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It has been left as a reference point only.
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Installing an Explorer C10 on your A'van |
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Which TV antenna to use on the road is always a hotly debated subject at most club meetings. It is our experience that there will always be someone at a rally with an aerial that will work better than anyone else's. But here's the catch - does it perform equally well in all other locations? The answer is a huge no it doesn't. You learn this when you do extensive touring with fellow A'vanners. We have found that the Explorer though still far from perfect is currently the best performer available in most situations. Before handing over your money though, we suggest you ask yourself just how important is watching TV at some idyllic locations. Most of the time ours only comes out so we can reliably state whether you can get TV at a particular spot for the A-Campsite stories! The other option of course is to buy a Televideo and just watch video in poor reception areas. The humorous story by Siggy Nowak on TV Aerials puts it into perspective. He ends his story with a bra on a stick! The System Performance Barometer on the blurb above is just waffle as it is comparing the aerial with itself! |
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| Many club members have bought the C10. Putting it together is a super intelligence test! It comes with a top quality aluminium telescopic mast that extends up to 3 metres. This sounds a lot but really it is only a little higher that your erected A'van. There are a couple of options here. You can mount it on the A-Frame with the hardware provided. If you have strengthened the pole carrier you could also use this area but you will need to make up adaptors. The photo below shows the front A-Frame set up. We leave ours permanently attached. This INCREASES the closed vehicle height to two metres which can cause problems in some car parks. If you decide to go down this path you MUST stop the inner tubes falling through the middle. A 3/16 bolt through the bottom is all that is required. We also fitted one saddle to the front of the A'van and sealed the pop rivet heads with silicone - the idea being to stop vibration. We do not ever travel with the aerial attached to the mast although we have seen this done. We store the aerial part in the back of the Forester. The eventual aim is to make a bracket above the gas bottles and store it there. We plan to have a simple canvas cover in a sail track. |
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| The C10 is different to other makes in that it uses top quality cable TV type, fly leads. This means it has oddball connections. The lead from the antenna is 8 metres long. Also included is a short fly lead. Most antenna systems failed at their weakest point - where the cable passes through the van wall. The C10 goes a very long way to solving this problem. The booster (actually a power supply) fits inside the wall and the outside connection is made directly to it. The picture on the left shows the "input" with the cap on sealed for travel. The photo on the right shows the satellite/cable TV connector for those of use that don't have cable at home. There is a similar fitting inside the van on a very neat faceplate. |
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| The schematic below shows how the fitting goes through the wall. The "blob" in the centre is the booster itself. This is well made and covered with a generous chunk of shrink wrap. It is a very clever set up! It is let down though by very poor plating practices. Externally ours started corroding after only 6 months. We receive a lot of complaints from owners when they first receive the unit. The main one is nothing to connect it to 12 volt when free camping. This is a rather stupid oversight! Our workaround is to cut the lead off the 240 volt plug pack supplied and splice it into the circuit going to the outside light. Sadly the instructions make no mention of this problem yet the box labeling boasts that it works on 12 volt! Come on guys!! |
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| How does a booster work? This is a bit hard to comprehend. The "thru the wall unit" is actually only a specialised power supply. The booster amplifier is actually up in the aerial proper. It receives power from the unit down below. Now the hard to understand bit is how power goes UP the wire at the SAME TIME as the amplified signal comes DOWN the same 2 core cable! A bit like "where did we come from"! |
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| At this point you need to ponder just where you want the cable to come through the wall! The position we chose is not ideal as you do have problems with your annex but it is probably the best compromise. The two photos above show you the front and rear of the thru the wall unit. It has a small green LED which lights up when 12 volts is applied. The larger hole is where the plug pack lead pops in. If you were very clever (i.e.. not as lazy as us!) you could eliminate this cumbersome way of working. Just install a small push button switch and internally conceal wire. |
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| We set ours up just resting on the top of the drawer unit
as this is where we leave our Orion TV. We have seen others do it at the
front of the van and mount the TV near or on the table. We used a 2" hole
saw to put a hole in the wall. Take care not to go toooooo deep. Open out
the 1/4" hole from the hole saw to 3/8" being very careful not to let it
grab. Using a helper to hold a scrap piece of soft timber on the outside
does minimise this. Clean out the foam with any old chisel or screwdriver
until it looks like the photo above. Do a temporary fit and adjust the
backing nuts. You can finally install it. Don't forget you are only going
into 3mm plywood so go easy! The rubber washer goes on first, followed by
the largest washer, then a spring washer and lastly the thin nut itself.
WARNING: Do not over tighten or your wall could DISH inwards! |
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| Next we need to get 12 volts to the booster. We just drilled a 1/8" hole near the booster right at the rear of the bench top. Do this at an angle. Cut the lead off the plug pack about 8" from the transformer. Buy a connector like the ones above - you only need one unless you intend fitting 12 volt sockets as detailed elsewhere in this section. The "dogs breakfast" at top right is just a distribution spot for doing all those jobs plus the thermometer (you can't see any of this normally!). Just break into the two cables going to the outside light using your little connector. DO NOT USE THE SQUEEZE type we have used on other projects as the plug pack cable is too fine. If you have a soldering iron it is a good move to tin the ends. Purple is POSITIVE and will normally go to the plug pack cable with a fine white line on it. Don't forget to plug in before testing and to turn it off when not in use as it does use power. This is protected by the fuse in the light circuit. Be sure to remove it before modifying the electrics. |
Pros:
Cons:
The Opposition:
(*) Ours came with the Station Guide missing and no fly lead - wont work without this as it has a cable TV type connection. We were about to go on an extended tour. It took three phone calls to get this rectified and then they couldn't even be bothered sending it Express Post. Camec the selling dealer did their best to help us even sending out an employee with the booklet. |
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The mast is barely noticeable when fully retracted |
| Conclusion Are we qualified to write this review. Possibly yes, as this is antenna number 8! Ouch! We have a Winegard on our mobile office and it just doesn't cut it up against the C10, but it is much, much easier to use and it certainly looks spunkier! If you would like more technical info on TV reception there is a good chapter on television in Collyn Rivers publication The Campervan and Motorhome Book. Explorer is a subsidiary of Deeper Image yet the website doesn't mention the C10. www.deeperimage.com.au. The email address is explorer@deeperimage.com.au. Slow response time! Ours came from Camec in Brisbane and cost $329.00 in November 2000. This is the same aerial used for all A-Campsite reviews. We make no recommendations and others may easily draw different conclusions to us and we welcome feed back from other users which we will publish here unedited. |
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Last updated:
24-Jan-03
