I would like to attempt to take my system with me to a few tailgates this fall. My home system setup is as follows. I have 2 Dish 500 satellites. The first has a single Dish Pro LNBF which runs to my second dish which has a DP Plus Twin. In the house i have one HD receiver, and one DP Plus 625 DishDVR reciver that runs two tvs. I would like to take the DVR receiver (as i have no plans on having HD at the tailgate) with me to use along with a friends satellite (he switched to direct) but i will need to take my LNBF from my satellite to use it. I was wondering if anyone can tell me if this is possible and if so, how to do it. I am looking for ABC locals and especially the ESPN family of networks. I believe i need to use 110 and 119 for this. It seems like it should be simple enough, but i have a feeling it might not be. Any help would be much appriciated! Thanks!
First Time Tailgater needs help...
- Thread starter nurseparks22
- Start date
- Latest activity Latest activity:
- Replies 13
- Views 2K
I do lots of tailgating and I'm sure we can help here. I actually do have HD at my tailgate with a 1000.2 dish and a 722 and a 211 to run two flat screen HD TVs. When you say you want to take your DVR receiver to use with your friends satellite but with your LNBF do you just mean his dish? Depending on what dish he has this may work. Does he have a spare Dish 500 that you are just going to attache your LNBF to? Or are you talking about a Direct dish? I would strongly recommend you getting a spare dish 500 to use. Check out DishStore or Ebay or even a local retailer. I got my first tailgating dish from a guy in a Dish van at a gas station. I asked if he had any old dishes that he had taken down that day and he gave me one (i gave him $20 as a thank you).
As far as which satellites you want it depends where you are. You say you want the local channels. One thing to be aware of is if you are tailgating too far from your local area you may not be able to receive your local channels because the SD locals are almost all on spotbeams (which means they only work in certain areas). To see which satellite the channels you want are on go to Dish Network Channel Chart (Unofficial) and write down the location of all of them that you want. We can go from there.
As far as which satellites you want it depends where you are. You say you want the local channels. One thing to be aware of is if you are tailgating too far from your local area you may not be able to receive your local channels because the SD locals are almost all on spotbeams (which means they only work in certain areas). To see which satellite the channels you want are on go to Dish Network Channel Chart (Unofficial) and write down the location of all of them that you want. We can go from there.
HD at the tailgate may come eventually. Don't tempt me... But for now ill stick with this and understand how this works first. We would be taking my friends dish 500 (he no longer uses it since he switched to direct) but would take up my LNBF from mine to run it. At least until i was sure how often we would use it before spending money on an extra setup.
The main channels i would be looking for at this point are the ESPN channels. They are on satellite 119. I would only like the locals due to my ABC normally being on a local feed and not a national feed. We tailgate about an hour from home, and many of our local channels are stationed close to where we tailgate. Hopefully this is the information you needed to help me out.
The main channels i would be looking for at this point are the ESPN channels. They are on satellite 119. I would only like the locals due to my ABC normally being on a local feed and not a national feed. We tailgate about an hour from home, and many of our local channels are stationed close to where we tailgate. Hopefully this is the information you needed to help me out.
Yep, you should be fine then. The 625 will work just fine with the Dish 500 as you describe it. So what else do you want to know? Have you aimed a dish before? Do you have a tripod for the dish? What is your power source? I'm here to help, just let me know your questions.
Do you happen to know where ESPN is going to be mapped to on Eastern Arc? I get every single channel I need for tailgating off of 61.5 so I wouldn't have to worry about 2 lnb's to line up plus the south east is usually easier to hit at Florida State games. But of course ESPN is on 110 now. if they move to to the 77 or 72 location they will make my life hell. So if you know anything on that.
Also where can I get tripod cheap. Last year I had it rigged up, and it was rather annoying.
Thanks!
Thanks for your help so far. I do have some more questions. you say the 625 will work with my setup. Dumb question, but im guessing i will just hook it up to sat 1 and not worry about sat 2 connection. My next question is which LNBF will i need to take to use? I have the two seperate ones, plus an extra single from a friend. Wasnt sure which one would work and i would need to use. I dont have a tripod yet, but am going to get one. And i havent pointed one before, just have been reading up on what i can find in the manual and online. My power source is a Vector Power on Board 1500 Watt inverter. From what ive read, this should be enough to run a smaller tv and the dish. Also, the last guy that posted said that ESPN is now on 110, but it was listed on 119 on the site you gave me. Do you know if it has changed since then, or what the discrepency may be? Thanks again!
And ive saw many tripods on Ebay. Not sure if someone knows of any cheaper.
And ive saw many tripods on Ebay. Not sure if someone knows of any cheaper.
You still didn't say where you are (unless I missed it) so which satellite are your locals coming from? Do you need 110 and 119 or just 119? (The ESPN you are looking for in SD is on 119). If you need both then the easiest LNBF to use will be a Dish Pro Plus Twin or a Dish Pro Twin. If you use the DPP Twin you can just use a separator and only run 1 cable from the dish to the receiver. If you go with just the Dish Pro Twin then you need to run two cables to the receiver to get both satellites. It might be easiest to just get a new one rather than try to use what you already have.
As far as the power it sounds like you are good to go.
For aiming I would STRONGLY suggest doing a few practices runs at home in your yard prior to trying at the tailgate.
As far as a tripod, I got mine from Radio Shack (they call it a roof antenna tripod). I think it was like $30 but that was a few years ago. Then a metal fence post works great as the mast ($3 from Home Depot).
an 1-5/8" pole in a 5 gallon bucket of cement works well. the bucket doesnt have to be completely FULL of cement mind you, about 50 lbs is more than enough.
Looks like you're not going to be happy
http://www.satelliteguys.us/uplink-...-8-6-2008-2-02pm-488-changes.html#post1474214
I do plan on practicing pointing it multiple times to be sure. We are also doing it the first time with the dish still in place from when he last had it hooked up to be sure before we really start. I will be tailgaiting in State College, Pennsylvania. I live about an hour south of there, and our local stations are the same. I havent been able to find where they are listed to determine which satellite they are on. I have the Dish Pro Plus Twin but am unsure how to hook it up. It sounds like all the stations i really need are on 119, unless the locals are on another. The LNBF has 3 outputs on it. 2 on the 119 and one on the 110. Do i just need to hook up one of the ones on 119, or use a seperator to connect it along with the 110. Sorry for all the dumb questions, but i havent done this before and just not sure how it all works.
Tune to the channel you want, then do Menu 6-1-1 for the signal meter. The satellite and transponder that shows up is the one the station is on.
get a hold of your 625's owners manual. its all in there.. diagrams, pictures, text, everything.
