Dish Tailgator issues

Also the chat is great for updating your locals but they will not support RV tech problems over chat. You have to call. 

nikasdads said:

Also the chat is great for updating your locals but they will not support RV tech problems over chat. You have to call.

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Good to know! Thanks.

nikasdads said:

I confirmed with WB that my jack in the basement is for cable TV and doesn't run through the booster before I used it. It's basically the same installation that Dish used in my house. Dish to a wall jack, wall jack to Reciever. Since I can't upgrade all my wiring inside, and the Tailgator came with the coax cable I'm using I have to eliminate wiring as the problem.  Dish now thinks my Reciever is bad. Hopefully the new one gets here before we move on down the road.

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That happens. We had a home receiver go bad last year. Dish got us a replacement very quickly. Good luck to you!!!

Lots of info here and a lot of it is confusing (at least to me it is).  I have a Tailgater and use a VIP211K receiver.  I am not sure a Winegard receiver will work with the Tailgater.  My Winnebago has a TV/VCR selector box into which all of the cables come in and out - either to the TV, Receiver or VCR.  I removed the VCR because it was bad.  My TV input is in one of the lower bays.  In order to use both Tailgater and campground cable TV, I use a special splitter on each end of the TV input and output to the receiver.  The Tailgater gets its power from the receiver so it must have a direct path via the cable.  I forget the exact title of the special splitter but it has one input for satellite and one for cable.  It has the same connections on the other end where the cable output goes either to the selector box or directly to the receiver.  So I connect the Tailgater to the Satellite side of the splitter and get a beautiful picture and HD on the main TV.  I have another TV in the bedroom on which I get a somewhat slightly fuzzy picture because the signal has to go through the selector box for that TV.  My coach is a 2002 so I have no idea if the cable is RG59 or RG6 but it works well and the TV is an old analog model that still puts out a nice picture.

You will do much better with the Tailgater as opposed to a roof mount model.  I have two of those on the motorhome.  One is just too old to use and the other is a dome that is about 8 years old but I elected not to use it because it is subject to a lot of tree blockage of signal and it does not have all the modern abilities of the Tailgater.  Hope I haven't confused you even more but I do hope you get it all working.

the Winegard we have on the roof is supposed to work with the Hopper and the Joey. It just needs cabling (and splitter) put in. I can do all that on the roof and run one cable to the rear for the bedroom and one to the front for that TV. And bypass the Video selector of course. Also I was planning on using a portable dish in addition to the roof mount just in case of trees. and if all that doesn't for TV watching..Roof high def antenna.

amyken said:

the Winegard we have on the roof is supposed to work with the Hopper and the Joey. It just needs cabling (and splitter) put in. I can do all that on the roof and run one cable to the rear for the bedroom and one to the front for that TV. And bypass the Video selector of course. Also I was planning on using a portable dish in addition to the roof mount just in case of trees. and if all that doesn't for TV watching..Roof high def antenna.

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As long as the Winegard dish on your roof is the Dish version of the Trav'er, yes, it can easily be setup to work with the original 3-tuner Hopper and Hopper 2. Using it with the new Hopper 3 takes a bit of conversion and fussing to get a signal to the 16 tuners.

NY_Dutch said:

As long as the Winegard dish on your roof is the Dish version of the Trav'er, yes, it can easily be setup to work with the original 3-tuner Hopper and Hopper 2. Using it with the new Hopper 3 takes a bit of conversion and fussing to get a signal to the 16 tuners.

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HHHHmmm...now you have me thinking...I don't know which version I have. It's only 9 mos old ( the Hopper.. new to Dish service we are) ...and I just read that the Roadtrip (which is the version of in mtion we have) will not be comparable with the Hopper and Joey. We still will be using as tripod. But nice to have roof mounted when boon docking at a truck stop or Walmart for the night.

http://www.winegard.com/dishnetwork/dish-compatible-satellite-systems

http://www.dishformyrv.com/templates/__custom/downloads/Compatible_Antennas.pdf

amyken said:

HHHHmmm...now you have me thinking...I don't know which version I have. It's only 9 mos old ( the Hopper.. new to Dish service we are) ...and I just read that the Roadtrip (which is the version of in mtion we have) will not be comparable with the Hopper and Joey. We still will be using as tripod. But nice to have roof mounted when boon docking at a truck stop or Walmart for the night.

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Most likely you have a Hopper with Sling ("Hopper 2"). The Hopper 3 was only recently released and isn't in wide spread use yet.

I got a lot more help talking to King support than I have from Dish support. King doesn't reccomend more than 50 feet of TOTAL cable between the Tailgator and the Reciever.  With the cable inside and what I was using outside I'm at more like 85 feet. Going to try a shorter length coax outside when we get home. Hooking directly to the dish with 50 feet of cable made a big improvement in my signal strength but still not great. HD seems almost impossible to pick up so their still may be another issue.

For Tailgater and all other western arc only Dish setups, as of August 1st, the following local channel markets will only be available on the eastern arc satellites:

Albany NY
Boston MA
Buffalo, NY
Burlington, VT / Plattsburgh NY
Chattanooga, TN
Evansville, IN
Jackson MS
Jacksonville FL / Brunswick GA
Lansing MI
Madison WI
Panama City FL
Portland/Auburn ME
Presque Isle, ME
Quincy IL / Hannibal MO
Rockford IL
Springfield MO
Tallahassee FL / Thomsonvile GA
Wheeling WV / Stubenville OH

I have always used a 100 ft cable on a spool that I run as much as I need and leave the rest wrapped up. Somewhere you may have a bad connection or need to redo the cable ends.