HELP! Need direction on which Satellite System to purchase - RV-Dreams Community Forum

LuvSun · RV-Dreams Family Member

HELP! Need direction on which Satellite System to purchase

Bill and Linda · RV-Dreams Family Member

I’ve been in the professional TV biz longer than I care to admit so my comments are based on that experience as well as using Direct TV service and equipment since the inception of “small dish” satellite TV in the mid-90’s. All that said, this is my opinion and I’ll make it as a simple summary without going into technical details:

We use Direct TV and the Winegard Trav’ler SK-3005 antenna on our 5’er. That gives you HD TV as well as “standard” (SD) reception as you may require in different locations. This is not the least expensive antenna, but it is automatic, can do HD or SD and can feed multiple receivers including DVR’s. We’ve had it in service for over 2 years without issue.

One of the reasons I prefer DirectTV is that you can obtain the networks (CBS, ABC, Fox, etc.) from them without going to a third party. I.e. one-stop shopping.

I really haven’t had any customer service issues with Direct TV.

For those that prefer Dish, that’s fine. I just prefer Direct TV for both RV and “sticks and bricks” service.

Yes, it is possible to get internet and TV with the same antenna, but only standard definition TV. Not HD and internet. The antenna we use can’t do that. The internet satellite antenna is significantly more expensive than the SK-3005 noted above. But it can be done. We use an Air-card for internet. We find, for us, that to be more cost effective based on where we travel. But as they say, “Your mileage may vary.”

Hope this helps a bit.

Bill

Ckerr · RV-Dreams Family Member

We've had both DirectTV and DishTV in the RV. We have DishTV now. I'm not sure I understand your comment about wanting a stationary satellite. My interpretation is that you do not care about in motion reception, but that you want something that will automatically aim itself and is mounted on the RV.

Our experience is that if you are aiming the satellite yourself and want HD channels, DirectTV is slightly easier to aim. If you are using an auto aiming satellite this should not be an issue.

From the research we did, we found that if you want HD reception there are more satellite options out there that work with DishTV. That changes daily though it seems.

FYI, we get network programming with DishTV through a single provider with no issues so far. We recently moved the RV from Austin to Arkansas. Just called our local guy here in Austin and he updated the account for the local channels in Arkansas. This is something we were never able to make work in the 5+ years we had DirectTV.

jb · RV-Dreams Family Member

We have been direct TV customers for home and RV for over 10 years. I have never had a Customer service Issue that Direct TV did not solve to my satisfaction. I think their customer service is best in class.

LuvSun · RV-Dreams Family Member

thanks for the reply Carol...what satellite do you have installed?

-- Edited by LuvSun on Thursday 21st of October 2010 07:37:19 PM

LuvSun · RV-Dreams Family Member

Bill - thanks for all the info! Yes, I believe that an AirCard is probably the best way to go - satellite w/internet is really expensive...and since I hope that I will be parked somewhere where there is wifi available I probably wont need my own. In your experience do most parks have wifi?
So I looked at the Winegard Trav’ler SK-3005 online - and was surprised to see what it is an actual dish! do you have yours mounted on the roof? and if so, how is that traveling down the highway? I would think that any strong wind would casue a problem...or am I missing something? Did I undertand correctly that this one allows for mulitple channels recording on DVR's? so that I can watch one channel on the TV and record another channel to the DVR.

bjoyce · RV-Dreams Family Member

Another Bill here just talking about wifi. Wifi in campgrounds varies all over the place, in some areas every campground has it, in other areas none do. Public parks like county, state and federal rarely have wifi and when they do the system is normally overloaded so it is slow and unreliable. The quality of wifi in campgrounds tends to not be very good, often the system is overloaded or only in the office area. Some campgrounds have wonderful wifi, normally they are in more metro areas. It costs money and having expertise to do wifi right so many campgrounds do enough to list "wifi" in their websites and campground directory but do not do enough to make it well. Yup, I am a pessimist, but I have been trying various free wifis through the years and the good ones are the exceptions.

mailman01 · RV-Dreams Family Member

Speaking of WiFi...Does anyone have any specific experience with Virgin Mobile Broadband? I was particularly attracted to the "no contract" feature and the different packages by the month option. Don't have it yet, but will on my next outing unless I get a lot of negative feedback. Thanks.

Ckerr · RV-Dreams Family Member

Hi LuvSun,

We currently only have the satellite that came from DishTV. That doesn't help you if you are looking for one that mounts permanently on the roof of the RV.

We're looking for a portable auto aiming dish, but again I don't think that helps you.

For a roof mounted antenna, I think the Traveler SK3005 (or the equivelent DishTV model) that Bill has is probably the best bet. FYI, it folds down when you are traveling. The biggest disadvantage to these units is that you need to change the hardware when you change providers. Sort of locks you in to one service.

The other roof mounted option are the dome antennas. Winegard and King Dome are the major manufacturers of those. From what I understand the Travel will get slightly better reception. On the other had the dome units are less provider dependant from what I've read. Again, the only issue is getting HD channels with DirectTV.

FYI, we changed to DishTV because we needed to get new service -- our old service was an extra box on his kids account. When we started researching we found it was easier to get local network programming with DishTV and we got a great price by having a 2 year contract with autopayments from our checking account. Not something we normally do, but since we'll be on the road we thought it would make things easier.

Hope that helps rather than confuses!

Carol

bjoyce · RV-Dreams Family Member

mailman01: Don't get wifi and cell phone internet mixed up, they are very different.
Virgin Mobile uses the Sprint native network so it only has service where Sprint has its own towers. There are huge gaps like the Dakotas, Wyoming and Montana where RVers like to travel that have no coverage. The coverage map is http://www.virginmobileusa.com/check-cell-phone-coverage, just select "Data Coverage" and deselect "Voice Coverage" to see the coverage. We are planning on getting a Virgin Mobile USB card (aircard) soon since we will be in an area where Verizon service is terrible and the locals use Sprint phones, including the relatives who live there. As a supplement to Verizon I think Virgin Mobile might be a great solution, but where we travel it would not work in enough places to use it exclusively.

NorCal Dan · RV-Dreams Family Member

We subscribe to DirecTV and use the Slimline Traveler sat dish on the roof of the coach. The sat dish has not given us any problems. If you want HD service from DirecTV then this is the dish you need. We went with DirecTV over DISH because I wanted the Distant Network Services (DNS) for the east/west coast feeds of ABC,CBS,NBC and FOX. Getting the local programming can be a problem, but I've learned to keep calling DirecTV until I get an operator who knows what I am talking about and can make the necessary change to my account without messing up our RV waiver.

We have friends who use the DataStorm setup for internet and TV using the same sat dish. I believe they told me it was around $12K for the entire setup and installation.

Luvglass · RV-Dreams Family Member

Dan, We have a Datastorm and Direct TV and it was $5K.

Ken & Sarah · RV-Dreams Family Member

I don't know if it is still necessary but when we bought our fiver we had to decide which service we wanted because the dishes available had to be specific to either Direct or Dish, one dish could not handle both, this is not a dome type dish. The other issue I ran into was when the factory wired the dish they ran only one wire from the dish to a splitter in the roof because of this we can not watch one channel and record another, we have DirecTV. You may want to ask how the dish is wired so you know what you can do. Good Luck.

NorCal Dan · RV-Dreams Family Member

Thanks Fred. I couldn't remember how much they told me it cost, I just remember it was expensive. Thanks for setting the record straight.

Ken & Sarah, you should be able to have the wiring re-configured so you have 2 inputs to your receiver...

Ken & Sarah · RV-Dreams Family Member

Thank you, I do plan on seeing if the service center at the factory can do that for me. We will be there in two weeks for other minor items.