Hi, I did now want to hijack other threads so here goes.For years I have been taking one of the DTV receivers from the stick home and going camping. I use the 18" round with Dual LNB - works great for my needs.lately I have become disgruntled with DTV and am convinced it is time to switch. So i got to wondering just how difficult it would be to go on the road with a Dish setup from the stick home.Is there a plain and simple way like I do with DTV. Small, manageable, portable dish like I have now and a box taken from the stick house.How does the Hopper figure into the equation.Apologize for the simple questions but talking to dish is like talking to a used car salesman.

I use to do the same thing on bringing along a bedroom SAT RCVR and a portable SAT DISH setup and watch our DirecTV account anywhere in the USA. It sometimes was a hassle finding the correct SAT to make it work and of course we always lost out LOCAL Directv stations whenever we got a ZIP code away from our house.Then when the NATL BROADCAST came out with their digital HDTV setup the quality of the TV was very good so we switched over to it using our OTA Batwing antenna setup fining the signals from the local towns. We never bring along our Directv items anymore unless it is for a long term stay.The OTA HDTV is full blown high def digital TV and we get 6-36 digital stations just about anywhere we go here on the east side of the USA. We sometimes have to get pretty accurate on pointing the BATWING antenna and getting then scanned into the HDTV setup but all said it works rather well for us. If we want to watch some of the cable TV stations we use to get over the SAT TV we just downstream them over the internet. We don't do this very much as we have a low 3GB DATAPLAN with our internet provider but if you wanted to do more of this there is the MILLENICOM MIFI setup that will give you a 20GB dataplan using the good Verizon internet network.I like what we are doing with the local OTA Natl Broadcast stations using our BATWING setup as they are free to use and full blown wide screen digital high def TV signals. We like to watch the national broacast Tv stations anyway... Hard to beat this...This was a good alternative thing for us...Roy Ken

Many people with Dish do take one of their receivers from home to the RV when they travel. And you can use a simple tripod sat dish with it.I opted to buy an additional receiver to keep in the RV rather than move one of the home units back and forth each time we go. Thru dishformyrv.com it added $7/mo to the home account. Later I bought a Tailgater to make life easier when setting up the system on the road.Don't have the Hopper so can't comment on it.

The biggest issue with Dish is that the programming (in most of the US) comes from 3 satellites. If you want to use your single LNB antenna you will only be able to select programming from one of those 3 satellites. If you don't mind paying for an automatic portable antenna it solves this issue by automatically moving to the required satellite when you change channels.You can buy the multiple LNB open faced antenna and this also solves your problem but it takes more time and patience to setup since you have to locate all 3 satellites simultaneously.The Hopper will not work with any of the domes style antennas so you would have to use a Dish 1000.2 open face antenna on a tripod or buy an automatic roof top antenna like the Winegard Trav'ler.

We switched from Direct to Dish this last year and am very happy with Dish.We have the exact satellite dish on the house as we have for the camper. The only difference is the way it's wired. The dish has 3 eyes, and in the house, all three eyes are connected to their own cable that feed to a 3 way connector. And from there, a single line runs through the house.On my dish for the camper, I have only 1 line connected to one eye. (The middle one right now). Sometimes, I'll switch the cable to a different eye, depending on where we are it just works better sometimes. I don't understand the mechanics behind it, all I know is, sometimes it just works better that way.We have 3 receivers in the house. One is a dual receiver, which stays permanently. It's got so many wires attached to it, I'd be lost if I ever unhooked it.The other two are single receivers in guest bedrooms. We take one of those receivers with us in the camper. If we have company at home, we can either run a line from the house to the camper, or set up the stand-alone dish. Either way, one of the receivers goes in the camper.The people who installed DISH for us, also sold us the dish and tripod. We've been very happy with this arrangement ever since.

RoyBI'm interested to hear what kind of antenna do you use to pull in the HDTV signals? Is it directional?This is what I'm trying to figure out...Lets say you pull into Anytown America RV park.Lets say you have no idea the number of HDTV stations you can get or their direction.I would assume you would need some kind of HDTV antenna that can pick up HDTV signals from ANY direction. You place the antenna & then set your TV to scan ALL channels (looking for stations).Correct?I would think that if you had a directional antenna you would NOT be able to pick up ALL HDTV stations UNLESS all the transmitters are in the same location.Let's say your facing north and you DO KNOW that their is an antenna at 1:00, 5:00 and 11:00. I would think an antenna that that was directional would not be the one to use.Duchmen Sport;Would you please go thru the steps you take, from start to finish on how you setup your dish with the 3 LNB's. I have a single round manual crank up dish on the motorhome with one of those elevation readers. Real easy to get the direction/elevation off the DTV box and then dial it in. Takes me about 1 minute to get "locked on".With the HD dishes I know that you need the direction/elevation but how to adjust skew?Thanks

Switching From DTV to Dish With Camper | Good Sam Community

Bill_Satellite
Explorer II
Jan 05, 2014
The Pathway X2 was introduced in 2013 so it's still pretty new to the market and does not yet have the wide distribution of some of the other Winegard products.
Gulfcoast
Explorer
Jan 05, 2014
Hey, I like the larger dish and setup on either east or west satellites better. But, my question is why are they so rare to find? Only one on eBay for sale now... I see that Amazon has them for $436 and free shipping so that's a big plus though.
Dutch_12078
Explorer II
Jan 05, 2014
For the $100 difference, I think Winegard's Pathway X2 is a better choice over the Tailgater. The larger dish reduces rain fade issues, and the choice of eastern or western arc satellites adds aiming flexibility. The two receiver support is an added bonus.
Gulfcoast
Explorer
Jan 05, 2014
My local dealer is selling the Tailgater's like hotcakes... you wouldn't believe how many they sold last year. I saw them set one up yesterday... she sat it out side with the cable connected, and in no time we were watching TV. Amazing technology...
Vulcaneer
Explorer
Jan 04, 2014
We use Dish with a Tailgater. This is our first trip out, so I could not comment before. But we have been on the road for a couple weeks now. And several campgrounds, down the east coast. Now in Raleigh, NC. Have set up the Tailgater 3 times. I am surprised how easy it is. And great picture, too. We do take a box from the house. We don't bother changing our spot beam address for locals. We use the OTA antenna, to get locals in our area. Simple....Just change the input to TV and you're there. To change back to dish channels...just change the TV's input to HDMI. Done.

And our daughter can still get all the dish channels at home without a problem. I cannot find an issue, yet. So I am very pleased with dish, at this point.
Bill_Satellite
Explorer II
Jan 02, 2014
NinerBikes wrote:
RJsfishin wrote:
Good luck switching from Direct to Dish, you will need it.

Never give these folks your credit card numbers, or sign up for auto billing... Never! They are crooked as the day is long when you want out of their service, long after the contract has expired.

I needed to quote both posts here as they are both nonsense. Switching from one service to another is no different than signing up for one service or the other as a new subscriber. It's easy, you just have to ensure you have (or have provided to you) the necessary antenna to receive the desired programming.
The second post indicates that either Dish or DirecTV (or both) are crooked and, as the 50+ million satellite TV subscribers will tell you, this is also nonsense.
NinerBikes
Explorer
Jan 01, 2014
RJsfishin wrote:
Good luck switching from Direct to Dish, you will need it.

Never give these folks your credit card numbers, or sign up for auto billing... Never! They are crooked as the day is long when you want out of their service, long after the contract has expired.
RJsfishin
Explorer
Jan 01, 2014
Good luck switching from Direct to Dish, you will need it.
BB_TX
Nomad
Dec 31, 2013
My experience with Dish. We have had it at home many years and added it to the RV.
I have a 3 LNB dish on the house and the same 3 LNB dish (1000.4 or 1000.2) on a tripod mount for the RV. I also have a Tailgater in the RV, but if it has a problem finding the sats I use the tripod mounted one.
Using the tripod mounted dish, when I power up the receiver I can go to the setup menu and find out the azimuth, elevation, and skew settings for the location I am currently in. Then I can use those numbers to set up the tripod mounted dish properly using a compass and the markings on the dish mount. Then it is a matter of tweaking the dish to bring in all 3 satellites using an inline signal strength meter or the signal strength indications on the setup screen on the TV. (the 3 LNB dish receives all 3 sats simultaneously when properly aimed). Sometimes very easy, sometimes takes a little work.
Since I added the RV to the home account I get all channels, including HD, in the RV that I get at home. UNLESS. If I am to far from home to get my normal local channels I simply call Dish and tell them I am in the RV and give them my new location (new service address). They reprogram me to get the local network channels from the nearest city. Example when in southern Colorado, I get Denver local channels. When in Texas hill country, I get San Antonio/Austin local channels. About a 5 minute phone call. Since I have a home account I do not have to worry about the Distant Network Service. Rather than east or west coast channels I get channels in the time zone I am currently in and programs in their correct time. And local weather/news is a plus.
And the DW gets all her favorite programs. A real plus in keeping everyone happy.
wa8yxm
Explorer III
Dec 31, 2013
With the advent of DirecHDTV, the differences in set up between Dishnetwork (SD or HD) and DirecHDTV, basically no longer exist.

How I did it:

Pre-set elevation and skew/tilt (Depending on the service)

Slowly swing the dish through the azimuth while watching a portable color TV

It really is that easy.. Then touch up the elevation a bit (Skew/tilt is normally good)

There is one thing you need to know:

IF you set up a RV account, it qualifies for something called Distant Network Service, Depending on dish or Direc you get your choice of 2 or 5 (I think) cities, and they beam the network stations to you no matter where you are. If you choose two of those cities (NYC and LA) you get shows 3 hours apart.. Kind of handy since prime time is what..3 hours long.

YOu can always use the "Spare" receiver in the house

But if you get a HOME account... Odds are very high you do NOT qualify for DNS.. And DISH for one is kind of senistive to that.. They got burned for handing out DNS a bit too freely.

DirecTV.. They needed to be burned too.. but politics (Corporate, not governmental) being what it is were not.