Setting up sat dish

Bill.Satellite wrote:
YEP! Get the app from Augmented Reality called Dish Pointer (Pro). There is a $9.95 version or one for $19.95 without ads and a few more capabilities. It looks just like that when you get where you are going and point your phone toward the sky. It's not as perfect as indicated but it is so really, really close that unless you are trying to find a tiny hole in the trees it will nearly always get you the information you need to find the place you need to be to receive programming.

X2 on the Dish Pointer Pro
one of the very few apps that I have paid for, Well worth the money.

Bill.Satellite wrote:
YEP! Get the app from Augmented Reality called Dish Pointer (Pro). There is a $9.95 version or one for $19.95 without ads and a few more capabilities. It looks just like that when you get where you are going and point your phone toward the sky. It's not as perfect as indicated but it is so really, really close that unless you are trying to find a tiny hole in the trees it will nearly always get you the information you need to find the place you need to be to receive programming.

Very cool, thanks!

YEP! Get the app from Augmented Reality called Dish Pointer (Pro). There is a $9.95 version or one for $19.95 without ads and a few more capabilities. It looks just like that when you get where you are going and point your phone toward the sky. It's not as perfect as indicated but it is so really, really close that unless you are trying to find a tiny hole in the trees it will nearly always get you the information you need to find the place you need to be to receive programming.

Dutch_12078 wrote:


You must not have stayed in some of the parks we've been in where there's no good southern exposures on any site, just a few holes through the branches where careful positioning of a portable dish gets you one or two satellites on one arc or the other. The two photos below from our current site show where the Dish western arc and DTV birds are, followed by the hole where my dish could see the Dish eastern arc sats. What doesn't show, is the 100' of coax from our tripod mounted dish back to the motorhome.

How did you get those images showing where the satellites are? Is there really a way you find a hole through trees for the CG site you are in?

We've just installed sat TV and only use sat 82 (HD) with one LNB and have used it maybe 1/2 dozen times so far. Have been lucky to find sites where we can get a signal. Took me while to figure out that the dish doesn't aim along it's centerline to a sat but is at a 22 degree angle. I read somewhere that you can site a line from the rear/bottom of your dish to the top of the LNB to see approx. where you are aiming. There's got to be a better way.

Dutch_12078 wrote:

lanerd wrote:

Dutch_12078 wrote:

We've stayed in many RV parks where a roof mounted dish could not be used due to tree cover. Even with our portable dish we've sometimes been limited to only one or two sats though a small hole in the trees. The Dish version of the Trav'ler is a western arc only automatic dish, even further limiting the aiming options.

We have found that by calling ahead to our next stop on the morning of the day we will arrive, we can always secure a spot that has a southern exposure for the sat dish. I think only once in the past few years was this not possible (due to a holiday weekend and the part was just about full). On that day, we just watched some of our recorded programs.

Ron

You must not have stayed in some of the parks we've been in where there's no good southern exposures on any site, just a few holes through the branches where careful positioning of a portable dish gets you one or two satellites on one arc or the other. The two photos below from our current site show where the Dish western arc and DTV birds are, followed by the hole where my dish could see the Dish eastern arc sats. What doesn't show, is the 100' of coax from our tripod mounted dish back to the motorhome.

When we call ahead to ask for southern exposure, they will normally tell us if they don't have any. If that's the case, we call another rv park. Now if you're camping (really camping), a portable antenna is the only way to go, but we rarely (if ever due to our size) camp in campgrounds in the forest or woods. We did that a lot in our younger years with our pop-up and TT, but then we didn't have much use for TV when camping.

Ron

lanerd wrote:

Dutch_12078 wrote:

We've stayed in many RV parks where a roof mounted dish could not be used due to tree cover. Even with our portable dish we've sometimes been limited to only one or two sats though a small hole in the trees. The Dish version of the Trav'ler is a western arc only automatic dish, even further limiting the aiming options.

We have found that by calling ahead to our next stop on the morning of the day we will arrive, we can always secure a spot that has a southern exposure for the sat dish. I think only once in the past few years was this not possible (due to a holiday weekend and the part was just about full). On that day, we just watched some of our recorded programs.

Ron

You must not have stayed in some of the parks we've been in where there's no good southern exposures on any site, just a few holes through the branches where careful positioning of a portable dish gets you one or two satellites on one arc or the other. The two photos below from our current site show where the Dish western arc and DTV birds are, followed by the hole where my dish could see the Dish eastern arc sats. What doesn't show, is the 100' of coax from our tripod mounted dish back to the motorhome.

Dutch_12078 wrote:

lanerd wrote:
What DISH "box" (receiver) do you want to use, what rv do you have, and what do you use the rv for?

DISH receivers will only work with DISH antennas. Some can be modified, but probably not cost effective. If you camp in s tree type of environment, you'd probably be better off with a portable antenna. If you use rv parks, a roof mounted antenna like the Wineguard Trav'ler would work best for you.

Hope this helps

Ron

We've stayed in many RV parks where a roof mounted dish could not be used due to tree cover. Even with our portable dish we've sometimes been limited to only one or two sats though a small hole in the trees. The Dish version of the Trav'ler is a western arc only automatic dish, even further limiting the aiming options.

We have found that by calling ahead to our next stop on the morning of the day we will arrive, we can always secure a spot that has a southern exposure for the sat dish. I think only once in the past few years was this not possible (due to a holiday weekend and the part was just about full). On that day, we just watched some of our recorded programs.

Ron

Bill.Satellite wrote:

betsypupcdx wrote:
Hi, we want to be able to use our DISH box from our spare room in our RV. We just looked and the sat dish we used to use with our other MH is from Direct TV the box says "integrated triple LNB".
Are we going to be able to use this sat dish from direct TV for our DISH box?
Thanks
Linda H

So, welcome to the forums. Good, bad and random information! The correct answer to your question is NO, you can't use your Dish antenna for DirecTV due to the built-in switches.
Is you don't have any desire for high definition programming (TV that fills the entire screen on a current TV) then you simply need a single LNB antenna (maybe $20) on a tripod or similar setup. If you want DirecTV HD programming then you need an open face antenna with an SL3 LNB which will receive the DirecTV 99, 101, 103 satellites. That sounds like a lot but it is not. If you don't want to have to think at all then you can buy a dome style antenna that is either roof mounted or portable and get all of the DTV programming in SD. If you want HD then it is a full sized antenna like the one on your house either a portable the you must assemble/disassemble and manually point (not hard at all once you get some practice) or a roof mounted automatic like the Winegard Trav'ler.

Reread the OP, Bill... "...we want to be able to use our DISH box from our spare room in our RV." They want to use their DISH service, not Direct. They will need a DISH specific dish to receive the multiple DISH satellites, either eastern or western arc.

betsypupcdx wrote:
Hi, we want to be able to use our DISH box from our spare room in our RV. We just looked and the sat dish we used to use with our other MH is from Direct TV the box says "integrated triple LNB".
Are we going to be able to use this sat dish from direct TV for our DISH box?
Thanks
Linda H

So, welcome to the forums. Good, bad and random information! The correct answer to your question is NO, you can't use your Dish antenna for DirecTV due to the built-in switches.
Is you don't have any desire for high definition programming (TV that fills the entire screen on a current TV) then you simply need a single LNB antenna (maybe $20) on a tripod or similar setup. If you want DirecTV HD programming then you need an open face antenna with an SL3 LNB which will receive the DirecTV 99, 101, 103 satellites. That sounds like a lot but it is not. If you don't want to have to think at all then you can buy a dome style antenna that is either roof mounted or portable and get all of the DTV programming in SD. If you want HD then it is a full sized antenna like the one on your house either a portable the you must assemble/disassemble and manually point (not hard at all once you get some practice) or a roof mounted automatic like the Winegard Trav'ler.

lanerd wrote:
What DISH "box" (receiver) do you want to use, what rv do you have, and what do you use the rv for?

DISH receivers will only work with DISH antennas. Some can be modified, but probably not cost effective. If you camp in s tree type of environment, you'd probably be better off with a portable antenna. If you use rv parks, a roof mounted antenna like the Wineguard Trav'ler would work best for you.

Hope this helps

Ron

We've stayed in many RV parks where a roof mounted dish could not be used due to tree cover. Even with our portable dish we've sometimes been limited to only one or two sats though a small hole in the trees. The Dish version of the Trav'ler is a western arc only automatic dish, even further limiting the aiming options.