Campervan Vast Service Questions

[checkitout]

My sister in Qld purchased a new Winnebago Campervan Motor Home about 12 months ago. I caught up with her in between travelling recently in Sydney and found that this motor home is decked out with some neat stuff in particular a VAST Sat Service.

Apparently the suppliers could not get it going originally, at the time my sister was not interested or had too many things happening... I had a look at it and found that I could get it up reading Sat signal but initially not decoding. After googling I found an online re-activate service for the card (mysat from memory) and sure enough it was soon decoding, but only for ABC and SBS. Commercial channels was no go.

Some Questions
1. If a VAST card is not registered to a user I assume it would never work at all?

2. I doubt very much that my sister registered the VAST card (if it was done, this would have been done by the suppliers of the motor home) ... What can we do to find out if the card is registered to a user ?

3. What can or should my sister do if she wants to access Vast commercial TV channels?

4. Is there a cost for the ABC/SBS free to air VAST ? (I assume no)

5. Is there a cost for the Commercial VAST Channels?

6. My sister is interested in getting a second VAST STB/service for the motor home, is this possible and if so how does one go about getting one ?

[fandtm666]

[mtv]

1. When VAST first started, ABC and SBS channels worked 'out of the box'. That changed some years ago and all decoders and more specifically, smartcards, have to be registered and activated to receive any channels, other than the tuning channel.

2.Your sister needs to phone the VAST Call Centre and explain the situation to have ownership transferred to her.
VAST Call Centre Ph: 1300 993 376
Hours: 9:00 - 4:30 (AEST) business days

3.Being a caravan, your sister should register as a 'Traveller' and nominate the state/territory she wishes to receive channels from.
This registration type has to be renewed every 6 months.

A permanent registration will only be provided when the applicant has a residence in a location recognised as having no terrestrial TV reception, but you can register for ABC and SBS channels only, regardless of your location.
Anyone can register as a traveller and obtain all channels for the area they registered as 'travelling' in.

4.There is no charge to access ABC/SBS

5.There is no charge to access commercial channels.

6. The same registration procedure as the first box is used.

Any VAST smartcard requires a 'hit' over the air, on a regular basis. I have found it's best to make sure the decoder is turned on (even in standby is OK) and signal is available, at least once a week.

Longer periods may need the card to be 're-activated' via the method you used.

Remember, you must have the dish set up and signal tuned on the decoder before sending any activation request, as the smartcard won't receive the update without signal reaching it.

Hope this helps.