Dish Network in My Motorhome

[JDT]

I know this info has to be on this forum somewhere but I'll be darned if I can find it. So, I humbly apologize for asking the same thing all over again.

We just changed to DISH from Directv at home. We changed because we can get the HD programming in the motorhome with a cheaper antenna, which I have not bought yet. Considering the Winegard Carryout portable dome because of its flexibility when trees are in the way, which they usually are where we go.

My question is about the procedure to do the hook up in the coach. We used to take a receiver from home. Can you still do that with DISH even if a long way from home? Do they have a way of knowing if you travel with a receiver from home or do they care? Or, should I get another receiver to keep in the coach and just call and activate it when we travel? Also, I think I read before that if you use a second hookup for the rear tv from the dish you can only watch separate programs if they are on the same satellite. Is that true with DISH or does that depend on what type of satellite dish you use?

Don't want to do anything illegal that might put me on the nation's 10 most wanted list but I hesitate to call Dish until I know enough to ask the right questions.

Another question: Has anyone sucessfully gotten rid of the switch box Monaco uses to feed everything? I now have separate DVD players for both the front and rear tv's so that can go. I do use park cable on ocassion and not sure how I could feed both tv's.

Last question, promise. Our son and his wife are buying a home that has one of the new DISH HD satellite dishes that will be left. He does not want it and said I could have it. How easy is it to find the satellites with a portable dish? I have a good tripod that I used to use with Directv but gave up using because trying to find the satellites tested my moral convictions way too much.

Sorry about being so wordy.

[buck62]

Jim,
You can take a home receiver with you and it will work fine except you will lose your local channels around 200 miles from home. I have a Dish Network HD DVR that I got just for the motorhome and it stays inside. My bedroom TV has factory wiring from my Dish to the rear TV so I can use a separate receiver or I can use the Coax cable that is not dedicated to Sat. I have two coax cables in the back of my rear TV. To use a second hook up in the bedroom you need to have a separate coax cable running from the Dish to the rear TV and yes you will only receive the programing on the sat. you are tuned into too unless you use a Sat dish like at home where all three Dish Sat's are picked up the same time. If you do not use your receviers for a few weeks they become deactivated so sort of security feature I was told but I have called Dish many times to send a reactivation signal and I explained that the receivers are located in my motorhome and have not been in use for several weeks and there has never been any questions. If you use your son's HD dish on a Tripod setup you will get all three Dish Sat's including 129 which is the HD sat. I have seen people using the larger dish on a tripod and I think it is just a little harder to set up. I have the Weingard travell'er so for me it is just a push of a button and HD TV is on. Good luck

[RickT]

JDT,
I also use a Traveler Dish (The Best). I purchased a VIP 211 receiver ($109.) for the motorhome. I added a hard drive so we can record and pause programs. If you own the receiver Dish only charges $7.00 a month which you can have turned on and off. You can take your home receiver with you many people do and you'll still have your programing . You will loose local channels when you get 200 miles or so from home or your last location, just call, easy to change. We have moved 250 miles and still had them. It will cut locals off at your home while on in your motorhome.

I use the HDMI output from the receiver for the front TV and the coax output for the rear TV, so we can only watch 1 program. The dish you use will determine how many channels you can use at 1 time with 2 receivers.

I have a friend that uses a home type dish on a tripod. He has a meter that finds the satellite signal and helps get it fine tuned.


Rick

[wa8yxm]

The issues with being far from home and the hook up procedures are near identical between the two services.. However there is a big difference which I'll cover in a bit.

Now the differences: Both Dish and DirecTV at one time were a bit free with the Distant Network Service waivers. DISH got sued and reached an agreement with all but FOX TV, Fox TV and DirecTV have a major stockholder in common,

The law says they can not sell Distant Network service to a house account (unless it is one of the few that qualifies) but RV's qualify, so make sure you do not get Dish for you home and use the spare receiver in the RV.. Get Dish for the RV and use the spare receiver(s) in the home instead, that way you qualify.

Since Dish was sued they can not offer Distant network service.. But they will give you the contact information for a 3rd party supplier that does so basically the only difference is you make an extra payment every few months. No big deal at all.

There is one difference in set up.. DirecTV you should hook up the antenna, then RESET the receiver, then aim the dish

Dish you hook up, MENU 6-1-1 Aim, and then CHECK SWITCH.

(Same amount of work exactly)

Now the big difference:
DirecTV (not HD) is all on one bird for the most part (Some local and alternative language programming is scattered but most everything is on 101W)

DirecHDTV is on 3 birds, 101W for the non-HD and two other birds, one either side, for HD, the HD birds are in a different frequency band and thus take a different antenna.

DISH uses 2 birds for NON-HD and a 3rd for HD, all on the same band so a dome or other dome-like dish can work (The carryout) but... Domes only see one bird at a time.. SOME domes can quickly switch between the two NON-HD or the 3 HD birds when used with a SINGLE receiver.. but if you like to watch one show while partner watches another.. No joy less they are on the same bird.

Also if you visit say Cape Cod... they use 3 DIFFERENT birds on the east coast.

This may take some getting used to.. But it should not be a problem.

Now... using a ground mount dish instead of a dome or "Dome like" (The Vu-Cube and I think the carryout are "Dome-Like")

You get the dish that matches your service and the "Big differences" above... Simply do not apply, at all. (The minor stuff does)

[JDT]

Thanks so much for the replies. I really appreciate this forum compared to "others" as you folks are willing to take the time to give a good answer, even if it might be repetitive.

Now I need to decide what I want to do dish wise. If I understand the responses correctly we could watch separate programming no matter what satellite it is on with a dish like the Trav'ler but not with the Carryout.

[ShapeShifter]

Quote:

Originally Posted by JDT Also, I think I read before that if you use a second hookup for the rear tv from the dish you can only watch separate programs if they are on the same satellite. Is that true with DISH or does that depend on what type of satellite dish you use?

It depends very much on the dish (and to a lesser extent the receiver.)

If you use any kind of dome (roof mount or portable like the Carryout you mention) you will have some limitations. While many of them can drive two receivers, all of them have only a single LNB and can only "see" one satellite at a time. If you change channels to a channel that is on a different satellite, then the dome must physically re-aim the internal dish to the new satellite in response to a command sent from the receiver to the dome. That generally works OK for a single receiver, but as soon as you add a second receiver for the rear TV (or use a dual tuner receiver like the ViP Duo DVRs) then it can become a problem. If one receiver wants to see one satellite, and the other receiver wants to see a different satellite, then one of them will lose since the dome can only "see" one satellite at a time.

On the other hand, a regular dish has several LNBs on it, and can "see" all of the required satellites at one time. As the receiver changes channels, it sends the same kind of command to the dish, and the dish instantly and electronically changes to the newly requested satellite, with no physical re-aiming required. Such a dish can support multiple receivers, and each receiver can be "tuned in" to a different satellite, all at the same time.

I have a ViP 722 Duo DVR in my MH. It has HD outputs to drive the front TV, and then I connected the SD coax output for the second TV to the switchbox in the audio compartment. That lets me send that second TV signal through the factory wires to the bedroom or outside TVs. I originally had a fully automatic rooftop dome, but I could never get it to work reliably with the dual tuner DVR. Finally, I gave up after a year, and always used my portable dish. That worked well, and wasn't difficult to aim, but I got tired of dragging it out on every stop, or setting it up in the rain. So I finally got a Winegard Trav'ler fully automatic rooftop dish, and it's been absolutely wonderful. (But I still carry the portable dish for those times that I'm under heavy tree cover.)