I'm a DirecTV customer and sometimes I question that decision, but it's made and I'm down that path at least for a few years.
I've tried the automatic satellite systems, but they all have one big problem. They can only point at one satellite at a time so 2 TVs can find themselves fighting over which satellite to focus on. That is unless your talking about the roof mounted oval dishes like you use on a house, but are motorized. Those are nice, but at $2,000 installed, they are not for me. Particularly when Murphy's law says your RV will be under trees.
So I'm using a standard Slimline DirecTV dish that is mounted on a tripod.
I've been through 3 tripods and the one I have now and is pictured above is the best I've seen, so I don't think I'll need to change. I got it from tv4rv.com. The tripod is based on a surveyor's tripod. Each leg is adjustable in angle and length. The concept is to aim the tripod and then set the dish on the tripod is a fixed position.
When you setup the tripod without the dish, you insert the provided compass into the tripod in a fixed position. Next you move the tripod around until you are pointed at the required azimuth. You get the azimuth, elevation and tilt settings for your current location by using the dish pointing feature of the receiver setup function based on zip-code. You use a bubble level to make sure the tripod is level in addition to being pointed correctly. Next you remove the compass and set the dish on top of the tripod at the fixed position and tighten it down. I also recheck the bubble level and tweak the legs. Once it's all level, I use one of the several tight down methods provided in the kit. I also have the folding LNB arm feature, so it stores better, and all I have to do is fold it into place and tighten it.
Usually the tilt and elevation setting are close enough to get a signal just by setting the adjustments by sight. But I have found that the easiest way to align everything correctly is to have the wife on the phone or walkie-talkie to watch the onscreen signal meter while I tweak things. Generally small changes to the azimuth will get the signals at the 80% point then I use the fine tuning screws to get high 90's on satellite 101. I check satellites 99 and 103, but they are usually okay. Once you are high 90's on 101, minor changes to elevation will tweak sat. 99 and 103 to 80-95 and that works for anything I watch.
Since my Montana RV has direct coaxial cables run from the convenience to the living room, bedroom and basement I put the SWM splitter in the convenience center. So I run one wire from the satellite dish LNB to the splitter. I have the SWM power supply in the entertainment center cabinet along with the Genie DVR. I use Genie clients in the bedroom and basement.
I'm getting better at the setup and now I can usually get the dish setup in 15 minutes. What takes the most time is done sitting on the couch. That is getting the local channels integrated into the DVR. Since DirecTV doesn't let you receive your local channels outside of 500 miles from home, you have to buy a AM21 OTA receiver. It connects to your OTA roof antenna and via USB to the Genie DVR. Once you get it setup, you see your OTA local channels in your guide and can record your CBS, NBC, ABC, and FOX programs assuming you are in an area with OTA coverage.
The trick to getting the AM21 working is you have to reset it's settings, then power everything off and back on. Then your can setup the AM21 via zip-code.
All of this is easier the more you do it. I can setup the complete RV is 45 minutes with 15 minutes on electric, water, and sewer. The remaining time is 15 for the dish and 15 for local channels. One could think that it's not worth it, but if the wife doesn't get her programs recorded she's not happy. And as we all know, if the wife isn't happy, no one is happy.
You could have saved us a lot of money. We bit the bullet and had the roof top one installed in Q. We had the carry out but when we switched to the Genie it wouldn't allow us to record. I do like the fact that we get HD now.
ReplyDelete