Questions from a newbie to DISH

There are two sets of satellites for Dish, those that best serve the central to western US and those that best serve the east.

The Tailgater does automatically move from one sat to another if you change to channels that are located on different sats.

A tripod mounted antenna with 3 LNBs will pick up all sats simultaneously and not require any further movement once aimed correctly. A little practice and aiming is not too difficult. And the larger antenna will give you more reliable reception in inclement weather.

jmcgsd wrote:

My issue is a less than decent understanding of some basics such as:

1. What is with "Eastern" and "Western" arc?
2. When changing channels does the dish need to move from one satellite to another?
3. I am pretty stationary for months at a time. Is there a manual antenna/tripod combo available for purchase that will work in SoCal with my VIP211?

Thanks for the help.
Joe

Eastern / Western is where the bird is in the sky. It's always in the same spot but appears to follow an "arc" based on how for North you are.

Regarding moving the dish for new channels. That was true for the old B.U.D. systems (big ugly dish) but not for the new digital service. One bird carries all the channels on one or more transponders (antennas). Your dish will have one or more LNB (antennas) that receive those transponder signals. Once you aim your dish, you don't have to move it again.

edit: I should preface, my experience has only been with residential service, never in a RV. I had elliptical dish, it may have been able to grab multiple sats / transponders. I never had to move it and had over 250 channels in service.

1. Dish has two groups of satellites: Eastern and Western. Sometimes, one or the other is easier to lock in on. In SoCal, Western would usually be the group of choice. There are 3 satellites in each group, each offering a different array of channels.

2. With a tailgator, yes, if the channels are on different satellites.

3. Yes. Any dish mounted on a house for Dish will work but some (newer) are better than others. You can then mount that on your rig, a tripod, a pole, etc.

Not sure about one or 2, but three is easy, YES there are lots of freestanding dish tripod setups thst will work just fine. Cheapest is to search places like solidsignal.com on line, pick the setup you think wiwill work best and buy it. They do take some getting used to as far as setup is concerned, but once learned its fairly simple. There are smart phone apps like dishpointer pro that will help you pinpoint the best place to setup. I know of a couple of hosts that hire a local Dish contractor to come and set it up for them. Would be worth hiring one the first time or two and let them show you the proper way to setup.