Hello, I am a new RV owner. I am hoping someone has been through this before and can offer tips:My class A has a manual crank satellite dish installed on the roof, but it is not setup for the TV. I talked to my provider, DISH, who recommend a tailgate package with a portable satellite that will automatically find the satellite. The cost is under $400 and $7 per month.I am considering, however, going with internet TV. We are in wifi-enabled parks at least 50% of the time - which is plenty enough for my TV habits.Do you use either option (dish or internet) and how does it work for you?Thanks in advance.

Parks that might offer wifi will usually either have streaming resteictions or the band width is so low you will be lucky to get on to even check email.Get a automatic dome, take your Dish receiver with you from home. No additional cost.

There are a few RV parks who have upgraded to streaming quality internet but they are the minority. I think that is the future as it will let them dump cable TV but that is still down the road. At the time sat TV is still the most reliable way to have TV. I don't go camping to watch TV BUT I do like to watch the news with my morning coffee. Sat does the trick for me. We used to have a manual dish. Exercise in frustration. Auto dish is a pleasure to have. Dish will let you watch if you have to dry camp.

I would say that relying on park WiFi to stream is risky. But then so is finding a clear line of sight through a bunch of trees for satellite. BTDT.I'd roll the dice on the satellite. I've been able to aim my dish in spots where there was no hope of streaming many times.Just my .02

An antenna works well for watching the news or most network stations.

Satellite TV versus internet | Good Sam Community

Larry-D
Explorer II
Oct 21, 2018
Just got back from weekend camping. On Friday night Wifi was great as usual. We have Dish satellite so we use it. Usually I take an ipad outside and watch the news with coffee. This time Saturday morning Wifi was very slow to non-existent. Went back inside and watched it on satellite. This was at a State park which was full.
johnhicks
Explorer
Oct 21, 2018
The short answer is that if you think you're going to use park wifi you're not going to watch tv.
ncrowley
Explorer II
Oct 21, 2018
I also recommend a Pathway X2. We have Dish service both at home and on the road. With the external X2 antenna, so far we have always been able to poition it so we could get a signal. It is automatic so it is easy to set up.
Dutch_12078
Explorer II
Oct 20, 2018
wildmanbaker wrote:
Isn't the LNB just a high speed switching diode? It would scope just fine. After putting an awful lot of money into the crank-up for new "ware" parts, I just gave up. A wind to most, a breeze to us, would mess with the reception. Just our experiences.

LNB="Low-Noise Block" downconverter

An LNB is a frequency sensitive device with an antenna tuned for specific blocks of satellite transmission frequencies as input and a preset range of lower frequencies for output to the receiver. The differences between KU band and KA band LNB's for instance, is a lot more than just a switching diode...

A cutaway Free-To-Air LNB:
wildmanbaker
Explorer
Oct 20, 2018
Isn't the LNB just a high speed switching diode? It would scope just fine. After putting an awful lot of money into the crank-up for new "ware" parts, I just gave up. A wind to most, a breeze to us, would mess with the reception. Just our experiences.
Dutch_12078
Explorer II
Oct 19, 2018
As Bill suggested, either the LNB was faulty or the aiming was borderline or sloppy enough to cause your signal problems. Before I modified our RM-DM46 crank-up to work with our Dish Hopper2, it worked fine with the original legacy LNB and our previous Dish VIP211k receiver. I don't know if Winegard gets their LNB's from Direct for the RM-DM46 or not, but they're identical to the single LNB that Direct has used in the past.
Bill_Satellite
Explorer II
Oct 19, 2018
wildmanbaker wrote:
moisheh wrote:
Bill. Once Direct goes to offering HD on a standard dish that crank up will work just fine.

Moisheh
If you are talking about the single LNB crack up, good luck with that. Something changed with DTV and our crack-up would not keep the single locked in. I don't know if the sat was not stable in orbit yet or it was just drifting a few seconds either way, but you could watch the signal strength drift up and down. We got a carry out and quit using the crank-up. 2 years ago I removed the crank and replace it with a carry out II on the roof, using the same coax. We boondock in the mountains quite a bit, and you loose cell service about 25 miles before our camping area. There is NO over the air TV either, so its either sat, or DVDs.

Your antenna was defective (likely the LNB but the crank ups get very loose and can swing on an off signal). This is NOT an issue with the 101 satellite or a working crank up antenna. A working crank up antenna works exactly the same as a dome style antenna (on DTV) and there is no issue with 101 and a dome or a single LNB antenna.
wildmanbaker
Explorer
Oct 19, 2018
moisheh wrote:
Bill. Once Direct goes to offering HD on a standard dish that crank up will work just fine.

Moisheh
If you are talking about the single LNB crack up, good luck with that. Something changed with DTV and our crack-up would not keep the single locked in. I don't know if the sat was not stable in orbit yet or it was just drifting a few seconds either way, but you could watch the signal strength drift up and down. We got a carry out and quit using the crank-up. 2 years ago I removed the crank and replace it with a carry out II on the roof, using the same coax. We boondock in the mountains quite a bit, and you loose cell service about 25 miles before our camping area. There is NO over the air TV either, so its either sat, or DVDs.
Bill_Satellite
Explorer II
Oct 19, 2018
That's the whole point. Only time will tell. As it stands today, no one has a clue other than the domes/single LNB antenna will be continue to be able to receive whatever DTV broadcasts from the 101 satellite. It won't be a complete channel line up as that would be a complete waste of satellite transponders. What it will be should be interesting. I think RVers are going to be very disappointed. "Oh boy! HD with my dome! But wait, where are all my channels?"
moisheh
Explorer
Oct 19, 2018
Time will tell!!

Moisheh