Satellite

**timsos** · 03-11-2018, 10:07 AM

I just bought a 312BHTS reflection travel trailer, I will be using it for full time while I work out of town. I am new to rving. What are my options for television while I am on the road? I have always just stayed at hotels while I am working. I seen some satellite options but not sure which does what as their price differs quite a bit.

**vonzoog** · 03-11-2018, 11:02 AM

You options are like this.

1st: Dish or DirecTV: Many opinions here on this forum, pro and con, on either system.
2nd: Automatic dish mounted on roof (expensive) or smaller automatic dish that you located on ground near RV (less expensive), and manually aim dish on tripod near RV (cheapest).

Either way you will have to get subscription and equipment.

Maybe you should start out locating at a campground that offers cable and use your over-the-air antenna along with the cable. Then when you see others that are using satellite, talk to them. Due some searches here on this forum for satellites. You will learn a lot.

Welcome to the forum.

**Second Chance** · 03-11-2018, 11:25 AM

Have you used the search function on the forum? There are many threads and posts on this topic.

Rob

**Drolaw** · 03-11-2018, 06:58 PM

Here are some sites that may help you.

If you're going to be stationary you could call Directv or Dish and see if they will come out and setup the dish for you. Unless you go with an automatic satellite option.

https://www.reviews.org/internet-ser...d-tv-antennas/

http://www.winegard.com/mobile?q=mobile

http://roadtreking.com/how-to-take-directv-on-road/

https://www.solidsignal.com/c.asp?c=...lite-Equipment

Good luck

**Dryfly46** · 03-22-2018, 02:27 PM

I bought a dish and tripod setup from Amazon for Directv (about $150) and take one of my receivers from home. It works great and I get all HD channels.

As you will read on the forum, there are typically a lot of problems with the trailer coax wiring. The first time you set up your receiver, just route the cable through the door direct to the receiver. Once everything is working good you then use the trailer connections.

**Drolaw** · 03-22-2018, 07:21 PM

Originally Posted by Dryfly46

...there are typically a lot of problems with the trailer coax wiring. The first time you set up your receiver, just route the cable through the door direct to the receiver. Once everything is working good you then use the trailer connections.

Great advice. I setup my Directv dish and tested the signal straight from the SWM - which worked perfectly. As soon as I moved the receiver to the living area and setup all the connections - no signal. After tightening each connection I was able to get a perfect signal. The problem was the wiring connections were not tighten correctly from GD.

Lesson learned. Test the equipment directly if you can before you use the wiring in the trailer.

**JCZhome** · 03-23-2018, 08:19 AM

We are full time and have traveled ocean to ocean and never not been able to get all of our channels. We have the Dish Trav'ler with the Hopper With Sling and two wireless joeys (for the bedroom and outside TV). We had our dish mounted at the very front for a very short cable run (we have forward living room) as well as to minimize the interference from trees when set up in RV parks (no trees at the front of the back in spaces....and it was recommended by full timer friends in a class A). The system we have is pricey, initially but it allows us to watch three different channels at the same time and/or record programs on three different channels at the same time (more important). With the Hopper With Sling, the sling allows us to log on anywhere that we have our lap top and have internet, we can log in to MY DISH and watch our own recorded programs. Very convenient when staying at relatives or from time to time in a hotel, etc.

What ever system you go with, I'd suggest doing it with DISH. With Dish you can pay monthly with no contract or subscription. You pay in advance each month, for the following month, as you go. If you want to skip a month or two (or six months) there isn't any penalty.....just don't send in a payment for that time period. Easy-peasy! Oh....and the other great thing about DISH is that all of your programs are in HD! The only provider that provides all channels in HD!

The down side.........for local channels (ABC, CBS and NBC, etc.) as you move from a broadcasting region to another broadcasting region you have to call Dish and give them the address of where you're at so they can send a new signal. That's not necessary for the cable channels......can get those anywhere without calling in.

Up side.....we've been in some serious storms (lighting, hail, snow, etc.) and have never had a problem with reception. I've been very surprised at this as we travel. We had a lighting storm the other day here in Georgia and watched TV through it all with no issues.

**vonzoog** · 03-23-2018, 10:23 AM

Oh....and the other great thing about DISH is that all of your programs are in HD! The only provider that provides all channels in HD!

Not sure that is totally accurate. I have well over 250 channels. Maybe more than that using DirecTV. I receive at least 99% of those channels in both SD and HD. A couple of shopping and religious changes are not HD. But again that is only a couple. Now some sports and live events are coming in 4K and there will be a lot more in the coming years as I'm sure Dish will also supply.

I have to ability on my receivers to set them for SD only, HD only, or both the same time. Both at the same time is ridiculous because you have every channel listed twice on your guide. We keep all of our receivers set on HD only. I have also found that if the weather gets bad enough to effect the signal I can switch over to SD and still get a picture. SD must require less signal strength to get by.

Dish or DirecTV is a matter of choice. In reality they are pretty much the same. The main difference is more in the sports packages with DirecTV having renew with the NFL for rights to the NFL Sunday Ticket. Other than that they offer pretty much the same programing.

**goducks14** · 03-23-2018, 03:44 PM

The only way to get HD with DirecTv is with the $$$ Traveler permanent mount or one of the manual dishes. No portable offers HD with DirecTv. Kowing DTV I highly doubt they care. It's also my understanding that it's about their sats and not being compatible with a portable self setup type dish.
DTV is 100% RV user friendly. If you go the portable Dish route I would suggest getting an app for your phone. We camp in some forested areas a lot and having the Dish Pointer Pro App tells me where the sats are in the sky. I've been able to thread the signal through some pretty tight windows that I would've never found on my own.

**Nicole** · 03-30-2018, 12:18 PM

You could try an OTA antenna so you avoid contracts altogether. You'll get local channels in HD with a directional antenna or even an omnidirectional antenna like the KING OmniGo. The OmniGo is nice because you can put it on a tripod or use its magnetic base mount and stick it on top of your car roof, so there's no need to permanently mount it.