Dish Satellite

[Hocky]

Just bought a Class C & it has a Dish RV Digital Satellite System but no receiver. also equipped with a Video Control Center that controls front & rear TV's. I have (2) questions.
(1) Do I just need a receiver to complete the system with a agreement from Dish Network, I have Dish Network at home.
(2) Instead of buying another receiver, can I use a home receiver, I have (4) TV's set up at home with (2) receivers serving (2) TV's each?
Thanks, Hocky
(Sunny Florida)

[HMXDave]

Yes. we do the same thing....take a home receiver in the motorhouse when we're out and about. Test 'er out in the driveway before you leave, but should work just fine.

[PNWGirl]

As Dave said, you can use your home receiver. The only thing you might lose is local channels (if you have the local package). It all depends on how far away from home you will be traveling.

Sheila

[TXiceman]

As noted, after you get some distance away from your home area, you will not be able to get your local channels.

Ken

[AFChap]

You normally can use a receiver out of your house. It sure doesn't hurt to try! But you also need to know all you can about the "satellite system" in your RV. It has to be setup for the provider you want to use. Depending on your level of service, that make mean just flipping a switch ...or it might mean some more complicated. For instance, I have a nice automatic "satellite system" on my motorhome but it is not HD, and it has LNBs for Dish 500 service. To use it on any other Dish service or other provider, you have have to change the LNBs and perhaps the controller. And even if your service matched up to the system, when the provider makes changes to their satellites your controller software may require a software update in order to work properly. For instance, our motorhome came with a satellite dish, etc on the roof. But it would not work with Dish 500 service. We replaced it. We have had our Motosat MD500 system for around 4 years, and have had to have software updates twice due to changes Dish Network made with their satellites.

Hooking up a sat dish is not the same as hooking up an old fashioned antenna and turning the channel selector. Find out all you can about the system in your rig, how it works etc, and then determine if it will work with your particular sat provider and service level. If you post the specifics about exactly what you have, and exactly what you need to do with it, perhaps someone will be able to tell you what you need to do to make it work. Good luck!!

[Bill Adams]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Hocky Just bought a Class C & it has a Dish RV Digital Satellite System but no receiver. also equipped with a Video Control Center that controls front & rear TV's. I have (2) questions. (1) Do I just need a receiver to complete the system with a agreement from Dish Network, I have Dish Network at home. (2) Instead of buying another receiver, can I use a home receiver, I have (4) TV's set up at home with (2) receivers serving (2) TV's each? Thanks, Hocky (Sunny Florida)

How do you know that this is a Dish Network system? Do you mean that it is a system for satellite TV in general or an antenna specifically only usable with Dish Network?

[Wayne M]

Hocky,
I have the same set up here at the stick house as you may have. I have the VIP 722 and the 322 receivers (1 each) with 4 televisions all capable of receiving independent channels when in the "dual" mode.

As Bill stated, you need to make sure your antenna will work on the Dish network. Most King Dome antennae will, I believe. I just disconnect the antenna feed to the DPP44 and Sw21 (only one wire to disconnect). Depending on your antenna, you will have to feed satellite 1 AND satellite 2 inputs if you want independent channeling on each tv and if your antenna id a dual LNB. If you only feed satellite 1 input you will only be able to watch in "single" mode and both tv's will watch the same program. You will have to use the "distribution out" or a long HDMI cable to service the bedroom tv. You may also have to go into the back of the video control center and do some re-arranging. The "distribution out" is regular RF and can be set up to transmit on a cable channel. Look at your setup before you leave the house and see what channel it is broadcasting on. Here, at my place, it is Channel 73, so I have to have my br tv set to cable to receive channel 73. It can be changed at the satellite receiver, but if you don't set it back, or forget (Don't ask me how I know) when you get back home you will be calling for support.

Do find out the manufacturer of your satellite antenna. Call the manufacturer and ask them specific questions as to what system it can service. Do you have two satellite leads coming from it? If so, it may just be a dual LNB. But I do understand that some singl line systems can be a dual LNB run off of a Satellite Splitter. You cannot use a regular tv splitter. If your video control center has any splitter in it a satellite signal will not go through unless it is designed to split the satellite frequencies.

Provide us with the make and model of the antenna and receivers that you have, and I'll bet Bill can provide you with a ton of good information.

Good luck.

[Hocky]

Hi all, perhaps you can shed some light on my situation.
Just purchased an RV Class C . It has a satellite dish already installed & a Video Control Center. Dish is a Winegard RV Digital Satellite System Model RM-4600. But no receiver. Front TV is original from 2004. Couple of questions. Do I just need a satellite receiver to complete this to receive Dish Network, I have Dish at home with 4 TV's set up on (2) receivers with slave units. Could I use a home receiver & just call Dish or can/should I just use it? Any suggestions will be appreciated.
Thanks, Ron (Florida)

[Jimmyzw22]

I'm sort of in the same boat as you are. M home system is the same and I have a sel seeking sat dom LM on my rig. Looking forward to hearing what I need to do to take a receiver from my house and plug it in.

[mtmy2k]

You can put a receiver from your house in the RV, no issues doing that. Plug it in and see if it works. If it does not you need wring out the wiring to make sure everything is still connected.

As I understand it, if you have a single horn dish it does not matter which network you are using though I could be wrong. May get someone else weighing in on that one.

The original TV will work with the satelite without the digital TV box as the satelite signal is converted at the receiver. You should not have any issues running your TV's on any satelite system.

Good luck to the both of you.

Steve

[wa8yxm]

The first thing you need.. The very first thing you need. is the owner's manual for your Winegard Satellite Antenna. Dowload it from the manufacturer

Now. once you have read the manual you may be able to decide if you can use DISHnetwork (Some dome type antennas can operate with a DISH-311 or other SINGLE receiver) (All can but its' a real pain with some of them) or if you should stick with DirecTV Standard (not HD) (All domes work with DirecTV standard, but not HD)

If it's a dish type antenna then you need to know if it's a DirecTV dish or a DishNetwork Dish, and if it's HD or SD (This you can eyeball if you know the differences but the manual should tell you)

Finally. you need to know if it's a "Single" (Refers to the outputs) or not.. For DISH this applies only to the dish type antennas

For DirecTV it also applies to domes

A single can run ONE receiver

A dual can run 2 or more (Or a DVR or two, DVR's have two inputs so count as two receivers far as the antenna is concerend)

NOTE: A "Dual output" dome can run two Dishnetwork receivers too, but they both have to watch the same satellite.

[FLYING BUTCH]

Well it is a mixed bag to say the least (been there done that) yes you can just use a house reciever. Problem is that only ONCE in all the times I have tried to use the dish could I EVER get both satalites to work. Dish says they only have two-110 for local channels and 119 for the others. I have got satalite 72 which has just music (only a couple chanels) and another one with just a couple channels also. By far the most frustrating thing about the RV!!! It may take up to a couple hours for the thing to "lock" on to the satalite and as I said only once was I able to get all the channels I have at home. If I spent more time in the RV and didn't use the campground cables I would switch to Direct in a heartbeat! Maybe someone has had better "luck" or a different proceedure that I have. Oh yea I have reset the reciever almost everytime we relocate or call dish only to be told I need to have a "local" service person come out??? good luck

[Bill Adams]

The Winegard RM-4600 is their manual crank up antenna. It will work with every receiver on the market, both Dish and DirecTV (Bell Express Vu as well).
You will only be able to point to one satellite at a time and trying to move between the 2 will likely not be worth the effort.
Use your home receiver (no need to call Dish) in the RV and in the setup screens you should be able to find somewhere to enter your current zip code. This will return the proper azimuth and elevation so you can manually move the dish around until you find the satellite. This is not very easy without so help from someone familiar, but you should also have a digital elevation indicator which will help "IF" it is calibrated properly.

[Pete & Linda]

Flying Butch you are correct about the most frustrating thing about the RV being the sat. Although the computer and cell phone are a close second. We have Verizon phones and broadband and have never not had service until this trip. Luckily the campground we are currently in has WIFI. Back to the satellite mess. My problem is finding the sat with the dish. It just seams I can not accomplish this. I see other people that come in and in five minutes they are done, I screw with it for days. I work with it until I feel like killing somebody and quit just to get back to it the next day. This goes on until we leave and starts over at the next camp ground. I have an older King Dome (2004 MH) on the MH and have never got it to work (bought MH used), the home type on the tripod is what I can get at times. When I call King Dome all they tell me that my system is antiquated and that I can't get any support and all they want to do is get off the phone. They do tell me I can update and get a discount. With their attitude and non help do they think I will buy another King Dome, I think not! Six years old should not be a throw away. I am using Directv and am OK with not getting HD. A few questions, I think I have to be on sat 101 but on the screen has 101 degrees is this sat 101? What signal strength do I need, yesterday it was working at about 65%, later that night I had 84% and lost it. I went out to "tweak" it and I could move it side to side a lot and still had 84% then it went away to never return. Can anyone help me or am I beyond help?