Satellite TV on the road

[AMink]

I want to use my dish while RV'ing. I have an extra dish and I can use one of my receivers. I know that there are different kinds of coaxial cable and I need the something6 kind. A satellite finder will be helpful. Is there anything else I need to have? I read somewhere that when the receiver is out of contact for too long, it can quit receiving signals. At home that box isn't hooked to the telephone line, so I'm not sure what the issue would be. I plan on using a tripod for setup so it's flexible in the trees. Any suggestions would be appreciated.

 

[Hoefler]

You would need a compass, level, and some kind of weight. A signal meter will help considerably, you can get them at Radio Shack for about $30. I have used a couple of gallon milk jugs for the weight, just tie them to the tripod and fill them with water. You will need to go through the setup process for that zip code, which you can get off the receiver after entering the zip code.

 

[Slow Six]

A view finder available from Camping World is really nice. It attaches to the dish, has a built in compass and angle measuirement as well as a sight glass that allows you to see any obstructions that could block the signal. This tool is pricey but worth every penny. Setting up your dish is one of those tasks that gets easier with practice. I know that with my receiver if it is left disconnected for more than a few days it takes a lot of time for it to reload. Sometimes I have to phone the satellite company and have them get it going again. I scrounged an extra dish and mounted it on my shop so that the receiver is connected when my fiver is in storage. I also carry about a 100 ft. of coax cable so that I can find a spot in the trees where it will work. Quite often the trees are not the only obstruction. The setting up process is a lot easier with radios so that one person can watch the set up screen for signal strength and correct satellite. The satellite finder is a great tool but it will find any satellite and the only way to know if you have the right one is to see the screen on your tv. Be patient.

 

[ScottLewis]

IMO, Slow Six gave you all the basics. I haven't splurged for the View Finder gadget yet but nearly every time I set up I consider it again. Keeping the receiver programming current requires having electricity and LNB feed connected while parked. After a while disconnected you will have to contact the company to have them send authorization to your set for the programming subscription. I can't say how long a time this is.



Local channel programming is sent on a "Spotbeam" band that only works while you are in specific geographical areas.



This information is for my Dish Network system but I believe it compares to Direct TV also.



Dan

 

[DonTX]

I have had sat TV in an RV for many years, with the manual setup on a tripod, crank up on rooftop, and the fully automatic electric finder.

All things considered, my current setup seems very easy. It is a roof mounted dish with an angle device, that sends to an LCD in the RV. Setup is really smooth, I take the zip code from the campground receipt, feed that in to get elevation, crank the dish up to the specified angle, then a quick swing until the signal starts beeping.

I grew tired of the remote dish in a hurry, last thing this old guy wanted to do at the end of a long driving day was drag out a dish and set it up. In over 10,000 miles with this current setup, never once could I not get a signal because of trees or obstructions. I think you can buy the elevation sensor thing anywhere, it is sure the easiest of all aligning I have used.

 

[Gary - K7GLD]

For live satellite TV, all the above is good info - but a good alternate for those on relatively short RV stays looking simply for TV entertainment, we have the DISH DTVR setup and recorder that holds about 60 full length movies recorded off the satellite, programs of your own choosing, to be played back as you choose - complete with all the normal functions of VCR operation - FF, Pause, etc. We love ours, and record many of the great old movies the often only air in the small hours of the morning - and when traveling or RV camping, can take just the satellite box, and watch whatever we want that is recorded earlier.

 

[DonTX]

For live satellite TV, all the above is good info - but a good alternate for those on relatively short RV stays looking simply for TV entertainment, we have the DISH DTVR setup and recorder that holds about 60 full length movies recorded off the satellite, programs of your own choosing, to be played back as you choose - complete with all the normal functions of VCR operation - FF, Pause, etc. We love ours, and record many of the great old movies the often only air in the small hours of the morning - and when traveling or RV camping, can take just the satellite box, and watch whatever we want that is recorded earlier.

Yeah, we do the same with our DirecTV DVR! Ours holds 200 hours of recordings, we never seem to watch them all on a trip,

 

[SnoKing]

I learned something this winter in Arizona. I changed my Washington billing address to the RV park and got local Phoenix stations all winter. Just changed it back to the home address, as we are heading North by West! I am going to rework my electronics area so that I can take the DVR next winter.



SNOKING

 

[RVTRKN]

I used to keep my sat box plugged in at home with the phone line connected and it would not work until I called DTV when I set it up in my 5ver. Because of the inactivity, DTV still locked it out. So now I just leave it in the 5ver and when it doesn't work I call DTV, and then every thing is OK. I like to keep my home address on record so I get the programs from home because I know when there on. Just last nite my daughter was on cable, and we were watching the sat, Survivor came on at our normal time of 8PM PST and she tried to find it on AZ cable, when we noticed Survivor came on at 7PM PST for that market.