Satellite Dish - Montana Owners Club

Montana_738 · 03-20-2005, 09:48 AM

Hello Everyone,
I have a question, I have a extra satellite dish (500)from dish net work, I want to mount this to a petastool and be able to use it in the 5er.
I was told once I get this thing setup I take the box from the house when we are traveling and get the same channels as I do at home. Is this true? Can anyone tell me how to wire it and get started?

Thanks,

Bill

Montana_883 · 03-20-2005, 10:11 AM

Bill, just hook up your SAT receiver the same as you have done in your house. Most units are pre wired for SAT TV and labeled so, hook the dish to that connection. Just aim your dish at the satellite using a locater,or local ZIP code. Your SAT receiver should do the rest. You will get all the channels you got at home.

Charlie · 03-20-2005, 10:29 AM

Bill-
If you subscribe to local channels you are limited as to how far you can pick up these signals as Dish Network uses a spot beam for these channels, otherwise you can get all of other channels that you subscribe to. I use Houston as my local channels and run out from under these after about 300 miles from Houston. As John said, hook-up like you have the receiver hooked up at home. Bear in mind that trees have a big effect on your ability to get the signal and you should have as clear opening towards the satellite as possible.

Montana_738 · 03-20-2005, 11:28 AM

Thanks Lazeejl & Charlie,

I just ordered a Satellite finder from Camping World) I don't know if this was the cheepest place to get it but I had to order some other stuff & the freight was only a dollar.

Bill

Dave e Victoria · 03-20-2005, 12:59 PM

Charlie,
Just call Dish and they will change your local channels to the one you are close to. It is a pain to keep calling them as you move but it works..Also, for dish people, if you add a new dish antenna and expect to take your home reciever along, be aware that there is a change in technology. There is "Legacy" and "Dish Pro". Legacy recievers are not fully compatable with DishPro antennas. However, DishPro recievers can use either Dish Pro or Legacy antennas. If you don't get it right the first time, it will cost about $120.00 to get the correct setup.
Ask before you buy
Dave

faeb and genb · 03-20-2005, 02:24 PM

You will also have to get your remote for the T V in the camper progamed. Unless you are taking the T V from the house. I have 2 recievers one progamed for house & one for the R V. I don't get locals on the road. Have the Super dish on house & the small one in R V.
Gene

Montana_738 · 03-20-2005, 02:51 PM

Hi I have more questions,
Dave e victoria you said something about this dish, the one I have is from Dish Net that they left on my son's house when they installed a new one. The installation guy said he didn't want to take the other one down so he was just going to leave it and my son could do what ever he wanted with it. It's a dish 500, I was going to install it on a trypod and carry it with. I have a old transponder from when I upgraded to the T-Boe thing, and thought I would just leave that in the RV, and just remove the card from the one in the house when traveling. Will there be a extra fee from Dish Net for this? The other question is there are two coax cables comming out of the bottom of the dish, do I use both of them? Also do I need to put a new connection in just for satellite, or can I just hook into the spot where the cable connection is? Do you also need a switch or splitter to go back and forth from local TV to satellite?
I didn't realize this was going to be so involved.
Thanks for all the answers you have given me already.

Bill

Dave e Victoria · 03-20-2005, 05:42 PM

OK, This doesn't need to be complicated. We just need to seperate out the questions.
1) The Dish 500 antenna (the dish) is fine. Hopefully, you saved the switch -- it is a little square block with three coax connectors on it. The antenna boom has two low noise amplifiers (LNB) on it. One is for 110 and the other for 119MHZ. Each of these has two coax connectors on the bottom. You may have to open up the antenna parts to see these connections. Don't worry, it goes back together easily. Given that you intend to hook up only one reciever, run a coax from each LNB to the switch. (The connections should be well labled) Then, from the other side of the switch, run a coax to the satellite connection on the satellite reciever.
2) You can run your cable/antenna input into the antenna connection for this on the Satellite reciever. The reciever has a built in switch accessable from your remote.
3) Dish Network pairs the card in the reciever with the reciever itself. Therefore, if you move the card from one reciever to another, you have to cantact Dish Netwrk and have them reprogram. Personally, I just move the whole reciever from house to fiver when we go.

If this is all too confusing, the Dish 500 manual is pretty clear. Beyond that, don't be afraid to talk to a local Satellite shope. Our local dealer is helpful as they are looking for future business.

Thunderman · 03-21-2005, 04:22 AM

The NEW receivers from dish do not have the card in them. This may not apply in your case, thought I would mention it though.
Yes you should be able to use your son's old dish.
We recently got the Dish system for the stick house...at the time I told the dealer we were going to use one receiver in the 5er. They said that was not a problem. It seemed they were fully aware many people do this.

Montana_738 · 03-21-2005, 08:08 AM

Thanks Dave E Victoria & Thunderman, I'm starting to understand the way this works now, little by little anyway. Also Charlie was kind enough to send some pictures of his dish to me via email. His dish is exactly like mine. It really helps when you see the picture itself. He is also going to send a diagram on how his is hooked up.
We actually have three receivers in the stick house, I think there is only a five dollar a month charge for the two extra. I wonder if it would be the same $5.00 charge if I requested a card for the extra receiver that I put on the side for the RV? If that is all it is it would be well worth it. If nothing else I will do the same as you Dave and take one unit out of the bedroom when we travel.
One other question, are the satellites for the dish net work always in the same spot, so you have to look for the same direction each time you stop? Or does the latitude or what ever change everywhere you go? I'm reading this last sentenance and I can't make sense of it myself, I don't know how I expect anyone else to know what I'm talking about. Like I said before electronics sure isn't my field.

Thanks again,

Bill

jackw87 · 03-21-2005, 08:38 AM

Bill
II have direct TV dish and i have 4 recievers 3 at the stick house and one in the 5r and each extra reciever is $5.00 each per month the satellite is in the same place all of the time but you will be moving your location so you will have to adjust the dish every time you set up but you can go to menu and dish pointing and enter your zip code for that location and it will give you the elevtion and azimuth it helps to hava a signal finder sold at CW

jsmitfl · 03-21-2005, 09:20 AM

I was out camping not long ago and couldnt type in the zip the way we use to. We did this to get the azimuth and elevation for that area. I phoned a buddy and he went online to dishnetwork.com They have a new system there that lists all the zip codes with their azimuth and elevations. I copied this and keep it in the fiver now. Thanks

Montana_738 · 03-21-2005, 10:56 AM

Thanks again everyone.

Bill

Montana_1197 · 03-22-2005, 12:58 PM

One thing we ran into with our dish is that, at home, we are sync-ed in on two satellites (110 & 119). The little fold-up we carry will only receive one satellite so we sync in on one or the other and can receive part of the channels we do at home. Someone told us that in order to receive both satellites I needed a dish that was 24" in diameter and had a "skew" setting to tilt the dish as well as azimuth and elevation. With our setup we only get about 50 of the 150 we get at home. Man, talk about roughing it. And so get a satellite signal finder. Your neighbors will appreciate not hearing beeeep......beeeeeep........beeeeep when you line up your dish.

Dave e Victoria · 03-22-2005, 04:50 PM

There is so much rumor, techno jargon and non-science on the subject of satellite reception it is making me ill -- that is assuming I care. It seems to me, someone with a modicum of industry experience should put together a primer (and I mean PRIMER) on what the options are, how to select, how to install and how to align for stick houses and for campers, it would be an instant seller. Personally, I think it should be a sort of comic book but that is just me. Maybe something more along the lines of "Satellite TV for Dummies" Like all the rest of those books we use for everything from cooking to poker games. Believe me, I will be the first in line at the Barnes and Noble Checkout line.

Actually, I find the techies on the phone at Direct and Dish fairly useful but I HATE MENUES and CALL CENTERS. This stuff just isn't that difficult. So, come on folks. Who out there wants to make a fortune? I'll bet there are a whole bunch of customers right here...........

Thunderman · 03-22-2005, 05:14 PM

babyhakes3,
I had the same problem when I was using a dish with one LNB, the round thing pointed at the center of the dish. I picked up one of the dish with 2 LNB and that solved the problem. Where I use to get 110 only I now get 110 and 119. Mine has the DISH 500 on it.
You can find them on E-bay or some pawn shops...when dish disconnects someones service, they usually leave the old dish there. Consider some apartment complexes??

worknomore · 08-30-2005, 02:39 AM

I've followed this thread & basically understand how to hook things up, but my situation is a little different...

I have DishNet at home with dual channel recievers (4 TV's, 2 recievers). The DishNet install guy said that these receivers require 2 coax cables running from my DishPro 500 dish (& there is) be connected to the back of whichever receiver I take from home to put in the Monty. Problem is, there is only one connector on the outside of the rig. His solution was thru a door/window with the existing dual cable from the dish, OR use the existing dual cable from the dish to a 'flat' cable running thru a window, etc., & another dual cable inside to the dish. Other option is installing a dual cable connector on the outside of the rig.

Any thoughts/workarounds/simpler solutions? The cabel-to-cable-to-cable-to-receiver thing sounds kinda jury-rigged.

drhowell · 08-30-2005, 03:40 AM

Have never heard of two cables unless you want to move two receivers from your home to your trailer. Only reason for that would be if you wanted to watch two different satellite channels at the same time. We rough it and only have one receiver in the trailer. Both the wife and I can agree on what we want to watch on the sat. We don't watch much tv when we are out anyway since we are not full timers and enjoy site seeing new areas.

You only need one cable on the dual LNB dishes for one receiver.

richfaa · 08-30-2005, 03:52 AM

Hummm.We have direct Tv.. Single LNB,We just point it at the sat and receive all the channels just like at home///

worknomore · 08-30-2005, 06:02 AM

Again, to clarify, our home system uses (2) DishNet 322 dual tuner recievers to operate 4 TV's. Unlike DirectTV, we don't have a reveiver for each TV (which is why we went with DishNet - $10.00/mo. cheaper).

The problem is, if we put one of these 322's in the 5ver, we HAVE to run a dual cable from the dish (dual LNB) directly to the receiver or it won't work. It looks for both connections, whether or not there is a second TV - according to our local DishNet techie. That is the way each of those receivers is hooked up in the house...

If there's a satellite guru out there who knows how to circumvent this with one cable to the existing outside port on the camper, I SURE would appreciate it. I shiver at the thought of drilling holes for 2 new ports on the outside skin.

You may also like: