directv local channels

[Roman4]

Virgil47:
I may be wrong, but I believe that you can suspend your service at home for the eight months that you are on the road. [It may be that you have to have competed your initial service commitment to have that option] Likewise, if you were to establish a separate account for the RV in order to qualify for the east / west coast network feeds with a mobile waiver, you could also suspend that service for those times when you are not using the RV.

[virgil47]

Harmon,

Suspending my home account sounds like a viable solution. Thanks for the suggestion. I'm going to call and ask.

[richfaa]

We do as Parrothead does we just take one of our Directtv receivers out of the house and stick it in the camper. Depending on how far away we go we may get our local channels maybe not..tell you the truth if we are 300 or 500 miles away from home we don't much care about what is going on there but rather what is going on were we are. We can usually get the local network feeds via the Tv antenna better than 95% of the time..It has never been a huge problem for us.. We had some fulltime camper friends who paid for an additional direct tv receiver in one of their kids homes and took it on the road with them. Who would know the difference.. Sometimes we ask too many questions.

[Parrothead]

You can get the East/West feeds whether you are mobile or not. My daughter has them at her stick house. There is no way they know if you are home or not. The best thing to do if you have a stick house is just take your receiver (s) with you and use them as if you were home.
Happy trails.....................

[rvfirefighter]

I have had Direct for over 10 years, when we started traveling we would take a reciever with us, we had local channels everywhere, then approx. 3 years ago they went to local beaming, we lost our local channels when we got to Tampa in the winter. We get locals in Panama City, Fl. I just depends on where you are evidently.
I got a RV account 5 years ago when we started fulltiming, east-west feed is nice. They would not let us have local channels at first, but 3 years ago I talked with a customer rep. and they let us have locals. We actually can suspend the local channels when we are out of range, but we cannot suspend our east-west feed.
The issue, I feel, is dealing with the individual company and who wants to do what.

[Lije Baley]

After getting an extra dish and tripod, I activated a Tivo that was set aside after we went to HD at home. Now we're really roughing it! At Bodega Bay without hookups, but with a generator and Directv Tivo. I'm now a big fan of Sat TV in the rig. The only downside is that both TVs are viewing the same signal unless I bring a second receiver and add a separate coaxial cable from the dish to the bedroom (perhaps through the window, with a flat cable). That's pushing it.

However, I found a map that shows the approximate areas covered by the various Directv spot beams. It's obviously not completely accurate as the Rowes recieved LA stations in Petaluma, north of SF.

[Parrothead]

Bill - our DirecTV dish has the double hookup so we did just what you suggested. We bought a second receiver and ran the cable through the window with a flat cable. This way if Ed wants to watch a boxing match or a gory movie and I don't, one of us gets to go upstairs. Works really good.
Happy trails.........................

[Lije Baley]

Ed and Sue,

Did you use the window over the dresser? Can you close it with the flat cable in place? Two separate receivers seem so decadent, but it really is easy, isn't it? Have you found a way to cover the cables, so that no one trips, or snags the dish while walking around the trailer? I realize an outdoor rug will work, but they're hard to keep in place in windy areas.

[Parrothead]

Yes we used the window over the dresser and it closes with the flat cord in place. If you take the cord up over the top of the Monty or over the awning, it keeps it out of people's way. Another way we have done it is to take it under the Monty and bring it up by the window keeping the excess underneath.
Happy trails.........................