Sat systems

I am a Dish pay-as-you-go subscriber and appriciate the ease of setup with my Tailgater.

We'll be getting a new dish next year for fulltime RVing and it will be an auto portable as well. We get ourselves in too many trees to get a fixed dish.

I've tried the auto dome on the roof. It was a pain in the neck. Had to climb up there a lot to dry it off or clean it to get a signal. then trees even an electric wire passing over the trailer has stopped the signal. Tried a couple of portables and finally came up with the tailgater using Dish. I have had to use 150 to 200 foot of cable. Dish has been easy to work with.

I've had Dish since they first started business. I've always used a Sat dish on a tripod. It usually takes about a half hour to setup.

There have been times when I have used 150ft of cable to get the dish out from under trees.

A couple of years ago we bought the Dish Tailgater package that uses a self aligning portable antenna. It weighs 10 lbs, it's about 1 foot cubed in size and can be placed on any level surface where there is a clear view to the southern sky. It works well and makes the setup easy and quick.

I still have the other sat dish just in case it's needed or we need two separate feeds.

We have had the Winegard portable for 3 years and love it. It really gives you the flexibility when the campground has a lot of trees.

I love my sport teams and local tv and even campground cable rarely carry the games I want to watch. Portable satellite is the way to go. HD on Dish Network is even better.

Enjoy,

bigdon68
Maryland

2oldman wrote:

goducks10 wrote:
. Dish is the only sat provider that will get you an HD picture with a portable.

Perhaps yours and the OP's definition of portable is different from mine.

Mine is a stand-alone tripod with a Slimline dish, not a Carryout or eq.

Same here, but tripod/slimline setup is not for everyone. Takes more tinkering than just turning it on, and let it autofind the satellites.

My take is this:

If your personal taste required HD channels, and an automatic "dome" dish, portable or permanent, then DISH network is your only option.

If HD not a requirement, but automatic "dome" is then either are fine. If you are an existing customer of one or the other, then choose that one.

There is a permanent Directv slimline that mounts to the RV, but cannot be used while moving that does receive Directv HD signals but they are pricey - 1800-2000.

I went the tripod/slimline route, got the tripod off ebay, there is a guy that packages it all up at tv4rv.com, picked up lnb/dish off ebay, and bought a SAT-look lite alignment meter, and am happy. All total probably $350. didnt have to have the Satlook Lite, but made things much easier. But not a lot of folks want to mess around, even though its not hard to do.

The other decision point is if you are already a customer of one or the other and want to just use one of your existing satellite boxes. I was already a Directv customer, and when we camp, I just take one of my receivers out of my home and use that, so there is no additional monthly expense.

goducks10 wrote:
. Dish is the only sat provider that will get you an HD picture with a portable.

Perhaps yours and the OP's definition of portable is different from mine.

Mine is a stand-alone tripod with a Slimline dish, not a Carryout or eq.

Dish + portable sat. Dish is the only sat provider that will get you an HD picture with a portable self aligning sat dish. Plus you pay as you go. Me personally I can't stand to watch TV in standard definition. Gotta have HD.

Direct, portable, lots of cable.

If camping, trees can really be a problem with a roof mount. Better you go with a portable. I recommend DISH with a Tailgator portable antenna and a 211k receiver.

Good luck

Ron

When we had the 5th wheel and full timed for a while I had the auto Sat Dome on the roof and when we could not get a signal because of trees etc. I had a portable dish both hooked to an A-B switch and it worked great.