Satellite Antennas

[schnoot156]

I've been RVing for about 4 years. Bought a Winegard Carryout and have 2 211 boxes for DISH network. We didn't use the tv's much but I had issues last spring and never really had time to resolve them. I just purchased a new Raptor which will have 3 tv's. What satellite antenna will work best at this point. Additional info, I am primarily on the east coast and looking for a portable antenna.

[mikestock]

One of the Corps campgrounds we frequent during football season has many trees. I have a King Dome but, out of 41 sites there are 2 that I can use the King Dome.

I don't often use the King Dome unless it's just for a single night stay, when traveling. Then I'm stuck with SD only. I have considered an automatic Slimline 3 but because of the experience I've had with tree interference using the King Dome, I decided a portable Slimline 3 on a tripod was my best choice. But that's just me.

There are not many nice campgrounds here in the deep south that are not tree laden. The ones that are wide open are usually in the direct sunlight and not very comfortable when the daytime temps hit the mid 90's.

I have no argument with the way anyone else wants to spend his or her money. It's just something to consider when opting for the Traveler.

[Dutch_12078]

Bill.Satellite wrote:

lanerd wrote:

mikestock wrote:

lanerd wrote:
Does it have to be a portable? Why not get a permanently installed Traveler.

Ron

Why not? Trees, limiting your choice of sites.

Then you move to another site that you can see the sats, or reserve one in the beginning. We always request this when making a reservation. Have yet to be denied.

Ron

No, YOU move to another site and you let the other poster do as he pleases. Many, many folks happen to LIKE parking in the trees.

Yep... We've never selected a site based on satellite view, but with our tripod mounted dish and Dish eastern or western arc choice, we've never been on a site to date where we couldn't get a signal somewhere within the 200' range of our coax supply.

[lanerd]

Priorities.

[Bill_Satellite]

lanerd wrote:

mikestock wrote:

lanerd wrote:
Does it have to be a portable? Why not get a permanently installed Traveler.

Ron

Why not? Trees, limiting your choice of sites.

Then you move to another site that you can see the sats, or reserve one in the beginning. We always request this when making a reservation. Have yet to be denied.

Ron

No, YOU move to another site and you let the other poster do as he pleases. Many, many folks happen to LIKE parking in the trees.

[lanerd]

mikestock wrote:

lanerd wrote:
Does it have to be a portable? Why not get a permanently installed Traveler.

Ron

Why not? Trees, limiting your choice of sites.

Then you move to another site that you can see the sats, or reserve one in the beginning. We always request this when making a reservation. Have yet to be denied.

Ron

[mikestock]

lanerd wrote:
Does it have to be a portable? Why not get a permanently installed Traveler.

Ron

Why not? Trees, limiting your choice of sites.

[usersmanual]

Bill.Satellite wrote:
Let me see if I can clarify for you then.
The dual receiver mode allows you to point to the 72.7 satellite and both receivers can watch any programming on any channel without issue. However, there is NO Network programming on 72.7.
You can still use 2 receivers with the X2 in the non-dual receiver mode but just like any other dome antenna the master receiver will determine which satellite the antenna is pointed to. So, as long as both receivers are watching programming from the same satellite there are no issues. Most of the HD programming comes from the 129 satellite for the WA so as long as you are both HD fans there is not likely to be any conflicts.

got it and thanks wineguard has explained it to me
what threw me off was they say in the brochure:

2). In the two-TV mode, the Pathway X2
automatically points to 72.7° only which offers limited local viewership.

very ambiguous to me when you have never used such a system
iam only familiar with the old 18 inch round single dish +lnb that got 110/119

[Bill_Satellite]

Let me see if I can clarify for you then.
The dual receiver mode allows you to point to the 72.7 satellite and both receivers can watch any programming on any channel without issue. However, there is NO Network programming on 72.7.
You can still use 2 receivers with the X2 in the non-dual receiver mode but just like any other dome antenna the master receiver will determine which satellite the antenna is pointed to. So, as long as both receivers are watching programming from the same satellite there are no issues. Most of the HD programming comes from the 129 satellite for the WA so as long as you are both HD fans there is not likely to be any conflicts.

[usersmanual]

Regarding the Winegard PA-6002 Pathway X2 Satellite TV Antenna
I just read today if you use two receivers it wont work on 110/119/129
it will only work on quote:
In the two-TV mode, the Pathway X2 automatically points to 72.7° only which offers limited local viewership.

called wineguard and they say quote:
Whichever satellite the main receiver is viewing is the satellite your secondary will get programming for and you can watch different channels on each receiver as long as they are on the same satellite.

so in reality their information brochure makes little to no sense at all

[Bill_Satellite]

He did say he had 2-211 receivers for Dish. HD would not be at issue no matter the antenna.

[Sandia_Man]

You didn't mention which sat service or if HD is required. You said portable but didn't state manual or automated satellite acquisition. For Directv HD there are no capable portables domes, for Dish HD it can be done but most can only feed 2 receivers and they must be on the same satellite.

No doubt the best choice is the Winegard Traveler mounted on your rig's roof which would solve almost any want or desire for sat service in your RV. On a new RV purchase I'm sure you could work out a deal with the selling dealer to have one installed before delivery.

We have had HD sat service in our rig since it became available. We RV on many instances where exposure to the southern sky is limited and thus have always purchased the same HD dish we have at home and mounted it to a tripod or home-made stand for use on the road.

On our next new rig we will have dealer install Winegard Traveler, but we will always bring portable HD sat and over 100' of coax for the several times of year we need to move it around the campsite to acquire all three satellites when trying to point between the trees.

[Dutch_12078]

The most versatile setup for DISH on multiple TV's would be a tripod mounted triple LNB 1000.2 oval dish. With both eastern arc and western arc LNB sets on hand, along with 3 or 4 fifty foot lengths of RG-6 coax, you would be set for almost any location and aiming situation. You would also be set to feed any TV with any channel, regardless of which satellite it's on. The downside is the learning curve and time involved in setting up and aiming the dish at each location. Personally, I have that down to 15 minutes or less in most locations. I have not landed on a site yet where I could not get a signal, even if it was only by carefully sighting the dish through a small gap in the tree cover.

If you must have an automated solution, the only similar option is a Winegard Trav'ler roof mounted dish or an equivalent. The Trav'ler is only capable of "seeing" the western arc sats automatically, although it can be manually tuned to one of the eastern arc sats I understand. As was posted earlier, a tripod mounted dish can be done for around $100 or less. A Trav'ler will run around $1500 plus installation.

[Big_Katuna]

It also depends on how the new rv is wired.

[RoyB]

I sure got a lot of use out of this Winegard SATELLITE dish setup. It has the head for DIRECTV and has two outputs on it.


I ran a RG cable to each of my two HDTV setups in the trailer. This portable stand has a great place to wrap up very long RG cables around it... I would always sit this portable stand on the truck hard plastic bed cover so I would always remember to stow it away when we left the camping spot. I also used one of those tone type SAT DETECTOR meters on one of the TV cable ports and could find the SAT real easy using this...


I used two SAT RCVRS I would bring from home and my two long RG cables from the dish to each of the SAT RCVR Antenna port. Then I would run VIDEO OUTPUT cables to the HDTV VID PORTS. This allowed me to select SAT TV or CABLE TV using the TV Remote. Of course this was only good for standard definition SAT TV...

Did this for several years and when the NATL BROADCAST came out with their change-over to DIGITAL TV I found the full blown HDTV signals from the local towns a better thing to watch so eventually stopped bringing all of my SAT TV items along with me on our trips. I use the BATWING antenna to pick up these local town HDTV signals just about every where we camp at...

Roy Ken