Help! Tailgate set up question....

[techsan20]

Here is the situation. I am tailgating at the Texas Tech/Texas A&M game on the 18th. The game is going to be on Fox Sports Network and there are a bunch of people not going to the game that are planning on watching it at the tailgate.

My friend has two Direct TV HD receivers and the HD Dish. We are going to use one of his receivers for the tailgate. However, I have one of the old round dish's with one LNB. The LNB has two coaxial outputs that go inthe dish arm. We want to use this one because I can take it with us and not take down his roof mounted dish.

I hooked it up to his receiver and tried to get it to get the signal. At one point I had it picking up the signal on the setup screens and was OK on all three of the options (101, etc.) but failed on the last check which said something abou the receiver...it failed. I tried both coaxial outputs.

So my questions to those in the know:

1. Can you use an HD Receiver with the older non-HD dish? We don't need HD channels.

2. Is there something I need to do to make this work or troubleshoot, or was I close to getting it to work? Cables, etc.?

Any help would be greatly appreciated!


Thanks!

 

[bateau980]

You can run almost any receiver on an old dish. Just go into setup and choose the correct dish. The failed issue might be a non-issue as it could be checking for a BBC or something else like a phone line connection.

I'd keep trying to get it to work as is since it should be very close. Make sure you take your compass or signal finder along with you when you set up. Otherwise, you'll be staring at the sky instead of the game

 

[HDinCincy]

Tech: I agree with 980's advice. I tailgate with my D* all the time BUT I use the D11 SD receiver. At home this receiver is matched to my HD (slimline) dish. When I tailgate it's the same dish you have. I do NOT have to reset to a different dish in my setup menu. It senses it automatically. In fact, as I'm always in the same tailgate spot, I pretty much just put up the dish and wait about 5 minutes (with AC power to my D11) and I'm ready to go. My point is, it could be something else that is affecting you OR the D11, as it's an SD rec'ver, may be more backwards compatible than the HD rec'vers.

Either way, make absolutely sure everything works before heading to the game. Making sure that your pole is perfectly plumb is critical. That way when you mount the dish all you have to do is sweep the sky (that is the easy part.) I also have a bullseye (google it) mount which I absolutely love. It cost me more than the dish but is well worth it because it makes plumbing up the pole so easy. Mine is mounted to the roof rack of my RV.
Good Luck