melnic
Maryland
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Joined: 04/21/2008
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I don't know if you folks at this forum know about Dish network prepaid but I just discovered it about 2 weeks ago and it really solved a problem for me that I wanted to spread the word.
I have a vacation home and I visit it mostly in the summers. The local cable company's cheapest plan was $50 per month since they negociated w/ the HOA and were biased to the full time residents.
I found that Dish Network has a prepaid system called "Dish Now".
I purchased my dish and receiver on ebay for less than $100 and installed it myself. I noticed when buying other hardware that they had tripods that were used alot for RVers that would tote along their home satellite receiver when going camping so I though I'd post this infor on this forum.
With Dish Now, you can use what is called a GreenDot Money Pak that you can purchase at a Walmart, Rite aid or Walgreens. I can activate the satellite reciever for a single day at a time paying as little as $.63 a day for the basic or less than $2 a day for the full channels. This works out great for me as I can activate sat morning and get programming all through sunday before I leave my vacation spot.
If this is of any interest I'll post more details.
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tvman44
Southwest Louisiana
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Neat!! 
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"A bad day camping is better than a good day at work!"
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hasheel
Durham,NC
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Post more details!
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melnic
Maryland
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If you search on ebay for "dish network prepaid", "dish now" or "dish prepaid" you can find some people selling refurbished equipment.
You need the following to get it to work:
1) Receiver that is set up for Dish Now Prepaid. (not just any reciever will work I understand).
2) Dish 500 satellite dish w/ a Legacy LNB.
3) Mount for the dish (Tripods I believe are readily available for RVers)
4) RG6 cable to connect item 1 and 2.
If you are going to make this portable, then you need to take care of dish allignment every time you set up. I'm guessing that topic has been covered before on this or other forums.
The drawbacks however I have found is that you don't get local networks (ABC,CBS,NBC etc). If you owned a dish reciever, you could take it with you and connect up to a dish and get all the stuff you get at home. In this case, you never get local programming.
Another drawback can be localized sporting events. With Dish prepaid, you tell them your zipcode but and you don't have a phone line attached. Therefore there is NO way for them to track you. You could drive to Canada and it would work up there(but the 1-888 phone number does not reportedly work up there so you'd have to activate before you drive up there). I had tried to watch a hockey game one time on VS. network but it got blocked for some reason. I did see some baseball games on ESPN though that were not blocked. Dunno how they figure this out.
Radio Shack will also sell the dish and reciever as a combo for $99 along w/ an install kit. Many Radio shack people don't even know about it and I got the SKU numbers from someon on another forum. 160-2843 for the dish/reciever ($99)and 160-2845 for the install kit ($19)
Your going to get very little help from them if you call them up unless your just trying to activate it. They won't help you install it over the phone so your better off trying it out before you go on a trip. In my case, I tried it out in the back parking lot of my work w/ a camcorder plugged into the output of the reciever to test the system out and learn how to allign the dish. I just so happed to have a tripod and pole at my work that was used for some 900Mhz antennas I used to use there so it was easy to get it up and going.
Basically every time you set up you would.
1) mount the dish on the tripod
2) Plug everything in
3) Use the on screen menu to view your satellite signal stregth as you allign the dish. (having a compass is a must to get the right angle). Having a bubble level really helps for first leveling the tripod.
4) Call a 1-888 number and give them your Monepak number, Receiver # and Smart card # on the receiver. Pick a programming package and amount of days to activate it for and in less than 15 minutes they send a signal to your reciver to activate it. You can turn the power off to the reciver and it will remember how long it has before your time is up.
Use the Moneypak option and not the Dish prepaid $40 cards because the Dish Prepaid cards have to be activated all in one shot and not just 1 day at a time.
You can also activate pay channels so if HBo is $10 a month then it's only $.34 a day.
Since you need to use RG-6 cable and not RG-59, I had to update the wiring in my vacation spot so that doubled my installation time.
You can use a website called www.dishpointer.com to find out where the satellites you point at will be located.
Dish network uses the Echostar satellites at both 110 and 119. You MUST get a signal on 119 as that is where the activation signal comes across. Some channels are on one and some channels are on the other satellite.
Depending on where you are at dictates where in the sky you point. Here on the east coast, I have to point at about 30 degrees up in the southwest sky. I had taken a protractor and a bic pen case and made my own little spotting scope so I could position the location of the dish to avoid trees while using a good compass I had.
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SemperFiCop
USA
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Joined: 10/19/2007
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Yes,
Please provide more information,
Thank You...
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BraamRW
Raleigh, NC
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Joined: 04/22/2005
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Please post the information, website, telephone No. ect. where we can sign up for dish network prepaid. Thanks
2006 F-350 King Ranch crew cab short bed
Backup camera for bumper hitch and camera for 5th wheel hitch
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melnic
Maryland
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You have to get the equipment (Reciever, Dish 500 with Legacy LNB).
You can get it from:
1)Radio Shack (see the SKU numbers I posed above.
2)Ebay (search for Dish Now or Dish Prepaid)
3)Internet satellite supplier. I did not use them but a big supplier that is supported by alot of guys on a satellite forum is Sadoun. They are supposedly good for online support.
http://www.sadoun.com/Sat/Products/Dishnetwork/Receivers/DISH_3900-satellite%20receiver.htm
You call the toll free number to activate after you buy either a radio shack prepaid card or a GreenDot Moneypak (MONEYPAK, not a GREENDOT card)(www.greendotonline.com)
Toll free number is 1-888-347-4132
I think the prepaid recievers are different than a normal receiver but I've never heard of anyone who's tried a regular reciever to see if they can set up prepaid. My reciever # is 12 digits. 10 of them are on the back and start w/ the letter R (R is not included in the 12 digits). I had to get the other 2 digits from the setup menu on my reciever. My smart card # is 12 digits
If you have a dish network dish already, the 2nd reciever I purchased on ebay for only like $40 including shipping. It was a refurbished Model 301. Spare remotes are also cheap to aquire as well for these.
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alwims
Wheatland Mo.
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Joined: 08/15/2007
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This should help.
32' 1995 Rexhall RexAir
Full Timing with;
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Cali the Calico Cat
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Justdilly
Va.
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Is the prepaid card only good for a certain number of days or hours then you have to buy another (like tracfone prepaid cards)?
97 Chevy Silverado 3500 diesel, crew cab, dually 4x4, 5 speed
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melnic
Maryland
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The Radio Shack Prepaid card I think is good for a while.
The Moneypak will expire in I believe 90 days.
The Radio shack $40 card you use in one $40 chunk. So if you buy the $19 a month Dish Family, you will get 60 continuous days of service.
Moneypack you can get 2 days this week, then add 7 more days in 2 more weeks etc until either you run out of funds on your moneypak account or the moneypak expires. Moneypak there is a $5 service fee so your paying $25 for $20 of funds. If you want say 3 continuous months of service, the $40 radio shack cards may be better but only by $5. The nice thing about the moneypak is you have a $20 minimum and can configure the amount you want on it as well as use it in small chunks
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