Eastern Arc satellites for Winegard DISH Trav'lr???

I saw a second hand Tailgater on Craigslist and was going to go after it until I came across this thread. Ill just save up and get the X2, sounds like a better auto dish for me.

Crabbypatty - You asked about the X2. I love mine. 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 ( meaning two different 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.

Tim

Please pay careful attention to the information I posted above. I worked for Winegard. I trained dealers on how to use the Winegard products. I sold and installed Winegard for over 12 years. If you have nothing better to do, play with all of the available settings and let us know how it comes out. Better yet, leave the Trav'ler set to 110, 119 and 129 and enjoy the show. When that's not available you can pick any one of those 3 or 61.5 under the manual configuration options.

powderman426 wrote:

Crabbypatty wrote:
I have used a standard house dish on a tripod but want to get something automatic as setting it up can be a PITA sometimes depending on the type of ground I am on. I was going to buy a tailgater but it sounds like I would be better off with the X2 for dish. True or false? Will I be missing channels with the tailgater?

From my own observations the only thing you would possibly lose would be your locals. Why they chose to put some of the local feeds on the 129 sat which is very low on the horizon in the east is beyond me.

In the western arc. the HD spotbeam channels (Locals) are indeed on 129. Probably because the bulk of HD is on 129. I use the western arc with my tripod & 1000.4 on the road. At home My locals and most HD channels are on 61.5 since a tree blocks my view of 110/119/129.

Thanks for the further info. I suspect you are right, but I managed to find a manual on line that showed I can select certain satellites 'manually'. One of the six or seven choices was 'Manual 72'. I won't likely get out to my trailer in storage for another week or so. Maybe my unit doesn't have this option but I'll start up the generator and give it a try. I'll post my findings which might be 'epic fail'.

OldGreaser wrote:
Thanks for the info. I'll see what I can find out about how to 'tell' my Trav'lr to seek the eastern satellites. If I find out anything valuable I'll report back.

As mentioned above, you CANNOT get the Trav'ler to seek the Eastern Satellites. You can only get it to point to the 61.5 satellite (and 77 but 77 is not used any longer). You really need 72.7 and 61.5 for properly use of the EA setup.

Crabbypatty wrote:
I have used a standard house dish on a tripod but want to get something automatic as setting it up can be a PITA sometimes depending on the type of ground I am on. I was going to buy a tailgater but it sounds like I would be better off with the X2 for dish. True or false? Will I be missing channels with the tailgater?

From my own observations the only thing you would possibly lose would be your locals. Why they chose to put some of the local feeds on the 129 sat which is very low on the horizon in the east is beyond me.

I have used a standard house dish on a tripod but want to get something automatic as setting it up can be a PITA sometimes depending on the type of ground I am on. I was going to buy a tailgater but it sounds like I would be better off with the X2 for dish. True or false? Will I be missing channels with the tailgater?

I have those at home and get all 3 with my winegard Mini Max all in HD. Winegard customer service is great give them a call for help.

Thanks for the info. I'll see what I can find out about how to 'tell' my Trav'lr to seek the eastern satellites. If I find out anything valuable I'll report back.