Dish for my RV

[Life is a Highway]

I see the bundles and packages but the different types of portable Dish Antennas is sometimes confusing, well most times confusing when looking at all of them out there.



Have you Dish owners found the preferred equipment package that works East and West for the best portable Dish Antennas. The wally and other seem to be working fine. Have heard some folks are Happy some Unhappy with the portable Antenna they selected.


There are times when we would enjoy it.


Happy Easter and Spring!

[pmclemore]

Pathfinder X2. I've used it for several years with Dish. It is able to see both the eastern and western arcs.

Pat

[92landyacht]

+1 on the X2 antenna. Great for both eastern and western arcs and allow for two receivers to be connected as long as both receivers are watching channels on the same satellite.

-1 on a Wally. The VIP211Z is much less finicky and handles longer cable runs. I've run RG6 quad 3ghz coax for 150' and still had good reception. The Wally tends to crap out at anything over 75'.

[gypsydad]

Here's my experience; I have Direct TV (ATT) at home; tried to get it in my Airstream 5 years ago, but could not find a "knowledgable" Direct TV person anywhere at ATT store or on line that was any help in understanding how to do this. Did not persue with Campers World, so I purchased the Walley with a Tailgater portable dish; special sale price at Campers World, the package was around $300ish as I recall. Love that you can purchase month to month and it is cheaper than my Direct TV! Big advantage to being able to move around your dish...I started out using the ground or picnic table as platform for the dish, but 2 years ago, I opted for the tripod stand, while on sale. This works great the best, even in high winds. I have 2 25' coax links which allows me to move around to get best signal in campsites. Used to be $37/month when I started; now $47/month I think... But, you can activate when you are wanting to use it, and then deactivate the service when in storage or not using....they will credit you the $$ difference when you reactivate...sweet! Or, you can also just let it expire at end of month and not renew. Call them up next time you want to use it and it's all good; they recognize your cell phone, connect to a service person, and if an update is needed, they tell you and help you get connected again..this is great if it's been a few months or more!

I tried to stop my ATT/Direct TV last year, but somehow they snookered me into a 2 year contract just about this time 2 years ago, when I moved my service here to Sun City, and I was not aware I had agreed to this in exchange for them setting up my new service...crazy stupid on my part! They want $400 for me to drop, so I am waiting it out another month then contract up; I will go Internet going forward...still use the Dish package when camping or on the road! Hope this helps!

[92landyacht]

That's one little unknown advantage using Dish. You sign up for a month's service with whatever package you want. If you only need it for a week, then deactivate your account when done and they will credit you back the unused balance. Just did it a couple of days ago in order to test out a new receiver. I installed a fixed dish HD 1000.2 at the house just for this purpose. I used a Birdog USB Plus 4.0 sat finder to peak it. Once I was sure that everything was working, I had them deactivate the receiver. Actually, I had them setup a disconnect date (the next day) when I had them put the receiver on my account and activate it. If going on a single trip, all you have to do is have the account activated a couple days before hand to verify the system is working and give them the date you want the account deactivated. Saves a ton of money and lets you pick the best programming package and not have to worry about paying for an entire month's service. Doing it this way means only one phone call to get things up and down without forgetting to disconnect.

[jondrew55]

My Wally works fine on 150’ of coax. Maybe you had bad connections.

Originally Posted by 92landyacht

+1 on the X2 antenna. Great for both eastern and western arcs and allow for two receivers to be connected as long as both receivers are watching channels on the same satellite.

-1 on a Wally. The VIP211Z is much less finicky and handles longer cable runs. I've run RG6 quad 3ghz coax for 150' and still had good reception. The Wally tends to crap out at anything over 75'.

[92landyacht]

Originally Posted by jondrew55

My Wally works fine on 150’ of coax. Maybe you had bad connections.

No bad connections. I checked the cable using a spectrum analyzer and RF signal generator. Swept the cable from 1.8Ghz to 3.0Ghz to verify signal loss. No issues with everything less than 8.5dB total loss on a 150' cable run. Less for shorter runs. I always use top grade cable and connectors. Currently have two 25' cables two 50' cables and a single 150' cable. I can put the dish wherever it is best to obtain signal and use the shortest cable run I can.

The Wally is very sensitive to signal strength and output voltage compared to the VIP211Z. I've had both receivers connected to the same system and have found the Wally to always indicate a lower signal strength and delivers less voltage to the dish. Typical problems were intermittent loss of HD signal or complete signal loss. If I switch over to the VIP211Z, it always corrects the problem. Dish Network spent years changing the software version in order to correct this and only recently (Vers: U808) have they achieved some level of success. When I originally activated my Wally I spoke with a 2nd teer Dish tech. She indicated that the VIP211Z was far superior to the Wally when it came to a Dish Outdoors experience, and she's used both. I totally agree with her. On a side note, I did find that using a DPP44 power inserter did help the Wally on long runs of cable. I didn't use the DPP44. Just the power inserter on long cable runs.

Keep in mind that all of this is related to the usage of a portable antenna and not a home disc and LNB. Those have better signal strength from the dish than any of the portable. The X2 does house a larger dish than any of the other portables so it tends to pull in better signal.

For what it's worth, I currently own 1 VIZ211K, 2 VIP211Z and 2 Wally receivers. I like the Wally best when things are working. The Bluetooth remote is fantastic, and I like the ability to use the USB Wi-Fi network adapter to stream video.

[gypsydad]

Originally Posted by 92landyacht

No bad connections. I checked the cable using a spectrum analyzer and RF signal generator. Swept the cable from 1.8Ghz to 3.0Ghz to verify signal loss. No issues with everything less than 8.5dB total loss on a 150' cable run. Less for shorter runs. I always use top grade cable and connectors. Currently have two 25' cables two 50' cables and a single 150' cable. I can put the dish wherever it is best to obtain signal and use the shortest cable run I can.

The Wally is very sensitive to signal strength and output voltage compared to the VIP211Z. I've had both receivers connected to the same system and have found the Wally to always indicate a lower signal strength and delivers less voltage to the dish. Typical problems were intermittent loss of HD signal or complete signal loss. If I switch over to the VIP211Z, it always corrects the problem. Dish Network spent years changing the software version in order to correct this and only recently (Vers: U808) have they achieved some level of success. When I originally activated my Wally I spoke with a 2nd teer Dish tech. She indicated that the VIP211Z was far superior to the Wally when it came to a Dish Outdoors experience, and she's used both. I totally agree with her. On a side note, I did find that using a DPP44 power inserter did help the Wally on long runs of cable. I didn't use the DPP44. Just the power inserter on long cable runs.

Keep in mind that all of this is related to the usage of a portable antenna and not a home disc and LNB. Those have better signal strength from the dish than any of the portable. The X2 does house a larger dish than any of the other portables so it tends to pull in better signal.

For what it's worth, I currently own 1 VIZ211K, 2 VIP211Z and 2 Wally receivers. I like the Wally best when things are working. The Bluetooth remote is fantastic, and I like the ability to use the USB Wi-Fi network adapter to stream video.

Crazy! Never had an issue with signal strength with the Wally and the Tailgater portable dish on the stand; had an issue with trees blocking signal, but I can typically just point the handle of the dish North and bingo!