sat dish

[hottub]

looking for best sat. dish for fifth wheel.
1. must be able to pay to go
2. must be able to get eastern and western sat.
3. must be capable of operating 2 tv's on different channels
4. being installed on a prewired for sat cedar creek.
question... would you roof mount with the concern of not getting signal in a shady campsite? or set up on tripod
Thanks

[cummins2014]

ORbiker wrote:

cummins2014 wrote:

ORbiker wrote:
We have had the DISH Tailgater for 3 years. It works ok, unless it's raining hard.
We decided to get a roof mounted dish antenna. I researched a lot and decided on the Eagle TV Automatic Antenna System It's user serviceable and can be converted from Dish to Direct tv easily.

KEN

Thats a great setup, but was talked out of it by the dealer. He asked me one simple question do you camp in the trees, and the answer was yes . I have had to move my portable dish a few times , or cut a few branches off if its allowed.

My advice to anyone , if you are going with a permanent roof mount dish ,you better be in the wide open spaces ,and not in trees or where there is something to block the signal.

I kept our Dish Tailgater just in case the trees give us problems. So far, so good.
With the roof antenna, the Dish Hopper works like at home and the recording can happen, then the commercials are gone (zipped thru). KEN

That would be the only solution, but many I’m sure do not want to purchase two satellite dishes .

[ORbiker]

cummins2014 wrote:

ORbiker wrote:
We have had the DISH Tailgater for 3 years. It works ok, unless it's raining hard.
We decided to get a roof mounted dish antenna. I researched a lot and decided on the Eagle TV Automatic Antenna System It's user serviceable and can be converted from Dish to Direct tv easily.

KEN

Thats a great setup, but was talked out of it by the dealer. He asked me one simple question do you camp in the trees, and the answer was yes . I have had to move my portable dish a few times , or cut a few branches off if its allowed.

My advice to anyone , if you are going with a permanent roof mount dish ,you better be in the wide open spaces ,and not in trees or where there is something to block the signal.

I kept our Dish Tailgater just in case the trees give us problems. So far, so good.
With the roof antenna, the Dish Hopper works like at home and the recording can happen, then the commercials are gone (zipped thru). KEN

[topjimmy]

Dish Tailgater pay as you go here for about 6 years and yes what was said above the directions are confusing for which is the front is as it shows the handle being aimed South in the instructions I tried that when I first got it and it would not work untill A guy in the Resort told me the Handle is the BACK of the tailgater so I turned it around and Bam! been enjoying it ever since and also I just put mine on the ground or on my roof if a big RV parks next to me blocking my Southern Sky I don't need no sticking Tripod:B and I have never used a APP to find Satellites Up here in the NW I just aim it a little SE and good to go:)

[Edd505]

Lynnmor wrote:

Edd505 wrote:

Lynnmor wrote:
The Dish Playmaker offered by Dish, no longer need to be pointed north. The Tailgater has conflicting instructions about positioning north. The Winegard App will not run on my iPhone and has poor reviews. I use SatFinder Lite and it works fine.

Pretty darn clear to me: Set up your Tailgater, Pathway, or Playmaker. Take the guesswork out of setting up your DISH portable antenna. Place your portable antenna outside on flat, level ground. Make sure it has a clear line of sight of the southern sky and ensure the coax ports point north.

The Android phone app works excellent for OTA & Sat. It works with all sat systems and in AR view I can look at the sky with the phone & see the sats. If my phone sees them so will my antenna & I know exactly where to place it if I'm in trees. Have no idea how the Apple app works as I wouldn't purchase an over priced propitiatory anything, but that's just me. Don't have a lot of experience setting up being 3/4 time and 10-12K a year in my RV, experience Vs reading some article.

On the Dish website there are two different sets of instructions for the Tailgator, one mentions the north and the other does not. My Playmaker has no such requirement.

The reviews on the Winegard app mentions the exact problem I am having. The Apple app should work exactly the same as the one for cheap phones, but it crashes. The SatFinder app works well.

Maybe you need a cheap Android works well with the Winegaurd app, no crashes. Apple is like driving a Lincoln truck, flashy but not much use working.

[cummins2014]

ORbiker wrote:
We have had the DISH Tailgater for 3 years. It works ok, unless it's raining hard.
We decided to get a roof mounted dish antenna. I researched a lot and decided on the Eagle TV Automatic Antenna System It's user serviceable and can be converted from Dish to Direct tv easily.

KEN

Thats a great setup, but was talked out of it by the dealer. He asked me one simple question do you camp in the trees, and the answer was yes . I have had to move my portable dish a few times , or cut a few branches off if its allowed.

My advice to anyone , if you are going with a permanent roof mount dish ,you better be in the wide open spaces ,and not in trees or where there is something to block the signal.

[Lynnmor]

Edd505 wrote:

Lynnmor wrote:
The Dish Playmaker offered by Dish, no longer need to be pointed north. The Tailgater has conflicting instructions about positioning north. The Winegard App will not run on my iPhone and has poor reviews. I use SatFinder Lite and it works fine.

Pretty darn clear to me: Set up your Tailgater, Pathway, or Playmaker. Take the guesswork out of setting up your DISH portable antenna. Place your portable antenna outside on flat, level ground. Make sure it has a clear line of sight of the southern sky and ensure the coax ports point north.

The Android phone app works excellent for OTA & Sat. It works with all sat systems and in AR view I can look at the sky with the phone & see the sats. If my phone sees them so will my antenna & I know exactly where to place it if I'm in trees. Have no idea how the Apple app works as I wouldn't purchase an over priced propitiatory anything, but that's just me. Don't have a lot of experience setting up being 3/4 time and 10-12K a year in my RV, experience Vs reading some article.

On the Dish website there are two different sets of instructions for the Tailgator, one mentions the north and the other does not. My Playmaker has no such requirement.

The reviews on the Winegard app mentions the exact problem I am having. The Apple app should work exactly the same as the one for cheap phones, but it crashes. The SatFinder app works well.

[lee_worsdell]

I have dish here in Canada I put it up on roof of the trailer or can move it around to get signal. My buddy has his on the roof and some times cant get signal because of trees

[ORbiker]

We have had the DISH Tailgater for 3 years. It works ok, unless it's raining hard.
We decided to get a roof mounted dish antenna. I researched a lot and decided on the Eagle TV Automatic Antenna System It's user serviceable and can be converted from Dish to Direct tv easily.

KEN

[Edd505]

Lynnmor wrote:
The Dish Playmaker offered by Dish, no longer need to be pointed north. The Tailgater has conflicting instructions about positioning north. The Winegard App will not run on my iPhone and has poor reviews. I use SatFinder Lite and it works fine.

Pretty darn clear to me: Set up your Tailgater, Pathway, or Playmaker. Take the guesswork out of setting up your DISH portable antenna. Place your portable antenna outside on flat, level ground. Make sure it has a clear line of sight of the southern sky and ensure the coax ports point north.

The Android phone app works excellent for OTA & Sat. It works with all sat systems and in AR view I can look at the sky with the phone & see the sats. If my phone sees them so will my antenna & I know exactly where to place it if I'm in trees. Have no idea how the Apple app works as I wouldn't purchase an over priced propitiatory anything, but that's just me. Don't have a lot of experience setting up being 3/4 time and 10-12K a year in my RV, experience Vs reading some article.

[Lynnmor]

The Dish Playmaker offered by Dish, no longer need to be pointed north. The Tailgater has conflicting instructions about positioning north. The Winegard App will not run on my iPhone and has poor reviews. I use SatFinder Lite and it works fine.

[Edd505]

Dish portable auto aims, point the handle to the North. When in a treed area I use the phone app from Winegard: https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.winegard.finder&hl=en_US

[cummins2014]

md_procouple wrote:
We tried them ALL had a Tripod mounted dish, Had bought Wingard, and ended up with DISH Tailgater !! Always had problem getting the Tripod level then having to "aim" dish, not to mention storing the dish, and tripod when done. Never had any luck at all with wingard (Tried 2 different units). NEVER had a problem with the tailgaters, (we have 2 of them) We just put them on 2 small folding tables point the carry handles to the south and let them do their thing. Never had a problem with either one of them !! Good Luck and Happy Camping !!

Dish has pretty good support , those automatics seem to work okay , but they do have their limitations with Directv . I have always used the tripod and sat. dish with my Directv never had a problem . Always took a receiver from home . We upgraded our system in the fifth wheel this year . We could of continued with our DVR from home as our other receiver no longer supported Directv We decided on a HR24 DVR dedicated to the fifth wheel and a new tripod and satellite dish , same dish as mounted on our house . Reception is great and it’s never been difficult to get the signal .

[md_procouple]

We tried them ALL had a Tripod mounted dish, Had bought Wingard, and ended up with DISH Tailgater !! Always had problem getting the Tripod level then having to "aim" dish, not to mention storing the dish, and tripod when done. Never had any luck at all with wingard (Tried 2 different units). NEVER had a problem with the tailgaters, (we have 2 of them) We just put them on 2 small folding tables point the carry handles to the south and let them do their thing. Never had a problem with either one of them !! Good Luck and Happy Camping !!

[Second_Chance]

In a nutshell, the roof-mount Winegard Trav'ler is a single-arc antenna. It must be set up for either the eastern or western arcs and, in order for it to be converted from one arc to the other, the LNBs and switch must be changed out. The only automatic portable capable of receiving both arcs is, as mentioned, the Pathway X2. It is an excellent antenna, but is a single LNB antenna. This means it can only see one satellite at a time. It will serve two TVs/receivers at the same time if both are tuned to channels on the same satellite.

Rob