What is the best Satellite system & Service?

We are picking up our new Mesa this week can any one suggest the best HD system and service for full time. We will be parked for months at a time mostly near Baton Rougr LA
 

danemayer

Well-known member
Re: What is the best system

Hi debbie1952,

Programming offerings from Dish and Directv are similar. I have Directv and just about everything is High Def. Some of their ads suggest that perhaps Dish is a bit behind in High Def offerings but I'm not sure if that's true.

From an equipment standpoint, there are several things to consider.

Automatic Satellite Aiming - you can get an auto-aiming dish for DISH network at a much lower price than one for Directv. You have to read the specs carefully because many dishes will say High Def for DISH but Standard Def for Directv.

Rooftop or Standalone - Rooftop is convenient but if there are trees between you and the satellite, you might as well not have a dish. A standalone can be repositioned.

Tripod-mounted dishes are the least expensive, but may take some practice to set up and aim properly. If you stay in the same place for a while, this may be all you need. A Directv Slimline 3 dish with LNB can be purchased for $100 or less. You'll also need a tripod which can be $45-200 depending on how fancy it is.

The older LNB technology uses a multi-switch at the LNB providing 4 cables to connect as many as 4 receivers. This is called Multi-Switch. If you have a DVR in the living room, you would need two cables - but your RV probably has one to the living room. So with that technology, you'd need to run a flat cable through the window, or add a cable. Some people may suggest reworking the cable wiring, but I'm not sure if anyone has successfully done that with a high-def setup.

The newer Directv LNB technology uses a multi-switch that goes inside. There's one COAX line from the dish to the RV. This is called Single Wire Module (SWM). The DVR receiver needs only a single COAX line to support both tuners. No extra wires necessary. You can also have a bedroom receiver that can watch programs previously recorded on the living room DVR. I think DISH has something similar called "The Hopper."

DISH has a pay as you go offering so you don't have to pay for programming when you're not in your RV. If you're full-time, this isn't necessarily interesting - except that there's no 2 year commitment.

I have Directv at home and used to take my receivers with me when in the RV. Last year at times I used Distant Network Services (DNS) to get New York stations for network programming while away from home. At other times, I changed my service address and got local Denver stations. This year, they said new FCC regulations would no longer allow that. Instead, for a 2 year commitment in the RV, they created a new account for the RV, gave me new receivers and a new dish for the RV (no charge), merged the new account with the home account so I would have just one programming charge and set up DNS for the RV receivers.

I hope you weren't asking about refrigerators.:)
 

donr827

Well-known member
Re: What is the best system

We have Direct TV at home so we had our new trailer equipped with a automatic Winegard Traveler dish. We take two of the receivers from home and use them on the trailer. Been doing this for 6 years with no problems.
Don
 

Rob_Fla

Active Member
Re: What is the best system

We fulltime, have Dish Network HD and use a tripod.
With a little pratice and a decent meter the tripod setup takes about 5 minutes and is more flexable since you can move it around.
One plus with Dish Network is they have a reciever is a dual tuner unit meaning we have one reciever for both TVs.
We have two remotes for the reciever so we can watch different channels in the living room and bedroom with one reciever.
 

jayc

Texas-South Chapter Leaders
Re: What is the best system

We use Dish Network with the Winegard Carryout antenna. We travel a lot and the automatic antenna takes all the drama out of setting up. Wouldn't have it any other way. When we upgrade, I'll get the dual tuner receiver so both televisions will get HD.
 

jmgratz

Original Owners Club Member
Re: What is the best system

We have a Winnegard Low Profile roof dish and use Direct TV. Recently we purchased the Winnegard Carryout auto dish. The reason we got the Carryout is so we do not have to worry about not being able to use the roof dish because of trees or other obstructions. Lately we have been in several parks where all of the sites were covered up with trees and the roof one would not work so we reverted to the Carryout. We like the automatic one so I don't have to worry about trying to manually set one up. As far as the service goes they (Dish and Direct) as very similar but we prefer Direct TV service and programming. We have Direct at the house and bring the receiver from the house on the road. BTW if we had to do it over again I would go with the Carryout portable and not fool with the Roof one. Pricing on the Winnegard Carryout has recently been reduced.
 

danemayer

Well-known member
Re: Wineguard Carryout Dish - sounds like a great dish, but according to page 11 of the manual, with Directv, HD is not available.
Winegard does not recommend using an HD receiver since HD programming will not be available.

To get an auto-aiming dish that supports HD with Directv, I think you have to get up into the $1600+ range.
 

dave10a

Well-known member
I have a Carry Out by Winegard that works fine for me, but I travel a lot so I am rarely in one spot for more than a few months. If I was full timing at one spot I would get the HD manual tripod Winegard and Dish Network HD package with the Hopper- Joey setup. That would provide HD for up all the TV's in the trailer plus a recorder for all of them. Or go the Dish dual tuner which would provide HD TV for one TV and SD TV for the bedroom and outside TV. I think Dish has and edge over Direct TV in a technical sense.
 

pegmikef

Well-known member
We use the Dish Tailgater and the Dish network. It is perfect for us since we are part timers and stay at a lot of different sites. It is automatic, only requires one cable and portable and costs a lot less than most of the other automatic systems. The downside is you can only connect one receiver to it and it only works in the 48 contiguous states. We use the Dish RV package so we don't have to pay for it for the months we aren't camping.
 

JohnDar

Prolifically Gabby Member
We got the Winegard automatic GM-1518 dish and the DISH receiver this spring. Used it all summer on the monthly Pay-As-You-Go plan. You do need a fairly clear shot at the southern sky, but if you have a Smartphone, you can download .apps to find them. I put ours on the tripod stand and buried the cables once I found a good spot. When we left the rig for an extended period, I just unhooked the antenna and put it in the basement, but put a marker to indicate where the cable ends were (for the CG mowing). No problems.

It did seem that if the system is not used for a while (week or so), I occasionally had to call DISH to get a signal to reactivate it. No biggie once I figured that out. Something to do with not getting upgrades/updates to the software while it was off.

I also got the ladder mount for the dish, but there's a tree standing smack dab behind the rig that blocks the satelite. Might be good for an open field site, though, like Goshen.
 

Wmnmy

Well-known member
W use the wineguard dome with dish pay as you use it's great works every time finds the satellite every time no effort on my part dw loves it cost more but well woth it less headache ....
 

caissiel

Senior Member
I use Bell and its the same equipment as dish. My satelite dish on the road is a dish HD.

Use smartphone application for aiming and locating clear aiming sites in the trees.

Sent from my GT-S5660M using Tapatalk 2
 

Mexico

Member
Re: What is the best system

Hi I'm new to the forum having just purchase a 09 3410RE Bighorn. It has a kingdome automatic dish dome on the roof. We have been using Shaw direct satellite for years on other 5ers with a manually set up dish that sits on a tripod on the ground. We would like to stay with Shaw which we have at home. Does anyone know if the Kingdome can be used with Shaw Direct or can it be modified to work. It appears to take dish and DirectTV now.
 

olcoon

Well-known member
Re: What is the best system

Just curious, other than putting it in the basement, does anyone do anything to keep the Carryout, Tailgater, etc. from getting stolen while parked?
 

Eddhuy

Well-known member
Re: What is the best system

Just bought the Winegard Anser, it is a new product. It is portable and Semi Automatic, you have to set the elevation. It is compatible with Dish, DirecTV and Bell and supports 2 recievers but uses a seperate power cable while it auto locates the satellite then you can disconnect the power cable. It also has a gromet to attach a lock to.

We decided to go with Dish for the HD content and the month to month payments available. DirectTV has no month to month agreements at this time.

Update on the Anser. Tried it 2 days ago for the first time, it would lock onto a satellite, almost get full signal then wander to another sattelite. I was on the phone for a while with tech support but finally just had to unplug power to it before it had a chance to wander off the satellite. This worked but could only get sat 110 and was unable to get it to lock onto any others.

I am now the proud owner of the Winegard Carryout GM 1518 and it works as advertised!
 
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rvn4fun

Well-known member
Re: What is the best system

We have Dish HD and love it. We have a small hand built stand for our dish, that we move to wherever to get a signal. We like the fact that we can run both tvs on seperate channels with one reciever.
 

Gizzy

Well-known member
Re: What is the best system

Just curious, other than putting it in the basement, does anyone do anything to keep the Carryout, Tailgater, etc. from getting stolen while parked?

I use about 75 ft of lightweight coated cable that I attach to the Tailgater w/padlock. It is probably more of a minor deterrent than anything else. I guess it just makes me feel good because if someone REALLY wants it bad enough they will get it one way or another. I feel I am just trying to keep "honest people honest".
 
Hi all we use a direct tv dish and tripod and just use one of the boxes out of the house works good just cant get local channels when you get to far from home.juat to say i am really likeing this site.
Joel
 

rick_debbie_gallant

Well-known member
Not sure if this will work, put a small cage around it and hook it to a "cattle fence power supply" that should keep them varmints away.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
 

pegmikef

Well-known member
Re: What is the best system

Just curious, other than putting it in the basement, does anyone do anything to keep the Carryout, Tailgater, etc. from getting stolen while parked?

I use a heavy duty industrial cable and padlock to secure it to the trailer or any other permanent structure. The tailgater has a hasp affair under the handle. As said before, this really just keeps honest people honest because anyone with the right equipment can defeat my security measures.
 
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