this is an ongoing saga about how to use their satellite. If you want to get NBC, CBS, ABC while on the road, you need to receive the local channels at the location where you are camped. IE, you are camped for a couple nights at one campsite, and then drive 250 miles to another campsite, and so on. My question is what do you do to get the local channels at each location?

I no longer have Dish, but we had the same experience. We just simply used over-the-air for local stations. As far as "back home" news goes, our cell phones have app's for our local news stations. That keeps us informed about weather and mostly what's happening at home. But the local over-the-air is what we did.FYI, we originally had Direct TV. They kept jacking up the prices till it became outrageous. We switched to Dish TV. They did the same thing after. After 2 (plus) years of constantly fighting to keep costs down, and finally their best offer was still too outrageous, we dropped them too. We are now just over-the-air antenna tv! Much happier now. And really ... (I can't believe I'm actually saying this)... who needs television when camping anyway! Paid-for-television and over-the-air television is really nothing but garbage: senseless reality shows, violence, and sex. And everything is just re-runs, and paid movie channels play about 5 movies a month and just keep repeating them. It's all mindless garbage in MY OPINION. For the price we were paying, we were not getting any benefit out of it.

Ditto over the air for DirecTV in our camper.

DirecTV will change your "service address" to your new location, but they get testy if you try to do that more than once or twice a year. And as often as not, they'll also wind up changing your billing address. Best way is to get an outboard DirecTV AM-21 off-air tuner (about $50 lots of places) that uses your crank-up TV antenna to add any local off-air channels to your DirecTV guide. Works great. If you have a separate DirecTV account for your RV (or if your only account is an RV account, you can do the paperwork and subscribe to DirecTV's "Distant Networks" service that gets you either east coast or west cast network stations for about $15 a month. Don't expect the DirecTV phone talker who answers to know about the distant network service - most of them don't. Do your research on the web and you'll be fine.al

Or you can call DTV get a form and subscribe to DNS; Distant Network Services. Nationwide beam. You can get NYC or LA in standard def. NYC east of the Mississippi in HD or LA west. I dont know what they are charging now I dropped it years ago and live OTA with a Winegard Sensar Pro.

DutchmenSport wrote:We just simply used over-the-air for local stations.This ^^^^^^^Big Katuna wrote:Or you can call DTV get a form and subscribe to DNS; Distant Network Services. Nationwide beam. You can get NYC or LA in standard def. NYC east of the Mississippi in HD or LA west.Or, this ^^^^^^^^aslakson wrote:DirecTV will change your "service address" to your new location, but they get testy if you try to do that more than once or twice a year. And as often as not, they'll also wind up changing your billing address.Because of this ^^^^^^^^

DirectTV--getting NBC, ABC | Good Sam Community

wa8yxm
Explorer III
Oct 12, 2015
I get locals over the air.. But then I refuse to pay the outragous fee for DirecTV or DISH.
derh20
Explorer
Oct 12, 2015
Thanks for all the replies. it sounds like we cannot pick up NBC, etc because we not signed up for DNS. I wonder why DirectTV never told me that was the issue on the numerous times i called them.
FlatBroke
Explorer II
Oct 11, 2015
We used DNS. Seeing how it only use west or east coast stations we kept it year round and could watch a show earlier or later. Now that I'm retired and FlatBroke it was a luxury that we discontinued.
Bobbo
Explorer II
Oct 11, 2015
derh20 wrote:
More clarification needed please. For those currently using DirectTV, do you have DNS and do you have a separate Account for the RV receiver to get NBC, etc?

I have Directv at home and take a receiver with us, but use OTA for the networks when travelling. I do not have DNS.
Carl_n_Susan
Nomad II
Oct 11, 2015
X2 everything edatlanta wrote. I have a RV account, a Genie and a mini-Genie, with whole home support, and DNS. I am grandfathered with both East and West network feeds (ABC, CBS, NBC, CW, and FOX). We have over 50 shows set to record. I don't watch anything in real time. Setting the program/channel one time and having it record where ever I am is priceless.

The batwing brings in local channels when we are near civilization. But there are many places yet today with little to no network OTA signals (Quartzsite, the Oregon coast, etc.). With DNS, I am guaranteed to have the network feeds regardless of where I am camped.
edatlanta
Explorer
Oct 11, 2015
I have DirecTV DNS, Genie and whole home. Works great. I have east coast channels. The beauty of DNS and a DVR is you set your programs to record and the channel numbers never change. You move to a new area, set up your dish, and your DVR does it's thing. No more reprogramming. I do have an RV account since I full time.
YC_1
Nomad
Oct 11, 2015
Ditto:
Best way is to get an outboard DirecTV AM-21 off-air tuner (about $50 lots of places) that uses your crank-up TV antenna to add any local off-air channels to your DirecTV guide. Works great.

If you have a DVR you can record the shows too.
derh20
Explorer
Oct 10, 2015
More clarification needed please. For those currently using DirectTV, do you have DNS and do you have a separate Account for the RV receiver to get NBC, etc?
Carl_n_Susan
Nomad II
Oct 10, 2015
Big Katuna wrote:
Or you can call DTV get a form and subscribe to DNS; Distant Network Services. Nationwide beam. You can get NYC or LA in standard def. NYC east of the Mississippi in HD or LA west.

I dont know what they are charging now I dropped it years ago and live OTA with a Winegard Sensar Pro.

Not surprisingly, DirecTV technology has progressed in the last 10 years. Today *ALL* the DNS channels (both LA and NY feeds) are available in HD and SD everywhere in the country.
ronfisherman
Moderator
Oct 10, 2015
Moved from Class C.

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