I decided I wanted HD programming. I also decided that I did not want a roof mounted sat antenna because once you park the rig in a site, the antenna might be blocked by trees, etc.. Your only option then is to move the rig to a different site.
I also liked how all these golfball antennas work - Just give them a clear view of the southern sky, hook up the cable and stand back. They automatically search for the satellites.
So that meant I was looking for one of the golfball sat antennas that would receive Dish programming. They come with a 50 ft cord but many people report using a 100 ft cord successfully.
I chose the Winegard Pathway X2 over the Tailgater for the following reasons -
1. The actual antenna is 19 inches vs 18 inches for the Tailgater. Not a lot I know, but could mean the difference when trying to shoot around tree leaves.
2. With the X2, you have the choice of accessing either the Eastern arc OR the Western arc satellites. Your choice. The Tailgater uses only the Western arc sats. I consider this to be a big deal. There are times when I can 'see' only one set.
3. There are two coax output connections. You can run cables to two receiver boxes on two TVs and watch different channels as long as the channels selected come from the same satellite.
I believe the X2 runs about $50 more on Amazon, but have not looked in a while. Usually can get a good package deal that includes the sat antenna, one 211z receiver box and also a remote control for the 211z.
I mean no disrespect to the Tailgater. I know they are well liked and work well.
I also bought the Winegard tripod. The literature that came with the X2 states it should never be set in water over 2 inches deep or bad things can happen to the electronics. The tripod has already saved it once. I ended up in a place where I got monsooned. The water was at least 6 inches deep on the tripod.
I also got the dishformyrv app for my Iphone (Iphone only). It costs $5 and uses the phone camera. All you do is point the phone at the southern sky and the app overlays 2 sets of 3 red balls onto the sky (or trees if you are standing in the wrong place). Each set corresponds to either the Western arc or Eastern arc satellites. This is a real handy app if you are trying to determine the best place to set the 'golfball' in an 'iffy' area. It works well.
I like my X2. I full time and have traveled about 6,300 miles this year, using it all the time. Started out in Florida, then north up to and across Wisconsin and southern Minnesota, then across to the Rocky Mountain states, down to New Mexico and now Arizona. No complaints.
Note that all these golfball sat antennas get their operating power through the coax cable. That means you must have a direct connection to the inside receiver box. You usually can't just connect up to the sat antenna connection on your RV because many times it has switches in the interior line. Either run the cable through a window/slide or rework the existing RV connection so it does not go through any switches. The solution seems to be to just run a new interior cable.
Tim