satellite tv - best for tailgating?

Are you sure you need satellite TV? If you are only going to be using this a few times during a few months, the hardware costs plus the monthly service costs might not make any sense. If you are truly tailgating you are likely pretty close to the city where the TV is broadcast and the very best HD TV is available from your roof mounted OTA TV antenna(usually the Winegard Batwing). If you are in a campground with cable you don't need satellite either. Both of these options are completely free (paid cable? Shame on that park!).

Amazon has the Tailgater bundle for $400.00. This includes the tailgater and the 221k receiver. I have the Tailgater works great, And can get an app for smart phone, shows satellite position. Also carry my compass.

I just use a compass and the satellite app. If you are trying for HD that may be a little more complicated. I am not so worried about a manual dish being stolen, but the automatics are a tempting target.

cubmaster252 wrote:

I would recommend the Wineguard Sat finder. Makes getting a solid signal much easier.

For not a lot more money, I've found the "Smart Tracker" to be a much more useful aiming tool than the overpriced Winegard offering. The Smart Tracker displays the actual satellite name that your aiming for, and lets you know when you're locked on. It also displays both the signal strength and quality. It's particularly good when aiming a triple LNBF dish.

We have DirecTV at the house. Bought the tailgate kit for the RV. When we leave to go camping, we just take the main DVR box from the house with us. Put in the camper and setup the dish. We made sure we got the same dish on the Tailgater package that we have at home so you don't have to reprogram the sat box each time. We get all our High Def channels and the DVR continues to record all the DW's shows (when we are not driving) which keeps her happy. The kids also get to keep and watch all the movies they have saved on the DVR.

I would recommend the Wineguard Sat finder. Makes getting a solid signal much easier.

Probably the easiest is Dish receiver ($99) and Tailgater (automatic) antenna ($350). You can set up with an account that you can activate and de-activate when you want, saving $$$ when not in use.