Confusion re. Dish system for RV

[rvvaquero]

Because it’s a pain to setup for the average customer.

A tailgater and a 211 with an external drive is the best solution.

You got to keep in mind I deal with customers every day. There are customers out there who have a camper and think it’s Dish Network or Directv’s responsibility to aim their dish or provide tech support every time they decide to move camp sites.

You need a solution that is simple and easy.

Not a hopper where you got to worry about nodes, a possible internet connection and joeys.

I do this for a living, I can point a dish with my eyes closed. I would choose the tailgater type setup over manually pointing a dish anyway.

Other than that, are you using the camper to watch Tv or relax? You really only need 1 Tv for this type setup.

I realize that you are a dealer with vast experience and have forgotten ten times as much as I ever knew about satellite TV. However, I must say that anyone who would recommend a Tailgater has never used one very much. I have owned two. They are a very poor choice IMO. Very unreliable on a day to day basis. There are also much better options, like the Winegard Pathway X2.

Also, many people live in RV's these days. I agree that if you're just going camping for a few days, a Hopper and four TV's may be overkill. But, for those who live in their RV full time like Brussam, their TV needs are no different than those who live in a sticks and bricks house. Don't be so judgemental about this.

 

[NYDutch]

The King Tailgater is a poor choice for RV'ers due to its small reflector and limited arc selection. If a portable automatic is a "must have", then the Winegard Pathway X2 with a larger reflector and dual arc capability is a much better choice. The receiver choice for the portable domes is very limited though. As Brussam said, DVR's do work well for RV use, and our Hopper has had no problems at all with about 30,000 miles on it. For either a Dish or DTV sat setup, the easiest to use option is the roof mounted Trav'ler automated open faced dish that only requires a button push for the western arc sats, and an eastern arc sat can be manually dialed in. Campsite tree cover can be an issue with roof mounts of course. Manually aimed portable tripod mounted open faced dishes are not particularly difficult to set up and aim, although there is a bit of a learning curve. It probably took me at least 4-5 times setting up before I started to establish a repeatable routine that made future setups quicker and easier. Now it's rare to take more than 15 minutes from the time I step out the door until I'm back inside waiting for the guide to update, and the aiming flexibility is well worth it. With hundreds of campsites behind us, we've not yet landed on one where I couldn't get a sat signal somewhere on the site from one arc or the other.

 

[Timbee]

Because it’s a pain to setup for the average customer.

A tailgater and a 211 with an external drive is the best solution.

You got to keep in mind I deal with customers every day. There are customers out there who have a camper and think it’s Dish Network or Directv’s responsibility to aim their dish or provide tech support every time they decide to move camp sites.

You need a solution that is simple and easy.

Not a hopper where you got to worry about nodes, a possible internet connection and joeys.

I do this for a living, I can point a dish with my eyes closed. I would choose the tailgater type setup over manually pointing a dish anyway.

Other than that, are you using the camper to watch Tv or relax? You really only need 1 Tv for this type setup.

From everything I've learned so far, the Tailgater system is not something I would even consider. Although I can appreciate your perspective having dealt with many users, but I think a number of other factors need to be considered before saying which system is "the best". Also, what good is "simple and easy" if the end result is a system which doesn't come close to meeting my needs?

A robust DVR is absolutely essential. As a TiVo user for our home system I've not watched a single commercial in years-- except for the rare time we're stuck in the dreaded "real time". Even the, easy enough to just pause and let the buffer get caught up.

As for the technical aspects, speaking for myself I don't see that as any kind of issue. Been a technical director & consultant for various companies for decades. Might take a time of two to get to your level of pointing a dish "with my eyes closed" but I'm a pretty patient guy.

 

[Brussam]

Right attitude

 

[fredelkamp]

Thanks-- I did check there but mainly seems to be a lot of sales hype with listings for only portable dome type units or the very expensive Winegard ones.

The main reason I recommended DishForMyRV was for the Dish Pay As You Go service, assuming you'll not be full-timing in the RV and you don't have Dish at home. Pay as you go allows you to turn on the service for a month at a time with no activation fee or cancellation fee. For pay as you go you'll need to purchase you own equipment. In my RV, less is more.

 

[NYDutch]

We're now full-time RV'ers, but back when we were part-time RV'ers, we used Dish4MyRV to set up our PAYGO account, even though all of our equipment was purchased from other sources. Basically what Dish4MyRV did was patch my call through to someone at Dish customer service that actually knew what RV's and RV accounts were, and got things rolling with no hassles. I was watching satellite TV before the call ended. Since then, I've upgraded and added receivers, usually through chat or a DIRT member, although they seem to be much less active than they used to be.

 

[bwexler]

The 9 years I spent full time in my RV we had 2 TVs and 2 DVRs, including 2 original Hoppers. For anyone spending more than a week at a time in their RV and sharp enough to ask here, the Hopper 3 and Joey is the only way to go.

 

[rvvaquero]

For anyone spending more than a week at a time in their RV and sharp enough to ask here, the Hopper 3 and Joey is the only way to go.

Nonsense. It may have been the only way for you, but not for me or everyone. I admit I'm not "sharp enough" for a lot of things. I've been a full time rv'er for over 10 years and have been very happy with my single VIP211K. I plan on going to a Wally, simply to get the extra two tuners for the same price. I have no use for a Hopper and wouldn't know what to do with a Joey, but then again I don't spend all my time watching TV.

 

[Timbee]

We're now full-time RV'ers, but back when we were part-time RV'ers, we used Dish4MyRV to set up our PAYGO account, even though all of our equipment was purchased from other sources. Basically what Dish4MyRV did was patch my call through to someone at Dish customer service that actually knew what RV's and RV accounts were, and got things rolling with no hassles. I was watching satellite TV before the call ended. Since then, I've upgraded and added receivers, usually through chat or a DIRT member, although they seem to be much less active than they used to be.

Is Dish4MyRV a division of some kind of Dish or a separate entity? Seem to remember at one point when doing some research on the Dish site that they directed me to Dish4MyRV and I assumed they were a part of the same.

 

[Timbee]

Manually aimed portable tripod mounted open faced dishes are not particularly difficult to set up and aim, although there is a bit of a learning curve. It probably took me at least 4-5 times setting up before I started to establish a repeatable routine that made future setups quicker and easier. Now it's rare to take more than 15 minutes from the time I step out the door until I'm back inside waiting for the guide to update, and the aiming flexibility is well worth it. With hundreds of campsites behind us, we've not yet landed on one where I couldn't get a sat signal somewhere on the site from one arc or the other.

Do you use an app or another device of some kind to aim the Dish? There's a bunch of different apps (Android here) and wondering which ones might work best.

 

[NYDutch]

Do you use an app or another device of some kind to aim the Dish? There's a bunch of different apps (Android here) and wondering which ones might work best.

My "go to" app for aiming has been the paid "DishPointer" app from DishPointer.com, but recently I've switched to the free "TV Signal Finder" app from Winegard after extensive testing. Besides being free, the Winegard app also has an OTA antenna aiming feature along with satellite aiming. The apps are really only good for finding a clear view of the satellites,and then a signal meter is needed to dial in the dish for the best signal. I use a meter that's apparently no longer available, but there are others depending on just which Dish setup you're using. Some folks seem to make out ok just using the signal strength function of their satellite receiver, although I found that to be pretty awkward and time consuming.

 

[NYDutch]

Is Dish4MyRV a division of some kind of Dish or a separate entity? Seem to remember at one point when doing some research on the Dish site that they directed me to Dish4MyRV and I assumed they were a part of the same.

Dish4MyRV is branding used by Pace International, an authorized Dish retailer that caters to the RV market. Pace does have strong ties to Dish, but they are an independent company.

 

[Timbee]

My "go to" app for aiming has been the paid "DishPointer" app from DishPointer.com, but recently I've switched to the free "TV Signal Finder" app from Winegard after extensive testing. Besides being free, the Winegard app also has an OTA antenna aiming feature along with satellite aiming. The apps are really only good for finding a clear view of the satellites,and then a signal meter is needed to dial in the dish for the best signal. I use a meter that's apparently no longer available, but there are others depending on just which Dish setup you're using. Some folks seem to make out ok just using the signal strength function of their satellite receiver, although I found that to be pretty awkward and time consuming.

Thanks much for the input. I'll check out the apps you mentioned.
As for signal meter-- searches come up with a whole slew of options ranging from less than twenty bucks for the cheapies to hundreds for the most expensive! Pretty mixed reviews for all as well. If you-- or anyone else reading this-- has a device they can recommend from personal experience I'd appreciate hearing about it.

 

[Timbee]

Dish4MyRV is branding used by Pace International, an authorized Dish retailer that caters to the RV market. Pace does have strong ties to Dish, but they are an independent company.

Aha-- got it. Appreciate the explanation.

 

[NYDutch]

Thanks much for the input. I'll check out the apps you mentioned.
As for signal meter-- searches come up with a whole slew of options ranging from less than twenty bucks for the cheapies to hundreds for the most expensive! Pretty mixed reviews for all as well. If you-- or anyone else reading this-- has a device they can recommend from personal experience I'd appreciate hearing about it.

I'll wait for others to jump in on the "best meter" question. My little $50 meter from eBay works well for me, but I don't see them listed any more.

 

[Brussam]

I recommend the Super Buddy 29 but I needed it for the Hybrid LNBFs for the Hopper 3. Previous to the Hopper 3, I used a First Strike FS1 because it has satellite id detection. Before that I used a Acutrac 22 Pro, did a good job of aiming but did not have satellite id detection.

 

[Timbee]

I recommend the Super Buddy 29 but I needed it for the Hybrid LNBFs for the Hopper 3. Previous to the Hopper 3, I used a First Strike FS1 because it has satellite id detection. Before that I used a Acutrac 22 Pro, did a good job of aiming but did not have satellite id detection.

"satellite id detection" ? Not sure what the advantage this offers?

A quick search of the models you listed would seem to indicate that they are no longer in stock. I guess my question remains as to whether the models costing hundreds of dollars do any better job than the cheapies when it comes to simply aiming a dish to get a good signal?

 

[n0qcu]

"satellite id detection" ? Not sure what the advantage this offers?

Because with a meter that doesn't do ID detection it's very possible (even likely) to show a good signal strength but be pointing at the wrong satellite for your service.

 

[JSheridan]

"satellite id detection" ? Not sure what the advantage this offers?

A quick search of the models you listed would seem to indicate that they are no longer in stock. I guess my question remains as to whether the models costing hundreds of dollars do any better job than the cheapies when it comes to simply aiming a dish to get a good signal?

There are a lot of satellites up there and without satellite ID detection you don't know which one you're pointing at. If you have a meter like a SuperBuddy it tells you if you're pointing at the correct satellite and the exact signal strength and makes it much easier to tune, so yes the expensive meters are much better.

I use an Applied Instruments Turbo S2 which I love.