We Need A Better Way!!

[Jackliz]

Howdy, Framily.
We are at the Escapees' Sumter Oaks RV park in Bushnell, FL. Nice park and very friendly people.
Yesterday after spending 2 plus hours with Jack trying to align the DISH satellite antenna and winding up with only one satellite connected and a red-in-the-face husband, we are looking for a better way to get connected so that can Jack assuage his TV addiction. Jack despises the dual LNB design that DISH uses. But when we had DIRECT TV, they were not very RV friendly.

Please suggest solutions and ideas. We are a little hesitant to install anything else on the Wanderlodge's roof, but we could do that, if necessary.

Thanks in advance,
Jack and Liz
Glad to be On The Road, FINALLY!!!

 

[John From Detroit]

I get by with a single sattalite on DISH (I use 110) Set your DISH reciever up to use a type 300 dish and it will work, You will loose all the channels on 119 however

Part 2, IF you want to go for both then you need a sattalite internet tool,  DSLookangle,  Use it to set dish angles for pre-set instead of the dish receiver (actually you can use either one for setting but use Lookangle for this)

Using look angle set it first to find dish 110, then LOOK, to make sure that the location where you have your dish set up has a clear sight... Now do the same for 119.  It is very likely you have a tree.  (note, do not choose the dish 500 dish for setting, use one of the others)

Option 2 is to skip the Dish-500 Dish and use a pair of single LNB dishes  Set the two up sepretely one for 100 one for 119

Option 3, a pair of T-2 Automotion dishes or a skewable Motosat Rooftop dish (if they make them) which means mounting on the roof of the MH

Otion 3: Subscribe to Sattalite Internet, Work with Ron on this, and make sure you have a sattalite assignment that is close enough to both 110 and 119 that you can hit them both with a "Bird on a Wire" now you sight in your Internet dish, using DirecWay's excelent tools, and the TV birds just naturally are targeted by the LNBs  One word, you have to either order the bird with DISH Lnb/s or you have to switch them out for the Direc LNBs that come standard with the bird... Direc LNBs don't play all that nice with DISH

 

[Ned]

Liz and Jack,

We have the Winegard manual roof mount antenna with the Elevation Magic indicator.  I rarely take more than 30 secs. to find the satellite when setting it up.  Crank it up until the EM box indicates the target elevation, rotate the antenna in the general azimuth direction slowly until you see signal, then peak.  If I don't know exactly where north is, I have a handheld compass to get me oriented in azimuth.

We have found that this antenna works faster than the automatic ones for a lot less money, and you don't have to go outside to set it up.

 

[Jeff]

Liz & Jack:

I switched from Dish to Direct because of the dual sat issue. I use the manual Winegard as the Rieters but I could only get 1 sat at a time and would switch to the other if we wanted to watch a different channel - pita

We have been on Direct for about two years or more and use DNS for NY and LA stations and have had no problems. Have really come to appreciate getting the east coast programs and recording what we want on TIVO. Now when I want to watch my favorite 9:00PM  show I can watch it earlier because TIVO recorded the east coast version. ;D

 

[Ned]

True, the Winegard will only pick up one satellite at a time.  I don't know if they make a multiple LNB antenna that works with multiple satellites, but a quick check at winegard.com would show all the current products.

 

[Jim Godward]

Just for information, on one of the other RV Lists there was a modification to the Winegard dish that used a Dish 500 dish and LNBs.  It takes a little bit of work but it looks like it can be done.  I think I have pictures and instructions "some place" IF I did not lose them in the computer crash.  I plan on trying it when the weather warms up.  VBG

I'll look and see if I can find them sooner if Jack is interested.

 

[Bob Buchanan]

Please suggest solutions and ideas. We are a little hesitant to install anything else on the Wanderlodge's roof, but we could do that, if necessary.

Hello Liz and Jack:

My evolution has been manual tripod outside the rig to a manually operated Winegard. I also purchased the deal from CW with a readout of the dish elevation as it is raised. As I moved from one rig to another, I either moved everything over, or got a new manual dish.

The manual dish had two drawbacks for me. One was that I never had leveling jacks -- so the elevation would never be "right on" according to the CW deal. If off enough not to see the Sat, I would mess with the Azimuth and sometimes go crazy trying to connect. Some nights, w/my neck hurting from looking up and cranking so much -- I would just do a glass of wine and forget TV that night.

The other problem with the manual cranks was that they never worked that well for me -- plus at times, the wires on the roof would get tangled with the antennae. My last one on the Tioga was over the dinette, so I had to lean over plus look up and in certain Azimuth areas, it was real hard to turn.

Anyway, a week or so ago while in Gila Bend, I decided to get a semi auto dome mount -- and so far I love it. They make three levels of King Domes (the brand I purchased). The one I got is operated from a push button remote. I enjoy sitting in a chair pushing one button to get the EL and then after another sip of wine, pushing another button to zero in on the AZ. I do have levelers now so the El seems to be good each time.

The second level finds the dish all automatically so only takes a single button push. The third level is the "in motion" model that stays on the Sat while underway. That would be nice as I am a solo drive and a TiVo junky -- so it would be nice to have a system as John describes that records all the time. The difference in price had a lot to do with my choice. The total automatic was about $500 more and the in motion was over $1,000 more than the semi auto I have.

BTW, my semi auto records the settings between the two Dish Sats -- so a button push take the dish back and forth. I don't have Dish and prefer DirecTV because of the sports packages so can't address that issue in any detail.

 

[rhmahoney]

Beware dew and rain on dome causing severe signal degredation.