Another ? for those using DirecTv while camping

[Wannabe Full-timer]

I read an earlier post about DirecTV but couldn't get any hits on a search unfortunately.

Anyway, since we are planning to hopefully become seasonal campers, but locally, and staying in our RV from about May to October most of the time we were wondering then if that means we would have to choose using the DirecTV either in just the RV OR the house??? I would assume so but thought I would ask. We do plan to come home and say some of the time during the summer but will be staying in the RV more.

Now, will we need to purchase our own satellite dish separate from the one we have at the house (since the one we have at the house is attached high up on a pole since we live in the woods and we would not want to have to remove that! LOL If we do need to purchase one, any particular type you would recommend for an RV and most importantly what accessories do you recommend to use with an RV for setting it up on pretty much on a permanent basis for about six months of the year??? We want to make sure the wind doesn't knock it over or blow it away but yet be able to remove it and store it for the winter (and I don't think husband wants to attach it to the roof if that is even an option). I have seen the devices you can purchase to "tune" them in. Also, do we then just take our box at home with us and use that?

Should I be contacting DirecTV then now to get the waiver and do you have to give them an exact date to begin use? Also, which dept. do I contact and is it better to contact via phone or the Internet? It s/l some of the people at DirecTV are not familiar with RVers doing this from what I have read.

TIA.

[padredw]

I am sure you will receive many more adequate responses, but just to share our experiences here goes...

We have found extra "dishes" without difficulty. In fact I have two good ones right now. We just take one dish and a folding tripod in the storage of the RV. We take the satellite receiver box out of the living room, take it with us and that's all there is to it. We still get all the same channels (except the local channels) as we do at home.

The tripod is better than a permanent mount because that allows placement to avoid trees or other obstructions. If there is wind, we attach weights to the base of the tripod (we carry empty gallon milk jugs, then fill with water--use as many as needed for the conditions. Once we add them we just leave them in place.

Up to now, we have none of the automatic "locating" devices. I just use a compass and level and the screen instructions to locate.

We have found this to be an extremely simple procedure.

EDIT to add: we do NOT have any waiver or special arrangement with DirectTV, just the normal home subscription service. We just disconnect the "box" and connect it in the Montana and it works exactly the same.

[Wannabe Full-timer]

Well, that sounds simple enough! That would work great for us. We are going to probably be in a CG less than an hour from our house and it would be really nice if we could just bring the box back to the house for when we do come back home, where wouldn't have to have to have service at just one place OR the other. We actually had a dish given to us by an RV friend but it is older so not sure it would work the same as I know they updated their systems and changed our dish a year or two ago so we may need to buy a new one. We would need to purchase a tripod. Any recommendations on what is best?? Wasn't sure what we would need to weight it down. Wasn't sure what you used as a locating device (not sure husband would be too keen on a compass - he likes to KISS-LOL - gotta love him though.)

Thanks so much for the info!

[tom41]

people at Direct Tv are RV friendly, Direct Tv also advertise in Trailer Life, We are fulltimers so we had Dish Network installed in our motorcoach in 1998 when we started fulltiming, kept Dish Network till this past march when we change to Direct, because its easier to set up and get the satallite for me and Direct seems more RV friendlier then Dish Network. I did sign a waiver to get the DSN's and after they recieve that then it usually takes 10 to 12 days to get it set up. But to answer your question about taking the reciever from your home, we do know that most people that "long times" or vacations do take their recievers and have a folding tripod and dish. I use the simple round dish, with one L&B which I use two recievers for both TV's. hope this helps you somewhat. Also I just use the simple little tripod from CW, about 30.00 dollars, I did drill a slanted hole in each leg, so I could drive long steel stakes (gettem at wally world) and as of yet the wind hasnt blown it over. Thats DNS not DSN, good luck

[Ozz]

Here is an idea for transporting your dish, this was on my TT, as we went with the roof mounted dome on our Monte.
As Padre stated, you can just take your 'box' with you and all will be the same except, if you are 250 miles or so away from home base, you won't get CBS, Fox, NBC-like that. I find that irritating, as we like to Tivo one show while viewing another show already recorded, I prefer to not watch the 10-15 minutes of ad's in a half hour show.
Makes a NASCAR or football viewing much easier to take in.
I made a galvanized pipe and wood cross stand, many have other good set ups.
I found it quite easy to set up without the gadgets, opened the window and listened to the screech of the signal tone.
I think we will go with the wavier, 6 month's home, and 6 month's away at this time.
Good luck.
Ozz
http://i112.photobucket.com/albums/n...1/333f7dad.jpg

[Ozz]

OH, you will need a dual LNB-NLB whatever it is, for watching and recording at the same time. AND two cables to your tuner.
(Probably what you already have in your home.)

[Wannabe Full-timer]

We just use satellite in our living room at home. We don't have anything fancy and only one box - so we just watch with an indoor antenna in our bedroom at home and use our antenna in our TT for our TV in that. We don't have Tivo either so we are just simple folk. So, beside the dish and a stand, what type of "cords/components" would we need to purchase to connect all this?? I know we need the cable to connect from the dish outside to the receiver inside. Any suggestion on where is the best place to run that cord through the RV? I assume we could get a "switch" so you can switch to watch satellite either from living room or bedroom if you have two cables hooked to a switch and to the two TVs (we don't even do THAT in our house-lol).

[Ozz]

Without knowing the TT model you have, it would be hard to help with the routing, but in general, I would install a bulkhead cable fitting, Male-Male by the receiver, through the wall. Some buy a flat cable connector and run it through the window, just depends on your comfort level with power tools.....
You should be able to connect to the bedroom TV with a jumper, or Tee, I think you are on track with that.

[jrgwdenner]

Wannabe, we purchased our second dish from Ebay. It came with all the cord that you'll need, 75 feet, I think. David and Ozz have given you good advice. We use small tent stakes to secure our tripod, if the ground is compatible.

[5ER]

Wannabe,
When I used the satelite dish the first time I found out that our 03 model did not have the correct coaxial cable and so I couldn't get a picture. At least I think this was the problem. Anyway, after I ran a new coax cable in through the trailer side near the TV it worked fine. I bought a new dish at "Best Buy" for around 90 bucks. I also called Direct TV and they changed my home location to the Campground so I got all the local channels.

[Ozz]

Wannabe,
Here are two methods of cable entrance that are detachable;
http://www.campingworld.com/browse/s...e/skunum=14649
http://www.campingworld.com/browse/s...t/skunum=19850
Ozz

[William H. Collier]

As with all technoligy things are changing fast, our new Big Sky came with a HDTV, a new challenge if I wanted to utilize the the high definition. I was told by local installer that I needed a new Direct TV High Definition Recorder Receiver and a new 3 LNB dish. When I called Direct TV they told me basicly the same thing except they are only supplying a 5 LNB dish now and it is considerably larger than the 3 LNB. The 3 LNB is an oval only slightly larger than the original round. They said the 3 LNB would still work and that the reason for the 5 LNB was for future satelites which would be going up later this year. I got the receiver and 3 LNB dish from Best Buy. Setting up the dish was considerably more difficult because you have an additional "tilt" setting and must line up on three satelites. I ended up purchasing a Align-a-Site from CW to assist. It works great, and after setting up I made a call to Direct TV and they switched me from my old receiver to the new one. It is listed as being in an RV and I applied for a waiver for the east west feeds on the phone, unknown if I will get them because this is just an additional receiver on my home account. The charge for the additional high definition receiver is 6 dollars a month. The high-def picture is unbelieveable.
Bill

[Lije Baley]

Direct has improved its policy on RV waivers. Previously RV owners could have an RV account, but it was billed as a separate account (which is expensive). Now with proof of RV ownership, RV owners pay a fee (not sure if it's $5 or $10) for the extra receiver as part of their home account for RV use. That RV receiver gets the east or west coast feeds of the major networks. The only reason to pay for an RV account is to obtain those DNS (distant network signals) when you have traveled outside your local "spot beam." That beam defines the limits of the area in which you can receive your local stations.

For your use, staying a few miles from home, all you need, as others have said, is a tripod, a dish, and 25 to 100 feet of cable (depending on how far from the trailer you need to set the dish for a clear view of the satellite). If your TT is an '05 or newer you should be able to connect the cable from the dish to the connector on the side of the trailer (if it's like the Montanas -- you have a Cougar?) Is there a label saying "Cable/Satellite" by the connector? If not, you'll need to drill through the wall as described, or run a flat cable through a window. There are many styles of tripods on the market. Radio Shack has an ugly, but stable, antenna tripod that works well for me. Your receiver at home will work fine in the trailer. Direct doesn't mind your moving it; some people actually tell Direct customer reps what they're doing and the reps have no issues. The "older" dish you were given will probably work. For standard defintion, all you need is the 18" round dish to get the satellite at 101 degrees, unless you're in one of those areas where your local stations are on a separate satellite. Do you have a round, single LNB dish on that pole at home now?

Here's a site with lots more information. http://www.ccis.com/home/mnemeth/sat.htm

[2NutsonaFarm]

This may be of interest to many of you. In March, Larry came across an advertised special package for DirecTV in either RView or Trailer Life; can't remember which one it was. We contacted them and are very pleased with what we got. We cancelled our cable service at home for DirecTV at home and on the road.

The $99.00 package included a home dish and an RV dish with tripod, and one receiver and installation.

We got 3 more receivers from them; one for the RV and one for Larry's shop/barn and one extra in the house, for a total of four receivers in all. We pay $4.99 for each extra receiver per month for a total of $15.00 added to our $49.95 monthly package. Since the RV came with a dome, we use the dish intended for the RV for Larry's shop. They even installed it on a tree next to the shop/barn for us making sure we could easily remove and take it with us in the RV in case we park where we can't get reception from the dome.

We were not charged for any of the extra installation. And the best part is we didn't do any of the installation ourselves. Larry just watched and asked questions to make sure he knows what is going on since we have never had satelite service before and quite frankly didn't have a clue. They hooked it up, we turn it on.

We are pleased with how simple this was and how professional DirecTV is. When we are out of our local channel area we use our trusty regular crank-up TV antenna to pick up the local channels where we are.

Also, I don't know if this was a time limited offer or not. But if anyone is interested, I think you would need to ask for the Home and RV Package for reception anywhere.

Happy Trails,
Karen

[kegger5769]

I too use a portable dish but not the tripod type of set up, I bought from CW years ago this portable dish and have been using it for years and takes up less room to store. The signal is just as good on the ground as on a tripod...LOL
http://www.campingworld.com/browse/s...18416&src=SRQB
Also would recommend a signal strength meter, save running back and forth to the TV to check for signal.
http://www.campingworld.com/browse/s...14067&src=SRQB
Both items are on sale now at CW.
Enjoy !!
Kim

[Wannabe Full-timer]

Thanks for all the helpful info everyone!

[Lije Baley]

A signal finder makes locating the satellite much easier than using the receiver tones through the television. While CW has them for $30, you can get them for $9 to $10 at ebay, if you shop there. http://electronics.listings.ebay.com/
Satellite-Cable-TV-Accs_Signal-Finders_W0QQfromZR4QQsacatZ67882QQsocmdZListingIte mList

Similarly, dishes and tripods are much cheaper on ebay.
(links didn't work, so look under consumer electronics, satellite cable tv, accs, tripods
and satellite cable tv, dishes

Bill

[rames14]

When we purchased our rig, we had the roof mounted dish added to our 3400. When I step out of the truck, I take a reading on the gps for longitude and latitude. I go into the trailer after it's leveled, turn on the TV to get the correct azimuth and elevation for the gps location and then I crank up the satellite and set the correct azimuth. Listen for the beep beep of a strong signal and I'm watching television. It is really nice when pulling in late or when whether is inclement. The disadvantage (other than a little more expensive) is that if the site has trees, you may not get a signal. When I call ahead for a campsite, I ask for a satellite friendly spot.

[Wannabe Full-timer]

What particular type of satellite finder & tripod is best (Winegard?)to look for on E-bay??? We have never done hooked up satellite to our RV so want to make sure we get something good as we won't be able to take it back. Thanks for the suggestion. What about Radio Shack or is that a lot more expensive to buy from them or even Walmart (or wherever else they sell this stuff) do they offer what we need and/or do they have it at a reasonable price (when you consider shipping from E-bay)?

Also, since we will be in a seasonal site, having a dish on the ground won't be an issue for us I don't think. We didn't have one installed on top of our RV.

[Lije Baley]

Radio Shack may have the ugly tripod I got from a friend. It's the one that this website (http://www.ccis.com/home/mnemeth/sat.htm) thinks is best. My wife hates the way it looks, but with a PVC pole in the center, I figure no one is likely to steal it, and if they do, it's cheap to replace. Others love the Winegard tripods because they're smaller and more stylish. My tripod is about five feet tall and very stable, but I think I could do as well with a four-footer. I'm not sure about Wal-Mart, but they may have them. The tripods were originally designed for roof mounted TV antennas on homes and may be kept with the antennas in the store. I haven't priced them at RS or WM, but checking those prices against ebay is easy enough. I know ebay prices for the finders are better than RS.

The simple satellite finders are all you need until you move up to HD and need to locate five satellites. I'm not sure how I'm going to manage that one myself. The simple finders are black, have a lighted numerical scale with a needle on their face (some are labeled "2007 model" and are ok, but they really haven't changed over the years).

Some people love the roof mounted dishes. I've been in many places where they wouldn't get a signal. I'd rather have a portable one that allows me to move around for a clear shot through the trees.

Bill