Eastern Arc satellites for Winegard DISH Trav'lr???

[OldGreaser]

Some time ago I read something about the existence of eastern satellites that could be used for DISH reception in the event you are blocked from seeing 110, 119 and 129. Any truth to this or am I losing my grip?
If true, it would greatly reduce the times I need to get out the old manual Dish. Thanks for your time!

[gasguzler]

Near Houghton Lake Michigan. I have an dish Eastern Arc 1000.4 antenna on the way! ( 61.5, 77, 72..7) When i stay there in the summer the trees block all hopes of using the T'ravler 1000 I have. It needs to look in to the Western sky and that is solid trees.It works great in FL. I have the 722 dish dual tuner DVR in the RV. Excited to be able to see my baseball games when up there in the summer!

All I will have to do is hook up the cable, switch the A/B switch to the outside feed, run a check switch and away I go! (i hope!)
Thanks for the advice.

[TechWriter]

gasguzler wrote:
so if I bought a Eastern Arc "home" type antenna, and mounted it in a permanent location in my permanent campsite, aimed it, do a check switch I can get reception except for maybe locals?

Most likely. Where is your "permanent campsite"?

gasguzler wrote:
Even though my contract is though Western Arc channels?

Your DISH contract has nothing to do with Western or Eastern Arc sats.

[gasguzler]

so if I bought a Eastern Arc "home" type antenna, and mounted it in a permanent location in my permanent campsite, aimed it, do a check switch I can get reception except for maybe locals?Even though my contract is though Western Arc channels?

[az99]

OldGreaser wrote:

I'll give it a try 'for fun' but won't work too hard at it. It sounds like about as much trouble as setting up my manual tripod for those cases where I'm blocked from the southwest sky.

If you have a dish it is quicker in my experience and you will get 61 and 72 sats.

[OldGreaser]

To OP- As Bill said manual 72 WILL NOT WORK. I wasted hours trying to get it to work when ------ at Winegard CS kept telling me it would. There is a flaw in their software that will not allow it to lock on.

Winegard says no one uses the EA sats so they don't care about fixing it or making an EA dish setup. That is total BS but that was their story. There are many areas of the east that Dishnet is no longer installing WA dishes due to all the signal problems and rain fade.

"In many areas of the east the 129º sat is blocked unless you are parked in an open field.

All that said there is a way to get the 72 sat. Setup Travler to go to 72 in the manual mode with the TV and receiver on and set to the signal meter. Wait until it gets close to 72 as it will slow down in it's movements and watch the signal meter on the TV. When it shows locked on 72.7 with a strong signal, remove power to the Travler control box. I plug the plug but there is also a 2 button sequence in the manual that I have forgotten. You have to be quick.

Don't worry if you miss it as it will come back and try to lock over and over until you stop it or the motors wear out."

I'll give it a try 'for fun' but won't work too hard at it. It sounds like about as much trouble as setting up my manual tripod for those cases where I'm blocked from the southwest sky. I've read enough to know that Mr. Bill is a very knowledgeable resource in these matters. It appears to be a dead end with my particular equipment.

Thanks everyone for your time in responding.

[rocmoc]

We stayed two winters in George & Florida. We had no problems picking up Dish Network, including local channels, with our Western arc'd Trav'ler.

rocmoc n AZ/Mexico

[GoPackGo]

Thanks Bill - I was misinformed.

Tim

[paulcardoza]

For those of us in the Northeast, the Eastern Arc Dish sats are a huge advantage. As Bill states, however, compatible hardware is much less available! While the Tailgater will not work with the EA sats, you can step up to the programmable version. We had the VuCube 2000, which could be programmed to work with any service or available sats.

Worked great, but as with any of these carryout dishes, you lock on to only a single satellite at one time, so multiple TV's can be a problem. If you are ok with aiming a dish yourself, a tripod mounted multi-lnb dish is the way to go. Once aimed, you just go inside and watch whatever your heart desires........

[az99]

To OP- As Bill said manual 72 WILL NOT WORK. I wasted hours trying to get it to work when ------ at Winegard CS kept telling me it would. There is a flaw in their software that will not allow it to lock on.

Winegard says no one uses the EA sats so they don't care about fixing it or making an EA dish setup. That is total BS but that was their story. There are many areas of the east that Dishnet is no longer installing WA dishes due to all the signal problems and rain fade.

In many areas of the east the 129º sat is blocked unless you are parked in an open field.

All that said there is a way to get the 72 sat. Setup Travler to go to 72 in the manual mode with the TV and receiver on and set to the signal meter. Wait until it gets close to 72 as it will slow down in it's movements and watch the signal meter on the TV. When it shows locked on 72.7 with a strong signal, remove power to the Travler control box. I plug the plug but there is also a 2 button sequence in the manual that I have forgotten. You have to be quick.

Don't worry if you miss it as it will come back and try to lock over and over until you stop it or the motors wear out.

[Bill_Satellite]

GoPackGo wrote:
1. The actual antenna is 19 inches vs 18 inches for the Tailgater. Not a lot I know, but could mean the difference when trying to shoot around tree leaves.

I don't know the exact size of the Tailgater antenna but it's smaller than 18". The Tailgater housing is only 16" wide so the antenna must be smaller than that.

[Crabbypatty]

I saw a second hand Tailgater on Craigslist and was going to go after it until I came across this thread. Ill just save up and get the X2, sounds like a better auto dish for me.

[GoPackGo]

Crabbypatty - You asked about the X2. I love mine. I chose the Winegard Pathway X2 over the Tailgater for the following reasons -

1. The actual antenna is 19 inches vs 18 inches for the Tailgater. Not a lot I know, but could mean the difference when trying to shoot around tree leaves.

2. With the X2, you have the choice of accessing either the Eastern arc OR the Western arc satellites. Your choice. The Tailgater uses only the Western arc sats. I consider this to be a big deal. There are times when I can 'see' only one set.

3. There are two coax output connections. You can run cables to two receiver boxes ( meaning two different TVs ) and watch different channels as long as the channels selected come from the same satellite.

I believe the X2 runs about $50 more on Amazon, but have not looked in a while. Usually can get a good package deal that includes the sat antenna, one 211z receiver box and also a remote control for the 211z.

I mean no disrespect to the Tailgater. I know they are well liked and work well.

I also bought the Winegard tripod. The literature that came with the X2 states it should never be set in water over 2 inches deep or bad things can happen to the electronics. The tripod has already saved it once. I ended up in a place where I got monsooned. The water was at least 6 inches deep on the tripod.

Tim

[Bill_Satellite]

Please pay careful attention to the information I posted above. I worked for Winegard. I trained dealers on how to use the Winegard products. I sold and installed Winegard for over 12 years. If you have nothing better to do, play with all of the available settings and let us know how it comes out. Better yet, leave the Trav'ler set to 110, 119 and 129 and enjoy the show. When that's not available you can pick any one of those 3 or 61.5 under the manual configuration options.

[wingsfan20]

powderman426 wrote:

Crabbypatty wrote:
I have used a standard house dish on a tripod but want to get something automatic as setting it up can be a PITA sometimes depending on the type of ground I am on. I was going to buy a tailgater but it sounds like I would be better off with the X2 for dish. True or false? Will I be missing channels with the tailgater?

From my own observations the only thing you would possibly lose would be your locals. Why they chose to put some of the local feeds on the 129 sat which is very low on the horizon in the east is beyond me.

In the western arc. the HD spotbeam channels (Locals) are indeed on 129. Probably because the bulk of HD is on 129. I use the western arc with my tripod & 1000.4 on the road. At home My locals and most HD channels are on 61.5 since a tree blocks my view of 110/119/129.