In-Motion Satellite Dish Network Compatible

We are going to take delivery of a 2005 Fleetwook Discovery 39S this week. In has factory installed in-motion satellite dish. Does anyone know what manufacturer the factory installed?  I would like to hook up with Dish Network because they have pay as you need service.

Do not know what they installed, Kingdomes seem popular but there are many models and some do Winegard (likewise)

Most modern domes are compatible with a single DISHnetwork receiver... Just one channel at a time. They will not work well with multiple receivers or multi-channel DVR's.. The reason for this is simple.

A Dome can see one and only one satallete at a time.. Dish uses 3 and 3 more on the east coast.. But the dome can only see one at a time, so if you want somentg that is on say 119, and your partner wants something on 127... There is no joy in your house.


The dome will most likely be factory programmed for DirecTV  NOTE Domes do not work with DirecHDTV at all,, only DirecTV (Standard def the old "Narrow screen" such as I am watching as I type (Vintage show)

However reprogramming for Dish is usually simple.

Hard to know what is installed, but if it is a Winegard Trav'ler it could be set up for Dish as well as Direct. Ours came setup for Direct and we were told we couldn't change it. I found a satellite company in Quartzite that swapped out the Direct arm and and reflector for the Dish arm and reflector and we were good to go. Took less than an hour.

You will know which it is setup for because it will be written on the reflector.

The RV Dealer just let me have the Owner's Briefcase with all the equipment manuals in it.  This Discovery has a KVH TracVision LS/SF dish installed.  I called Dish Network and verified that this dish will work with their receivers.  I intend to purchase their receiver and subscribe with their pay as you go month to month access.  As far as I know, Dish is the only company that provides this kind of subscription.

We are taking delivery tomorrow.  I'll report back here when I get the Dish reciever hooked up.

Just so I'm clear, my understanding of Dish pay as you go is it is for a 30 day period from when you turn it on.  If you go camping fairly often for weekends you may run into a situation where you are pretty much paying every single month.  Example: If you turn it on the 17th of June and go camping for 6 days, then go camping again the next month for 4 days on the 18th of July, you are paying for 2 FULL months even if you might not camp again for 3 months after that.  So of course for Aug 19 - Sep 19 there would be no charge in this scenario. Do I have that correct?

It would be so nice if you could turn it on for 6 days, turn it off, then turn it on for 4 days then turn it of etc. and it was all pro-rated.  But I guess they'll never have a set up that nice for the consumer.

You have that correct, Steve. It gets turned on for, and paid for, in 30 day chunks. But it still offers the ability to not have to pay for whatever months you don't use it, so perhaps you run it four months in a row during the summer, but only use it one month in winter -- you've saved.

BrentHG said:

The RV Dealer just let me have the Owner's Briefcase with all the equipment manuals in it.  This Discovery has a KVH TracVision LS/SF dish installed.  I called Dish Network and verified that this dish will work with their receivers.  I intend to purchase their receiver and subscribe with their pay as you go month to month access.  As far as I know, Dish is the only company that provides this kind of subscription.

We are taking delivery tomorrow.  I'll report back here when I get the Dish reciever hooked up.

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I spoke to a support representative at KVH yesterday and she verified that this disk is still compatible with Dish Network Receiver 211 series.  I also talked to a Dish representative and they still sell the 211's and they are only $50.  I think I'll give it a try.

Compatible with the 211 receiver, but maybe not able to find the Dish satellites reliably. I got rid of my Trakvision SF back in 2008 cause it was difficult to get locked onto the right satellite. That was Direct TV rather than Dish, but both have changed their satellite configuration multiple times since the LF/SF domes were designed.  An auto-seeking dome depends on being able to find the right satellite among several up there, and the SF isn't too clever at that. Newer models have more sophisticated capabilities that identify the right "bird" every time. With my old SF, it was hit or miss and very frustrating.

So yes, it will work, but you may not like getting it tuned in very much.

Gary RV Roamer said:

Compatible with the 211 receiver, but maybe not able to find the Dish satellites reliably. I got rid of my Trakvision SF back in 2008 cause it was difficult to get locked onto the right satellite. That was Direct TV rather than Dish, but both have changed their satellite configuration multiple times since the LF/SF domes were designed.  An auto-seeking dome depends on being able to find the right satellite among several up there, and the SF isn't too clever at that. Newer models have more sophisticated capabilities that identify the right "bird" every time. With my old SF, it was hit or miss and very frustrating.

So yes, it will work, but you may not like getting it tuned in very much.

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Thanks for the info Gary.  I've read several other people say the same thing.  What are you using now?

I swapped out my old SF for an R4SL, but I hear that is also now "obsolete" as a result of some further satellite changes. We quit our Direct TV subscription 12 months ago, so I'm not up-to-date.

When I replaced the SF back in 2008, there was an upgrade available for it to better handle satellite seeks, but the cost of the R4SL was only a little more than the upgrade kit plus labor.

Finding and correctly identifying a satellite with an automatic-seek dish or dome is a problem unique to RVs and boats and not something that either Direct or Dish is much concerned about. Apparently there simply aren't enough mobile satellite customers to be worthy of compatibility concerns when they need to make improvements.

Gary RV Roamer said:

I swapped out my old SF for an R4SL, but I hear that is also now "obsolete" as a result of some further satellite changes. We quit our Direct TV subscription 12 months ago, so I'm not up-to-date.

When I replaced the SF back in 2008, there was an upgrade available for it to better handle satellite seeks, but the cost of the R4SL was only a little more than the upgrade kit plus labor.

Finding and correctly identifying a satellite with an automatic-seek dish or dome is a problem unique to RVs and boats and not something that either Direct or Dish is much concerned about. Apparently there simply aren't enough mobile satellite customers to be worthy of compatibility concerns when they need to make improvements.

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I don't plan on upgrading until early next year, but I'm considering the Winegard Pathway X1 Automatic Portable Satellite for $399 that dishformyrv.com offers.  I have seen good reviews of this product.  I'll probably subscribe to Dish Network pay-as-you-need.

BrentHG said:

Thanks for the info Gary.  I've read several other people say the same thing.  What are you using now?

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If you search this and other RV forums I think you will quickly convince yourself that the rooftop Winegard Trav'ler is an excellent unit (both the Dish and DirecTV versions) that almost always finds the satellites (unless, of course, it is blocked by trees or other objects).  I recognize that the Trav'ler isn't cheap but it is good!  We've had ours for 5 years and are very pleased.

Like many other folks we, on a previous MH, had a KingDome unit.  Frankly, it was pathetic.  My wife used to enjoy listening to my excuses as to why it couldn't find the satellite "this time".  ;D