sat dish feedhorn - any fold for storage?

[gbraden]

I have a 20 ft (which means small) travel trailer, which also means I don't have much storage space. I purchased a Dish Network 500 system at Radio Shack. It works fine, except that my trailer doesn't have a storage compartment large enough to hold the antenna when we are traveling. Does anyone market an antenna/feedhorn assy that is made to fold-up when not in use? Looks to me like the feedhorn bracket could be made to bend such that the feedhorn would sort of nest in the dish part. That way it would not take up so much room.

Also, do you know if the feedhorn is "delicate" and needs to have a soft ride or could I carry it in the bed of the pickup along with firewood and such?

For use in RV's, which means we travel around a lot, does anyone have a preference between Dish Network and Direct TV (I think those are the only ones to choose from)?

Glenn

 

[SEmerson]

There is no dish 500 foldup that I know of. But the good news is thay are tough. I own a sat company and he have very few ever go bad. Even after the installers drop them off roofs.

 

[klenger]

http://www.campingworld.com/browse/skus/index.cfm?deptID=4&subOf=173,26&skunum=18416

 

[Bill Stockard]

I don't know about your Dish Network dish/antenna, but I've seen a couple of DirecTV dishes where the spot welds on the arm were drilled out and stove bolts were installed to make it easy to "dismantle" the unit for more compact storage in an RV.



Bill

 

[Mac]

Glenn

Drill out the spot welds that hold the horn on and replace with bolts. I have Dish 500 and my camping friend has Direct and in general Direct is much easier to set up.

 

[J D Moore]

I have Direct TV, not the Dish 500 system. (Switched because the smaller, rounder dish was easier to transport). I drilled out the holes and installed two bolts with nuts. One bolt serves as the pivot. The second one has has bolt with a "coupler" nut (for ease of use). Remove the bolt, fold, replace nut & bolt for safekeeping and throw into truck box. No special handling. I have used this system for 5+ years on lengthy extended journeys without problem.

 

[TowPro]

the problem with the one on the camping world link is its only a single sat dish. the dish 500 looks at 2 different sattlites (110 and 119 deg positions).



I have a winegard crankup on the roof of mine. I loose some channles (and my locals) when I put the receiver in the RV because I can only aim at one sat.



Another problem with the crank up one I have is I can only park in the middle of fields if I want to watch TV.