Roof Top Satellite Mount

[jimdeanne@centurylink.net]

I recently purchased a 2017 Thor Windsport. I am looking at mounting a satellite on the roof. Any advice on the best spot to locate or is it best to forget roof mount and go with the portable mount satellite? All advice would be appreciated.
Thanks
Jim

[taylorbob1]

I went with a Winegard G3 ($250-450 on Amazon). I purchased an open-box unit for that lower price.
I mounted my G3 permanently in the only location I had (solar panels were taking up space in the rear).

So you can see in the photos below, it’s up front mounted on the fiberglass cap.
I actually placed the $50 G3 mounts on a 14” x 14” piece of marine Starboard, then used Sikaflex adhesive on the underside of the Starboard. Finally, I fastened with two front screws thru the Fiberglass to minimize holes in the roof.

I’ve got DISH TV at home, so purchased a $50 Wally and pay an extra $7/mo for 24/7 access.

The nice feature of the G3 is that it’s the largest dish of the dome dishes.
Also, the Coax serves as the power cord as well.
So I was able to use the existing OTA antenna cable roof access point to bring the single Coax into the RV.

Finally, it’s wired inside my Vegas so that all 3 TVs get the same channel from the Wally. I prefer to have it that way.
An HDMI splitter from Wally to the 3 TVs (a bit of a chore to run a long hidden HDMI cable thru the top cabinets to the rear TV).

And once you research the “2nd Wally” option for a G3 (or other Dome’s offering 2 receivers) you will see that it’s not really very functional for most as the “slave” Wally must watch the same satellite as the master Wally.
If the master Wally changes channels to another satellite, then the slave Wally must basically re-boot.

Being mounted on the roof vs portable...
1) I can move it if necessary but never have
2) I generally try to park in areas where I have southern satellite exposure (using the DISH app satellite locator)
3) sometimes I assume it won’t work due to trees, and then I’m surprised as it works perfectly

A dome dish vs the $1600 Traveler...
1) Traveler is the best as it reads all 3 satellites simultaneously. Thus, you can use a Hopper3 and record & watch multiple channels
(G3 + Wally can record if you purchase a $50 hard drive. But can only record the channel you are watching)
2) with Traveler you can have Joey or Wally as 2nd receiver and watch any channel you want simultaneously
3) it costs $1600 and weighs over 50# (vs 14# for G3)

Bottomline, I like what I have and recommend it for most mid-range RVers