Satellite, dish, tv in general

[Urban Hermit]

I am a complete ignoramus about television on RVS. Assuming I know how to turn on the set in the 2006 Monaco Cayman we just bought is questionable.

I deeply resent paying Cox Cable $182/month for their slower internet and a gazillion TV channels when we only watch about six. They have evilly packaged channel selections so that to get a compliment of the basics one has to subscribe to all the other stuff.

We received come-on junk mail from DISH yesterday offering 190 channels for $60/mo or 290 for $95/mo. If I remember correctly I read that a subscriber can contact DISH and have them switch reception from home to RV for a week or two and back again. Interesting.

Questions for those who are technically literate:

Is it true that DISH will switch reception from house to RV and back again, and if so, is there a charge for that?

I've heard satellite reception degrades in bad weather. True? Much of a problem? We're in the Florida panhandle, in hurricane country and most years are rainy.

Once DISH is provided to an RV, is there a learning curve for tech ignoramus to climb to use it?

General comments about experience with RV TV?

[Lt Dan]

If you set up your home with Dish there is no reason to call them or turn off service there and transfer it to the RV. All you have to do is take the home receiver with you. However, if your home service is a Hopper then you have to have a Trav'ler or other triple LNB antenna on the RV. A dome antenna will not support a Hopper. Our solution is to have the Hopper system in the home and pay $7 a month each for two extra Wally receivers we take in the motor home. You can turn those off and on to save money but we travel enough to just keep them active.

Yes, you do rarely lose reception in heavy weather so we just switch to local OTA reception when that happens.

There isn't any more learning curve than using cable TV. Just let the antenna lock in the satellites and turn on the receiver.

[astrocamper]

Another option with Dish is to just pay for the RV Wally service as an additional TV at $7/month. We do this because we have a son at home using the service there when we are taking trips with the trailer.

You will have to buy the Wally receiver, Pathway X2 and USB drive if you want the DVR function on the Wally.