Gents,
Many of you may have read of issues I'm having with our Kingdome. It was working fine for about 6 months then, upon return home and parking the rig in the same spot as always, it cannot find a satellite. It searches and searches and won't find anything.
Anyway, after some suggested trouble shooting applications, I'm pretty close to canning this thing. But, in the mean time, I'm thinking of a stand alone, portable satellite dish. I'm thinking of this for a couple of reasons. One, because we're using Direct TV, we have to keep the receiver active or it goes "inactive" after 30 days and then has to be re-activated in order to be active, say that three times in a row.
And, I'm also thinking of a newer "Wineguard Traveler" in place of the Kingdome. But, if we're in a place where the signal might be blocked due to a tree or what ever, I could use a stand alone with a longer cable. So, my question to you experienced users of stand alone satellite dishes is, do you have any models for me to look at? Anything that might be better by going higher in price or, can a cheap dish, around $50.00 or so, do the trick?
We have standard TV, not HD so that's not an issue. Any help here would be appreciated.
Scott
Scott and Karla SDFD RETIRED
2004 Itasca Horizon, 36GD Slate Blue 330 CAT
2011 White Honda CRV EX-L,4WD w/NAV Toad 2008 Caliente Red LVL II GL 1800 Goldwing KI60ND
highly recommend this product !
Have used it coast to coast Canada &USA
http://www.tv4rv.com/sunshop/
See sig picture
Don
Don & Louise
2000 Coachman Catalina 330 MSB /F53
Rear air bags, 4 Koni FSD Shocks & Davis Front TruTrac
2008 Impala- Remco Lube Pump , Blue OX tow bar & Brake Buddy
Winegard roof dish for Bell Expressview HD tv
SL3 HD- TV4RV tripod set up for Direct HD tv
We have an old stand alone we got from the DirecTV installer. You can get them on Craigs list or ebay too. Works fine when we are someplace where our dome doesn't work.
Bill & Treasa Our Blog
2005 Winnebago Vectra 40AD
400 Cummins, Freightliner chassis
2004 Suzuki Grand Vitara 4X4
We got a dish and tripod off Craigslist (from a fireman) for $40.00.....Included a small Radio Shack signal meter, which never worked very well....We take the Direct TV box from the house when we go in the RV and I have never taken more than 4-5 mins to get a signal....I set the volume up a bit on the TV and use the signal meter section off the Dir TV setup page.....The sound is easy to find by pointing in the right direction.....
We camp with friends that have the auto system and many times they use a portable due to blockage of the signal.....
For us, this works the best.... Even got local channels as far north as Bridgeport last summer, which surprised us as along the coast they disappear pretty quick..Certainly cannot get local along the coast that far north.....
Steve and Liz
Fallbrook, Ca
2006 Gulfstream Independence 30' 3 slides....V-10...
2010 Wrangler w/Blue Ox Towbar, Baseplate and braking system
I use a modifed phase11 Directv dish. In my home area, we get our sat on 101 and 119(local stations). I remove their LNB install three seperate LNB with special bracket. When in my local areas I use the two outer LNB with skewing the dish. When out of area I use the center LNB and don't have to worry about skewing the dish make setting up easier,IMHO. Then I have differant lenghts of cable to hook the dish up. However I still wonder about installing a hand crank dish for when over night parking.
Portable satellite stands are readily available on-line or you could build your own as we did from ideas gathered here on the forum. Using an old sat dish obtained from a previous installation, and a spare bedroom receiver, we can be up and running in about 5 minutes.
sd1209 wrote: Scott--ret SDPD here.....ref the sat issue----
We got a dish and tripod off Craigslist (from a fireman) for $40.00.....Included a small Radio Shack signal meter, which never worked very well....We take the Direct TV box from the house when we go in the RV and I have never taken more than 4-5 mins to get a signal....I set the volume up a bit on the TV and use the signal meter section off the Dir TV setup page.....The sound is easy to find by pointing in the right direction.....
We camp with friends that have the auto system and many times they use a portable due to blockage of the signal.....
For us, this works the best.... Even got local channels as far north as Bridgeport last summer, which surprised us as along the coast they disappear pretty quick..Certainly cannot get local along the coast that far north.....
Steve,
Thanks partner, and thanks to all the rest of you for sharing your experiences and expertise on this issue. I'm kind of frustrated with the Kingdome. It's a nice piece of equipment and, was working just fine until, it didn't work at all. And, they make those things so darn complicated with printed circuit boards and all, it's no wonder they can go bad.
So, until I get a replacement for that, I'm looking into a stand alone, tripod type setup.
don/lou,
I checked out your site you sent and unless I'm wrong, all they sell is the tripod, no satellite. I'm more interested in a complete unit. Thanks for the link.
And to the rest of you, yes the wife did check out a few dozen of the satellites on C/L and ebay but, I just wonder, those are electrical units and they sit in the sun, all day, day after day, forever so, buying one used to me, might be taking a chance especially since you can get a new on at C/W for around $175.00. Now, again, I'm just taking all this info into consideration. I might just end up with a C/L unit, we'll see. Thanks again.
Scott
In my experience the only thing you might have to pay for is the tripod. Dishes are a dime a dozen. If you go to any dish installer you can probably talk them out of one for very little. I have had two given to me by installers. I picked up a tripod from someone who just wanted it gone. The only thing I have paid for is the signal meter, which is a necessary item. Put is all together, hook up the cable, point it in the general direction of the signal and you should be locked on in a very short time. The more you do it the better you get. As you probably know you can get the elevation and azimuth from your receiver. If it takes more than 5 minutes you are doing something wrong or there is something wrong with part of the equipment. It is all about as complex as using a radio.
Scott...DirecTV has a RV package that includes the Dish/Tripod and 100' of coax for FREE... if you look at almost any of the RV mags, GoodSam included, you will find one of their ads. I received two from them and you're welcome to one if you want to pay for shipping....we won't be back in Mesa until probably Nov or Dec though. However, I have a Kingdome and have had little problems with it. It does require some periodic maintenance though. Here's what I do...YMMV....once a year I remove the dome on top and clean everything. You will find a half dish under there. Clean everything up then lube the moving parts and gears. As the dish searches for the sat. it moves in a 358 degree circle while also moving up and down. Once it locates the sat it moves slightly back and forth until it locks onto the strongest signal. Make sure you use plain water and a clean rag to clean the INSIDE as well as the outside of the dome. Put it all back together and try it out. Finally, since there are areas where the signal will be blocked or the bird will be too low on the horizon so you will find the remote dish to be desirable. I used the cable hookup in my lower bay for that. Because we use a DVR two cables are required to tape one program and watch another. I added a second cable hookup adjacent to the factory one and ran it to my overhead compartment. Now I have access to everything by pushing a few buttons. I can provide pix if you need them....any DirecTV dish will work with SD, so you're only wasting your $$ if you buy one. Almost any installer will gladly "donate" one to you if you ask....especially if you tell them you're a firefighter......PM me if you have any other questions....Dennis
Dennis and Debi
Monaco Executive M-45PBQ Quad Slide
525HP Cummins ISM 6 Spd Allison
Chevy HHR W/ ReadyBrute
Fourth Year Full Timing Click here to view our travel blog
racerchaser wrote: In my experience the only thing you might have to pay for is the tripod. Dishes are a dime a dozen. If you go to any dish installer you can probably talk them out of one for very little. I have had two given to me by installers. I picked up a tripod from someone who just wanted it gone. The only thing I have paid for is the signal meter, which is a necessary item. Put is all together, hook up the cable, point it in the general direction of the signal and you should be locked on in a very short time. The more you do it the better you get. As you probably know you can get the elevation and azimuth from your receiver. If it takes more than 5 minutes you are doing something wrong or there is something wrong with part of the equipment. It is all about as complex as using a radio.
racerchaser,
Roger that Sir. I'm kind of a "MacGuyver" types and like making things out of nothing. I'm just frustrated with the darn Kingdome and don't want any more "TV Satellite issues" so, that's why I'm thinking new. But, I sure will take a look around for good used one.
Scott
Offline
