Dish for Direct T.V.

[chuxter55]

Hi. I'm new to the RV scene having just purchased a 31 foot class c. I have direct t.v. in my home and was wondering if I could have a special dish installed on my Shasta Cheyenne and just take my direct t.v. box with me and hook it up when I'm on a trip. Anyone had any experience with doing this/ What kind of dish would I need to purchase, how much? Do I have to reprogram the t.v./dish at every stop?
Thanks for your help.
Chuxter55:confused:

[redwing1]

You may want to consider a portable dish setup, at some time you are going to find yourself under tree canopy that will block signal. I use an old surveyer tripod picked up at a flea mkt for $2, dish is available at most yard sales for next to nothing! If you camp close to home you may want the triple LNB for locals.
Takes about 15 min to setup, get a cheap handheld GPS for Lat/Lon, enter into direct tv and they will give you the tilt, altitude and azmuth on the tv screen, takes seconds to make the adjustments, set the tv for signal strength, turn up the volume, open a window so you can here the tone outside and make the final adj. If you happen to be out of earshot use a walkie talkie, just have your wife key the mike close to the tv and listen to the tone.

[whodo]

chuxter55
Yes you can take a receiver from home and use it in the RV. Now the dish will be determined by what service you have. If you have standard service no problem any dish will work (including a dish network dish). But in you have are wanting HD (high definition) then you will have to use a multi-lnb dish designed for it.
You have several choices on the dish antenna setup, dome roof mount, auto in motion dome roof mount, crank up roof mount, or ground mount.
Cost will vary between systems from a few grand for the "auto in motion" to almost free for the "ground mount".
Now personally I always recommend that regardless of the system you buy that you also make sure to have a ground mount system with you, reason, invariably you will be in a spot where your signal is being blocked and the roof mount will not work. So why not just save money to start with and go with a ground mount system?

Now that you have decided on a manual ground mount system you need to learn how to set it up. This is very easy and actually becomes easier after you have done it a couple of times. First you need to know where to aim the dish (where is the satellite in the sky?) For this information down load this "free program" (it does not need a connection to the internet to work)
Satellite Angle finder ((http://www.datastormusers.com/lookangle.cfm )).
This program will show you a actuall picture of the angle of satellite dish in relation to Satellite in sky, it really helps to be able to avoid trees and other objects when setting up the dish. (Remember the old saying "a picture is worth a thousand words" ).
Now that you know where to aim the dish (AZ. & ELEV. settings) you need to be able to tune the dish in, a compass and this handy little instrument (Satellite signal meter) that you can purchase from Radio Shack or off line from places like Sadoum Sales, (item #8 & #9 are what you are looking for).
http://www.sadoun.com/Sat/Order/Signal-Meters.htm#Analog_meters
In using the signal meters it is just a matter of following directions.

Now that you have the dish, know where to aim it, and have the signal meter you need a method to mount the dish. There are many different commerical mounts available from tall tri-pod, low tri-pod, to on the ground poles driven into the ground. No matter what you chose, they all do the same thing, hold the dish antenna in place.

Now if you are into making things, you can make your own mount. For less than $15 including the compass, here is a couple pictures of ones that I have made. This can be secured to the ground using spikes to prevent being blown over in the wind. To date it has surrvied wind gust in excess of 65mph and never moved a fraction of an inch.
Anyone that would like to make this mount, I have complete instructions available for free.

Here is a side view
http://i2.photobucket.com/albums/y45/Browzin/Dish8.jpg

Here is a front view actually hooked up in use.
http://i2.photobucket.com/albums/y45/Browzin/Dish5.jpg

Here is a picture of one disassambled for storage
http://i2.photobucket.com/albums/y45/Browzin/Send4.jpg

[alahokie]

The simplest way to determine the dish settings is to turn on the receiver, go to "setup", then "aim dish", and enter the zip code for your current location. The receiver will give you the azimuth, and elevation. Whatever mount you choose, it needs to give you a starting point perpendicular to the ground. The dish mount will have elevation markings, just loosen the mount and adjust to the correct elevation. Using your compass aim the dish at the correct azimuth. Install the signal meter in line between the dish and the receiver, set the sensivity knob to where the needle just barely mooves, and slowly rotate the dish right or left until you get the meter peaks, reset the sensivity knob again and fine tune the direction. You may need to slightly adjust the elevation to get the best signal. Your receiver has a signal meter line that shows you your signal strength at the receiver. Once you have a strong enough signal, remove the meter and connect you cable to the dish. If you have HD, your dish will have more than one lnb. I recently switched to Dish TV, and my dish has an additional setting (skew) which rotates the dish on its central axis to pick up signals from more than one satellite. Hope this helps. Its not too bad once you get the hang of it. Certainly beats trying to find a sports bar to watch your favorite team.






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[chuxter55]

Thanks for all of the good information. Sounds like there are several ways that I could accomplish this.

[rwjlrose1]

One word of caution, which I learned the hard way. If you get a ways away from your home, you may not get your local stations. I used to take my home receiver in RV and set up a manual dish. Worked well except when I was several hundred miles away. Talked to Direct and they said shame, shame, you shouldn't do this. Technically the reason is that the satellite transponder providing local stations (NBC, CBS, etc) broadcasts in a narrow beam. So we finally just gave up, got an additional account for the RV and subscribed to distant networks out of NYC and LA.

RWR

[sjt43]

I have Dish with local networks in fl. We were out in Ill. and could not get locals from fl. so I called Dish and they changed the program for locals for us to the mdwest and we got the locals there. No charge at all. When we got back home I called and they changed us back. No charge. They said they would do that for their customers. This was last year, Don't know if it is the same now. Happy viewing.

[akmshrm]

We have the "bubble" on the roof of our rv and then we ALWAYS carry a portable dish to set up when we are 'under the trees'. We use our dish/bubble for most of our tv but we also have a regular tv antenna that we use for local wherever we are. We get locals in the northwest but not when we are down here in Yuma or anywhere in between or wherever we are. It works really well, just a change of receiver on the tv. Works like a champ :D :D

[mo21012]

We also have a dome on the roof of our RV but carry a dish with us in case we can't get a signal because of the tree line. We have always just pulled a box from the house and plugged it in and never had any problem with it. We do depend on local cable or antenna coverage though for the locals when we travel.