Satellite Types

rcbufalino · 02-24-2014, 02:50 PM

I'm looking for feedback on a fixed vs. portable. It's going on a Fuzion 412 with multiple T.V.'s

therink · 02-24-2014, 04:54 PM

All I can share is what iI have and works well for me. I have Directv account at home. During camping season I put two of my home HD receivers in the rv. One in living room and one in bunk room for kids.
I have a full size slimline 3 multiswitch HD dish on a tripod (paid about $100 for both online). I run two cables from dish to the two coax inputs in my waterworks bay (100' so I can place dish where needed for reception). One cable sends signal to the living room receiver via the sat prep connection. The second one cable sends signal to the bunk room receiver via the park cable input. Fyi - I had to make mods to rv coax to make sure that the park cable input sends the signal directly to the bunk room by isolating this circuit from the rv antenna and other rv coax outlets. I have dish pointer pro app on my phone to help me place and aim the dish. It usually takes about 10 minutes to make connections, point and adjust dish to receive 90% signal.

Essness · 02-25-2014, 05:34 AM

I have a Dish tailgater set up. I switched from Directv last year because the automatic dishes required to get hd on directv were incredibly expensive.
im not a fan of the hard mount (permanent mounted) dishes because you cant move it if you have obstructions.
very happy with Dish and the tailgater package. When we're not camping I use the Dish box in my garage.

Pulln · 02-25-2014, 04:22 PM

I've been wondering the same thing. I see a ton of options out there. After going to a bunch of tree covered campsites I can see the logic behind getting the portable.

Ram189 · 02-25-2014, 04:42 PM

I was told just this week that the portable will only work on one TV/Reciever.

I am having my new Montana 338db wired as we speak for the Wingard and setup so that all 3 recievers will work independantly.

I do the same thing as someone else above. I take my DirecTV recievers from the house and use the same account.

C130 · 03-11-2014, 09:07 AM

I have the Winegard Carryout and I'm very happy with it. Using it with Direct tv, mother in law has an account and use one of their boxes. I originally wanted a permanent satellite dish mounted but they are expensive and we camp in state parks a lot and there are too many trees I think to be able to lock on to a satellite. I've had trouble a few times with the portable unit and had to move it around a lot to get a signal with a lot of trees around. I can say it's durable as I tried a bunch of different positions once trying to get a signal and the only place it worked was on top of my truck. I had just waxed it and it slid off and landed on the ground. It was brand new and I figured it was ruined but that was about a year ago and it's always worked great.

jje1960 · 03-11-2014, 01:37 PM

We have Directv, dedicated box in the SRX. While we have a tripod, we have not used it since installing a used winegard on the roof that I bought off ebay. I love just stopping and pushing the button vs fiddling with the tripod. We don't have HD at home or the 5Ver, just don't feel the need. We have 3 TV's in the unit, main cabin, bedroom and 32" in the storage bay for outside viewing. We used to just grab a box out of the house, now just bite the extra $6.00/month for box in the unit.

C130 · 03-12-2014, 06:58 AM

Do all the tv's work with the roof mounted units? That's the only thing I don't like about out portable unit, only the main tv works. I've heard some have been able to get the bedroom tv to work also but I haven't been able to in our Fuzion 322TE.

Ram189 · 03-12-2014, 07:58 AM

Yes you can get all the TVs to work independently with the roof mounted unit. There is a little work to do but it can be done.

You will need to put a switch in to make all three work. You also need separate boxes to make them all work also. DirecTV is $6.00/month for the additional boxes. Don't tell them they are for a travel trailer they want you to sign up for a whole new account and charge you like double the price since it is "mobile".

Essness · 03-12-2014, 03:46 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Ram189

Yes you can get all the TVs to work independently with the roof mounted unit. There is a little work to do but it can be done.

You will need to put a switch in to make all three work. You also need separate boxes to make them all work also. DirecTV is $6.00/month for the additional boxes. Don't tell them they are for a travel trailer they want you to sign up for a whole new account and charge you like double the price since it is "mobile".

This is what caused me to leave directv. When I called Dish, they put an entire plan together for me and told me how to use the mobile. You could never mention that you were taking a box with you to directv because they simply are not mobile friendly.
Plus, I get HD with the mobile set up for a minimal amount of money.
I was with directv for 18 years prior to switching.

PARAPTOR · 03-12-2014, 05:52 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Ram189

Yes you can get all the TVs to work independently with the roof mounted unit. There is a little work to do but it can be done.

You will need to put a switch in to make all three work. You also need separate boxes to make them all work also. DirecTV is $6.00/month for the additional boxes. Don't tell them they are for a travel trailer they want you to sign up for a whole new account and charge you like double the price since it is "mobile".

Did you install unit on the roof or was it part of your rig? What type rig do you have? I think I may know what you are referring to, single LNB Older/original unit with a multswitch to split the signal. Is that correct? I assume rig was rewired for the roof top unit? Do you still have the ability to connect to CG cable and use your antenna? I have my original single LNB Directv dish and a couple of old receivers, think they were Sony units in those days. Although have been thinking about doing something about satellite TV in the Raptor have not decided SD,HD, Portable. etc. No matter what I do with that would like to maintain the ability to connect to CG cable and use the antenna.

cgrace1998 · 03-12-2014, 05:53 PM

We have had Dish Network for 2 years. We have two receivers and the dish(3 bulbs only way to hit all satelites) on a tripod. We never use it at home, 5vr is never home. We use the home address and have been close to 1000 miles from home, we do this so we can see local channels for news, sports, etc. Then if we need to use the 5vr antenna we can for channels in the area we are in. Once we called Dish to change the address and it was no problem, watching TV again in 15 minutes. Dish advised we could change address as often as we needed. Compared to our friends who have the Tailgater I would pick the "home" type system again every time. Just as a side note we have been in some campgrounds that are very wooded never had any problems. Hope this helps.

Ram189 · 03-13-2014, 05:34 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by PARAPTOR

Did you install unit on the roof or was it part of your rig? What type rig do you have? I think I may know what you are referring to, single LNB Older/original unit with a multswitch to split the signal. Is that correct? I assume rig was rewired for the roof top unit? Do you still have the ability to connect to CG cable and use your antenna? I have my original single LNB Directv dish and a couple of old receivers, think they were Sony units in those days. Although have been thinking about doing something about satellite TV in the Raptor have not decided SD,HD, Portable. etc. No matter what I do with that would like to maintain the ability to connect to CG cable and use the antenna.

In my old setup, 2001 Citation, it was setup separate of the cable setup. My new rig is a Montana High Country 338. I bought it two weeks ago and have not gotten it yet. They are still setting up the satellite in it. I am assume I should still be able to get antenna signal. Not 100% on cable hookup but since I do 90% dry camping I am not worried about cable too much.
I did not go HD just because of the cost of the boxes from DirecTV. When I "rough it" I think I can go SD without any problems.

PARAPTOR · 03-13-2014, 06:06 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Ram189

In my old setup, 2001 Citation, it was setup separate of the cable setup. My new rig is a Montana High Country 338. I bought it two weeks ago and have not gotten it yet. They are still setting up the satellite in it. I am assume I should still be able to get antenna signal. Not 100% on cable hookup but since I do 90% dry camping I am not worried about cable too much.
I did not go HD just because of the cost of the boxes from DirecTV. When I "rough it" I think I can go SD without any problems.

Got it, Is dish getting installed on roof? My experience with some of these guys, you may want to tell them exactly what you want to have working and how. Or at least ask what they are planning to do. Oh by the way Congrats on your new unit

therink · 03-13-2014, 07:34 AM

If you have Directv, I don't know if there are any automatic rooftop dishes that will receive Directv HD signal. A buddy of mine had a self pointing dish installed on his fifth wheel ($1200) and can only get SD signal.
I use a portable slimline 3 dish on tripod for my Directv HD.

Ram189 · 03-13-2014, 08:29 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by PARAPTOR

Got it, Is dish getting installed on roof? My experience with some of these guys, you may want to tell them exactly what you want to have working and how. Or at least ask what they are planning to do. Oh by the way Congrats on your new unit

Thanks.

Yea we went over it like 3 or 4 times exactly how I wanted it to work. I am supposed to pick it up this weekend so we will see what happens.

There is a dish for the automatic antenna in HD but it is super expensive. I went with the SD since it is only the camper and we might watch an hour a day while we are at the race track. When we go to the campground it is usually more.

Chipsahoy · 03-13-2014, 03:39 PM

I have used a direct TV setup for the past 6 years or so with a dish on a tripod. At home I have a slimline dish where we have HD with the HD boxes. I then have the older style dish with dual LNB on a tripod for the fifth wheel, I paid $40.00 for the dish and the tripod together. I have two of the non HD boxes from Direct TV which hook up to the TV's in the Fifthwheel. Direct TV charges me $6.00 per box per month and I can turn them on and off as I choose by calling direct TV, which I used to do, I now leave them on and use one in the guest room and one in the garage. Direct TV sent me two filters which go on the line when used at home so the old boxes will work with the slimline dish. One dish will operate two TV's in your rig. I ran a dedicated satellite line to the bedroom so I can use satellite or RV Park cable on either TV in the rig. As far as finding the signal during set up it is fairly easy, just look at the direction everyone else is pointed and point that way. After a bit of practice it gets fairly easy.

PARAPTOR · 03-13-2014, 05:23 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Chipsahoy

I have used a direct TV setup for the past 6 years or so with a dish on a tripod. At home I have a slimline dish where we have HD with the HD boxes. I then have the older style dish with dual LNB on a tripod for the fifth wheel, I paid $40.00 for the dish and the tripod together. I have two of the non HD boxes from Direct TV which hook up to the TV's in the Fifthwheel. Direct TV charges me $6.00 per box per month and I can turn them on and off as I choose by calling direct TV, which I used to do, I now leave them on and use one in the guest room and one in the garage. Direct TV sent me two filters which go on the line when used at home so the old boxes will work with the slimline dish. One dish will operate two TV's in your rig. I ran a dedicated satellite line to the bedroom so I can use satellite or RV Park cable on either TV in the rig. As far as finding the signal during set up it is fairly easy, just look at the direction everyone else is pointed and point that way. After a bit of practice it gets fairly easy.

Sounds like same setup I have, when I switched to HD they added the new HD dish on the roof. I two have two HD receivers active. Since I had two of the old non HD boxes I had him leave the old dual LNB dish on the roof. He said new HD dish could not be connected to the old receivers?? Sounds like you are saying there is a filter when used withy old non HD boxes can be attached to the HD dish.

If this is the case I will take the dual LNB dish down and put it on a tripod to be used with the old non HD boxes I have in the RAPTOR You had not mentioned anything about a multiswitch. If I recall the line (Dual) connected to the single LNB dish was connected to a multiswitch (think 6 port) from which the other TV's where feed from. Also to power the Dual LNB dish there was a coaxial adapter/transformer that connected to the multiswitch. Is your dish on the tripod powered the same way? If I recall these old dual LONB dishes had that light on it as you pointed the dish correctly the light flashed rapidly. Keep in mind I also at times do not remember where I put the keys

Will need to do some coaxial wiring in the Raptor. Really want to take down the small divider wall in the storage area to see how much room I have to crawl around in there and what I have access to. Want to install a EMS with a monitor and before I buy anything need to know what I can access.

Thanks for the info. Still in the single digit and teens around here, as soon as it warms up going to have to go out there and see how easy it is going to be to access stuff.

Chipsahoy · 03-13-2014, 07:08 PM

Yes, there is an adaptor which can be added to the input cable between the box and the wall out let so you can use the old style boxes with the HD slimline dish when at home. Direct tv sent them to me free. You just have to make sure you go through the setup and change the dish type the first time you switch over from one dish to the other. The dish I have does not have a light but it is very easy to find the signal. The little time it takes to find the signal is worth the added option of watching what I want. Using the tripod allows me to set up the RV under trees but move the dish out in the clear. Total set up usually less than 15 minutes.

The old style LNB actually has two outputs, if you take the reciever from the dish you can add the second line and then put it back together. I have one line that goes to the "sat in" on the side of the RV and the other goes to the new "sat in" line I put in that goes to the bedroom. Doing it that way I did not have to mess with the cable lines in the rig so they work as normal cable input if I want to get local channels from the RV Park cable.

It gives me lots of options that way, I can watch Direct TV on different channels on either set or I can hook one up to the RV park cable and one up to Direct TV or both up to cable TV.

PARAPTOR · 03-13-2014, 07:53 PM

Thanks, Sounds like in simple terms you are taking two cables from the Dual LNB Dish. One connected to the current satellite in connector and to one receiver. Second line to new line you ran to Bedroom then connected to that receiver. Maybe I have an older receivers than you if I recall they were made by SONY and I thought they were not capable of powering the LNB therefore the power supply/coaxial adapter and the multiswitch was how you had to power the LNB??. I will need to get this stuff out and hook it up and try it. I to will add some more wiring, like I said I have to crawl around in there and see what I can get to. Top priority is getting the power protection system (EMS) installed first. Really do not feel comfortable just plugging into these camp site power posts. If I am going to take the time putting one in might as well add a monitoring system so I can see the voltages and current draws under different loading

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