Anyone use a Dish Tailgater?

We have used one for two years.

It does not work as well as the Dish 500 but is much easier to setup.

Biggest problem we have seen is on HD channels the picture pixelates more frequently than it does with SD channels. So we tend to switch to the SD channel if the pixelation gets too bad.

We haven't had a lot of rain while using it so can't answer but I'm guessing in heavy down pours there will be loss of signal.

I did set it up once near a flag that we fly and when the wind started to blow the flag was affecting the signal. I moved the tailgater and that fixed the problem.

For me it saves time so I'm willing to put up with some picture issues. I would say 95% of the time it is as good as the Dish 500.

We have one, no problems once you understand it.

It finds the satellites just fine .. provided you have a really clear SW sky (no trees). We love ours, especially after struggling with a dish on a tripod for a while.

One thing, once it homes it, if you change channels from normal to High Def, the Tailgater has to reposition itself to find the HD satellite. It takes a few moments when changing between channels. If you stay off HD, it's much faster. It also help if you know the satellite number and the transponder number for that station when it seems to take too long.

But for the most part, we enjoy ours very much, and it's much easier to set up than the tripod version. (although the tripod version has 3 eyes, it's still wired for only 1 eye at at time, so I have it set on the HD one.) It had limitations this way, so for us the Tailgater is much nicer ... a little slow sometimes, but much nicer. It always brings the channel ... just have to be a little patient.

edit: We've not had any problems in Rain, unless it was hurricane force rain! But then, we were home and even the dish on the roof of the house wasn't working either because of outlandish heavy rain.

Very happy with ours after 3 yrs. Works well. Receives HD fine. Just like the home set up, it will lose signal when a heavy rain moves over.

I've had a Tailgater/VIP211K for over two years now. When it works, it works well. The only issues I have are:

1) About 50% of the time tree canopy in campgrounds cause either no reception or only 2 out of 3 satellites.

2) If you don't use it for greater than 30 days you get a 'Not Authorized' error. You have to call Dish and get the error corrected.

Thanks guys. I have been considering one.

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If you can afford it, I would go the extra $100 or so and get the Pathway X2. Same automatic setup as the Tailgater, but considerably larger antenna inside, and much more robust construction. Also has the advantage of using the southeast satellites as well as the southwest ones if you have a better shot at them. You can hook a second receiver to the Pathway, but it has to tuned to the same satellite as the other receiver. We got fed up fussing with the Tailgater, and traded up to the Pathway X2, and it picks up the satellites much easier. Set up side by side with each other in the Keys, the Pathway was showing a 50% stronger signal than the Tailgater.

On three occasions this past year, I've fed a neighbor the signal from my 1000.4 tripod dish when it was setup for the Dish eastern arc birds, and their Tailgater couldn't get a shot at the western arc. Add in the ability to watch and/or record multiple channels from multiple satellites, and I've found the 10-15 minutes it takes me to set up the tripod and dish is well worth it.

I've had mine for almost three years. Only downfall is only can be used with one tv. if I did it over again I would spring for a traveler satellite for the roof and fully automatic. Costs about 1600 + for one but heard its the best out there for dish!

Use a Tailgater while on the road which is most of the time. We do have a 500 in storage but I have found the Tailgater much easier to use. Yes you will have loss of signal with both.