Satelite TV

[jorge1958]

More and more I see campers with satelites hooked up to their RVS at the campgrounds. I was wondering how good do they really work? I'm interested in purchasing one. Do you buy the unit or lease it. What kind of costs are involved. And as far as service. Can you pay as you use it? Or do you have a monthly bill. Any info would be awesome. Thanks

[jorge1958]

Thanks for all the feedback. Sorry if i sounded like a dumba**. Just wasnt sure if the expense was worth it. Looks like Dish is the way to go. You gave me lots of options. Thanks everybody.

[myredracer]

How well do they work? Excellent. 🙂 Except when you can't catch a signal due to trees and other obstructions. 😞

If travelling the Oregon coast for example, that can be difficult due to all the trees. Some treed CGs will tell you what sites or sections are good for reception or you can look for other RV-ers that already have dishes set up. In some cases, you can use a really long coax cable and set up a dish farther away from your camper to find a hole between trees. If you just can't get a signal, there's always the chance of OTA or cable TV as a backup. Some cable TV providers have upgraded to digital which is pretty good (just had that on the OR coast).

You can use an app on your phone to find the satellite(s) in iffy locations. Can really help to use before backing into a site and discovering you can't watch TV. Dishpointer has a good one but there are others. For a dish on a tripod, you can also look up azimuth, skew and elevation on dishpointer.com or other websites

If you have sat TV at home, all you need to do is take an unused spare receiver from home for no extra costs. If you don't have sat TV at home now, it might be cheaper overall to convert to satellite TV at home, but need to see if your favorite channels are available from the sat. provider or if you need to upgrade to a more expensive bundle.

[rhagfo]

We bought a TailGator and dish receiver total cost about $400, and use a "RV Package" which is not a contract, you only pay for the time you use it. Go out for a weekend have activated watch three days call and cancel service. You do need to have a full month of service paid for to activate again, so that is when you pay for the three days you used before. We didn't have dish at home, so this worked for us. The TailGator gets HD Chanels as well as standard def and automatically finds the Satellites as they change for HD.

[goducks10]

I really like my Winegard X2 portable with Dish Great HD picture. I can set it just about anywhere. Many times I have to set it up on the roof of the 5er. I use the DishPointer Pro app on my phone to see where the best spot is. Out here in the west we have a lot of tall trees and I'm almost always threading the needle between them. IMO Dish has the best RV sat customer service. Several times I've had to call to change my locals and they are fast and don't try and sell me anything or give me a hard time about it. If you already have Dish service then it's only $7.00 a month and you can stop and start when you want.

[djousma]

I use directv at home/rv. I bought an "home style" extra dish/lnb on ebay, and a tripod from tv4rv.com setup takes about 10 minutes. I did find a directv installers alignment meter for sale on ebay, which makes alignment a snap. Going this route, I have no extra monthly fees, as I take 3 of our 4 boxes out of our house for use in the trailer. As long as I am within 1 state or so of my home area, I continue to get my home local channels just fine. Beyond that the spot beam is unavilable, but I have everything else.

[bob213]

I have Dish Network. I bought a dish and tripod. I take a receiver from home that is a dual tuner.(I can watch a different channel in the bedroom.) As NMDriver said, if you can read a compass and have some patience you can dial in the antenna in under 10 minutes. If I'm more than 300 miles from home I loose the spot beam and therefore my local channels. A phone call to dish to tell them my new location fixes that. Nothing extra per month, just cost of dish and tripod.

[gmw_photos]

I use dish. I bought the antenna from camping world a few years ago on sale. I got the one that looks like darth vader. I got the receiver from someone else off the internet. I like their "dish for RV" is a month to month plan. Use it when I need, let it get turned off when I don't need it. No added fees to restart it at a later date.
Can't remember for sure what the dish cost, but it seems like it was about $300, the rec about $100. Programming is about $75/month.

[bobndot]

More and more I see campers with satelites hooked up to their RVS at the campgrounds. I was wondering how good do they really work?

I would think if they didn't work you be seeing them "less and less",
but "more and more" tells me they are working well. 🙂

Here is what I did ...cost was about $450 at the time, i own the system:
DISH Network offers a 'pay-as-you-go' monthly program called 'Tailgater' you pay, they provide the channels you choose for 30 days at which time you have the option to renew an additional 30 days or not. If not, when you reactivate it in 3 or 6 mos time, there is NO FEE to turn it back on.
If you want the DVR function, you pay a one time fee of $40 for that activation. Every time you reactivate, you will then automatically have DVR service.
You can also add local channels. You can pick your own 'HOME area' or pick local stations where you are camping but i never done that, i keep my HOME stations all the time.
Dish offers channel 213 which gives you local weather when you punch in the zip code. Multiple zip codes can be entered so you can view 7 day weather forecasts where you plan to be at your next destination.


https://www.dishformyrv.com/

Im able to padlock/cable and antenna to a tree etc .
I bought one of the portable systems because i camp in the woods under trees . A rooftop dish would be restrictive. I carry 150 ft of cable in order to find a clear shot to the S/W sky. If you camp in an open area you have the option to place the antenna on the roof.
My 211k receiver uses only one cable that combines the signal as well as the 12v power to the motor to spin the antenna .
It stays on during heavy rains much to my surprise because the antenna is smaller, it only gets a signal strength of 50-65, but it works just fine.

For those who camp off grid using 12v power:
A 150 watt inverter does the job with power to spare for the 28" TV, 211k RECVR and Antenna.
When I boondock, i now run the 28" tv and dish recvr off a PSW 150 watt inverter with a 12v plug (its not hardwired).
The receiver uses the same 22 watts of power if its on or off. Therefore i shut it off during the night while boondocking.
Its not a big deal because it only takes 5-8 mns to reboot it. By the time the coffee is made , the dog goes out, we are ready to watch the morning news, its all AUTOMATIC, you don't have to point it manually.
I leave the system out and set up 24/7 and never had any issue with kids touching it in the 12 yrs I've had it.

:S :h
The only issue i had was the inverters low voltage would sound when the water pump was being used and sometimes would sound when the antenna motor would scan from between 2 satellites (looking for a station , my dish flips between sat 110 and 119)
The alarm was sounding because the wiring in my RV is too light to the 12v outlet that the inverter is plugged into.
To solve the problem the RV could be rewired. I don't have the time to do that now so I went to plan B.
For me, the easiest thing to do was carry a separate AGM 12v battery and keep it under the dinette to which i plugged the inverter into.
That solved the alarm sounding and the AGM battery gets charged as needed by a separate 3 stage charger inside the RV . AGM's do not off gas like a wet cell does and can be charged inside.

[BB_TX]

Serius/XM is included in my Dish program package.

[DutchmenSport]

If you have SeriusXM in your automobile, you can also get it for your home (or camper). Click here.

[TheLuvShack]

I bought the Winegard Pathway X2 and Wally receiver bundle from Amazon Warehouse Deals for $278.00. Box had been opened but everything in the box was still in original packaging. Pathway X2 allows you to hook up two TVs (need a second receiver) and gets both East and West satellites. Also locks onto satellite automatically. Dish provides the service. You pay as you need it a month at a time. I usually get the basic package and the local channels. Cost is $48 and change including fees and taxes. You must have a clear view of the S/SW sky. I'm happy with mine.

[Big_Katuna]

If you want HD go with DISH. Then you can buy a small carry out auto align dome like a Winegard Pathway for $400 and get HD. Nobody makes one for Directv.

I love mine.

[BB_TX]

We have Dish at home and so have Dish in the RV. We get the same 200 or so channels in both. First several years we just added the RV to the home account for an extra $7 per month. Fine at first, but my daughter moved in with us. When traveling out of our home area and I changed the service address to get local network channels from our nearest local city at the time my daughter could not get our home locals at home. Later I changed the RV to a separate pay as you go account so it doesn't affect our home account when I change the service address and I pay only for the months we use it.

Program packages are available for under $50/mo (I think) and up depending on how many channels you want. Receivers and manual antennas are not overly expensive. Check dishformyrv.com for pricing. Automatic antennas cost more.

[NMDriver]

To start you buy/sign up for a contract with Dish or Direct TV. They will provide the box receiver and the antenna receiver. There may be an initial sign up special price but after the contract period (12 mo typically). The price goes up. If you want all the premium channels you will pay around $125/mo if you only want the basics around half that. Plus your equipment rental fees.

You can find the antenna and box on Craigs list for very little $$ if not free and avoid the equipment rental free. I just took a remote, box and antenna down to Goodwill last month.

If you can read a compass and understand where the equator is in relation to your location on earth, then you can set the antenna yourself. IF you do not want to learn that skill you can pay for a antenna that figures it out for you.

IN short it can be a $50 or $500 cost to set up on top of the monthly subscription fee.

AS for how good they work. I always had excellent reception and was able to set my antenna up in 5 min. IF I had a clear line of sight to the southern sky. If you park where you cannot shoot the satellite then it does not work.