Directv confusion

I have questions in 2 areas about using directv in my camper trailer. I have directv service at home.

If I buy a second receiver for the rv do I have to pay extra for service? If so, how about if I place my home receiver in the trailer?
i have read many post about changing your service address while traveling. Is this only necessary if you want to get local channels in your new location?
One more question. Is a tripod type dish ( not one that automatically locates satellites) easy to set up and locate satellites?

thanks!

Hi Stapler101,

Welcome to the Heartland Owners Forum and to the family. If you have any questions we have a great bunch of folks here with lots of information and all willing to share their knowledge when needed.

I have had Direct for years. I used to take receivers from house to rv, but we upgraded (?) to the newer Genie about two years ago and I just kept 2 of the older receivers for the rv. I was told the genie used a different dish than the older stuff. The older units work fine for us in the rv and cost is $5 a month for each. I was told you could change service address and get locals and it works. I actually live between Corpus and San Antonio and I'm in Corpus Christi programing area, but like San Antonio stations better, so I have a different service address from where I actually live and no extra charges.

The tripod dish will give you a little problem for the first few times, but you will get where you can set it up pretty quick.

Be sure and join our Heartland Owners Club. Then join us at a rally when you can meet lots of the great folks here and make friends for a lifetime.

Enjoy the forum.
Jim M

By the way,,, Paris is my home town, but parents moved to CC in 52. I try to get back once in a while to bring back memories.

We also have DirecTv both at our house in TN and in the Landmark. Right now we have the 1st generation Genie (3 receivers) in the house and the older dvr/receivers (3) in the camper. They are charging us $8 for each receiver which is kind of steep but what can ya say. Since AT&T is taking more and more control of DirecTv operations, it's getting harder and harder for them to understand about changing locals from our winter location back to our home. As for billing, we are under one billing even tho they keep trying to get us to separate the rv receivers into a new account which would cost us more $$$ - just ain't doing it.

Stapler101 said:

I have questions in 2 areas about using directv in my camper trailer. I have directv service at home.

If I buy a second receiver for the rv do I have to pay extra for service? If so, how about if I place my home receiver in the trailer?
i have read many post about changing your service address while traveling. Is this only necessary if you want to get local channels in your new location?
One more question. Is a tripod type dish ( not one that automatically locates satellites) easy to set up and locate satellites?

thanks!

Click to expand...

You can take your home receiver, but another one should be $7 or $10 per month. I use our old receivers and upgraded to the Genie system at home. They did not install a new dish or horn for the Genie. Just the receivers. We use a home stile dish for the RV that I purchased on line. I drilled the rivets out to free the LNB arm from the dish assembly and use push pins to put the antenna back together. That way it stores nicely. Made out stand out of one inch and one and a quarter inch PVC pipe that breaks down and stores in as small plastic bin along with the cables and satellite finder. I use an app called "Dish Align". Push the dish symbol in the top left corner and select the Direct TV 3 LNB (101W, 110W, 119W) and it will point you from the spot you are standing in to the satellite. It is a top view and you will have to orientate yourself to the terrain as shown. My meter is an old Birddog meter that I purchased used on ebay and can be found around $129.00 to $210.00 dollars. A used Direct TV meter can be purchased on ebay for around $250.00 to $350.00, but they do have a learning curve. I store the LNB with the LNB arm under the bedroom bed on a Harbor Freight moving blanket. I had two LNB's fail when I stored it in the storage bay.

There have only been two parks that we could not get service do to trees. For the local channels we use the antenna. So long as we are within three hundred miles from home, we still get out local channels.

Stapler101 said:

I have questions in 2 areas about using directv in my camper trailer. I have directv service at home.

If I buy a second receiver for the rv do I have to pay extra for service? If so, how about if I place my home receiver in the trailer?
i have read many post about changing your service address while traveling. Is this only necessary if you want to get local channels in your new location?
One more question. Is a tripod type dish ( not one that automatically locates satellites) easy to set up and locate satellites?

thanks!

Click to expand...

You could take your current receiver with you or you could have a 2nd receiver installed at home and take that one in the RV. Just make sure it's not the Genie type as the 2nd receiver depends on the 1st.

If you don't tell Directv that you have a receiver in the RV while traveling, and you never ask for a change of service address, you'll avoid a discussion about having a 2nd account for the RV at additional cost.

If you don't change service address, when you get out of your home area, you won't have local stations via Directv. That means you won't have ABC, CBS, NBC, PBS, WB, Fox. The only alternative is Distant Network Services which will get you either New York or Los Angeles network stations. But that costs extra and requires an affidavit regarding RV use, and gets you into the 2nd account discussion.

We didn't want to pay for a 2nd account and after many phone calls, Directv created a 2nd account with the RV equipment and merged it with the home account. So now, all of our receivers show up on a single account. Some are designated home and some RV. We only occasionally change service address to get local stations - like when we go to Elkhart. We have Distant Network Services, so even without locals, we have the networks.

We used to use a tripod mounted Slimline 3 dish. Sometimes I could get it set up in 20 minutes. Sometimes much longer. Now have the rooftop Winegard Trav'ler.

I'll put in my two cents also, we bring one of our receivers from the house (Direct), used the tripod for years, the more you use it the better you will get at it. We also have the app on our phone which will fine your satellite. We use the TV for the signal meter, with remote on press menu, scroll dn too parentila & setup-select, scroll dn system setup-select, scroll dn satelite-select, scroll dn view signal strength-select, when you have that select signal meter (lower right) you will now have a beep on the TV the faster the beep the better the signal, this will take two or put the TV loud enough so that you can hear it outside.
We all have different ways of doing things and this is the way that I've been most successful. (try this at home you will see what I mean)

You can do it,
David

thanks for the great replies!
I was looking at the tripod type dish because it is my understanding that the King and the Winegard auto locating units will not work on HD.
I have read that directv wll only have HD in the near future.
I used to have a Dish tailgater that was automatic and I loved it!
If directv was not changing to hd only I would definitely go with King or Winegard.
is the hd only change a rumor or fact?

We have Directv and we use the Winegard Traveler on our roof. We are considering getting the tripod HD receiver so we can have the ability to put it out away from the trees if we are camping under obstructions. However in the past 4 years of camping with the Traveler, there have only been a handful of times that we have not been able to get satellite reception.

Rod