Winegard GE-1518 Dish

[Swamp_Man]

Finally reached the point that I was tired of fighting the ground antenna for the Direct TV satellite service. So I ordered a Winegard Carryout GM 1518 automatic antenna. As my luck is usually screwy, the unit came into today and when I removed it from the box, Trudy asked where the locking ring was. I lifted the unit up to where she could see under it and in addition to the locking ring, there was a two and a half inch crack in the base near the center. Sent it back to Amazon (I live about five miles from the Baton Rouge area UPS terminal) and when I checked the Amazon site, they had already shipped another overnight!

Ok, finally the question. I have a weatherproof 12v plug in connection that I am going to use to power the dish. I thought about several places but almost decided on the little compartment that used to have the electrical connection in it. Any thoughts about where else I might put it on a 2007 29-5T? I am going to use #10 wiring with a twenty amp fuse/holder in line.

Anyone have one of these units and how well do you like it?

[Swamp_Man]

Bill.Satellite wrote:
Correct. Despite the fact that the antenna is pointed toward 101 for some odd reason signal strength numbers do appear on the other satellites. No matter what you see, only 101 is used for all of the DTV standard def programming and if you happen to be in your home area then 119 has the SD network programming if it is available.

Thanks Bill. That really explained several things that were happening with the roof mounted automatic satellite antenna. I was wondering why we would see birds that only a few transponders were showing.

[Bill_Satellite]

Correct. Despite the fact that the antenna is pointed toward 101 for some odd reason signal strength numbers do appear on the other satellites. No matter what you see, only 101 is used for all of the DTV standard def programming and if you happen to be in your home area then 119 has the SD network programming if it is available.

[enblethen]

Satelite transponder shows #8 as 93, #10 as 91, and 12 at 94 for sat 110. Dish ran for a few seconds before showing

[Bill_Satellite]

First, the Carryout can only toggle between 101 and 119 so that's an absolute. Additionally, there is no longer any programming on the 110 satellite so even if it could it would be of no value. Lastly, even though there is no signal from the 110 satellite, it often appears in the signal strength screen of the DTV receivers when set to 3-LNB for reasons unknown.
To fully understand this, remember that the Carryout can only "see" 1 satellite at a time. So, if you are watching ESPN then your antenna is pointed toward 101 and 101 only. Now take a look at your signal strength meters and see what it shows.

[enblethen]

Bill: then why does Directtv say I need them?
When I go to setup and check for signal strength, all three satellites show channels.

[Bill_Satellite]

enblethen wrote:
DirectTV
Sats 101, 110 , 119

101 and 119 are the only satellites used by DTV and a Carryout. 101 is the only one needed if you don't care about local Networks.
Dish subscribers would use 3 satellites (110, 119, 129) for all of their programming.

[blangen]

It's my understanding the GM 1518 should be plugged into the GM-1200 Carryout 12V Power Converter which plugs into 110v. The converter is 5.6amps which is what the 1518 needs. I would have thought a new 1518 would have come with the converter... did it not? If not, it's available just about anywhere. Amazon has them as does Camping World.

[enblethen]

DirectTV
Sats 101, 110 , 119

[dan-nickie]

enblethen wrote:
We normally need three different satellites for obtaining channels we watch. Our local channels would be on the same bird as our FOX channel we subscribe to.

Do you have Dish or DirectTv?

[enblethen]

We normally need three different satellites for obtaining channels we watch. Our local channels would be on the same bird as our FOX channel we subscribe to.

[Swamp_Man]

As a quick note, I changed GE to GM in the original post.

Bud, we do the same. We don't care if we get the home stations and it is a lot simpler and less cost.

[bgum]

We have one and like it very much. Just a FYI we carry a small air compressor that has a 12 volt plug in it. At times I use this to find the bird and then diconnect it from the power. As long as you don't need local channels this works. Local channels are on a different bird and you need 12 volt to change birds.

[enblethen]

We have our Carryout GM1518 for a couple years. It has worked very good.
I recently bought the tripod base. We were at a location with heavy rain and water run off. I didn't feel comfortable with the dish being directly on the ground.
We use a standard receiver from the house. We do not care whether we get our home stations.
I installed a new coaxial cable and power connection under the hood with easy access. We leave our power connected all the time since our programming requires the dish to change satellites when necessary.
Yes your #10 wire with 20 amp fusing is good.
Winegard GM 1518

[Bill_Satellite]

Just so others are not confused, it would be a "GM" 1518. You should get lots of positive responses!