New To Dish

Bill.Satellite wrote:

AllegroD wrote:
Bill.Satellite,
Isn't there a challenge moving between Eastern and Western Arc.

OP, Have been using Dish "pay as you go" for years. Works great. You can go simple. Look at the Winegard Pathways X2 and the Wally.

Isn't what a challenge? Your X2 can move between EA and WA. If you are referring to a tripod style antenna, very, very few people actually "need" EA so the WA setup will cover 99% of US and much of Canada and Mexico and is required for AK.

I have a tripod mounted setup and have found in this area of the country (western PA) EA is usially better due to the higher elevation of the birds. WA birds are usually below the tree tops unless you can find a large enough open area far back from the tree line in a campground, especially 129 which is only at an elevation on 26 degrees. EA just requires a little more finesse when aiming/peaking because of the closeness of 72 and 77, along with 72 having less signal strength than you have when aiming/peaking WA using 119. I usually get close to 80 on 119 when using WA, but never more than low 50's at 77 using EA.

I have a 1000.4 dish and can swap between WA or EA LNBs.

And for those that say you can't have a splitter in the coax between reciever and dish, well you can. It has to be a "power pass" splitter. None of the RV manufacturers use them because they cost 82 cents more than a standard splitter. On most trailers you can easily intercept the run from the exterior "cable tv" connection at the antenna booster by removing the wall plate. Install a power pass splitter in that line and run a jumper from splitter back to the cable in jack on the booster, and another jumper from splitter to a new wall plate for your receiver. Now you can use the exterior cable port for either. What you can not do is have the antenna booster between the receiver and dish.

Our 17 Rockwood has a dedicated home run from a wall plate at the main TV, to a 2nd exterior port marked satellite. Rockwood is one of the few that actually wire them up using common sense. Most manufacturers are just looking to be able to put "satellite ready" in the brochures as a selling point and think because they used RG6 that constitutes satellite ready.

I'll never go back to the auto aiming dishes since using the tripod mount. I can set up the tripod mount almost as fast and get better results. The larger reflector will pull in signal in conditions the smaller reflector in the auto dishes will not, like through the trees in early spring and late fall. I also have run up to 400' of coax to the tripod mount to locate it where I had clear sky, which you can't do with the autos unless using a power inserter.