Anyone use a Dish Tailgater?
If so, how do you like it? I have heard it does not work as good as the Dish 500. Does it give a good picture all of the time and how does it do in the rain?
Forum Discussion
- Tim
Does the Pathway have to have a separate power lead or does it get its power thru the coax?
No, the Pathway gets it's power through the coax, just like the tailgater. It also has a second coax connection that you can use with a second cable and second receiver on another tv. The only limitation is that the second receiver has to watch channels that are on the same satellite as the master receiver has the antenna pointed to. - thx
- It works just like the Tailgater. Gets power thru the coax.
GoPackGo wrote:
I also have a Pathway X2 and I agree with everything Bill & Kate said. It's fully automatic, has a larger antenna dish so it can still pull in satellites in borderline situations (such as tree leaves), it can access the eastern as well as the western arc satellites, and it has 2 cable outlets so you can hook up to a second TV and watch a different channel as long as it's on the same satellite. I just looked at Amazon and you can pick up a bundled package consisting of the X2 plus one 211z receiver box and it's remote control on Amazon for $490 with free shipping.
I would also suggest getting the dedicated tripod mount for it in case you end up camping somewhere and get monsooned like I did (if these things end up sitting in water over 2 inches deep, bad things can happen to the electronics).
Also, I have an app on my Iphone called 'dish for my rv satellite finder' ($5). It uses the phone's camera to find the two sets of Dish satellites in the southern sky. All you do is load the app and point your phone up at the southern sky. The satellites show up as 2 sets of 3 orange balls overlaid on the sky (or trees, etc). Very helpful if you have trees, power poles, etc., around your site and are trying to find the best place to set up your X2 or tailgater.
Tim
Does the Pathway have to have a separate power lead or does it get its power thru the coax?- I also have a Pathway X2 and I agree with everything Bill & Kate said. It's fully automatic, has a larger antenna dish so it can still pull in satellites in borderline situations (such as tree leaves), it can access the eastern as well as the western arc satellites, and it has 2 cable outlets so you can hook up to a second TV and watch a different channel as long as it's on the same satellite. I just looked at Amazon and you can pick up a bundled package consisting of the X2 plus one 211z receiver box and it's remote control on Amazon for $490 with free shipping.
I would also suggest getting the dedicated tripod mount for it in case you end up camping somewhere and get monsooned like I did (if these things end up sitting in water over 2 inches deep, bad things can happen to the electronics).
Also, I have an app on my Iphone called 'dish for my rv satellite finder' ($5). It uses the phone's camera to find the two sets of Dish satellites in the southern sky. All you do is load the app and point your phone up at the southern sky. The satellites show up as 2 sets of 3 orange balls overlaid on the sky (or trees, etc). Very helpful if you have trees, power poles, etc., around your site and are trying to find the best place to set up your X2 or tailgater.
Tim - Not sure if you have a Dish problem or connection problem, hard to say. But, if you are in a complete signal loss situation you can watch recorded shows by doing the following:
Turn off your receiver.
Undo your input coax cable from the receiver
Turn on your receiver
After a few minutes of acquiring signal you will get a complete signal loss screen
Press your DVR button and there you go - Up until recently have been happy. However, this winter even though we've had a clear view of southern sky, it's been dropping satellites. Tonight we were watching a recorded show and when it was over received the dreaded complete signal loss error message. Also wouldn't let us watch any more of our recorded shows. There's a light drizzle tonight but that shouldn't be causing problems. Very frustrated since the main reason for getting this was ease of setup and use.
- We been very happy with the Tailgater. Even in camping spots with trees we have usually been able to find a place for the Tailgater that will give us good reception. Like a previous poster said with a 100' of coax you can move the Tailgater around to find a spot to get through the trees. It doesn't take much of a clear opening in the trees to get a signal.
- Trees is trees. 100-feet of coax gets you a good look around them.
- The fact is that the dish inside the Tailgater is quite small. As a result, any blockage will have a much greater effect on reception than with a larger tripod mounted dish. Neither will receive through a heavy canopy of trees, but with minor blockage, the larger dish will have a definite advantage. The tailgater will also be more effected by rain/snow than will a larger dish.
It all depends with what you are happy with. We had a VuCube2000, which is a premium version of the Tailgater that can be programmed for various services and satellites other than the standard DISH Western Arc. Loved it, but now find ourselves at a seasonal CG with great free cable......greenrvgreen wrote:
And by the way, can someone show me how a tripod antenna can see through trees that a Tailgater can't?
