Another TV Question

[Norm Green]

The previous owner of our coach had a MotoSat HD antenna installed in place of the original Kingdome.  The MotoSat is set up for Direct TV.  I have not subscribed to any carrier for the motorhome as yet and I use Comcast at home because it performs better in bad weather.  In my investigation, I am not comfortable with Direct TV's options for an RV and would prefer Dish.  I have been told by Dan at BCS that there is no way to change my existing antenna it to Dish and a new Winegard is for Dish is $1,800.  I am interested if anyone has an experience with the Dish Traveler portable system.  The Traveler costs $400 and gets HD and SD stations.  The receiver is another $100.  I would have to attach it to the cable connection in the water bay ( I don't have separate cable and satellite connections) and I believe I have to add some type of device to make this connection compatible with both cable and sat.  Would appreciate your comments and suggestions.  

[Roy C Tyler]

  Norm
What controller for the dish do you have?  The MotoSat that came with my Monterey was programmable for either Dish Network or DirectTv. I believe that I have the Nomad II Controller The previous owner had it setup for DirectTV and I had a receiver for Dish Network.  I downloaded the manual and reprogrammed it myself.  If you are talking about the Dish Network Tailgater portable unit, I have one that is slightly used and for sale.  It will only work with the Vip211K receiver and it will not work with the cable that you have in your motorhome.  The antenna gets its power from the receiver and requires their cable and receiver to operate.

[Keith Moffett]

Norm
We were just in your shoes last August.  Our coach had a Motosat originaly which was replaced with a no name dome that also didnt work.
An important element to consider might  that Moto Sat is out of business so the dish isnt supported.  We opted for the dish network Traveler roof top dish offered by BCS.  We have Dish Network at home so it is convienent.  I dont like Direct for their service and plans or cost.
We didnt go for the portable one for several reasons.  The most important one is that I dont want toavenoth set up element to deal with and then it sits outside and might grow legs and walk off.

PS  In over 20 years of Dish both home and RV I have had weather trouble one time.  We had 4 feet of snow and ice and I used a small broom to lightly brush off the snow to fix it.

Keith

[Norm Green]

Roy, I checked with Dan at BCS and he told me that some models of the MotoSat could be changed from Direct to Dish but the particular one installed on our coach (HD model) can not.

[Roy C Tyler]

Norm
Mine is also a HD model but your controller must be different than mine.  After having a portable unit, I think you would probably be happier with the Winegard Travel'r on the roof.  The portable unit is OK until someone bumps it or moves it slightly and then it has to go through its setup routine all over again. Plus, as Keith said, you have to lock it down or it may grow legs and leave.

[Edward Buker]

Norm,

I am not sure if you mean the Winegard Carry Out at around $400. The Traveler is nearer $1100 and is a rooftop system. I have a Carry Out which I use on both my roof and the ground with a custom mount system. The antenna itself works very well and is simple to set up. It toggles between satellites quick enough where it is hard to know if it is even toggling with a channel change. I think it works best with a single tuner set up feeding the whole coach but I use two tuners with a 722 Dish receiver with some added limitations. Separate channels being watched have to be on the same satellite to be viewed. Because the 722 was not set up for that situation you will get screen error messages about lost signal on the alternate TV if you try to choose one that cannot be viewed at that time. There is something new called a Pathway X2 also which may fit the bill.

I would be surprised if you could use the feed from the water bay. If it passes through any couplers or if the cable is RG59 instead of RG6U it probably will not work. You may be in better shape cabling wise with your newer coach than I was. I had to run a new feed. Lastly the Traveler for about $1100 is probably one of the best options out there. Strong signal, watch all channels anytime on multiple receivers, absolutely no set up and stowing to do. If you could not get ready access to run cabling from the bay to the satellite receiver location that worked, you may find it better to go to the roof side of things and have a Traveler added.

Later Ed

[Norm Green]

The controller I have is a Nomad SD2 (DVBS2).  The portable antenna I am considering is the Dish Tailgater, model VQ2500.  This antenna with a receiver, ViP 211K sells for $500 or less.  I still need to determine the cabling issues involved, but this is considerably less than the $1800 BCS wants for an installed roof type system.

[Roy C Tyler]

 Norm
You have the same controller that I have.  I was able to program mine for Dish Network.  Page 12 of the manual tells you how to do the configuration.  I also downloaded the last update for firmware onto the SD card before I did the configuration.

I had the Dish Tailgater and it would only work with their cable and receiver.  I would move my slide out almost all the way out and then go outside and run the cable through the seal before I ran the slide out the rest of the way out   They do give you lots of cable and since it can be moved around there was always plenty of cable no matter where I put the antenna.  I have even set it on top of the back of the roof on occasion and was still able to reach the front slide out to run the cable in.

[Jerry Carr]

Norm, I don't want to thrown stones at the Sat. Systems as I am sure they do the job. I have gone in a different direction, I did upgrade all of the TV sets in the rig to HD and pulled the cable boxes and converter boxes. I get 20 ++ channels with just the antenna. The set we installed are also WIFI direct so if we have good connection points we also get Netfix for movies.
We have no cost with the antenna and we already pay a monthly fee on Netflix.
We don't full time so this approach works just fine for us.
 
 

[Stan Simpson]

Norm,

These folks are the successors to MotoSat. Some of the same engineers, I'm told. When we were at Gillette in June, a number of people converted from MotoSat to RFMogul, including a few Beaver owners.

http://www.rfmogul.com/

Stan

[Jim Nichols]

We had the RF Mogul installed  in Gillette and love it. It is 20 lbs lighter and has a 1 1/2" larger dish than Whinegard. It has a gps mounted next to the LnB so it is pretty fast setting itself for use. It was  2000.00 installed (show price) and the Whinegard was 1800.00. RV Inovations from Oregon sold it in Gillette. As we get older it is so nice to just push a button when it is nasty outside and watch the weather and news from inside. I don't think RF Mogul supports Dish network at least in June they didn't