Which tripod mounted Satellite for HD using DirecTv

I need help choosing which dish to purchase, I am confused. I have DIRECTV with a variety of receivers. In the past I used a non HD dish with one of my D-12 receivers. Now I would like to use my HR-24 or my HR-44 and one of my C-41 receivers. I want to purchase a tripod package but confused which will be the easiest to aim correctly. I planned on getting an automatic dish but if I understand correctly the only one that will work for DIRECTV HD is around $1,500 plus installation, verses $500 for the other guys.
Can anyone help?

Sure, I can help.
I, as well as many others, have purchased from TV4RV.com.
I have the HD model and find it very easy to aim and get a signal on DirecTV. I may be lucky.
The important things to keep in mind is to follow the instructions provide when doing your initial setup, have the satellite settings in hand for the area you are going to be in and have patients. Instructions are to pay attention to the little tic that is on the mast. Be sure you pay attention there.
There are also a couple of smartphone apps that can be helpful. Satellite Director, Satellite AR and SatFinder.
I do not use a signal meter, but rely on the signal meter from the receiver. Once set up properly usually all it takes is a little tweaking of the dish based on what my wife is telling me she sees on the TV. Sometimes when I get real lucky no tweaking is necessary.

Peace
Dave

Which dish do you have? Seems there are quite a few different ones and that is my main confusion.

The Winegard TravLer is the only automatic DTV currently available.

http://www.winegard.com/travler

The link Dave gave you is where those in the know - go to get a good SAT tripod.
If you already have a Transit Tripod, you are halfway there. TV4RV sells an ala-cart kit to use with your tripod.

The reason this tripod works so great is because it is stabile and easily allows you to get the tripod perfectly level.

http://www.tv4rv.com/sunshop/index.php?l=product_detail&p=7

Once you have a perfectly leveled tripod, the custom mast adapter makes it super easy to swing the dish as you search for satellites.

http://www.tv4rv.com/sunshop/index.php?l=product_detail&p=12

Many here don't use meters. Some use cheap meters and others use some high tech whiz bang electronic meter.
Depends on how patient you are, your ability to swing a compass (true north versus magnetic, along with the variation in your area, distance from trailer and accuracy of your antenna equipment.
For example, the elevation scale is either stamped incorrectly on my dish, or all the SAT location info providers are wrong.
I go with my scale being off, and since I know that, getting my baseline is easier.

I use an electronic meter and find it to be a very worthwhile investment for my use. We have one campsite every year that my dish is about 150' from the trailer, can't even see the trailer from the antenna location. S the meter really helps there.

We have since added a Trav'Ler to the the roof (Goshen, almost special price).
And that is really nice option now. I like it.

But, I can still set up my portable and aim the antenna before the automatic dish finally settles in and is locked.

Signal meters on the DTV screen versus an electronic meter such as the First Strike.

With the hand held First Strike I can set my antenna before I even turn on the TV. That is a significant advantage. As having the antenna aligned keeps the receiver from choking when you turn it on with no SAT input.

Once the DTV receiver gets through it's warmup and choking on lack of a signal, it can be a challenge at times to even get to the signal meter screen.
The signal meter screen then scrolls though 32 SAT transponders, rolling from beginning to end. That takes time.

With a hand held meter you can watch the signal in real time. Doing it that way, I usually have a full locked on signal by the time I get back to the trailer.

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Kenneths said:

Which dish do you have? Seems there are quite a few different ones and that is my main confusion.

Click to expand...

There is only one parabolic dish antenna for DirecTV HD.
That is the bigger elliptically shaped dish.

It is the same dish whether it is portable, or on your roof of your house or on the RV automatic version.

http://www.amazon.com/DIRECTV-SLIMLINE-POWER-TRIPOD-TAILGATING/dp/B00L6DUSWK/ref=sr_1_23?ie=UTF8&qid=1436302693&sr=8-23&keywords=directv+rv+kit



Can you clarify which dish. Here are 2 examples.

Kenneths said:

http://www.amazon.com/DIRECTV-SLIMLINE-POWER-TRIPOD-TAILGATING/dp/B00L6DUSWK/ref=sr_1_23?ie=UTF8&qid=1436302693&sr=8-23&keywords=directv+rv+kit



http://www.amazon.com/SL3S-Portable-Satellite-RV-Tailgating/dp/B00U6BMQ8W/ref=sr_1_4/189-2014700-4393435?ie=UTF8&qid=1436301012&sr=8-4&keywords=directv+rv+kit

Can you clarify which dish. Here are 2 examples.

Click to expand...

No, not yet anyway, your links are "linked together.

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What I can see in the link that does pop up is stuff you don't need, like the included tripod.
Any tripod but the one mentioned in the previous posts is not worth the time effort to mess with, especially if you may be setting up multiple times per trip.

If you are going to use DTV latest equipment, you will need the LNB, power inserter splitter (DTV's splitter) and the dish with the hardware that bolts to the dish, but not the pipes shown in the linked pictures.

http://www.amazon.com/DIRECTV-SLIMLINE-POWER-TRIPOD-TAILGATING/dp/B00L6DUSWK/ref=sr_1_23?ie=UTF8&qid=1436302693&sr=8-23&keywords=directv+rv+kit

Sorry try it now.

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porthole said:

No, not yet anyway, your links are "linked together.

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What I can see in the link that does pop up is stuff you don't need, like the included tripod.
Any tripod but the one mentioned in the previous posts is not worth the time effort to mess with, especially if you may be setting up multiple times per trip.

If you are going to use DTV latest equipment, you will need the LNB, power inserter splitter (DTV's splitter) and the dish with the hardware that bolts to the dish, but not the pipes shown in the linked pictures.

Click to expand...

Yes I understand there is a lot I do not need but this was just quick to show the different dish's available.

Terminology is getting in the way here I think.

When you say dish, I am thinking of the reflector only (large curved "dish")
Are asking about the whole antenna in general?

The LNB, the part at the front of the antenna that gather the reflected signal and sends it to your receiver is different on the links you provided.

If you are using DTV's newest equipment, you want the SWM stuff, which will have the single "bulb" on the arm, like in this link

http://www.amazon.com/SL3S-Portable...qid=1436301012&sr=8-4&keywords=directv+rv+kit

Talking "nice" to the guy who installed my SAT equipment at our home, got me everything I needed except for the tripod for free.

If you're trying to get HD signals, get the TV4RV tripod. For HD, in order to get a good signal, it's critical to get the tripod level. That's very difficult with the cheap tripods and very easy with the TV4RV tripod.

As for meters, the $20 meters might work for you. The problem is that they will respond to any satellite, so it's easy to tune it to the wrong one. Then you'll go to the TV and wonder why you had such a good signal outside, but nothing inside. But some people make them work. Some people make the receiver's signal strength meter work. But it all goes much easier with a good signal meter.

porthole said:

Terminology is getting in the way here I think.

When you say dish, I am thinking of the reflector only (large curved "dish")
Are asking about the whole antenna in general?

The LNB, the part at the front of the antenna that gather the reflected signal and sends it to your receiver is different on the links you provided.

If you are using DTV's newest equipment, you want the SWM stuff, which will have the single "bulb" on the arm, like in this link

http://www.amazon.com/SL3S-Portable...qid=1436301012&sr=8-4&keywords=directv+rv+kit

Talking "nice" to the guy who installed my SAT equipment at our home, got me everything I needed except for the tripod for free.

Click to expand...

You are correct in your assumptions, sorry for my lack of knowledge of the correct terminology. I really appreciate all of your help.

danemayer said:

As for meters, the $20 meters might work for you. The problem is that they will respond to any satellite, so it's easy to tune it to the wrong one. Then you'll go to the TV and wonder why you had such a good signal outside, but nothing inside. But some people make them work. Some people make the receiver's signal strength meter work. But it all goes much easier with a good signal meter.

Click to expand...

What type of meter do I need to look for?

Kenneths said:

http://www.amazon.com/DIRECTV-SLIMLINE-POWER-TRIPOD-TAILGATING/dp/B00L6DUSWK/ref=sr_1_23?ie=UTF8&qid=1436302693&sr=8-23&keywords=directv+rv+kit

Sorry try it now.

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Yes I understand there is a lot I do not need but this was just quick to show the different dish's available.

Click to expand...

If you get the tripod at the link that you provided you will be cursing every time you set up.
Get the good one from TV4RV.
Here is a link to a good meter. [LINK]

Peace
Dave

Thanks for the info on the meter, and yes I understand about the tripod, I was just using that link to show the different LNB available and which one I need. I will get a good tripod.

Kenneths said:

What type of meter do I need to look for?

Click to expand...

The First Strike Meter ought to do it. You might give those guys a call and talk to them about what you're doing.

This is the First Strike I am using, it is about half the price of the newer version Dave linked to.
http://www.satpro.tv/first-strike-fs1.aspx

The more expensive FS "should" be able to power the antenna isolated from the rest of the SAT equipment. The specs state a 23 volt port output. You need 21 volts to power a DTV LNB to find satellites.

Older meters like my FS power the antenna though the coax coming from the trailer.

Jim M (Murray) recently got a different brand portable reader which has the capability to power the antenna. Although the model has does work, and the port power feature is an upgrade over mine, I prefer the dual line graphs that my meter displays.

Here is the First Strike web page

I use the same First Strike 1 (FS1) to locate satellites for my Dish receiver. Works great for both western arc and eastern arc satellites. Makes finding three satellites for HD very easy.

porthole said:

This is the First Strike I am using, it is about half the price of the newer version Dave linked to.
http://www.satpro.tv/first-strike-fs1.aspx

The more expensive FS "should" be able to power the antenna isolated from the rest of the SAT equipment. The specs state a 23 volt port output. You need 21 volts to power a DTV LNB to find satellites.

Older meters like my FS power the antenna though the coax coming from the trailer.

Jim M (Murray) recently got a different brand portable reader which has the capability to power the antenna. Although the model has does work, and the port power feature is an upgrade over mine, I prefer the dual line graphs that my meter displays.

Here is the First Strike web page

Click to expand...

Would you clear up something. From all I can read on the FS-1 "L" model it powers the LNB and has the option of using the receiver to power itself and the LNB? That's the one you referenced in the link. I can't find anything on the original as to whether or not it will power the LNB.

I've used the heavy duty tripod from TV4RV.com, also. I will say about 3 years ago, one of the arms broke and I was able to use basically the exact same tripod from Home Depot with the guts from the TV4RV.com one. You can do that with their mast system, which is a have to get.

We have a slimline dish and a sWm system with SL4 LNB. Started with the one from the house, the pan itself has been upgraded twice. The LNB has been updated 3 times. I like the looks of the "foldable LNB arm" on their website.

I use "Dish Align" app for my iPhone. Gives me everything I need as far as numbers for height and skew plus an overlay map and has a meter to show the direct line to the bird.

Use a bubble level on the mast and get things level via the tripod. Do all the "numbers" adjusting on the hardware part of the dish before you put it on the mast. Then put the pan on, then the LNB on the arm.

I've always used the meter on the receiver. You just have to remember with the HD systems that if you're starting cold, you have to do the whole set up -- not just look for the signal meter.

Best of luck to you!

simsfmly said:

I've used the heavy duty tripod from TV4RV.com, also. I will say about 3 years ago, one of the arms broke and I was able to use basically the exact same tripod from Home Depot with the guts from the TV4RV.com one. You can do that with their mast system, which is a have to get.

We have a slimline dish and a sWm system with SL4 LNB. Started with the one from the house, the pan itself has been upgraded twice. The LNB has been updated 3 times. I like the looks of the "foldable LNB arm" on their website.

I use "Dish Align" app for my iPhone. Gives me everything I need as far as numbers for height and skew plus an overlay map and has a meter to show the direct line to the bird.

Use a bubble level on the mast and get things level via the tripod. Do all the "numbers" adjusting on the hardware part of the dish before you put it on the mast. Then put the pan on, then the LNB on the arm.

I've always used the meter on the receiver. You just have to remember with the HD systems that if you're starting cold, you have to do the whole set up -- not just look for the signal meter.

Best of luck to you!

Click to expand...

You take your antenna off the mast every time you stow it?
I find it easier to leave the antenna attached and level the tripod without the mast.

The TV4RV tripod appears to be a copy of CST/Berger's transit tripod, which is what our local HD carries.
I've never compared my tripod (genuine CST part) with any of the other similar pieces.

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avvidclif said:

Would you clear up something. From all I can read on the FS-1 "L" model it powers the LNB and has the option of using the receiver to power itself and the LNB? That's the one you referenced in the link. I can't find anything on the original as to whether or not it will power the LNB.

Click to expand...

Will power older LNB's is my guess.

The SWM LNB's require 21 volts, so the meter by itself will not power the LNB. It has to be powered by the receiver or a seperate DTV power inserter.

I put together a post about the meter I use on my SAT thread.

First Strike meter kit