Satellite dish question

Just went to a dish at home. Completely new at Satellite system. What is best way to have portable for camper?
Thanks for info in advance.
 

cookie

Administrator
Staff member
Tenderfoot, everybody has the best system. Depends on your personal choice, what you think is best for you and your budget.
My best system is that I have a portable tripod for my DirecTV Hi-Def dish. I conned a DTV guy out of a dish. Then I bought a tripod from TV4RV.com.
My total cost was around $150.
Good luck with your quest for your "best system".

Peace
Dave
 

TXBobcat

Fulltime
What dish system did you go with. Directv or DishNetwork?

We have used Directv for many years because I did not like cable. When we had a sticks and bricks I just took the bedroom receiver and was able to find a dish. We don't subscribe to High Def. I know it is great but as long as we have good digital we are satisfied with it. I agree with Cookie and get the tripod from TV4RV. And I bit the bullet and bought a Bird Dog to find the satellite.

Others have different ideas but mine is pretty easy now and I have less stress.

BC
 

Nabo

Southeast Region Director-Retired
We have DirecTV in both the home and in the BC, paying for extra receivers in the coach (and home -total 5). All receivers are HD. A neighbor moved a couple of years ago so we got his 3 lnb dish off his house to keep in the coach, setting it up when we get to the campground, either on a tripod or a roof mount that we made. We have been doing this for 5 years now without any problems.
 

trdeal

Past North Carolina Chapter Leader
We have Directv. one HD dvr receiver,1 dvr and 2 regular receivers in our home.We take 1 dvr and 1 regular receiver with us when we go camping.As Nabo said we have done this for years with no problems.This past spring I set up the dish at Camp Hatteras cg (outer banks of NC) I had all the channels I get at home except for the channels that are local to my home area.From what I have read,the reason I could not get my local channels, had something to do with the number of miles I was away from home.
 

caissiel

Senior Member
I have express view here in Canada but when we go to the south in winter we bring our programing with us.
have 2 receivers and no HD.
I made a satelite holder that can be mounted on the front or rear 2" receiver, depending my trailer points north or south.

I have a $10 satelite locator and downloaded a satelite finder free programe that calculates the angle and coordinate for the satelite at different parked location. I get the coordinates from my truck GPS and punch them in the programe and apply it to the dish when aligning.

The satelite dish and mas was free and about $30 of steel I have a bulletproof satelite carrier on the pin. I have travelled for the last 15 years with he satelite dish on the pin frame of both of my trailers and so far didn't even got a fly on it.
 

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Dougstdig

Member
I have express view here in Canada but when we go to the south in winter we bring our programing with us.
have 2 receivers and no HD.
I made a satelite holder that can be mounted on the front or rear 2" receiver, depending my trailer points north or south.

I have a $10 satelite locator and downloaded a satelite finder free programe that calculates the angle and coordinate for the satelite at different parked location. I get the coordinates from my truck GPS and punch them in the programe and apply it to the dish when aligning.

The satelite dish and mas was free and about $30 of steel I have a bulletproof satelite carrier on the pin. I have travelled for the last 15 years with he satelite dish on the pin frame of both of my trailers and so far didn't even got a fly on it.

Now for the $64,000 question. How did you hook up the coax?

My '09 3400RL has 4 Sat hookups and 1 cable. I've tried to hook up the coax to each and get no signal. I talked to a fella that had a Bighorn while a buddy was picking up his new 5er. He stated that he hooked up a splitter here and there and ran this to that... I didn't have anything to write with when this guy was telling me what he did so I got just as lost as you did reading the previous sentance. Any help would be appreciated.
 

jpajax

Well-known member
Seen this at camp ground and trying to make one. Didn't get to talk to owners on how it works but looks simple.
 

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Willym

Well-known member
Now for the $64,000 question. How did you hook up the coax?

My '09 3400RL has 4 Sat hookups and 1 cable. I've tried to hook up the coax to each and get no signal. I talked to a fella that had a Bighorn while a buddy was picking up his new 5er. He stated that he hooked up a splitter here and there and ran this to that... I didn't have anything to write with when this guy was telling me what he did so I got just as lost as you did reading the previous sentance. Any help would be appreciated.

One of the four co-ax connectors in the UDC will feed to your TV location. Two are feeds in to front and rear TV locations and two are dish feeds from co-ax installed by the factory for roof mounted dishes. You need to connect the receiver input to the co-ax connector at the TV location and then connect the receiver output to one of the TV inputs and then set up the TV for that source. My co-ax connectors in my UDC were labelled incorrectly, but trial and error found the correct one for the dish co-ax to connect to.

A co-ax layout diagram is shown in the Heartland Owners Manuals section of this forum, under Audio/Video. You may need to reference the Landmark layout if your BC has four connectors for satellite in the UDC, as the BC layout shown has only two satellite co-ax connectors in the UDC.
 

caissiel

Senior Member
On my 3500RL the satelite connections are named Bedroom and TV
The bedroom connections are on the right and the living room ones on the left.

I connect my cable to the left connection so it would be 1 and 3 of the 4 conections from left to right.

I first setup the TV outside and then was able to find the right connection once the satelite was properly pointed.

With a satelite finder it makes it easier to find the connection because it needs input from the receiver to signal.
So confirming the connection.
 
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