Switching Winegard Rooftop Antenna to Dish

Dan54

Well-known member
We have a 2011 Landmark Grand Canyon 5th wheel with a OE rooftop Direct TV antenna. We have never had a subscription but now I’d like to activate it & switch to DISH for football season. I understand I need to get the LNB & Reflector which seems fairly easy but not sure about the issues I will encounter in getting the signal to the 3 TVs, living room, bedroom & basement & ordering/installing receiver(s). Any thoughts, suggestions would be appreciated. Thanks!


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Dahillbilly

Well-known member
I went with a Tailgator antenna with the wally receiver from DISH; two reasons were a)it's portable don't have to worry about being in shady sites ,b) only few dollars more per month. Just call DISH with my location & they ping the unit & I get everything local plus same package as I have at home.
 

david-steph2018

Well-known member
We have a 2011 Landmark Grand Canyon 5th wheel with a OE rooftop Direct TV antenna. We have never had a subscription but now I’d like to activate it & switch to DISH for football season. I understand I need to get the LNB & Reflector which seems fairly easy but not sure about the issues I will encounter in getting the signal to the 3 TVs, living room, bedroom & basement & ordering/installing receiver(s). Any thoughts, suggestions would be appreciated. Thanks!


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When we decided to go to a roof mounted unit, we went with RF Mogul system, instead of the Traveler by Dish. The RF Mogul system can be repaired while on the rig, Traveler cannot. But the RF Mogul is a couple hundred more, they can wire the rig to what you want.
We had our installed in January 2021, in August 2021 we had an issue of the antenna would not lock on a satellite. Even since our installation was in Goodyear, Az., we called them. They gave us a number to the manufacturer, in Utah, and they put us in touch with a repair guy in Tenn. The repair guy called, walked me thru several steps and determined it was the control box that went bad. All within about 3-4 hours.

He got our address, sent it the company. The company called us, verified the address and sent the new box out. We got it 2 days later. I called the repair guy by, as he wanted, and we went thru the test again and verified it was working.
Now the kicker here was, we received a phone call from the company president, another veteran, explaining what happened and thanking us for being their customers. But he called a week later to make sure we were still happy, and system was still working.
 

MTPockets

Well-known member
I went with a Tailgator antenna with the wally receiver from DISH; two reasons were a)it's portable don't have to worry about being in shady sites ,b) only few dollars more per month. Just call DISH with my location & they ping the unit & I get everything local plus same package as I have at home.
The Tailgator worked great for us! Very simple to use; just sit it on ground or table pointing generally South ( doesn't need to be precise) and system does the rest. Much better than roof mount as you can sit it where you gey a clear view of sky and not worry about being blocked by tree at your site...
 

hoefler

Well-known member
Actually you can removed the dome, and reset the DIP switches to use it with Dish. No need to change the LNB or the reflector.
 

VMooreSR

Well-known member
If you are talking about a travler antenna, Winegard has the kit you need, I did the conversion a couple of years ago with no problems.
Vince
 

mlpeloquin

Well-known member
I have Wineguard Direct TV, but that does not matter. I also have a portable with my SOB. I find that many parks just have a lot of mature trees and do not allow the use of the roof top antanna. The portable allows us to get satellite TV almost anywhere. The Dish portables are high def as well unlike Direct TV. I would go with the portable. It is light enough, sets up fast, and finds the satellite automatically. You just plug into the park cable TV. I made a plug box so I can switch back and fourth quickly between roof top, portable, and park cable.
 

hoefler

Well-known member
You need to have the manual, it will have instructions on how to change the services settings. Make and model of your antenna would help considerably.
 

Dan54

Well-known member
I already have the rooftop unit, Winegard Trav’ler Mobile Satellite TV Antenna. Model SK-3005 Direct TV Slimline
LG, SWM Technology, which is why I’m not looking at a portable. Also, at our private campground we have trimmed all the trees for safety considerations, side benefits are an open sky to see the stars & improved satellite reception.
Seems to me I would be naive to think after changing out the LNB + reflector & adding the DISH receiver that I would encounter no issues after everything is hooked up. Maybe not if I’m lucky?


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mlpeloquin

Well-known member
It is not that easy. The internal circuit board inside the antenna has to be changed to look for the Dish satellite.
 

Dan54

Well-known member
Very helpful, thanks very much!


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Update. Switched the LVB & Reflector to DISH yesterday. Before the switch, when I powered up the system the Direct TV satellites were identified so it seemed like everything was functioning properly. Then as I was running thru the diagnostics to determine the software the system stopped & the display said “EL MOTOR HOME FAILURE”. I was able restart the system & stow the antenna. Then when I changed out the LNB & Reflector to Dish the same thing happened so I just left the antenna in the stowed position w/o locking on to satellites, etc. so I could determine the issue before proceeding. Can anyone educate me on the problem & what I need to do next? Thanks


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