I have the dish tailgater satellite and really like it. I just put it on the ground facing the southern sky and it does the rest. I don't use a tripod and haven't found a need to. It was cheaper that some of the fancier carryouts. Downsides would be that it only works on dish, only works in the 48 contiguous states, and you can only use one receiver with it. It is easy to use and only requires one cable as the power for the antenna is provided by the receiver down the coax. It come with a fifty foot cable. Hook it up, plug it in and answer a couple of prompts and you're in business. Probably a ten minute operation start to finish.