Satellite TV or Cable

Most campgrounds do not have cable. If you go Direct TV get an automatic dish, much more enjoyable. But it is fun to watch people trying to manually adjust their dish.

Do not assume most sites have cable, the opposite is the case. Cheapest is what you mentioned, take receiver, depends on if you want/need SD or HD for the dish.

Bellpr wrote:
If we decide to drop the Satellite TV, then we are stuck with Cable TV. I assume most campsites have Cable.

That might be a bad assumption. Probably significantly less than 50%, based on our travels.

A portable DirecTV dish and tripod shouldn't be hard to come by. I gave ours away when my wife bought me a VuQube 1000 dish for my birthday a few years ago. With the receiver from your house, you should be all set if your 5th wheel is pre-wired for satellite (and most are these days).

Be aware, though, that with DirecTV you're going to be relegated to SD (standard definition) service unless you're willing to set up a Slimline portable dish or use a HD roofmount dish such as the Winegard Traveler SK-SWM3.

Rusty

KCerling wrote:
Most campgrounds do not have cable. If you go Direct TV get an automatic dish, much more enjoyable. But it is fun to watch people trying to manually adjust their dish.

can you give me an example of an Automatic dish so I know what I'm looking for? thanks.

Bellpr wrote:

KCerling wrote:
Most campgrounds do not have cable. If you go Direct TV get an automatic dish, much more enjoyable. But it is fun to watch people trying to manually adjust their dish.

can you give me an example of an Automatic dish so I know what I'm looking for? thanks.

See my post above - the Winegard Traveler SK-SWM3 for a roof mounted automatic HD DirecTV dish.

Rusty

Well we have cable at home so invested in a Tailgater and Dish service. We get both HD and standard reception. The tailgater is auto align, I typicality place on roof of 5er, out of the way and less likely to be messed with.

The only problem with using satellite is if you usually camp in wooded campgrounds. Most places we camp in the northeast have no view of the sky from a lot of their sites.

Bellpr wrote:


can you give me an example of an Automatic dish so I know what I'm looking for? thanks.

Some portable options Here

Most private RV parks do have cable to some extent. Most public campgrounds do not. So it makes a lot of difference on where you normally stay.

We have Dish at home and the month to month Dish plan in the RV. But often as not we use the RV park cable rather than setting up the satellite, especially if only staying a day or two. With a portable satellite antenna and 50' cable you can usually find an opening thru the trees even in fairly heavily wooded campsites.

Winegard Travler about 1600 dollars installed. Limited use if you park in trees. Good ground antenna and tripod about 150 dollars useable almost amywhere with 100 feet of coax. Many of us have both. I do and end up using my ground based dish probably 80% of the time due to trees. My Travler is automatic, but with the right tools, my ground antenna sets up in minutes.
BTW we have the wireless Genie system for home use and all I do is take one slave, the video bridge and my Genie with it. I have duplicate remote controls for the TVs in my RV. Takes some time to get the cabling correct to use either antenna, but it was worth the effort to me.