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juel · 05-24-2007, 03:13 PM

I just bought a dish off ebay, took a receiver out of the spare bedroom at home, hooked the cables up like at home and woohoo, TV on the road. Had to get a satellite man out to find the satellite for me at the lake, but that was no trouble and little expense. Don't guess this would work if you were on the road all the time unless you had a way to locate the satellite each night, but if the Argosy is parked, it works great and costs almost nothing.

HowieE · 05-24-2007, 04:55 PM

Armed with the local zip code and a compass it takes a matter of minutes to aim a Directv dish while on the road. After you have done it a few times you will just look at the guy parked next to you and aim off his dish.

Dish is a bit harder because they have a third axis in the aiming process.

toastie · 05-24-2007, 05:30 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by HowieE

Dish is a bit harder because they have a third axis in the aiming process.

True on the Dish set-up, every since I got the "Align a Site" and the "Acutrac 22 Pro" its a very easy one man job., the Align a Site will get me within 5 deg., the Acutrac will fine the sweet spot, reads sat. 119 and 110 at the same time, shows the sat strength just like at home.

Minnie's Mate · 05-25-2007, 10:05 AM

Tonight we leave for the beach. In the morning I will have my first try at aiming this portable dish I got from Directv. I installed our dish at home back before Directv would give you free installation and didn't have any problems installing it so I shouldn't have any problems tomorrow. The DVD that came with the dish looks very straight forward, just line it up with the compass heading, set the angle on the mast and fine tune with the beep on the TV. All based off of the zip code. Should be simple...shouldn't it?

Devoman · 05-25-2007, 11:18 AM

Would anyone out there be able to help out by taking some pics on what you did to set it up.A pictorial would be great and help make things easier on us who just can not figure it out.I know I am doing something wrong with the process.I would greatly appreciate this.When I get some time myself I am going to town to play around with the dish to figure it out a bit.Thanks All.

Minnie's Mate · 05-25-2007, 11:26 AM

If I can remember to take the camera with me I will take pictures of the set-up outside and the one inside. It will be Monday evening or Tuesday before I can post since the state park on St. George won't have wi-fi. However, from your earlier post describing your wiring hook-up, I think the wiring has changed and been greatly simplified between your model year and mine.

On the interior mine just has a cable connection on a panel on the wall with the button to push when using cable or batwing. I was told by the dealer, and the Airstream brochure stated, that our unit was "pre-wired for satellite" so I don't know if that means it is different from yours or if that just means they used the RG-6 (?)wire in the walls.

guy99 · 05-25-2007, 11:27 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Devoman

Would anyone out there be able to help out by taking some pics on what you did to set it up.A pictorial would be great and help make things easier on us who just can not figure it out.I know I am doing something wrong with the process.I would greatly appreciate this.When I get some time myself I am going to town to play around with the dish to figure it out a bit.Thanks All.

Have you seen this? http://www.directv.com/learn/pdf/124...aManual_1D.pdf

Devoman · 05-25-2007, 11:34 AM

I think I will go to town today and fool around with it some.I have to figure this thing out.Thanks for the PDF.
Is there a sat at 210 degrees.That was what they told me but I am wondering if that is wrong.I think this is where I am messing up.

guy99 · 05-25-2007, 12:11 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Devoman

I think I will go to town today and fool around with it some.I have to figure this thing out.Thanks for the PDF.
Is there a sat at 210 degrees.That was what they told me but I am wondering if that is wrong.I think this is where I am messing up.

There may be a Sat at 210 degrees, the Directv satellites are at 101, 110, 119. But those are just names for your purposes. You need to put your zip code into the application on your receiver to find the azimuth and elevation needed from your location. (It might be that 210 is the correct azimuth from where you are). That application will also give you the correct elevation and tilt.

Devoman · 05-25-2007, 02:17 PM

I wonder why the Installer told me 210.I just checked mine in my house and it is showing 101.
I probably had everything correct ecept for the degrees he had told me.I will go back into town later and try it out again.I could bet this time it will work.
Man that sucks

thecatsandi · 05-25-2007, 02:46 PM

Try going into the setup and entering your zip code. There is more than one sattelite up there. One may be a stronger signal than the other. IF I remember correctly I was pointing to about 220 with my dish so 210 is prodably better. I use an Accutrak pro to dial in the dish. The align-a-sight is a waste of money in my opinion. My handheld compass, level and my eyeballs are good enough.

starflyte1 · 05-30-2007, 09:19 AM

How did the Directv setup go?

Minnie's Mate · 05-31-2007, 08:47 AM

Sorry to take so long to get back to you but this week has been kind of hectic.

We arrived at our camp site about 4:00 AM...yes in the morning. We left an hour later than expected, there was a terrible accident that had us setting in one place for over an hour (I'm just grateful we weren't involved), the second half of the trip was one little town after another, and we missed our turn in Tallahassee and wound up towing our 30' Airstream through the night club district at 1:30 in the morning as the night clubs were closing !LOL

Anyway, I obviously waited 'till late the next morning to set up the dish. Being in the soft sand of the beach side camp ground, it was easy to level the tripod. The tripod came with a round bubble level that snaps into the end of the mast making it relatively simple to get the mast level. Final adjustments can be tweaked by adjusting the set screws that hold the mast in tripod after driving the anchor stakes through the holes in the tripod's feet if it gets off level slightly. The dish then is mounted to the mast.

Aiming the dish was a matter of going into the receiver's setup menu and entering the zip code to get the angle and azimuth settings. The dish mount has the degrees on the side for setting the angle of the dish. That was easy. The temporary kit also came with a small compass to aim the dish toward the satellite. You just line the red part of the needle with the "N" on the compass and point the dish in the direction of the degrees on the compass as close as possible. Then it is a matter of fine tuning the direction using the meter in the set up menu in the receiver. It will give you readings from 0-100. I was able to achieve readings of 100 within a couple of minutes.

I didn't have the correct type of cable to run from the cable jack in the wall to the back of the receiver so I wound up just running the cable that came in the temporary installation kit through the door. That isn't the best set up, but it worked for this weekend. Next time I'll remember to disconnect the cable from the wall at home and take it with us instead of disconnecting from the back of the receiver.

Once set up, we had our satellite channels clear as a bell. We enjoyed watching our regular programs at night with the kids and our regular programs on HGTV and the Food Network after they had gone to bed as well. We normally don't watch programs on the local networks, so not having them at the beach was no biggie to us.

I hope you were able to follow this description. I had intended to bring my photos of the tripod and how it was set up at the camp site to the office so I could post them when I got a break at work today, but I forgot the camera card at home.

starflyte1 · 05-31-2007, 09:58 AM

Thanks for the reply! I will reread it and then study it.

We have Directv in the bedroom now, with an extra receiver set up and ready to go. The installer just split the cable and ran one to each of the receivers.

I see having to take both receivers with us in the AS and running at least one of the cables thru the window, with the other into the hook up that came in the AS, so that we can each watch our programs.

I have ordered a BullsEye mount for the dish. Hopefully, it will be here in the next couple of days so that we can have a trial run before we leave on our trip, the 8th.

It has been a learning experience this far, but without the help I have received from this thread, I still would be reading and thinking about it, instead of watching it.

Thanks again!
Pat

Minnie's Mate · 05-31-2007, 11:11 AM

Setting it up at home for a trial run is a good idea. It is pretty simple but being able to aim the dish and compare with the one mounted at home should help make things a little clearer (no pun intended).

You might also try connecting the receiver in the Airstream bedroom to the cable connection in the wall while you are doing your trial set up at home. I think all of the cable in the Airstream is supposed to be satellite ready. Just remember to use the cable that connects your receiver to the wall outlet in the house to connect it to the one in the Airstream bedroom. It should work so you won't have to run it through the window.

If I can be of any other help (I'm no expert; I've only done this once so far, but I'll do my best) just let me know and I'll try to respond quicker than I did earlier today.

starflyte1 · 05-31-2007, 04:32 PM

Thanks! While I wait for the BullEye dish stand, I am trying to figure out how to install XM Radio. I will start another thread for that and come back to this one when the stand arrives.

SilverCabin · 06-01-2007, 06:59 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by starflyte1

Thanks! While I wait for the BullEye dish stand, I am trying to figure out how to install XM Radio. I will start another thread for that and come back to this one when the stand arrives.

Pat,

Post a link here to your new XM Radio thread, in case I miss it on the Portal. I'd be interested in seeing how to do that also. I've got Sirius in the truck now, so I can add an additional receiver at half price. I was told our 2007 23' Safari's came prewired for satellite radio.

Randy

starflyte1 · 06-01-2007, 10:57 AM

Randy,

The name of the new thread is: add XM to audio-video pkg . Sorry, I do not know how to make a link.

Pat

Minnie's Mate · 06-01-2007, 11:39 AM

I don't have the audio-video package in our Safari. But, the Sony stereo that came with the Airstream says it is XM ready.

The FM modulator that I installed in the spring to be able to route the TV/DVD audio through the four standard stereo speakers also has a cable with RCA fittings on one end and a combo fitting on the other that is made to plug into an IPod so I can use that as well as the CD player for music. We really have only used the CD player once and that was while we were camping at Top of Georgia Airstream Park which is located in a deep valley with NO radio, TV antenna or cell reception at all. I can't imagine needing or wanting radio badly enough to ever want satellite radio in the Airstream. I think I would probably take the sat dish and receiver and listen to the XM stations that come with Directv rather than pay extra for the XM radio.

Minnie's Mate · 06-01-2007, 12:13 PM

Here is the link to your XM thread:

http://www.airforums.com/forums/f451...pkg-32920.html

BTW, adding a link is easy, just copy the address of the thread you want to link to (or even the page in the thread you want to link to) and in the "Post Reply" window at the bottom of the thread where you want to place the link, click on the globe and chain link icon just above the window next to the formating commands and paste the address in the link box and click to save. When you save your reply, the name of the thread will appear in blue letters (as above) and that will be the link to the thread. A reader only has to click on the blue thread name and a new window will open with the linked thread open.