Adding DISH network to the Monty

[BB_TX]

So far I have held out from getting a satellite dish. But DW is pushing since we typically spend 3 weeks each summer in an area where the park does not have cable, and over the air is not available. And keeping up with the news would be nice.
I see where existing Dish customers can add an RV to their home account for an extra $7 month, plus the equipment you have to buy (receiver, dish, cables, etc.), and get the same channels you get at home. Except for the local channels if you are outside your coverage area. We often stay in an area where there is no over the air reception or cable available. In speaking with a Dish rep, she said if we were in such a location, all we had to do was call them and they would enable our receiver to receive the nearest local channels we may be within that spot beam (in a particular case we frequent it would be Denver). She said each time we move the RV to a new area, we just call them again.
Has anyone added this feature to their home account? And, if so, are you satisfied with it?

[brenkco]

Yes, I did. I purchased a 211 receiver through Winegard, added an external hard disk so it works like a DVR. I added it to my home account for the $7.00 per month. Winegard said that Dish is working on adding distant networks for the local channels but they are not yet available.

The other option is that Dish allows you to set up a seperate account by the month adding what ever service you want including the local channels for the area you're in. You pay the normal subscription rate but no other obligation other than the one month.

You might check Winegards website, http://www.winegard.com/

Ken

[Art-n-Marge]

I have a stickhouse with Dish already in it. To save the $7/month, I just pull one of the receivers from the house and take it with us.

If I ever swap out the glass tube tvs in the rig to at least one HDTV, then I'll pull the dual receiver from the house (one HDTV port and one non-HD port) to take with us. It's not like I need them at the stickhouse when we are not there. I don't change the local channels. DW likes to see the news for back at home rather than where we are in case we have to head home. For where we are we use a newspaper or the internet or our neighbors who always seem friendly enough to share. These are just other choices, but calling Dish when you are set up to get whatever local channels you want is certainly an option.

BTW - both DirecTV and Dish support this. We recently went to Dish because of cost (DirecTV raised their rates 3 times to me in LESS than a year - made me mad). In about another year, I'll evaluate whether to stay with Dish or jump back to DirecTV since programming and expenses leap frog a lot.

[brenkco]

Art,
That's what I did as well, took one of the receivers from the house, but I had a need for another receiver since the RV is at the house and the kids sometimes visit and stay in the RV. Also, I got tired of unhooking all the wires every time we went out. Just a matter of convenience for us.
Ken

[BB_TX]

Art - As I understand it, if you get more than about 250 miles from home you get outside the spot beam for local channels for your area and you can no longer get them. Have you not found that to be true?

[7.3Ford]

Art,

I did what Ken did. Got VIP-211K attached USB Drive to make it a DVR for the Monty. I also got a Winegard Carry Out Automatic dish. If you get a Carry Out, I would recommend receivers with one tuner. The Carry Out gets confused with two tuner systems.

[Art-n-Marge]

Come to think of it, we have not ventured past 250 since we got Dish. With DirecTV we had no issues at any distance (farthest trip was 600 miles). I hope to remember this possibility with Dish! DW has a favorite show she likes to watch locally every morning. Not receiving it might not be good.

Stealing a receiver from the stick house just saves me from having extra idle ports. At the house I only need 3 ports which I get with a single and a dual at $7 per port ($21). When we had DirecTV we did 3 receivers and got one free and they were $5 per port ($10). Even so, the programming for Dish is less right now. We expect it to go up. I do have to mess with cabling but with extra splitters and connectors it doesn't take me long. The hardest part is reconfiguring the receiver for non-HD in the rig since I borrow an HD capable receiver. Getting dedicated receivers for the rig would definitely be easier if you don't mind paying $7/month for the port.

[Wiesehan]

I brought one of my duel receivers from the house also and it is true if you get out of your area you cannot get the local channels, but you can still use your antenna if you can get them for the area you are in. If you end up staying someplace with cable, you can put your entire system on pause for a few bucks with a phone call and re start it with another call. I've been told if you want local channels on you dish, you can call and report that you have moved to a new area and request your programming be changed, but I haven't tried that yet.
Don