# satellite dish for campers



## F15Budman (Sep 18, 2009)

Can anybody give me advise on satellite dish for campers?


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## CAL (Sep 18, 2009)

Don't have much advise only what I have seen.Have a friend that takes his box out of the house and puts it in his camper.Has an extra dish and sets it up once camper is set up.Turns on the generator and has at it.


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## deerehauler (Sep 18, 2009)

depends what you are looking for. If you want the inmotion you are gonna spend some money but there is no tuning you just turn it on and it finds the signal. Or you can use one like on a house and get a tripod you just hafta adjust it everywhere you go according to the zip code. I have used both and installed many in motion or selfadjusting at the RV dealershio I worked at


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## Paymaster (Sep 24, 2009)

I have DirecTV and I take a receiver with me on camping(RV) trips. I have an extra dish and tripod that I take with me. When you get where you are going and get a site map,most of them have the zip code listed. Just go thru the set-up prompts in your system and and adjust your elevation and compass azimuths to what it calls for.I take a small portable TV out to the dish to do the set up. I don't have the guages and all that stuff. The little TV works well for setting everything up.


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## 30 06 (Sep 24, 2009)

Paymaster said:


> I have DirecTV and I take a receiver with me on camping(RV) trips. I have an extra dish and tripod that I take with me. When you get where you are going and get a site map,most of them have the zip code listed. Just go thru the set-up prompts in your system and and adjust your elevation and compass azimuths to what it calls for.I take a small portable TV out to the dish to do the set up. I don't have the guages and all that stuff. The little TV works well for setting everything up.



Ditto works well


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## sinclair1 (Sep 24, 2009)

Where can you find an extra dish, I have spare receivers and tripod but need the dish. I think I can find the dish part but have not been able to find the GUTS of the dish.


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## Paymaster (Sep 25, 2009)

sinclair1 said:


> Where can you find an extra dish, I have spare receivers and tripod but need the dish. I think I can find the dish part but have not been able to find the GUTS of the dish.



Believe it or not most of my stuff came from yard sales. I have five receivers 3 of which came from yard sales and my extra dish was found at a different sale. If you have or find a dish without an LMB you can get one at Wal Mart. But if you hit the yard sales heavy,you can find what you need and just call DirecTV and have them activate it. I bought those 3 receivers for $10 and they all worked and still work. That was about four years ago.The folks selling them had moved to a place with covenants against dishes and had cable to their new home.


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## Hooty Hoot (Sep 25, 2009)

I have acquired two dishes. One is Dish and the other is Direct TV. Everything appears the same but the "Dish" dish is in better shape. Anyone know if it will work with my Direct TV receiver?


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## swamp (Sep 25, 2009)

I have two direct TV recievers for $20 if anyone wants them! Must pick up!


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## Jeb (Sep 25, 2009)

Where would you find a tripod for sat dish?
                 Jeb


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## willec (Sep 25, 2009)

*Tripod*



Jeb said:


> Where would you find a tripod for sat dish?
> Jeb



I got mine from camping world but I've seen folks build them from pipe and a stand the trick is leveling the legs.


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## msdins (Sep 25, 2009)

F15Budman said:


> Can anybody give me advise on satellite dish for campers?



First thing is make sure your camper is set up. I know this sounds elementary but the first time I used mine I assumed because I have a connection on the back that everything would be easy. Well it was wrong, I have an signal booster that was killing the signal. I had to plug it directly into the tv that trip to get it to work. 

See this link for more info on that



You can buy the dish, receiver, and stand from Ebay. 

This is how I always set it up, usually takes less than 5 minutes once I arrive to have everything up and running.  

Before leaving home go to: http://www.dishpointer.com/ and get the elevation and azimuth settings for where you will be camping. Set it up on the stand at home and tighten everything down so it wont get bumped during travel. You may have to adjust a little when you get to your spot but usually its pretty close. 

Start it up and set the zip code on the receiver to where you are and you should be good to go.


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## Wahoo Creek (Sep 25, 2009)

My homemade setup:

Old bucket, bag of concrete and a piece of 1 and 1/4" plastic pipe to mount the dish to.  Use a level to make sure pipe sets into concrete sitting perfectly straight up.  When you go to set up, use shims to make sure bucket sits level.  Then adjust elevation (on dish mount) and azimuth (by rotating bucket).  Not my idea, but it works great and is cheap.


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## Paid Up (Sep 26, 2009)

I have direct tv at home with local channels and have a camper at a permanent site with a dish and I took a box from home. I get all the channels except the locals.  Is there anyway to get the locals.  My home is in Macon and my rv is in Florida.  Any ideas?


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## Paymaster (Sep 28, 2009)

Paid Up said:


> I have direct tv at home with local channels and have a camper at a permanent site with a dish and I took a box from home. I get all the channels except the locals.  Is there anyway to get the locals.  My home is in Macon and my rv is in Florida.  Any ideas?




I get locals with my box while camping. Like I said before I take everything with me when I go,dish, receiver and all.I don't know why you would not be able to get locals.


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## skeeter24 (Sep 29, 2009)

Paymaster said:


> I get locals with my box while camping. Like I said before I take everything with me when I go,dish, receiver and all.I don't know why you would not be able to get locals.



I get all of my locals as well no matter where I go.  Just bought a new camper with HD TV.  If you are going to go with an HD dish while camping you will need the larger 4 legged tripod and not the small 3 legged one as it will not support the extra weight of the DirecTv slimline dish.


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## Paymaster (Sep 29, 2009)

skeeter24 said:


> I get all of my locals as well no matter where I go.  Just bought a new camper with HD TV.  If you are going to go with an HD dish while camping you will need the larger 4 legged tripod and not the small 3 legged one as it will not support the extra weight of the DirecTv slimline dish.



We have HD at home and I believe I will stick with standard while camping. That HD dish looks like it would be a booger to set up and keep in possition.


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## Paid Up (Sep 29, 2009)

To get local channels are you guys doing something different?  I put in the zip code for my current area.  Should I leave my home zip code instead of the zip code where I am going?


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## Paymaster (Sep 29, 2009)

Paid Up said:


> To get local channels are you guys doing something different?  I put in the zip code for my current area.  Should I leave my home zip code instead of the zip code where I am going?



I am not sure. All I use the zip for is to get the azimuth and elevation to adjust the dish from where I am. My set up shows this when I enter the zip. I don't save any change in the setup.I just read the info and go and adjust the dish.


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## skeeter24 (Sep 30, 2009)

Paid Up said:


> To get local channels are you guys doing something different?  I put in the zip code for my current area.  Should I leave my home zip code instead of the zip code where I am going?



The zip code should just be used to get the elevation and angles only and should not affect the local channels.  The only thing that I can think of is maybe the locals are on a separate satellite that you are not hitting.  

I have only had Direct about a year and a half and have had no issues, but when I had Dish I had a couple of times that I could pick up channels on 110, but not 119.  My tripod had to be spot on level with Dish, but it seems I have a little more margin of error with Direct.


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## F15Budman (Oct 5, 2009)

What does it cost for basic package with Direct? Don't camp that much yet.


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## crackerdave (Oct 6, 2009)

F15Budman said:


> Can anybody give me advise on satellite dish for campers?



Stay _home_ and watch TV !


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## Paymaster (Oct 6, 2009)

F15Budman said:


> What does it cost for basic package with Direct? Don't camp that much yet.



I think $29.99 gets you about 100 channels.If you decide you want to get Directv, there is a $100.00 promotion going on right now. If you know someone that has Directv, get their account number and use it as a referal and you both get $100.00.


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## F15Budman (Oct 6, 2009)

I guess somebody out there don't like people asking questions!


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## skeeter24 (Oct 8, 2009)

F15Budman said:


> What does it cost for basic package with Direct? Don't camp that much yet.



Unless you camp alot it would not be worth the $30 a month for the most basic package just to use it while camping.  If you get DirecTv at your house though instead of cable, all you have to do is buy an extra dish for about $50 and then just take a receiver from home.


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## Paid Up (Oct 8, 2009)

Skeeter - I have direct at home and take a box and dish with me when camping. I can get all the channels except locals.  Any ideas on how to get locals?


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## TurkeyCreek (Oct 10, 2009)

I bought a Dish antenna off of ebay to set up at my trailer at deer camp and take one of my receivers from home. The antenna has two connectors, one for 110 and one for 119. I assume that I need to connect to both and run to a splitter of some type then output to the receiver???? If so, what kind of splitter?


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## skeeter24 (Oct 13, 2009)

Paid Up said:


> Skeeter - I have direct at home and take a box and dish with me when camping. I can get all the channels except locals.  Any ideas on how to get locals?



How far away are you camping?  Local channels are sent using a spot beam satellite that only hits targeted areas.  Those are usually good for around 200-300 miles depending on the area.  So if you are say 1,000 miles from home then you will not be able to get them.  If you are 50 miles from your home then I am not sure why you would be getting everything else but them.


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## skeeter24 (Oct 13, 2009)

TurkeyCreek said:


> I bought a Dish antenna off of ebay to set up at my trailer at deer camp and take one of my receivers from home. The antenna has two connectors, one for 110 and one for 119. I assume that I need to connect to both and run to a splitter of some type then output to the receiver???? If so, what kind of splitter?



If your dish has a dual LNB switch built in then you will only need one.  If it is a newer dish there are two connectors, but that is used to hook up two seperate receivers.  If it is an old dish then it is likely that you would need an external switch that both lines would feed into.
What model dish do you have?  If it is a Dish 500 then it probably has the dish pro dual LNB on it.


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## TurkeyCreek (Oct 14, 2009)

skeeter...i have the dish 500 pro with dual LNB. the confusing thing about it is that it looks like one connector is marked for 110 and the other for 119. i'll try it by hooking up one connector and see. thanks.


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## pop pop jones (Oct 14, 2009)

Paid Up said:


> I have direct tv at home with local channels and have a camper at a permanent site with a dish and I took a box from home. I get all the channels except the locals.  Is there anyway to get the locals.  My home is in Macon and my rv is in Florida.  Any ideas?



You should receive local channels from your home address, not local where you are.


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## skeeter24 (Oct 15, 2009)

TurkeyCreek said:


> skeeter...i have the dish 500 pro with dual LNB. the confusing thing about it is that it looks like one connector is marked for 110 and the other for 119. i'll try it by hooking up one connector and see. thanks.



It does appear that way but you should be able to hook up one and it should get channels from 110 and 119.


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## Bigtalker (Oct 15, 2009)

I called Directv a few years ago and got a dish and receiver added at our camp for $49 for installation, and we just pay $5 a month for service on that receiver. I am not sure if they still do this, but we just split up the $60 a year it cost to run that receiver and I pay it on my bill every month. I called Directv and told them my situation, that I had a "cabin" that I wanted service in for a few weeks out of the year and they recomended this option.


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## crackerdave (Oct 15, 2009)

F15Budman said:


> I guess somebody out there don't like people asking questions!



I guess somebody out there don't like people giving answers!

Everybody has their own idea of what "camping" is.Sitting inside watching TV doesn't happen to be my idea of camping.


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## F15Budman (Oct 20, 2009)

Whatever!


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## sinclair1 (Nov 10, 2009)

Ok, I have a dish 500 that a neighbor gave me, I will attach it to my dock and use a receiver from my home system. I should be able to set it up pretty easy since my neighbor has a dish as well. I hope to just look were his is pointing to get me close and just tune it in while my wife watches the signal strenth.  I have two questions. 1. dont know if my dish at home is dish 500, does it matter?  2. is it legal?


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## skeeter24 (Nov 10, 2009)

sinclair1 said:


> Ok, I have a dish 500 that a neighbor gave me, I will attach it to my dock and use a receiver from my home system. I should be able to set it up pretty easy since my neighbor has a dish as well. I hope to just look were his is pointing to get me close and just tune it in while my wife watches the signal strenth.  I have two questions. 1. dont know if my dish at home is dish 500, does it matter?  2. is it legal?



Yes it is legal.  It should not matter if your Dish at home is a 500 or not, although you once you get it setup you might have to use the "check switch" option to make sure that everything is in sync.


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## sinclair1 (Nov 10, 2009)

skeeter24 said:


> Yes it is legal.  It should not matter if your Dish at home is a 500 or not, although you once you get it setup you might have to use the "check switch" option to make sure that everything is in sync.


Thanks skeeter24, I found out while messing with my setup at home that I do have 500 here as well.
I also noticed the mounting brackets are marked with degrees, So I can just look at my neighbors and set mine the same.


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## pop pop jones (Nov 10, 2009)

Paymaster said:


> I have DirecTV and I take a receiver with me on camping(RV) trips. I have an extra dish and tripod that I take with me. When you get where you are going and get a site map,most of them have the zip code listed. Just go thru the set-up prompts in your system and and adjust your elevation and compass azimuths to what it calls for.I take a small portable TV out to the dish to do the set up. I don't have the guages and all that stuff. The little TV works well for setting everything up.



Like he said, only I have the little meter,( that I can't read), so I use my tv too.


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## sinclair1 (Dec 20, 2009)

*Thanks woodys*

I would like to thank everyone for the information, I now have Dish at the lake  I bought a compass and found the spot for the dish, It was a tight shot between the tree canopies,but it worked. I have the old dish 500, so I have to switch between the 110 and 119 to get my locals. I found that all I need is a sw21 switch to solve that problem. Before I came to this forum I was about to order the service at the lake and have 2 bills. Thanks to you fine fellas, I have only 1 bill since I dont use the receiver in the bonus room and My neighbor gave me his old dish 500.
Thanks again!!! I only have one problem, My neighbor didnt know this could be done and gave me his dish figuring when he ordered the service down there they would give him a new one. The dish he gave me was from a previous owner. I dare not tell him that i dont pay for 2 services or he might want it back


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