use it once or twice each week, it is great to have - if only to watch the weather forecast to find out if you will be fishing or sleeping-in tomorrow.