OK guys, We are fed up with Direct tv and are going to switch our home and RV to Dish. We had the roof winegard for Direct TV but just sold the big Class A and bought a small Class C. We are short ( 1 to 2 months) trip takers maybe a couple times a year. We plan to buy a portable satellite Dome based on the answers here (as I always get great info) No one will be in our house when we leave so do not need service in the stick built during that time. Our RV has a satellite cable set up that will go to the box and then from the box to the TV we had installed when we had the new tv set up. Here goes- What has everyone found to be the best portable satellite for Dish. When calling Dish network, what do we ask for. We will want 2 receivers in our house and one receiver in the motorhome but hopefully not a separate account or is it better and cheaper to just take the second receiver from the house. Local channels while traveling is not important. Do I tell them one of the receivers will be in the RV and will the receiver in the RV need to be set up by Dish or can we do it. With our direct tv system. The receiver in the RV was just an additional $7 a month and was just connected to our home account. Since we are starting from scratch with Dish Network I figure someone here has a new system you have installed and can guide me which way to go that works and keeps the cost down.

Not all receivers will work with portable satellites. We have a Winegard Pathway X2 that we have been very pleased with. It will receive both the eastern and western arc satellites. The only receivers that are compatible with it are the 211Z and Wally. If you have a Hopper at your house, it won't work with any of the portable dome type satellite dishes. You would get the dish itself from a 3rd party, not Dish. (Places like Camping World, LazyDays, GeneralRV, etc., sell the dishes). If you need an additional receiver for your motorhome, you can buy it from one of those other places and register it with Dish Network. They will charge you an extra $7/mo to send a signal to that receiver. While you are traveling, you can call Dish customer service and change your service location so you can get the local channels for wherever you happen to be. You can change the local location as often as you want.

rondeb wrote:OK guys, We are fed up with Direct tv and are going to switch our home and RV to Dish. We had the roof winegard for Direct TV but just sold the big Class A and bought a small Class C. We are short ( 1 to 2 months) trip takers maybe a couple times a year. We plan to buy a portable satellite Dome based on the answers here (as I always get great info) No one will be in our house when we leave so do not need service in the stick built during that time. Our RV has a satellite cable set up that will go to the box and then from the box to the TV we had installed when we had the new tv set up. Here goes- What has everyone found to be the best portable satellite for Dish. When calling Dish network, what do we ask for. We will want 2 receivers in our house and one receiver in the motorhome but hopefully not a separate account or is it better and cheaper to just take the second receiver from the house. Local channels while traveling is not important. Do I tell them one of the receivers will be in the RV and will the receiver in the RV need to be set up by Dish or can we do it. With our direct tv system. The receiver in the RV was just an additional $7 a month and was just connected to our home account. Since we are starting from scratch with Dish Network I figure someone here has a new system you have installed and can guide me which way to go that works and keeps the cost down.Just call 1-800-333-3474 for Dish Network tech support. Explain how you want to use your Dish i.e. 1 tv or 2 tvs, do you want a permanently mounted automatic satellite on your roof ,do you want a automatic dish that you can sit next to your RV (Play Maker) ??? They will walk you through your options, choices.

Dish will provide you a hopper and a Joey for home for “free” for signing up for Dish service. You can buy the Wally or 211 receiver and the portable automatic dish from several online a retailers. You can turn the rv tuner on or off at will via app The provided tuners in the house need to be on since you don’t own them they would probably want them returned if not connected . You can change your service location at will , every day if you desire via text , app or phone call. Changing service locations will / May affect the home tuner ability to get locals but all other Chanel’s will work as normal ( record while your not there) Dishformyrv.com can help you with the RV setup. And at least direct you to the home set up. I use a pathfinder2 and it works great with a large reflector ( less rain problems) but it’s large and hard to store. It’s not my primary dish that’s a roof mounted travler I have little experience with the other portables.

I use a Winegard CarryOut portable automatic satellite antenna with a Vip211k (which I believe is one of the better more versatile receivers available). The CarryOut line of automatic antennas can tune both the eastern and western arcs as well as the DirectTV SD satellite (I hear Direct is moving away from broadcasting SD soon). The 211k has a built-in OTA tuner for local channels and can be upgraded to a DVR by adding an external hard drive via USB cable (and pay a $40 one time fee). I bought a Wally receiver only to find out the only out puts it has are component and HDMI. I have two TVs at my house and two on the RV so to use the Wally, I'd need to purchase an HDMI splitter and HDMI cables run to both TVs. Right now, I can't use the Wally. The Wally also lacks an internal OTA tuner but for 2/3s the cost of the receiver, you can buy an external one to add that missing feature back to it.If you go with a portable dish, you'll have better luck finding a signal in parks with a lot of tree that can block permanently mounted antennas.

DFord wrote:I use a Winegard CarryOut portable automatic satellite antenna with a Vip211k (which I believe is one of the better more versatile receivers available). The CarryOut line of automatic antennas can tune both the eastern and western arcs as well as the DirectTV SD satellite (I hear Direct is moving away from broadcasting SD soon). The 211k has a built-in OTA tuner for local channels and can be upgraded to a DVR by adding an external hard drive via USB cable (and pay a $40 one time fee). I bought a Wally receiver only to find out the only out puts it has are component and HDMI. I have two TVs at my house and two on the RV so to use the Wally, I'd need to purchase an HDMI splitter and HDMI cables run to both TVs. Right now, I can't use the Wally. The Wally also lacks an internal OTA tuner but for 2/3s the cost of the receiver, you can buy an external one to add that missing feature back to it.If you go with a portable dish, you'll have better luck finding a signal in parks with a lot of tree that can block permanently mounted antennas.Forgive my lack of knowledge but what is an OTA tuner. Also, we tried the dish on a tripod and gave up as we just couldn't get a signal. We only have one tv in the rv so which receiver would you recommend We have never recorded anything on our Direct tv receiver but not saying we wouldn't ever. The main thing we watch on the tv are the baseball games and we purchase the baseball package now and I have confirmed that Dish provides that as well.

Going from Direct TV to Dish Need information | Good Sam Community

rondeb
Explorer
Nov 12, 2019
I want to thank everyone for their input. We are now in a few days going to be Dish Network people. I bought the "WINEGUARD PATHWAY X2 AUTOMATIC SATELLITE DISH WITH WINEGUARD TR-1518 TRIPOD MT" (actually found a used one from an elderly couple that had used it for a year and have quit RVing for $275. It is like brand new) Then I found a new VIP211K on Ebay for the RV. Dish will install everything we need in the house and they said they will let up the RV one for us as all the cables everything are run. Your advice as usual helped save many hours of research. Good by to Directv. They have become a joke.
DFord
Explorer
Nov 12, 2019
Great find and good price on the Pathway. I see it can tune both the Eastern and Western satellite arcs when needed. I believe the Vip211k is one of the best receivers Dish ever made. I've had several down through the years and it has all the features I need. It's small and includes an OTA tuner, offers several connection options and it's DVR capable by adding an external hard drive (get one with its own power supply - the small 2-1/2 inch drives are meant to be powered through the USB cable and I don't think the 211k has enough power to operate a drive like that).
TechWriter
Explorer
Nov 12, 2019
DFord wrote:
I say all this to let you know you don't need to switch locals as you travel across a state. Sometimes the spot beams overlap and you can make use of that. If you're 500 miles out of a market area, you'll have to switch. Also, the cost of locals may change from one market to another and that will be reflected on your bill.

There are several DISH CONUS markets that you can receive anywhere in the US -- Sacramento, CA for example.

Also, DISH locals cost a flat $10/month.
DFord
Explorer
Nov 12, 2019
TechWriter wrote:
There are several DISH CONUS markets that you can receive anywhere in the US -- Sacramento, CA for example.

Also, DISH locals cost a flat $10/month.
If this is true, why are they charging me $12.50 for the St Louis locals? As I travel around and request locals from the area I'm in, I'm charged different rates (and taxes) depending on which state/city I'm in.

I remember Dish losing a court battle in Florida many years ago and had to stop allowing "distance network" reception. Then a 3rd party (AllAmericanDirect.com) took it over until they failed. I haven't heard of any nationwide locals since they stopped offering them. Please enlighten us as to how to go about getting distance locals. I'd prefer some on the east coast so I can watch late night TV at a reasonable time.
TechWriter
Explorer
Nov 13, 2019
DFord wrote:
. . . why are they charging me $12.50 for the St Louis locals? As I travel around and request locals from the area I'm in, I'm charged different rates (and taxes) depending on which state/city I'm in.

My bad. The rate is now $12/month for local stations, not "distant locals". For me, that price is good everywhere as I've changed locals many times while traveling.

DFord wrote:

Please enlighten us as to how to go about getting distance locals. I'd prefer some on the east coast so I can watch late night TV at a reasonable time.

You're confusing two different things:

Local TV coverage ($12/month) -- your local TV stations will appear in your DISH programming guide. When you travel outside your local TV station coverage, then you can change to other local stations.
Distant Network (like All American) -- a non-DISH service that used to provide East or West Coast TV stations (LA or NY I think). As you travelled around the country you could always count on receiving these stations because they were on CONUS sats.

Though DISH Distant Network service is no longer available, CONUS service is available for these TV markets:

For example, if you have a Sacramento, CA address, then you could receive Sacramento locals in HD all across the country . . . as long as you can receive sat 119.
DFord
Explorer
Nov 13, 2019
So if I was to say I was at my son's house in the Baltimore service area, I would receive the Baltimore locals anywhere I go? I very seldom switch my antenna to the eastern arc so I use 119 almost all the time. I can't figure out why a small market like Springfield, MO would be broadcast nationwide. In fact many of the cities listed are very small markets. To have them available across the nation seems like a waste of bandwidth.
TechWriter
Explorer
Nov 13, 2019
DFord wrote:
So if I was to say I was at my son's house in the Baltimore service area, I would receive the Baltimore locals anywhere I go? I very seldom switch my antenna to the eastern arc so I use 119 almost all the time. I can't figure out why a small market like Springfield, MO would be broadcast nationwide. In fact many of the cities listed are very small markets. To have them available across the nation seems like a waste of bandwidth.

Your reply reminds me of the story about the guy who gave a panhandler $20. Then the panhandler complained that the $20 bill was wrinkled.
DFord
Explorer
Nov 13, 2019
TechWriter wrote:
Your reply reminds me of the story about the guy who gave a panhandler $20. Then the panhandler complained that the $20 bill was wrinkled.
And just what do you mean by that?
htwheelz67
Explorer
Nov 15, 2019
I switched to dish after being with DTV for 20 years, I used to take my box with us but now I use the dishanywhere app, all you need is internet and either a smart tv or firestick or similar, I can connect right to my reciever/dvr at home and watch anything I can at home or what is recorded or record from where I'm at. I've used it with both ATT and Verizon hot spots.
johnnparry55
Explorer
Nov 19, 2020
chindog wrote:
Not all receivers will work with portable satellites. We have a Winegard Pathway X2 that we have been very pleased with. It will receive both the eastern and western arc satellites. The only receivers that are compatible with it are the 211Z and Wally. If you have a hopper customer service number at your house, it won't work with any of the portable dome type satellite dishes. You would get the dish itself from a 3rd party, not Dish. (Places like Camping World, LazyDays, GeneralRV, etc., sell the dishes). If you need an additional receiver for your motorhome, you can buy it from one of those other places and register it with Dish Network. They will charge you an extra $7/mo to send a signal to that receiver. While you are traveling, you can call Dish customer service and change your service location so you can get the local channels for wherever you happen to be. You can change the local location as often as you want with.

If you have any questions to Hopper, pls visit ***Link Removed***. Very prompt service support

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