Anyone KNow if Winegard is Plannng an "HD Carryout" antenna for DirectV?

[Troglegs]

I was wondering if anyone "in the know" with Winegard knows when they will have an HD version of the Winegard Carryout automatic satelite dish? It seems that with everything going HDTV and flat panel technology these days, an HD Carryout antenna won't be that far away... I was just concerned as I want to spend some money on this thing but don't want to upset DW if I buy it then a new one comes out two months later ;-)

Actually - I promised my DW that if I sold one or both of my project jukeboxes I'd only use the $$$ from the proceeds of the sale to buy my Winegard Dish toy...

Oh well, if anyone has the skinny on Winegard's product roadmap, I'd love to know.

Regards,

Tom

[offthewall]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Troglegs I was wondering if anyone "in the know" with Winegard knows when they will have an HD version of the Winegard Carryout automatic satelite dish? It seems that with everything going HDTV and flat panel technology these days, an HD Carryout antenna won't be that far away... I was just concerned as I want to spend some money on this thing but don't want to upset DW if I buy it then a new one comes out two months later ;-) Actually - I promised my DW that if I sold one or both of my project jukeboxes I'd only use the $$$ from the proceeds of the sale to buy my Winegard Dish toy... Oh well, if anyone has the skinny on Winegard's product roadmap, I'd love to know. Regards, Tom

I assume you have directv not dish. With dish network, the carry out picks up hd just fine. I think the issue is that directtv needs a dual lnb to get hd.

[Clay L]

They can make a Carryout for Dish because although Dish SD and HD signals are broadcast on at least two satellites they are all broadcast on the Ku band. The Carryout can lock on each satellite as needed.

Direct on the other hand uses three satellites (99, 101, 103) for SD and HD with the HD signals broadcast by 99 and 103 on the much higher frequency Ka band. That means the Carryout would have to have another LNB for the Ka signals and some means to switch between them.

In addition I understand the attenuation for the higher frequency Ka signal is worse than for the Ku band . That may be why Winegard went to a considerably larger dish for the HD signals. If so the smaller Carryout might not have enough gain to do a good job of picking up the HD signals.

[winegard]

In general let me first state that Winegard engineers are constantly trying to improve our products, make them smaller, of higher quality and with more features.

DIRECTV HD offers several challenges when trying to design a portable solution. To achieve the high signal quality Winegard products are known for the antenna would have to be fairly large in size. This of course, makes the antenna less portable, harder to stowe, etc. The larger antenna, casing and such also make the total product a much higher price point.

A portable solution is obviously a step we would like to take, but to my personal knowledge is not on our current roadmap for release.

[kjburns]

I wonder how hard it would be to ground mount a Trav'ler.

[ernieh]

Quote:

Originally Posted by kjburns I wonder how hard it would be to ground mount a Trav'ler.

The mounting would be very simple. I'm not sure that keeping it from "walking away" would be as easy.

How would you secure a box containing $1500 cash outside your MH?

[Clay L]

Quote:

Originally Posted by kjburns I wonder how hard it would be to ground mount a Trav'ler.

I am sure it could be done but some of the possible issues are:

It's quite a bit larger and heavier than the 18 inch portable dishes.
It would require a pretty large base
It would require a lot of storage space.
It needs to be pretty level.
It needs to be aligned with the center line of the RV - at least it does when mounted on the RV.
The control cable would have to be run from the coach to it.

Plus what ernieh said.

[CWSpiess]

I think we are on to something here. I currently have a Dish Network single LNB mounted on a plywood base, set to the correct elevation for Southern Cal, with a compass mounted on the "centerline" of the satellite dish. Very easy to set up and find the satellite. I could do the same for the DirecTV Traveler, and run the RG-6 cable into the motor home through the outside "cable tv" hookup in the basement. Should work.