FCC Easing the Rules????

This may cover old ground, but maybe not.

We have DirecTv, and have a home account. We spend about 5 months in our home in Arkansas and about 5 months at our home in Wyoming. The other 2 months we are traveling in our motorhome. We have the latest SWM dishes at both homes and the same dish (Winegard Trav'ler) on the MH. We have only a single receiver on the account (Genie DVR) and move it from house to MH to house and it works perfectly in all 3 locations, except for no local networks while on the road. While in AR we get locals out of Springfield, MO and while in WY, locals out of Salt Lake City, UT.

The over-the-air antenna on the MH (JACK) works very well most of the time, but you have to be pretty much in a large metro area to get a decent signal. I contacted DirecTv  asking what I needed to do to be able to get ABC,CBS, NBC, etc. on the Genie. After being transferred 4 times, I got someone who knew enough to discuss it, and here's what he said:

He said that the FCC recently eased the rules regarding local stations and with my setup, I could simply call in while I am on the road, give them the new location, and the local networks would appear in the guide in place of what was there previously. No limit on how many times I could do this. He said this would work about 95% of the time. He said that where it did not work, I could fall back on DNS which I could apply for in advance and the west coast or east coast feed would appear up in the 300's range in the guide. He said no second account would be necessary.

So, my question is - does this make sense? Has anyone else been given the same info? Does it work as described?

Any input is appreciated.

Bill

I do know you can change your service address as often as you like.  I'm not sure I believe the part about getting DNS on a home account.  Also, DNS is an additional cost and replaces the local channels completely.

THer have been no rule changes at the FCC that I am aware of, however interpertation of the rules is a bit fluid...  The catch is if you go too far, you get burned.

DNS can be had on a home account ONLY if you are in the middle of NO-TV Land, if you are able to get over the air, then you can not get DNS.

The Jack antenna can be a problem, though if you are in, as you put it, a "Large metropolitan area" with transmitting towers somewhat scattered over a fairly large arc but not too far out, it is great

But if you are where I am with the towers so close to each other that Antenna Helper Free basically shows one blob of towers.. But they are out there 50 or more miles... Of all the RV antennas out there either a Winegard Sensar IV or a II or III with the added wingman is going to suck 'em in.. and so it does,

I use Dish Network and used to have All American Direct which was the New York and San Francisco stations.  All American Direct went out of business last March and this summer I called to change service addresses every couple of days.  Worked well except for one location in Southwestern Georgia.  The locals were on a satellite at 63 degrees and I normally receive 110, 115 and 129 birds.  When I found this out, I changed the Winegard Traveler to receive only the 63 bird and it worked well with locals in HD and most of the other stuff on SD.  An ever changing world out there.

Yolo, I am in what Georgia calles the S.E. part, 3 miles from Exit 49 off I-95  I get my Locals 2 ways.

Park cable and OTA  (Nice Batwing).

I do know you can change your service address as often as you like.  I'm not sure I believe the part about getting DNS on a home account.  Also, DNS is an additional cost and replaces the local channels completely

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Ned,

What the guy said was that I would be charged the $15 per month only in the 5% or so cases where the service address change did not do the job. I am bewildered - it seems like every time I talk to an agent I get a different story. Apparently the fact that the home account only has one receiver on it enters into the mix.

Second question - if I forget all of the above and simply get a second account (RV) with DNS, does anyone know what will be the minimum extra charge I can get away with?

Thanks,
Bill

In that case, you would be eligible for the DNS because there are no local stations available at that location.  That was the original intent of DNS, to get the networks to customers that couldn't get them over the air.

If you get a second account with DNS, you'll be paying for whatever programming package you select plus the DNS, so it will probably cost more than your home service does now.

When I first go my DirecTV plan some 15 years ago there was no local service in my area and I was given both New York and Los Angeles DNS. At that time you had to take both pickups. There are 3 TV stations at each location plus one PBS station. I am paying $2.50 for each station for a total of $17.50 per month plus the program that I chose. Most of the time when I am traveling I do not bother to get local stations. However, if I am staying a few days I will have the local channel turned on. This does not effect the DNS. Although I live in the Montgomery, AL area (Montgomery now offers local DirecTV service) I live about 10 mikes from the Birmingham service area. When I returned home I would have the Birmingham stations on my home TV. I would always call when I got home and have the Birmingham stations turned off. I did not want to do anything wrong and have my service suspended. After doing this for several years when I call to have the Birmingham stations cut off I was ask why I didn't choose to just leave the service on. The problem that I have had was the time I was working in Tuscaloosa and had the Birmingham service turned on at that location. Then while working in Oxford, AL. my receiver went out. Even though there was a DirecTV business about 1/2 mile from my location they insisted on sending their tech to my location which was listed as Tuscaloosa. Even though I explained that I was in a MH located in Oxford, they still sent the tech to Tuscaloosa.

If you need service on the road you must change your service address to where you are to get it. Found this out while traveling to NC last year...no big problem, just had it changed  back on return to Texas.

Another thing is the folks at the call center are basically clueless.. When I had Dish (originally before injunction) and Direc (later) the call centers both told me "DNS or Locals, not both"

Well, If I was in say Lost Wages, or Quartsite,, I got DNS

if I was in say Flint, or Detroit, I got both DNS and Detroit.. (both).

So, clearly the call center was confused.  I only paid for DNS (Direc charges you for loacal)

one thing I will never understand... Sat and Cable companies pay the TV stations for the privilege of delivering their signal to customers.  We the customers thus pay pay and pay again (used to be 2.5 times but I suspect that has increased) for that.

Seems to me that by delivering the signal the Sat/Cable provider is IMPROVING the customer base (expanding, increasing) and thus the TV stations should be paying them and WE THE CUSTOMER should be raking in the savings instead of paying more.

I mean if I ran a sticks and bricks... I can sell to customers walking in.. but I can also sell by Mail and have UPS deliver.. UPS does not pay me to deliver.. I pay them.  Why should sat/cable TV be paying the supplier to deliver to the customers?

Legally (FCC regulation) you can have either DNS or local service, but not both. Some people do have both, either because of a mistake at Direct or they were grandfathered in from an earlier time when mobile accounts could have both. There are also some areas where the locals are the network feeds used for DNS, so of course you get both.  NY & LA regions are obvious examples of that. But if you call and request both today, the answer will be "No".  It doesn't make sense for a Mobile account, but that's the way it is. Who says gov't has to make sense?

Be aware that you may not be able to get locals everywhere you go unless you have the most sophisticated satellite antenna. In a few regions the locals will be on satellites that cannot be received with typical single LNB kU band equipment. You might need a kA band dish, or may require a 3 or 5 LNB dish to get what you want. There aren't many like that, but they do exist.

Be aware that you may not be able to get locals everywhere you go unless you have the most sophisticated satellite antenna. In a few regions the locals will be on satellites that cannot be received with typical single LNB kU band equipment. You might need a kA band dish, or may require a 3 or 5 LNB dish to get what you want. There aren't many like that, but they do exist.

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As per the OP, I have a Winegard Trav'ler - I think that's sufficient.

Bill