Dish TV

klr650goldwing wrote:
Thank each of you very much. We think we have enough information to work with here. We have decided to go with the Traveler and switch it over to Dish etc.

The DirecTV-to-DISH conversion is pretty straightforward. I did a DirecTV SWM Travler conversion to DISH.

Thank each of you very much. We think we have enough information to work with here. We have decided to go with the Traveler and switch it over to Dish etc.

jorbill2or wrote:
The difference in the portable and the travler , besides being able to get out From under trees and rain fade on small reflector portables is in the tuners abilities .
The Wally tuner in particular , opens up a second tuner inside with the travler. with a added hard drive , It allows you to record/ watch two program channels at a time ...4 if you purchase and attach the over the air dongle.
The travler also allows you to use the “Hopper” 16 tuner home receiver should you want to. It doesn’t work with any dome portable . the travler also allows you you use multiple independent tuners that can be totally independent of Each other. Domes don’t offer that independent tuning. As they are locked to just one satellite at a time and Dish uses 3

Thanks for saving me some time answering the OP's question. We have a Tailgator in our small travel trailer. It works great with a few caveats. Any time you have a power interruption such as shutting of the generator while boondocking, the Tailgator has to go through it full scan, switch check etc. when the power is turned on. This takes about 10 minutes. We carry 100' of wire to avoid tree issues. We try to keep the Tailgator off the ground in campgrounds because it becomes a "target" for dogs. With the Tailgator you are somewhat limited as to receiver choices. For our needs in the small trailer, the Tailgator work satisfactorily.

We have a Travler in our MH. I converted it to accept a Hopper 3 by adding a power inserter and node. Instructions are available on line. Dish says not to us a Hopper in a RV mainly because of possible damage to the hard drive. On line instructions just tell you to unplug it while in transit if you have an inverter or generator running. We like the Prime Time recording feature of the Hopper so we can ditch the commercials. The only drawback is trees blocking the dish a few times.

I do see lots of folks using the Pathway but have no knowledge of them. I would avoid the portable manual dish setup. I hated trying to find the birds. Of course back then we didn't have phone satellite locating apps.

The difference in the portable and the travler , besides being able to get out From under trees and rain fade on small reflector portables is in the tuners abilities .
The Wally tuner in particular , opens up a second tuner inside with the travler. with a added hard drive , It allows you to record/ watch two program channels at a time ...4 if you purchase and attach the over the air dongle.
The travler also allows you to use the “Hopper” 16 tuner home receiver should you want to. It doesn’t work with any dome portable . the travler also allows you you use multiple independent tuners that can be totally independent of Each other. Domes don’t offer that independent tuning. As they are locked to just one satellite at a time and Dish uses 3

Unless you spend all of your time under the trees, the Trav'ler changed over to DISH will make you the happiest. The service is exactly the same as you would receive at home and none of the issues with rain and morning dew that will be experienced with a dome. If you do choose a dome, the Pathway X2 mentioned above would be your best choice. You can't use a Hopper with any dome and it's best to only use 1 receiver but otherwise it's pretty good.

I have used a Tailgater for years. I carry a dog tie out plastic coated wire cable and padlock it to a tree, table leg, stabilizer, etc. Would not stop someone with good bolt cutters. But in 12 years no problem.

After years of manually aiming a tripod setup, I broke down and bought a Carryout GM1518 when I pulled into a campsite and my neighbor was selling his. He pulled out the next day before I had a chance to test it out. It didn't work and I started troubleshooting it via email with Winegard. Another camper who saw me with the cover off and fussing with it came over and said he had one but could never get it working and would almost give it away! Long story short, I ended with with two Carryout GM1518 Winegard dishes. The second one worked after flipping the switches so it would find the western arc. The results of troubleshooting the first one confirmed it had failed. After much trepidation, I shipped it off to Winegard where they actually replaced a couple of small parts on one of the boards to fix it. The repair wasn't nearly as bad as I had feared. (who does board level repair these days?) Afterwards, I had two working portables. I was going to sell one but then got to thinking about mounting one permanently on the roof for ease of use and keeping the other one for those numerous occasions we were assigned a site under the trees. That's what I've done for the past several years. Out west, there's no problem with trees obstructing the roof mounted dish but around home there's lots of trees. We're headed to Florida this winter and packing the extra dish - just in case while hoping we can get by with the roof mounted one. Like you, I don't like leaving something that expensive out all night when bicycles regularly disappear when left out. I do carry a long cable and big lock to secure the portable when I do leave it out. (chains are too easily cut with bolt cutters)

All “heavenly” feeds can be assessed from the ground or RV roof my Bible says. Book, chapter and verse available upon request.

A Pathway X2 would be a better choice over the Playmaker. The X2 can fully tune both arcs for better aiming opportunities on heavily treed sites. Like all the domes, it's also limited to just basic receivers though.

We use a manually aimed tripod mounted dish that we can equip for either arc for use with the Dish Hopper multi-tuner series of DVR receivers. We've stayed on well over two hundred different sites with our dish, and have always been able to get a signal despite never selecting sites for a satellite view.

you might want to do both. just make sure that the receiver you select can use both antennas...not all can.