Tailgater and Local Stations

[Dastagg]

Just bought a Dish Tailgater. While traveling, I want to keep locals and Dish told me
I only need to call them with address of RV and they would push locals for area I am in. Question is, what about my home DVR? Do I keep locals for home for preset recordings too, or does my locals change while I am traveling with separate locals or otherL

[JerryofWV]

You can add an external hard drive to the 211K receiver and make it a DVR. You pay a one time fee to Dish for them to activate the receiver to make it a DVR. ($40).

If I am going to be in one place for several days I contact Dish to change my location so I can get the local channels. I found that if you do it online and contact Tech Support instead of Customer Service they know what you are talking about.

[noplace2]

georgelesley wrote:

noplace2 wrote:
We're fulltimers so ours is always with us, but, why don't you just bring your DVR from home?

The Tailgator only works with the reciever designed for it. Home dvr will not work. When we fulltimed and used a regular satellite dish we had to aim, we did sucessfully use a home type dvr.

Perhaps I didn't make myself clear. Of course the Tailgater only works with a specific receiver (we have one), but THAT receiver can be be plugged in to ANY DVR. I'm speaking about independent DVR's not something that DISH provides (heaven forbid)

And yes, we can record anything from the Tailgater. Thankfully, it's the only way I'll watch TV, exempt them there commercials!

[Dastagg]

Thanks all, I as sfraid of that. Since we are camping mostly in remote areas with mostly no local over the air channels, was hoping to have my cake and eat it too. Wanted to still DVR our favorites but get locals also in RV which is out of our normal local area. I had a full Dish, but got tired of setting up and finding satelites in wooded area and like option of Tailgater setup. Guess we will just miss the locals while gone. Thanks again.

[Vulcaneer]

I use tailgater in many spots. For locals, I just convert to the over the air antenna. Not a big deal. Just change the source input and hit the amp button on the antenna.

If you are camping out of your home area, and have the locals switched by your satellite provider, then your home receivers will lose their local channels. When you get back home, you will need to call the provider to get your locals back on your home receivers. We don't bother with all that. So the OTA antenna works fine (to get locals in the area we are in) for us when we are out of the home area. Actually our OTA antenna, brings in as good a digital picture as our HD Tailgater. So no loss of picture quality by using the OTA.

[charlysmom_dad]

We changed our service address while in Florida one winter. Our rv & home are on the same account, so both were changed.
Since Florida charges tax on satellite and Illinois doesn't, we were charged tax for our stay in Florida.

[ol_Bombero-JC]

MTPockets1 wrote:
Good question. Sounds like a call to Dish is in irder.

Good question for the *Technology Corner* forum..;)

.

[Bobbo]

I agree with everyone else. You can get locals while travelling, or you can get locals at home for recording. You can not get both.

Unless, of course, you want to get two separate DISH subscriptions, and pay twice as much.

[georgelesley]

noplace2 wrote:
We're fulltimers so ours is always with us, but, why don't you just bring your DVR from home?

The Tailgator only works with the reciever designed for it. Home dvr will not work. When we fulltimed and used a regular satellite dish we had to aim, we did sucessfully use a home type dvr.

[RoyF]

I tried the business of calling (or contacting online) Dish to switch local stations and calling again to switch back after the trip. I finally decided that I rarely go anyplace so remote that I can't get local stations with my rooftop antenna.

[noplace2]

We're fulltimers so ours is always with us, but, why don't you just bring your DVR from home?

[BB_TX]

I agree with above. If both are on the same account, both the RV and your home receivers will be changed. Of course your home can't actually receive those and if you have the home DVR set to record favorite programs at home you will not get them recorded.

But as for changing locals in the RV it is easy. When you call Dish be sure to say you are in your RV and want to change your service address, not your billing address. After a few minutes, and sometimes a receiver reset, you will get the nearest locals. You do need to give them a valid local address when you call.

[brirene]

X2 what Dutch said.

[Dutch_12078]

Your home receiver(s) on the same account will lose the locals entirely, unless your new service address happens to still be within the same spot beam as your home. In that case, your home receivers will receive the locals for the new market also. Most of the spot beams only span a few hundred miles.

[MTPockets1]

Good question. Sounds like a call to Dish is in irder.