Satillite TV

[rt6comprepair]

I would like to add Direct TV to my motor home. I have a home account and jsut want to add a receiver not a new account. Could anyone with experience with this tell me the best and least expensive way to acomplish this

Thank You

[rvwizard]

I would like to add Direct TV to my motor home. I have a home account and jsut want to add a receiver not a new account. Could anyone with experience with this tell me the best and least expensive way to acomplish this

Thank You

Take a reciever from inside the house and connect a dish on tripod to it if you do not have a dish on the roof. Use the menu of the reciever to find the coordinances to point the dish. Coax cable must run from the LNB of dish directly to the reciever and then from the reciever out to tv. This second coax can be routed through an audio video switch box. Good luck.

[southwind98]

I installed a Winegard crank-up satellite with digital magic sensor. I took one of my receivers from the house. I leave the receiver in the RV. Directv advised to have the receiver active (receiving signal) at least every thirty days, or you will have to call them to reprogram the receiver. The system is very user friendly.

[sparkplugrandy]

i use dish network ,bought a spare dish and plastic tripod,works great.

[nuttyfabes]

we have dish network. we just take the receiver from the house. have a portable dish & tri pod that we use. works great.

ray

[billadams]

The one thing that you will want to consider when moving your service to an RV (yes, moving the receiver is great!) is that the local Network programming is spot-beamed. Imagine a flash light beam and you will understand what that means. Once you move your RV outside that beam you will lose ALL of your Network programming (ABC, NBC, CBS, Fox, PBS and things like UPN, etc.) You can sign up for the Distant Network Services (DNS) and get ABC, NBC, CBS, Fox and the National PBS feed from NY and LA (Dish Network user get East/West as well but through a company called All American Networks).
If can have one or the other but not both and you cannot have one receiver receiving locals and another receiving the DNS channels without having to pay for 2 separate services.
You will need to fill out a DNS waiver available on the DTV website and send it in along with a copy of your RV's registration (US address required). It usually takes 2-3 weeks for the service to be activated and you will then have Network programming where ever you travel.

[rcplumley]

i use my direct tv reciever from the house and just made a bracket in my roof rack when i set up at site i just stand it up and i have a satelite signal finder and it just takes a minute and i'm ready to go

[mikecasella]

I installed one of those crank-up dishes on my original Class C and moved the receiver from the house to the MH and it worked great. When I traded in the Class C on a newer Class A we had the dealer remove the dish from the old to the new MH. I got tired of taking the receiver from the house and got an additional receiver from Directv. The cost was an additional $4.99 per month on the bill. We just receintly traded in the Class A on a newer Dynamax that came with a receiver and a in-motion dome. No additional accounts required, just the same $4.99 per month.

[timkelmom]

What eveyone said here is true. It's pretty simple. There are several option for your dish. Whether you have a tri-pod or mount it somehow on your roof, you can use your receiver from home. We have a roof-mounted, self-tracking dome. It is so easy. I flip a switch and we have TV in like 5 mins. Domes are more expensive however.

Billadams is right about your local channels though. If you travel outside of your "zone" you will lose them. We have the distant network service throught Direct TV. It took some doing, but once we got it figured out, it has been great.

We receive sattelite service through Hughes Net for internet and use Direct TV. We have TV and interent wherever we go and even have TIVO.

Good luck getting it all worked out.

[evajingram]

How are you able to use your Hughes Net for the internet service? Do you have to have two dishes one for internet and one for TV?

[timkelmom]

Yes, we have a self-tracking dome on the roof of the RV and we have a roof mounted unit for out Hughes Net dish.

[brjad]

i use dish network ,bought a spare dish and plastic tripod,works great.

To anyone:
Does Dish Network or DirectTV need to be notified the home service is to be used for travel? If yes, did you have to sign-up for additonal services? Is there any reason that the dish on the house can be used instead of buying a new dish?

[mikecasella]

They do not have to be notified, they have no idea where the receiver is located, nor do they care. The only reason you would have to contact them is if you were traveling to an area where you wouldn't be able to receive your local channels. Most of the dishes that are mounted on a house, are normally screwed to the structure and therefor a little tough to keep removing and replacing. I just bought a dish from the RV store for our last MH, the price was roughly 250.00 at the time, but I'm sure there are much cheaper ones out there like tri-pods etc.

I hope this helps.

Mike

[lensmanicu]

You might want to consider an Align-a-site since you satalite dish wont look thru trees you have to place the dish in a location where the dish has a clear line of sight. Especially since most good camp sites are in the trees with the align-a-site it makes it relativly simple to align your dish to look into the holes betweem the trees.

[smokeybear]

I had a spare dish for our Dish Network. We left the dish on the House when we sold the farm. By using the spare dish along with a small House Roof tri-pod and a short mast we can make sure we always get a TV Satellite Signal. Moving it to where ever we get a clear sight to both 110 and 119 Satellites.

I also have bought DirectWay Dish for the Internet. That too is mounted on a Contractor's Tri-pod. I also have two lengths of cable which allows us enough length to find that "sweet spot" for our signal to be sent up and back down.

With the help of our Solar power or Honda Generator, I can be boon docking in the desert, Watching Dish TV.... and enjoying surfing the Net....

Life is sooo Good....

Marv

[juljenki]

Hi! We have two different satillite dishes.One is for the internet service & one for to TV. We have one Direct Satillite (automatic) on the roof of our fifth wheel & we aslo have a free standing dish in case we are ever in a site that has lots of trees. With the free standing one we have the option of moving it to a clearing so we can receive the signal. The internet dish is also movable so can be placed wherever it needs to be to get the signal.We always have TV & the internet. Yes you must get a waiver so you can receive networks.Just takes alittle bit of time. Be patient. Good Luck!

[ladybug]

We take a receiver from home and have a seperate dish on a tripod-works great. Because it is not hooked up to a phone line in the camper, we pay $4.99 a month while we have receiver in the camper. When we get back home, we just plug into a phone jack and the $4.99 per month fee is gone until our next trip. We have a splitter (you can buy at Wal Mart or any place with electronics-about $5.00) on our receiver. There are three connection ports-2 on one side and one on the other side. On the side with the two connections hook your regular TV antenna cable-the other connection hook the satellite cable to it and then the the side with the single connection is hooked to the TV. If we want to watch regular tv channels such as ABC-CBS-NBC we slide switch to antenna-if we want to watch the satellite we slide the switch to cable. We do not get our home local channels, but with the splitter we do get the local ABC-CBS-NBC where we are at. Hope this helps you out.

[cb5300]

We take a receiver from home and have a seperate dish on a tripod-works great. Because it is not hooked up to a phone line in the camper, we pay $4.99 a month while we have receiver in the camper. When we get back home, we just plug into a phone jack and the $4.99 per month fee is gone until our next trip.

Ladybug, how do you get rid of the $4.99 charge by being at home? Do you not have this receiver active at home? I have Direct TV at home with 5 receivers and I'm charged $4.99 for 4 of the 5 recievers.

I just purchase a 42ft. motor home that has inmotion sat. with 2 receivers, and when I contacted Direct about the motor home they added another $4.99 ea. for the two motor home units, also if I wanted to add network channels to the motor home I wouldn't be allowed to piggyback my home account. I would have to have a seperate account for the MH.

[campingcrazy]

Hi,

We have a second receiver, but being Canadian, it is somewhat of a hassle. If the receiver is not in use, Bell Expressvu shuts it down. So when we know that we won't be camping for awhile we bring it back in the house to keep it active. I would reccommd a second receiver, that way you always have the house one ready for you when you come home. We have our dish mounted on Plexie Glass and we stablize it with a water jug (for wind) Works great.

Campingcrazy

[annejrn]

With the top mounted satellite, (dome), do you have any problems getting reception if you are around trees? Does the portable sat dish work better for these kind of area's?

[whodo]

" With the top mounted satellite, (dome), do you have any problems getting reception if you are around trees? Does the portable sat dish work better for these kind of area's? "

Satellite works on line of sight, any thing that obstructs the signal will prevent you from getting a picture, that includes trees, bushes, mountains, etc.
A portable sat dish allows you the freedom to move the dish to a unobstructed location.

[john3697]

Many fulltimers who have a roof mounted dish also carry a stand mounted dish for the times when you get into trees and need it to get the signal. The roof mounted dishes are great, but don't always work in trees. If you camp only occasionally and want the convenience of a roof mounted dish, you will need to pick only clear spaces to park. Problems arise when you have to give up one of the amenities (sewer, shade,close to clubhouse or lake) to get that clear site. If you fulltime, I would advise to get a stand mounted dish, whether or not you also get a roof mounted dish.

[boeing46]

My motor home came with a crank up dish. I took one of the three Direct TV boxes and it works great as long as there's nothing blocking the dish like branches trees et. You can buy a tripod and a new dish and do the same thing, You have the option of buying an automatic dome type dish so you can watch it while your traveling but ya gotta have the bucks. I like it because i get all my L.A. local channels wherever we are. I was in N/Texas watching all the shows two hours early. I would go with the crank up but i do see allot of tripod set ups.