Community Forums

ka7suz · 05-05-2012, 08:11 PM

Or you could look into a Dish Tailgater. We just activated ours today and paid a one time fee to add our own 1T external harddrive (must have AC power) We have been Dish subscribers for a long time. We will pay $7 per month for HD (SD is $5) We ran into difficulty with our pre-owned coach and its' vintage receiver connected to the KingDome, so we just used the receiver we got for the Tailgator. Technician called us back twice while we changed out the recievers, and then set up the hard drive. Very helpful. Said he' called another customer 5 times helping that person set up a system with a manual antenna. No service complaints from us.

JoAnn

Jim A · 05-05-2012, 10:19 PM

With Directv once you have one DVR and pay the DVR monthly fee, you can add a second DVR for the same price it would take to add just a receiver. (I have 3 HD DVR's, including one in the coach.) It was a tight fit in the cabinet, but where there's a will there's a way! In my case I needed right angle connectors for all of the connections.

None of them were free however. In the past they wound up paying me $25 to put a SD Tivo in my coach however.

Renipladlo · 05-05-2012, 11:42 PM

All - to do satellite on the real cheap, do as follows (assuming not full time):

1. Call Dish/DIRECTV and see how much it will cost to upgrade house system, if you have been a customer for longer than a year, they usually have a deal going, remember this usually locks you into another 2 year commitment.

2. When the installer comes out, be nice, but explain to him you need a seperate HD antenna for your MH (the one with the 5 LNB's), or....

3. Have the install done in such as way you can take the antenna with you, and the HD receiver as well, then you won’t get hit with a 5 dollar extra charge for 2nd receiver, on top of the 5 dollar charge for local channels. (Note your local channels will drop off after you are 400 miles away from home unless you get the East/West Feeds for a separate fee.

4. DIRECTV has an ongoing promotion going through FMCA and lots of other places, and they will provide you with a HD Antenna for the RV if you have HD in the house/home.

Now to aim the dish easier than anything on the market, use this device (http://www.campingworld.com/shopping/item/align-a-site-satellite-finder/31690) I don't recommend the rigid install on the dish, just use it in hand held mode, practice with it, took me about 10 minutes to align up my manual dish the last time I had to use it. Usually the park map will have coordinates for Dish and DTV. Then once you have a signal, use the receiver to let you know signal strength and the BH can help you with that.

If HD is not necessary, then we use this antenna for when our King Dome does not work because of trees. It's on sale at camping world 3-4 times a year (on sale now), and it works great. See this link: (http://www.campingworld.com/shopping/item/winegard-carryout-mp1-manual-portable-satellite-tv-antenna/49428) it works easy.

FWIW – Lots of times, Costco has a Direct TV deal going as well, so check with the phone kiosk in the store, they can tell you what promotions are going on. Assume Sams Club has something similar.

FWIW #2 – Also note, you can suspend your satellite service with DTV for up to 6 months if you only use it in the MH, it just extends the period of your commitment if you have one. We had to do this as the box in the MH is owned by DTV and they would not let me substitute another box with the same model number when we got home. You still receive a bill, but it’s credited to zero each month.

CLarence39 · 05-06-2012, 08:44 AM

This appears to be a no brainer - we have the New Jack and receive over 100 channels FREE - no set up - how much simpler can it get. Clarence

meant2shop · 05-07-2012, 10:03 AM

We already have 2 DISH DVRs in our house. Would rather not have to unhook and take one of them with us each time we hit the road, and then have to remember how to reconnect it to the TV at home when we return. The 2 TVs in the RV are not HD and we don't have any plans to replace them in the near future.
The Winegard roof dish we have (OEM), which you must crank up and around using the ceiling crank inside the RV, doesn't want to open/move at all using the crank - and yes, we have it in the unlocked position.
Would like more info on the "New Jack" - it may be a no-brainer to you, but we're novices in this area, and would like the easiest and cheapest way to get as many channels as possible when there is no cable hook-up available and when dry camping.
Where do you purchase this, how much does it cost, and how does it work? Do we have to get the Winegard fixed first, in order to use the "New Jack" with it?
Thanks.
Jim and Susan
Merlin, OR
00 Fleetwood Pace Arrow Vision

Renipladlo · 05-07-2012, 10:12 AM

Jim - Try spraying the gears and cranks on the dish with some 3M Dry Silicone Lubricant. I think the number is 3M-08897. It does not use any type of oil as the carrier, so you get almost 100 percent silicone lubricant, which won't hurt anything. This should free up the unit so it works correctly. If getting upon the roof is an issue, where are you, and maybe we can hook up, I'll get up there for you and do it.

And we wnat to know about the "NEW JACK" as well. Do a complete explanation and hardware needed to make this work. My friend has something like that (assuming sort of the same) and his service went down after paying money for it, something about changing the cards or codes.

CLarence39 · 05-07-2012, 05:50 PM

Just go on line and gougle The Jack Antenna - you will get some good info - I can tell you that it is very simple, no cranking up or down nor turning to get excellent reception. And it is free with no monthly nor yearly fee. Try it - you might like it . Clarence

Renipladlo · 05-07-2012, 07:49 PM

Real quick profile of the Jack. Two versions, one for the existing "rise and turn type mast" and one for direct through the roof, which also has to turn. The cheap one for the existing mast is 49.00 and the through the roof and turn is 159.00. It's made by King Dome, and has gotten great reviews. It should be noted, it's Over the air HDTV broadcast TV, not cable, or satellite channels. So it's superior to what the MH has now, but again, I don't want to have to tune in my antenna. I believe Wineguard makes an ota HDTV antenna which might be a fixed unit.

dwebcbceo · 05-09-2012, 10:41 PM

Jim,
Thanks for the info. I've considered installing it myself but am unsure about a couple of things, mainly the need to pull new cables. Are the OEM cables in conduit? How tough is it to install the new cables?
Thanks for any help you can give me.
Dave Weber

bcbowers · 05-10-2012, 09:55 AM

Dave,

FWIW - I had CW remove the old manual dish setup from WRV and install the Wineguard antenna in the same hole in the roof. They used the same cables put did replace the amplifier power switch plate in the front cabinet. I find the Wineguard is easy to use even though you do have to crank it up. The key is to have some method for determining the strongest signal when turning the antenna (Jack uses a knob with its own indicator). My RCA DTV receiver (purchased separately) displays a colored bar graph on the TV that I can watch as I turn the antenna. It just takes a few seconds.

I'm not advocating Wineguard or Jack, just offerring my experiences for information on how it works.

Jim A · 05-10-2012, 10:39 AM

If you have a smartphone, I recently found a couple of free phone apps that show where the over the air TV towers are located for a specific location, and what stations are available. And what kind of strength they might have. And it will show the locations on a map or on a compass. That should help pointing the batwing antenna or whatever other OTA antenna you might be using. Or tell you that you are wasting your time even looking!

Dave Fernandez told me about a free "Satellite AR" app that shows satellites and stuff in the sky. It has an option to specifically show the Directv and Dish satellites. This might help you decide if moving a few feet one direction or the other will help your satellite dish to lock on. Or if a different campsite would be better.