Directv travler questions.. Again

I like the Winegard Pathway as a portable DirecTV antenna. It's more work than a fully automatic but it's way less work than a manual and the cost savings for a limited use antenna makes sense to me. If you are handy and know how to point a manual antenna, all you really need is something like the MP1. Stores safely in its own case to prevent damage and costs less that $200.

I carry a tripod and dish. I prefer not to use it but I have.

We have a tripod-mounted SWM3 HD dish which I hate to set up. Most of the time if we can't get a satellite lock we watch Netflix/HuluPlus/Amazon video.

We have the HD LNB Oval dish on tripod for extended times. But when we're only somewhere overnight stuck in trees, we watch things from the DVR that I taped previously.

My wife will make me talk to her so I make sure there are no trees in the way!

My tripod is my plan "A" for now until I get the Trav'ler installed.

Go here http://www.tv4rv.com/ for the best tripod setup option.

Our Directv HD receiver accepts and displays SD content via 18" round sat dish. Still have our 18" dish around somewhere, but for the last few years we've been using a Slimline 5 HD dish mounted on the same homemade stand we used for the round dish and can usually get a signal camping among the trees. You should be able to use the 18" round dish as a backup for obtaining sat tv when camping in the forest, but it's just as easy to use an HD sat dish on a stand and be able to view HD content. We purchased our HD Directv dish off of Ebay for cheap and if there are no significant obstructions to the southern sky, can be up and running in just a few minutes. There has been a time or two where tree line was so dense that sat signal could not be acquired even with 150' of coax, no issue as we just watched some of the DVDs we always carry for such an occurrence.

Most places will have spaces that have a path to the satellite. When I'm really blocked I play the banjo instead. I also carry a bunch of DVDs.