Dry camping with satellite TV possible?

[Guysakar]

Update/Edit: It seems some people were confused by my original post, and I have some new discoveries.


Looking into getting Dish Network's Tailgater and VIP 211K receiver. Or anything, really.

The receiver draws around 22 watts when off, in standby mode. That is too much daily power consumption for dry camping.

Apparently unplugging and plugging the receiver daily is not recommended, as it is not designed for that. Plus, it takes a while to boot up from cold.



So, what are my options? Is it just not really feasible to have satellite TV while dry camping? Seems someone has found a way to work around this.

Thanks in advance.






Original post is below, but saved just because there are responses to it, but everything is covered above:

Me wrote:
HI everyone, and thanks for all of the previous help.

I am looking into getting a Tailgater and VIP 211K from Dish.

From what I am reading (I could be wrong) the 211K reciever will draw somewhere around 22 watts when off, which will drain about 2 amps an hour from my battery (mostly dry camping).

If this is true, then I assume I will need to unplug it every time it is not in use.

I am also reading that in doing this, it will take about 10 minutes for the tailgater to re-find satellites, box to boot up, etc...

Is this true?

If so, is there another, less PITA avenue I could take? What if I just went with a standard dish on a tripod? I wonder how long it would take to boot everything back up.

Also, is Direct TV a better option in general, being that it only has to pick up one, vs three satellites?


Thank you for any and all help in advance.

[Me_Again]

We have Directv HD with a slimeline SWM setup. Because of the scales built into the mount it is easier to align than our old SD dish. Run things off our Freedom 10 inverter and charge with the converter and Honda eu1000i. Other than spot beam, we do not have issues.

Chris

[Guysakar]

K Charles wrote:
We have a 211k and it gets unplugged every time we pack up and move and that might be every day or every other day if we are going somewhere. For about 2 years now it has had to boot up every time we plug in the TT. It still works fine and only takes about 15 min for it to get going.

Awesome. Thanks for the reply.

What kind of satellite do you have? I'm wondering how well the Tailgater will do having to acquire the satellites every day.

Also, I wonder if the stationary tri-pod dishes can get local channels. I think I read that the Tailgater does.


Thanks again.

[bgum]

On our CarryOut I hook to 12 volt and let it find the bird then disconnect from 12 volt since in SD it only uses one bird 12 volt is not needed any further. Now if you were to also view your local channels on the CarryOut you would need 12 volt all the time as they are on a different bird than the regular channels.

[K_Charles]

We have a 211k and it gets unplugged every time we pack up and move and that might be every day or every other day if we are going somewhere. For about 2 years now it has had to boot up every time we plug in the TT. It still works fine and only takes about 15 min for it to get going.

[Sandia_Man]

Can't speak for Dish network although we have had them in our stick house a number of years ago. Our current set-up if for Directv in HD and we use it all the time when camping without hook-ups. We opted to purchase the same dish we had on our home's roof off of Ebay and mount to self-made tripod as the only other choice is a roof-mounted automatic sat dish that is about $1800 plus installation.

Our HD sat. receiver takes about 10 minutes to boot-up which is no biggie as we just turn on 300 watt PSW inverter (installed in entertainment center) a few minutes prior to watching. I have lots of experience pointing the dish as I started out with the SD dish 10 years ago.

I heard prior to going HD that it was difficult to aim, in our experience I found that to be untrue. Simply set dish settings as indicated for your current zipcode and point to sat 101 just as we did for Directv SD content, everything we get at home is now available when camping and the whole routine takes 10-15 minutes.

For the few times a year we actually stay in a RV park that offers cable, we still set-up our HD sat as there is simply no-comparison and the process takes very little effort. We carry three 50' strands of cable for acquisition of sat signal when camping among tree cover which is another reason we decided against a roof-mounted unit. Practice setting up dish at home if you go with a satellite mounted on a tripod, we've never had a problem getting a 90% plus signal with an open view of the southern sky.

[wa8yxm]

I do not know about the carryout but some can work w/o power and some can not.

ALL antennas consume power.. How much depends on if they are motorized.

Best option for DISH (Only option for DirecHDTV) is a tripod mounted dish.. But the reasons for this are as follows:

Ability to have 2 receivers (or a DVR) so you can watch (or record) multiple shows at one time OFF different satellites (DISH)
Ability to RECEIVE HD (DirecTV)

Larger dish = more gain = stronger signals (All services).

[bfast54]

No matter which way you go if you turn the power off to the receiver then it will have to reboot each time
I could be wrong.......... but with the tailgater you have to use a special receiver just the one that works with it.....this is how it was,and still may be.


I have a "view cube " which is an older type of satellite (actuall the same thing). and it will work with any receiver so unless they've changed it the tailgater only works with one type receiver which means you can only use it with dish

I can use my satellite my view cube with any of the suppliers ie dish or direct so just something to think about and check

[Guysakar]

MTPockets1 wrote:
We are full time and use Tailgater flawlessly for last two years. It takes about 15 minutes to fully find satellites and download Chanel guide, but only if you unplug from power. As far as power draw, you need 110v to operate box and TV, either from campground, generator, or inverter. If on inverter, then that's a battery drain that depends on how many batteries and battery condition.

Thanks for the reply. It's not so much about the amount of batteries, though. I could buy extra batteries and have 480+ AH, but that doesn't change the fact that I am going to have to crank up the genset and pay to put everyone of those amps back in, regardless of how many batteries I have.

If the box was not unplugged, it would burn about 48 amps a day, just on standby, not even turned on, which would probably cost somewhere around $60 a month in fuel just to run the receiver.

Which of course is out of the question and just plain absurd.



Edit: Do you know if it's true, that if you turn power off, the satellite must re acquire satellites?

[Guysakar]

enblethen wrote:
You may not be able to disconnect the unit from power whether it is from shore power or inverter.
My Direct TV Winegard Carryout has to change satellites so it will run the motor to that bird. The Carryout power is 12 volts, but I need 120 volts AC for the receiver which I get using an inverter which also runs TV.

What do you mean I may not be able to disconnect from power? I assume that I can disconnect it when not in use, then just let it boot back up, re-find satellite, etc...

You're saying that I can't do that?

[enblethen]

You may not be able to disconnect the unit from power whether it is from shore power or inverter.
My Direct TV Winegard Carryout has to change satellites so it will run the motor to that bird. The Carryout power is 12 volts, but I need 120 volts AC for the receiver which I get using an inverter which also runs TV.

[poncho62]

I have a standard dish on a tripod....usually takes about 10-20 min to set up and aim.....as long as I know the settings.....elevation, skew etc. Your TV and receiver also will take power from your batteries/inverter.

[MTPockets1]

We are full time and use Tailgater flawlessly for last two years. It takes about 15 minutes to fully find satellites and download Chanel guide, but only if you unplug from power. As far as power draw, you need 110v to operate box and TV, either from campground, generator, or inverter. If on inverter, then that's a battery drain that depends on how many batteries and battery condition.