Dish Satellite Again

[2naEagle]

We are now retired and getting ready for some extended trips.
We have DTV now and been carrying a SD box with us. Going to change to Dish and having a Hopper 3 and Joey installed at home.

I've been doing searches and still have trouble coming up with the best plan for taking it with us.

My plane for now is to get the Heavy-Duty tripod at tv4rv.com.
I think I need the Dish 1000.2 is that correct?
Was thinking of getting 2 Wally HD Receivers to take with us or would it be better to just take the equipment from home?
How difficult is it to point the dish with the Hopper vs the Wally?
We have looked at the Pathway x2 but thinking of just going with the manual.
Any suggestions or recommendations very welcome.

[TechWriter]

2naEagle wrote:


I just thought I'd make one more fallow up. First stop of a one month trip. Was able to hit the satellite on the first try.

Suggest you ditch the "screw-in" support under your dish. The first decent wind will yank it right out of the ground & you'll probably end up with a damaged LNB arm attachment.


Instead, hang 5-gallon gas can filled with water underneath -- that's over 40 pounds. However, I don't suggest one of those 5-gallon plastic buckets -- the handles come off too easily.

[2naEagle]

I just thought I'd make one more fallow up. First stop of a one month trip. Was able to hit the satellite on the first try.

[2naEagle]

Big Katuna wrote:
Glad it all worked out.

Curious as to why you didnt go with the Pathway?

My only concern with the Pathway was that we have two receivers. My understanding is that both have to be on the same satellite. So if we are using both at the same time I wasn't sure if that would be a problem. She is always watching Hallmark or HGTV. I'm usually watching some Outdoor, History, Animal Planet or a movie and of course Alabama Football. I would like to know from others if that's been a problem. If this gets to be a lot of trouble setting up I will get the Pathway.

[ljr]

2naEagle wrote:
Got the tripod from tv4rv today. I really like this it is easy to set up and very sturdy. Using this setup and dishpointer pro on phone was pretty easy. If your going to use a dish I highly recommend this tripod.

Got two Wally's from Tweety'-----------133.96
Heavy-Duty Combo Package from tv4rv----194.05
Dish LNB's for eastern and western arc--50.00

Good choice!

That's exactly the antenna setup I used exclusively until I got my Trav'lr. I still use it most of the time. It always served me well.

[Big_Katuna]

Glad it all worked out.

Curious as to why you didnt go with the Pathway?

[2naEagle]

Got the tripod from tv4rv today. I really like this it is easy to set up and very sturdy. Using this setup and dishpointer pro on phone was pretty easy. If your going to use a dish I highly recommend this tripod.

Got two Wally's from Tweety'-----------133.96
Heavy-Duty Combo Package from tv4rv----194.05
Dish LNB's for eastern and western arc--50.00

[2naEagle]

Thanks again to everyone for the help.

Got the two Wally's in the camper today. After doing a little looking found out that I have a sat/cable/aux coming into the camper. Sat. go's to the living room TV. Aux. go's to bedroom and basement TV.
Cable to all.
Pulled two cables from the dish, one to sat and one to aux. Put one Wally in living room and one in bedroom. I had to take a old TV and the Wally out with me to the dish to get it to work. Like others have said the Wally is slow to respond on the sat signal strength. But was able to get it to work (this time).
It did take two call to customer service to get it going. First to activate receiver.
Second call the receiver was stuck on downloading software. After a couple of tries she had me push Sat(on side of remote) / Skip Back / Recall / Skip Back. All worked after that.
I was pointing at the eastern arc. I also have the LNB for the western arc if needed. It would be nice to have a easier way to point the dish. If anyone has some little tricks to share that would be great.
I'm expecting the tripod from tv4rv tomorrow. I will update on that.

[Bill_Satellite]

If you put 2 Wallys in the RV then you must run a separate cable to each receiver directly from the antenna. Dish makes a splitter but this is only for use with a DVR. One cable from the antenna to the splitter and 2 inputs into the same box.

[2naEagle]

Thanks to everyone for all the help.

Got the Dish Network in home today. The tech fixed me up with another dish and LNB for eastern and a LNB for western arc to take with me camping.

I'm still thinking of getting the tripod from tv4rv. Also Leaning towards two Wally's for the camper. Just seems like that may be the easiest way to go.

Do I have to run a cable to each Wally from the dish or can I just run the cable for the dish to the camper and connect the two Wally's up to the camper?

[Bill_Satellite]

Once you have a Hopper you will hate NOT having a Hopper. No matter what Dish might say there is no reason at all not to take the Hopper in the RV. You just need to ensure the receiver is completely powered off before traveling to ensure there is no damage to the hard drive.
The other disadvantage of using the Wally and a Pathway is that, even with the addition of a hard drive, you don't have full DVR capabilities like you would with the Hopper.
I guess some of this depends upon how long or how often you will be in the RV but I would lean toward moving the Hopper if you are going to spend a reasonable amount of time away from home.

[Big_Katuna]

Another advantage to leaving our Hopper at home is that it continues to record our shows while we are driving or in that rare campground where you can't get sat.

I record stuff on the 211 at home too.

[BB_TX]

az99 wrote:

BB_TX wrote:
I know a lot of people move their receivers from home to the RV and back. But I would just buy the extra receiver for the RV and add it to the home account for $7/month and get the same programming in the RV you have at home and not mess with disconnecting and reconnecting.

The dishformyrv.com web site lists the Wally but not the Hopper. I assume there is a reason for that.

Why would you do that when it takes less than a minute to disconnect the Hopper 3 and Joey and put it in the RV? Then you have a 16 tuner DVR with all the shows you previously recorded and no extra fee.
If you are aiming a dish manually you may as well take the equipment that you are paying for.

If you can disconnect your Hopper 3 and Joey, take them to the RV, and reconnect in less than one minute, then you are one amazing man.

We don't need 16 tuners when in the RV. We watch a little TV during the day during downtime, a little at night, and the 10 pm news/weather. I suppose those who spend most of their time inside might want it. But we are more likely to be outside hiking, biking, fishing, or sightseeing.

[GoPackGo]

LScamper wrote:
How long does it take the Pathway to move from one satellite to the other?

A few seconds.

Also, just because you switch channels, it does not mean that you switch satellites. For example, I seem to remember that most HD signals come off one sat (120 ?) in the western set. Maybe some one can clarify - Bill ?

I've seen this issue discussed, but have never really understood the concern. It's a non-issue as far as I'm concerned. I do not even think about it.

[LScamper]

How long does it take the Pathway to move from one satellite to the other?