What is the best RV satellite solution for me?

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Just Lou

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Dec 25, 2005
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I am seriously considering purchase of a simple (hopefully economical) satellite system for use in my motor home.

I only need TV service for a few weeks/months per year.  I don't intend to switch to satellite in the stick house because I live in a rather thick clump of trees.  I'll most likely use the Dish, pay-as-you-go plan and am considering the manual Winegard Carry Out antenna and compatible receiver.

My question is;  considering my limited use of the system, will I be satisfied can I live with the manual antenna, or should I spend the extra money for an automatic system?

 
I believe pay as you go is an SD system, so the cheapest dish you can buy will work just fine.  In fact I have a brand new carryout I cannot use if you are interested.
 
donn said:
I believe pay as you go is an SD system, so the cheapest dish you can buy will work just fine.  In fact I have a brand new carryout I cannot use if you are interested.
Click to expand...

It is/was not my understanding that the P-A-Y-G plan is SD only.

As for the Carry Out, I won't know if I'm interested or not until I get some more information or ideas.
 
Gary RV Roamer said:
Since Dish has both SD and HD on the same satellite, I don't see any reason for it to be SD only. Unless maybe the PAYG plan only provides an SD receiver.
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The receiver that they advertise with it is the same one paired with the automatic Carry Out antenna.  I just checked The Dish Network ad, and it indicates HD among the tiers of service offered with PAYG.

I'm looking for confirmation that it is NOT too much of a hassle for an old man to manually aim the dish.
 
Just Lou said:
I'm looking for confirmation that it is NOT too much of a hassle for an old man to manually aim the dish.
Click to expand...
Heck, Lou.  What else have you got to do with your time, anyway?
 
Lou,

Up until  summer of 2009, I used a manual dish but was only aiming a dual LNB to run 2 receivers.  It is not physically hard but can be frustrating once in a while.  Getting out the tripod, setting it up, attaching the dish and alignment usually took between 5 and 10 minutes.  I have a meterwith battery pack so I could set the dish up without having the wife or myself watching the TV to get the best signal.  The meter eliminated all or most of that and speeded things up from using the TV.  I'll see if I can find it and it can be had cheap, I think.

I have a portable automatic dish to replace the tripod and dish for when the dish on the MH will not work due to trees or ???
 
Molaker said:
Heck, Lou.  What else have you got to do with your time, anyway?
Click to expand...

Tom, It's not the idea of time spent, but if it takes too long, there's a good chance I'll forget what I'm trying to accomplish. ;) :D  At my age one doesn't like to have to start over on anything. ;D
 
Jim Godward said:
.......  Getting out the tripod, setting it up, attaching the dish and alignment usually took between 5 and 10 minutes.  I have a meter with battery pack so I could set the dish up without having the wife or myself watching the TV to get the best signal.  The meter eliminated all or most of that and speeded things up from using the TV.  I'll see if I can find it and it can be had cheap, I think.

I have a portable automatic dish to replace the tripod and dish for when the dish on the MH will not work due to trees or ???
Click to expand...

Thanks Jim,  It's your last sentence that indicates that you too might think the cost of the automatic dish is justified even for occasional use.  That's the question I'm trying to answer for my situation.
 
Just Lou said:
Thanks Jim,  It's your last sentence that indicates that you too might think the cost of the automatic dish is justified even for occasional use.  That's the question I'm trying to answer for my situation.
Click to expand...

Lou,

I had a special reason to get the unit as I knew I had some surgery coming up and I wanted  something I could use and I knew the tripod would be very difficult if not impossible.  Also I wanted something that Pat could and WOULD use if needed.  I have not used it as much as expected as we have not traveled east as we expected and in the west the extra dish is seldom used.  I have used it only when we stay at a campground in Olympia WA.  :-(
 
Lou, you can get HD service with pay as you go Dish service.  To really get all of the HD stuff you need a 3 LNB dish to get the 110, 119 and 129 birds.  With most of the carry outs you get only 110 and 119 which gives you some HD and mostly SD service.

I started with a King VuCube which is a manually aimed carry out.  It works via a remote control so you can aim it from inside the coach.  Worked pretty good most of the time.  Some times took a while. 

Since we are more travelers and less campers, we move a lot.  I put a Winegard Traveler dish on the roof and it has been a joy to use.  Park, hit the on switch and you are watching HD TV from all 3 birds in about 5 minutes.  We are presently in a State Park in Georgia and there are so many trees that it can't find even one satellite.  Last stop was a state park and we could get only the 119 bird from our position.  We could get the Distant Networks Network channels on this bird and it worked okay.  At our present site, we are getting about 30 stations on the over the air antenna.
 
Lou, can only feedback our experience, which is we are really happy we went with a used dome off ebay.  Did the manual tripod for years, however now just push a button in the unit, wait a couple minutes and done.  Setting up tripod in rain or dark was a pain, as long as we are not under an obstruction (trees) no more of that frustration.  As for the service, sounds like the pay as you go deal may be best for you.  I looked for about a week waiting on Ebay, found the deal and had the unit in a few days.  Paid c$245.00 for the unit, shipping was a kicker... $100.00, however all n' all was much cheaper than anything new.  Just how we did it, another option.
 
Just Lou said:
It is/was not my understanding that the P-A-Y-G plan is SD only.

As for the Carry Out, I won't know if I'm interested or not until I get some more information or ideas.
Click to expand...

Lou,
I have HD on the pay-as-you-go plan with Dish -- works well. I use the Carryout dome and the Dish VIP 211K receiver. It's only a short time to set up at your destination, and I know I'd soon get frustrated if I had to manually find each satellite. Plus, with HD there are three satellites for the programming, and I think you have to manually find each one whenever you want to switch. With my Carryout, I just change channels. I feel it was well worth it for the extra cost to get automatic.

I also added a 1TB USB hard disk to the 211K (USB plug in), so I have the better part of 200 hours of HD program storage available as a DVR, or 900+ hours of SD. After the one time $40 charge to activate DVR, and the one-time ($99, I think) for HD, I just pay them the $59.99 (for my package) for each month I want service. Happy so far.

To really get all of the HD stuff you need a 3 LNB dish to get the 110, 119 and 129 birds.
Click to expand...

Not so -- my Carryout isn't a 3 LNB unit, and I get the complete Top 200 package just by changing channels -- it DOES change to another satellite when needed, as all three (110, 119, 129) are searched out during initialization, but the auto function knows where to look, so re-aims when needed.
 
Larry N. said:
...Not so -- my Carryout isn't a 3 LNB unit, and I get the complete Top 200 package just by changing channels -- it DOES change to another satellite when needed, as all three (110, 119, 129) are searched out during initialization, but the auto function knows where to look, so re-aims when needed.
Click to expand...

Okay, thats like my VuCube, it moves between the different birds as requested by the receiver.  It would look like you could tune in all three satellites, but I never could get the 129 bird at all.  That may be just a limitation on the King Dome VuCube.  My present Traveler is nice in that I can use my 722 dual tuner box on different birds at the same time either recording or watching of the different TVs.
 
I'd say it boild down to your frustration tolerance level. Myself when I get another system once we go fulltime IT WILL BE AUTOMATIC dish. I've tried the manuel aim system and just don't have the frustation level to set one up. That being said I will carry a manuel dish also knowing that there will be times that the auto roof antenna will be unuseable do to trees, and I'll HAVE TO RESORT to the manuel dish offset from the camper.
 
Does anyone know if the Tailgater and the Vip211k receiver combination can be made into a DVR by adding an external hard drive?  I undertand there is an activation fee, but I've been finding varied results when I inquire about it's possibilities.

Yes or No?
 
Just Lou said:
Does anyone know if the Tailgater and the Vip211k receiver combination can be made into a DVR by adding an external hard drive?  I undertand there is an activation fee, but I've been finding varied results when I inquire about it's possibilities.

Yes or No?
Click to expand...
Yes the Vip211k can be used as a DVR.  You hook up a USB hard disk drive up to 1 TB and pay Dish $39.95 one time set-up fee.  I did that about 2 years ago and used a $79 500 GB drive and it works well.  Dish also charges about $100 for lifetime HD service for the VIP211K.
 
Lou,
Hope to be able to answer your question soon, I ordered a manual dish and replaced the tube TV with a flatscreen. Am in the process of installing the DVR, HD receiver we have in the stick house. When we travel this summer Di will be able to record her shows and watch at her leasure. The manual dish was cheep and we will be stationary for 8 weeks and traveling every few days on each end. If its a hassle I will go for the money and the auto dish.
I did rent a RV with the auto dish and everywhere we stayed was too tree lined for connection. But we shall see.
Jim
 
Bago said:
Yes the Vip211k can be used as a DVR.  You hook up a USB hard disk drive up to 1 TB and pay Dish $39.95 one time set-up fee.  I did that about 2 years ago and used a $79 500 GB drive and it works well.  Dish also charges about $100 for lifetime HD service for the VIP211K.
Click to expand...

Thanks Bill, that's good news.
 
jim and di said:
Lou, Hope to be able to answer your question soon, I ordered a manual dish and replaced the tube TV with a flatscreen. Am in the process of installing the DVR, HD receiver we have in the stick house. When we travel this summer Di will be able to record her shows and watch at her leasure. The manual dish was cheep and we will be stationary for 8 weeks and traveling every few days on each end. If its a hassle I will go for the money and the auto dish.
I did rent a RV with the auto dish and everywhere we stayed was too tree lined for connection. But we shall see.
Jim
Click to expand...

Jim, the tree thing is why I'm going to use one of the portable "Carry out" type antenna.  I just wish I had started my quest sooner so I could have it for the up-coming gig at the coast.

BTW - I'll be going down to Hatteras on Tuesday. Hope to see you there later this month.
 
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