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Old 09-05-2016, 09:09 PM   #1
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Brand: Thor Motor Coach
State: Montana
Posts: 26
THOR #4791
satellite tv

Need some help trying to decide which satellite set to buy. I have both Dish and Direct TV service. I want one that finds the satellites automatically. Do not want or need the one that can be used in motion.

Direct TV does not have an option for HD unless I buy the in motion unit. I only care about Direct TV because it has the NFL package.

Wineguard has two choices, Pathway X-2 or the GM-6000 G2 I am looking at.

The x-2 is Dish only, can use east or west satellites and two TVs capability


The GM-6000 G-2 is both Direct TV and Dish TV western satellites only,two TVs capability.

What is the advantage of getting both the eastern and Western satellites. Wife and I are will be traveling on both coast on extended trips. Not a big fan of no HD on the Dish. But I read something about getting the local channels with both groups of satellites. Leaving in a week and need to make a decision quick

Thanks Montana Mike

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Old 09-05-2016, 09:39 PM   #2
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I have both a manual DISH HD dish on a tripod, and a portable King Tailgater2 that can acquire the sats on automatically. I have traveled both coasts extensively, even thru Ontario to PEI Canada, with no problems picking up sats. Many times locals are on the 129 HD satellite, but in some areas they are on 110 or 119. All other channels are available all of the time, of course, if you are view of all three sats.

Speaking of locals, many times when I find a good set of locals, such as Atlanta, I can actually travel many, many miles from the 'Atlanta' area and still receive them. If I arrive somewhere and those channels are no longer available, I know I've passed the point of their reach and chat with DISH to change to the area(address,zip code) where I am now parked.

I've heard some discussions about 'east coast', 'west coast' satellites, but I've never needed to be concerned about it since it works everywhere.
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Old 09-06-2016, 02:07 AM   #3
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State: Maryland
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Tuner fan,

Since you have TWO, which do you recommend for someone like me? I am on the East coast but will travel cross country once I retire. I recently spent Labor Day weekend in a campground with Cable TV and am convinced I need Satelite. I am currently a DISH subscriber at home. I'm not sure which brand satellite I need to purchase, should I go roof mount or portable, do I need a special box? I am a newbie to RVing and any advise before I make an expensive decision would be appreciate from all.
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Old 09-06-2016, 02:31 AM   #4
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I have a wineguard traver 1000 automatic for dish and it picks up 110, 119, & 129 just fine with locals and HD. If I'm in the trees I get out my wineguard G2 and it can get all three sats plus locals and it also is automatic.
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Old 09-06-2016, 02:34 AM   #5
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opps, double post!
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Old 09-06-2016, 11:35 AM   #6
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in my experience, the King Tailgater2 portable automatic unit is the easiest choice if you want to drive one Main tv, and a 'secondary' tv option. It gives the ability to mount/set it on your roof, out in the yard, or anywhere you have enough coax cable to have clear view of the satellites.
I typically have mine kept on the rear of the roof, which works 90% of the time, but the option to move it elsewhere on the roof, or down to the ground, works well when parked under/near trees, buildings, etc.
I use some various lengths of coax cable, such as 50 and 100' runs in order to have enough options. These lengths connect the Tailgater to my main coax connections in my wetbay. The wetbay coax cables are snaked/run into the coach and to the tv receivers and are permanent.

I use the bedroom as our 'Main' tv receiver, which can access any of the three satellites, and have the living room as the 'Secondary' tv receiver, which can only access any channel that is available from the satellite the Main receiver is currently tuned to when you initially program the secondary receiver - but this gives you the option for the second tv which otherwise would not be available.
Each of our three receivers are VIP211k model, which all work very well - and they have both a Coax output and the HDMI output, which can give you even more options down the road, such as sharing the output with other tvs(we use this in our boys bunks so that they can view satellite channels at night).
We have 5 tvs within the coach(two in the bunks), but with a little 'customization' all have the ability to view satellite channels, even with only three receivers.
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Old 09-06-2016, 03:23 PM   #7
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Model: Challenger 37KT
State: Michigan
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THOR #2628
Quote:
Originally Posted by montana mike View Post
Need some help trying to decide which satellite set to buy. I have both Dish and Direct TV service. I want one that finds the satellites automatically. Do not want or need the one that can be used in motion.

Direct TV does not have an option for HD unless I buy the in motion unit. I only care about Direct TV because it has the NFL package.

Wineguard has two choices, Pathway X-2 or the GM-6000 G2 I am looking at.

The x-2 is Dish only, can use east or west satellites and two TVs capability


The GM-6000 G-2 is both Direct TV and Dish TV western satellites only,two TVs capability.

What is the advantage of getting both the eastern and Western satellites. Wife and I are will be traveling on both coast on extended trips. Not a big fan of no HD on the Dish. But I read something about getting the local channels with both groups of satellites. Leaving in a week and need to make a decision quick

Thanks Montana Mike
Mike, we have Direct TV, we don't watch while on the road, only while parked.

HD options are Tripod dish or Trav'ler dish by Wineguard.

We have the Trav'ler dish on our new RV, just push a button and it does it thing. I have two receivers so wife doesn't have to watch football while I do. Great system.

Down fall, price, its one if not the most expensive dish and its fixed to the roof. You will want to make sure you get a google sat view of your campsites so you can make sure to get a plan sites with a clear view to the south west. As for local channels, we have not had that issue but you can buy ABC, CBS ext... for an extra cost but its east coast (New York).

Tripod system is cheaper, if you have the right dish you can get HD channels. If you have tree cover you can move it around to get a good signal. But you must get it out set it up each time.

Other option is get the Trav'ler with a small portable dish. That way if you end up not getting a good signal from the roof unit you can still move the portable unit around to get non HD channels.

Just my opinion
KC
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Old 09-06-2016, 04:14 PM   #8
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The portable Wineguard G2 gets HD. Dish pointer AR (DP AR) app works great at campsites finding sats. When ever planning on returning to a camp site in the future we get a map of the camp site and when walking the dog around mark which sites are good.
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Old 09-07-2016, 01:26 PM   #9
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Thanks everybody for all the help. I have order the King Tailgater 2 for Dish. Hope it works out. Can't justify the cost for HD Direct TV to watch the NFL package for 3 months. If there are games that I really want to see, I can always go to a sports bars.


Thanks again for the info. Montana Mike
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Old 07-31-2019, 02:16 AM   #10
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Winegard roadtrip mission

This came with a 2002 Damon Challenger 348 when I bought it, I have DISH and I was wondering if I carried my box out of the house and hook it up to the satelite. Will this work? Thanks Jim
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Old 08-02-2019, 10:10 AM   #11
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I was in your same situation a couple weeks ago. After a lot of research and talking with several experienced people with technical knowledge, I went with DISH TV. Overall, I found DISH to be technically simpler than DirectTV and, because of their 'pay as you go', $7. per month option, if you have DISH at home, less expensive than DirectTV.
The Tailgater antenna, made by King, and Wally receiver are pretty much plug and play, so easily installed as a DYI project. Haven't tried it on the road yet but works well in our driveway. We'll be giving it a thorough workout starting this coming Sunday, when we leave for a month long or so roadtrip from home in Fl to and around Nova Scotia and back. I hooked our's in to a powered 3 way splitter, so any one or all 3 of our TV's can get DISH channels (all 3 would be on same channel) . As to local TV channels, you can either call DISH customer service and tell them the zip code your're in and they'll download the locals for you or just change the "source" setting on your TV to "TV" and get them over the air via your rooftop antenna.
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Old 08-02-2019, 10:17 AM   #12
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Quote:
Originally Posted by SEAN1951 View Post
This came with a 2002 Damon Challenger 348 when I bought it, I have DISH and I was wondering if I carried my box out of the house and hook it up to the satelite. Will this work? Thanks Jim
I did this a few years ago with a Winnebago we had that had an auto-tracking roof mounted sat. antenna. Plugged in one of our DirectTV receivers from home and it worked fine. Only issue was we had fewer channels when we were out west due to our receiver being programmed for the DirectTV satellites serving the eastern USA. Don't tell DirectTV what you're doing...they'll want to change you more $$$.
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