Setting up Satellite TV - Newbie Questions

[SpikesDad11]

Hey all, just joined the forum. I have a question about setting up DISH Network satellite TV in my rig. Here’s my situation:

We’ve been rv’ing for years but usually short trips. We are now on the road full time more or less and I want to set up satellite tv. I have an 2004 Itasca Class A coach that came with a Winegard satellite dish mounted on the roof that you raise & lower by hand. When we left home, I brought along my DISH satellite receiver box (model ViP722DVR) that I was suing for my home TV’s thinking I could make this work in the RV. Today, I connected the receiver to the sat dish and tv in my coach, set my TV input selector to SAT and set my tv to channel 3. Nothing but static. I was expecting to at least get a picture from the receiver box telling me that it was searching for a signal or something like that. So my questions are:

Am I doing something wrong?
Is it foolish to try to make this work with my home receiver box. Should I get a receiver and/or service specific to RV’s? If so, how much does this cost and can you recommend a setup that is relatively inexpensive?


Thanks in advance.

[RickO]

Welcome to the forum!

Yes you can use your home receiver in your coach. Many people do and it makes a lot of sense until you get tired of having to lug the receiver in and out.

Does your coach tv have an "input select" ? If you can get to the back of the set you can try connecting your receiver directly to your set to help narrow the problem. You should be able to see a signal from the receiver even if it can't see the sats.

Good Luck...

Rick

[Tha_Rooster]

I have direct tv which has to be programed for the different shape and size dish no be deal just a few buttons in set up menu.

[SpikesDad11]

OK. Figured out the problem. the receiver is "broadcasting" on channel 60, not channel 3. So now I have a picture that says "Acquiring Signal". Any tips on how to point my dish? I'm sure there must be a post or a web page that gives step by step instructions, right?

[srydve]

There are a number of sites that will help you with dish pointing, google should find them for you. They never seem to be exactly right but usually close enough you can find the one you want. Here is one site to get you started Satellite Look-Angle Calculator

[RickO]

And I found this doing a search here on the forum.

Manually Aiming Winegard Satellite Dish

Rick