Satellite dish in Canada and the USA
Hi there; We are as new as new can be. We purchased a Class C motorhome and noticed on our maiden voyage that most campgrounds did not offer cable anymore. 2 weeks without Blacklist was enough to c...
Forum Discussion
I recently installed a satellite setup in our TT. All I did is borrow an unused receiver from home and put in the trailer. We have 6 receivers set up at home with our service provider and one wasn't being used. As mentioned above, the satellite does not know or care where you are. What you don't want to do is phone the provider from the US if having problems. You'll need to figure out what particular satellite you need to aim to. If you only want HD channels, you may need just one satellite and a dish with only one LNB. I would suggest using only one satellite then you won't need to set the dish up with the correct skew angle. We bought a used 18" dish off CL and it works fine. Not sure what you bought for a dish. I'm not sure if an LNB can be used with different companies (Dish, Bell, etc.).
You can use www.dishpointer.com to get the elevation and azimuth you need for aiming the dish depending on where you are. I would go through the setup procedure at home to make sure you know how to set it all up and how to use the setup menu on the screen. Figuring out how to aim the dish can take a while at first. When using a signal finder meter, you can end up catching a wrong satellite and you'll need to go see what the display on your TV is showing.
Trees can be your biggest problem and if a lot of trees in a CG, it can be frustrating to find a site with an opening through tree branches. If you're using a Canadian service provider, you can't look at other satellites in a CG to see where they are aiming. Our particular satellite is almost 90 degrees different. Another thing to note is that the centerline of a dish is not where it's aimed at the satellite - they have an offset of 20 degrees (IIRC). To get an approx. idea, look from the bottom of the dish from the rear to the top of the LNB. Our dish is pretty much vertical and didn't make sense to me at first.
You'll also need to figure out where to have the receiver in your Class C and will need a co-ax connection on the outside and an HDMI or component cable from the receiver to TV. Our TT came pre-wired for satellite but I abandoned it and installed new co-ax from the exterior connection to the receiver.
You can use www.dishpointer.com to get the elevation and azimuth you need for aiming the dish depending on where you are. I would go through the setup procedure at home to make sure you know how to set it all up and how to use the setup menu on the screen. Figuring out how to aim the dish can take a while at first. When using a signal finder meter, you can end up catching a wrong satellite and you'll need to go see what the display on your TV is showing.
Trees can be your biggest problem and if a lot of trees in a CG, it can be frustrating to find a site with an opening through tree branches. If you're using a Canadian service provider, you can't look at other satellites in a CG to see where they are aiming. Our particular satellite is almost 90 degrees different. Another thing to note is that the centerline of a dish is not where it's aimed at the satellite - they have an offset of 20 degrees (IIRC). To get an approx. idea, look from the bottom of the dish from the rear to the top of the LNB. Our dish is pretty much vertical and didn't make sense to me at first.
You'll also need to figure out where to have the receiver in your Class C and will need a co-ax connection on the outside and an HDMI or component cable from the receiver to TV. Our TT came pre-wired for satellite but I abandoned it and installed new co-ax from the exterior connection to the receiver.
