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mt1729's avatar
mt1729
Explorer
Jul 11, 2023

directv dish

I have a question. I have directv and a small older automatic dome type dish on my rv. Since directv went to HD I no longer receive any programing. I've been thinking of buying a winegard GM 9000 automatic carry out dish and mounting it on the roof in place of my old dish. Do these have the ability to pick up all directv channels? I don't care about the HD I just want to get all the channels I used to get. I use the receiver from my house it's HD and hooked up to a 3 transducer dish. This same receiver use to work with my old dish until they went to HD. I would be grateful for any info.
  • mt1729 wrote:
    I have a question. I have directv and a small older automatic dome type dish on my rv. Since directv went to HD I no longer receive any programing. I've been thinking of buying a winegard GM 9000 automatic carry out dish and mounting it on the roof in place of my old dish. Do these have the ability to pick up all directv channels? I don't care about the HD I just want to get all the channels I used to get. I use the receiver from my house it's HD and hooked up to a 3 transducer dish. This same receiver use to work with my old dish until they went to HD. I would be grateful for any info.

    No, no dome can get you all of the DTV channels. I haven't used one lately but you will only receive the channels available on the 119 satellite. You certainly will not get any kind of Network programming (local channels) and I suspect there a very limited number of channels. This assumes the dome will still work with the receiver you plan to use.
    To receive all available programming you would need to get one of the automatic roof mounted units (Winegard Trav'ler or RF Mogul) which are quite pricy or a tripod mounted home DirecTV antenna that you point manually.
  • Thank you for your reply. That's what I wanted to know.
  • Since you're considering some new equipment anyway, Dish network with a Wally and a Winegard Pathway X2 automatic antenna will get you HD on both the eastern and western Dish satellites with locals you can change (a $10 or $12 option). We've used this setup for eight years and have been happy with it - even have a hard drive on the Wally to make it a DVR. We stream almost everything we watch via our unlimited hotspot now, though. The Dish equipment is packed away in storage for now.

    Rob
  • I have to assume that your dish LNB is looking for transponders that are no longer functional. I would look into replacing just the LNB for a new one to get the 101, 99, & 103 transponders where all the current channels are. Just a note: DirecTV still have many no HD channels and still carry the SD channels or those that are HD.
  • Michelle.S wrote:
    I have to assume that your dish LNB is looking for transponders that are no longer functional. I would look into replacing just the LNB for a new one to get the 101, 99, & 103 transponders where all the current channels are. Just a note: DirecTV still have many no HD channels and still carry the SD channels or those that are HD.

    This is impossible with a dome. The dome has 1 single LNB only capable of receiving the signal broadcast by the 101 (KU band) satellite. It could never receive programming from 99 or 103 {kA Band) due to that limitation.
  • I went through this 6 years ago. I went with RF Mogul. Very happy with it. I had to replace a couple parts last year and it was easy. I get all HD, just like home.
  • I installed a Winegard Trav'ler myself and have not needed any parts or repairs since installed in 2012. Both the Winegard and the RF Mogul units are good products. There are very few RF Mogul dealers so you need to be handy enough to fix them yourself or look far and wide for a dealer. Winegard usually requires dealers to repair and/or return to factory for repairs. Neither is a perfect solution.
  • LouLawrence wrote:
    I installed a Winegard Trav'ler myself and have not needed any parts or repairs since installed in 2012. Both the Winegard and the RF Mogul units are good products. There are very few RF Mogul dealers so you need to be handy enough to fix them yourself or look far and wide for a dealer. Winegard usually requires dealers to repair and/or return to factory for repairs. Neither is a perfect solution.


    We recently had an issue with our RF Mogul dish: forgot to lower it and smacked it on a tree branch! It looked fine, but would not lock on to the DirecTV satellite - it tried to lock on to something about 100 degrees farther west. I contacted them via their website and in return got a phone call from the owner of the company who ran me through some diagnostics - we determined that the reflector (the dish part) had become bent so that it was no longer able to receive the signal. He had a new reflector shipped to me and I replaced it easily by myself with just a screwdriver. Of course I had to pay for the new reflector because we've had the system for over 2 years, but I expected that.

    TLDR: RF Mogul customer support is first rate!
  • So is Winegard. RF Mogul is owned by the previous owners of MotoSAT (Remember MotoSAT?) Not saying anything bad about either company but MotoSAT went out of business and RF Mogul sprung up.
    Winegard has been around since, I don't know, the 50's?

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