Satelite TV in a Wheel House.

[SomethingFishy*]

I am looking at adding Satellite Tv to my home and also want to be able to use it on my wheelhouse. I am leaning towards DirecTv but have not made a 100% decision and am still considering Dish Network also. I will take the reciever and TV that I have in my garage into the fish house when I go.

What types of problems have satellite users had in a wheel house/permanent shack? Am I best to buy an RV specific dish or just use an extra from the provider and prop up when I go out.

What are you guys using and how is it working for you.

I hope to make a decision inside of a week here.

Thanks for your help and answers.

[GRAND DAD]

I have Direct TV and have a extra dish mounted on my fish house works good 9 times out on 10 i can have it dialed in under 30 seconds but there are times when its a bear and I don't have my mast mounted in the best place and some times the wind mess's with it a lot, A nother thing that can interfear is the metal roof, I have to place my fish house faceing east to west I can't have it north to south other wise my roof inter fears with it my house is 27 feet long so thats a lot of metal behind the dish. If you got a fwe extra bucks I would go with the RV dish. just because then you can ajust your dish from inside the house at least with the ones I have seen it get's kind of cold on the hands up on the roof trying to do ajustments. thats my 2 cents hope it helps.

[SomethingFishy*]

Thanks for the response. Is there anything daunting task that you have to do to get the reciever up and running?

My house is 24ft total length so I will have to watch for interference as well.

[eyebjim]

I would go with direct tv. As far as I know the Dish network uses 2 lnb's on the dish. This limits your options on getting a portable dish. I have a crank up dish on my motor home and it works great. I wish I had one on the fish house. For now I just use a portable suction cup mounted dish. I have checked into the crank updishes and they are around $300.00. Thats why I am still using the suction cup dish. You can get a tripod type protable dish also. That should work good.

As for tuning the dish in. go to radio shack and get a sat finder signal meter. This makes tuning the dish in much easier. It usually takes less than a minute to get it up and running.

[GRAND DAD]

No there is no dauting task at all pretty easy,Eyebjim just said you can get a single meter but I don't know what the cost, My receiver has a single meter built in so I have never needed one just point south and a little hair to the west and listen for the beeps. JUst make sure your mast is level very important.

[eyebjim]

My reciever also has a signal meter but the sat finder meter is more sensitive and makes it a whole lot easier. It connects in line in the cable so you can have it right by the dish as you adjust it. If I remember right I beleive it was about $20.00.

[GRAND DAD]

Hummmmm I might have to look in to that I just end up blasting my vol and open my windows so I can here the beeps out side. I just remember the guy that came to do my install on the fish house and home said that they were like $600 dollars or somthing carzy like that but 20 bucks I can handle, the only thing I can say bad about Direct TV is there installers SUCK big time so you kind of have to give them slack and deal with it.

[SomethingFishy*]

I am looking at ordering thru a local business ( Minnesota Electronics) that sells both DirecTv and Dish Network, I really like that they install and service what they sell, they are very reputable around here.

[eyebjim]

The 600 dollar thing is a more of a electronic scope or something. This is just a analog needle type meter. The only thing on it is a sensitivity control, no batteries. I still use the beeper on the receiver to fine tune it but this helps to find the satelite from further right, left up or down.

[GRAND DAD]

Somthingfish am glad you have that option for install because down here in the citys they are bad, Thats all am going to say about that

[PierBridge]

I don't mount mine on the house at all. I use a piece of plywood and mount the mast and Dish on that others use a tri-pod setup. It just makes it so much easier to get and maintain a signal. Once you have the correct elevation set on the Dish it's just a matter of getting the Mast/Dish level and panning the south until the signal pops. I have down now where it takes about 20 seconds max to attain a signal.

[LakeDocktor]

Fishy, I would stay away from Mn Elec. I have seen many of their installs and fixed their installs in the last 5 years. I have installed both ErecTv and DishNet and I would go with Dish network hands down. If you want a DirecTv DVR in your house, you need two coax cables ran to your receiver location and very rarely are two ran. So most of the time, you need to hire an electrician to wallfish another coax to that location or have the technician do an ugly house wrap of coax on the exterior of your house.

As far as getting cold hands.... If you have your mast (what the dish sits on) level, the settings on the dish should be the same for anywhere in Minnesota. Just put the dish on the mast and turn it left or right until your meter peaks out. Once that is done, tighten the nuts that allow the dish to spin. Once tightened, grab the top of the dish and pull back gently to see if your meter signal gets better, if not, push down and check. You may need to fine tune a little, but for the most part if your dish is set to the correct adjustments, it is fairly quick and easy.

Fishy, I have a couple extra higher quality meters that are just collecting dust if you are interested. These aren't the cheap $20 ones from radio shack that work, but you can still get frustrated when some channels come in and others don't. Make me an offer and one is yours with the charger. I would also check out Personal Communications across from Tenvoorde. Tom is a retailer for both companies as well as servicing. Stop in and tell him Ryan sent you. He will set you up with the best company for your needs as well as the best receiver options for having an extra for the fish house. Ask him about an extra dish as well. Any more questions, let me know.

[bwtrout]

I would swap out the adjustment nuts with a lock washer and a wing nut as well. I have mine on a ground platform (nice to throw it in the house when I'm away), I just tap it with my boots. A compass, magnetic level, and the signal meter are key for a quick setup.

[PierBridge]

Thats pretty much what I do with no meter.

My Direct Tv Tivo/DVR's all work with one coax cable.

[SomethingFishy*]

We will be setting up 2 HD-DVR's, 2 HD's and a Standard reciever in the home. The standard reciever will come with us in the fish house.

Lake Docktor, thanks for the recomendation, however I personally will probably never do business with Personal, I met Tom many years back and I didnt care for the guy, But I do appreciate the good natured idea behind the recomendation.

[MuskieJunkie]

the only thing I can say bad about Direct TV is there installers SUCK big time

You can say that again, my first go around with DirecTV it was the guy's first time, he shows up in a 4 door sedan, he was at my house for about 8 hours until about 10pm on a weekday and it still didn't work when he left.

Another time a kid shows up at 8am for my 4pm appointment, was driving a low rider truck, and was stoned. One of my "outlet" he added consisted of him using a 36" drill bit to blaze a hole through my drywall, insulation, sheathing and siding, then run a cable up the outside of my house to the roof. When he finished he said I owed him $60 for the extra cable he used on my "custom" install. I called DirecTV and they said "yea pay him the money, he's an independent contractor."

Who ever you have install it at your house I would be home and watch them like a hawk.

[LakeDocktor]

Pierbridge, are they HD? I meant to say HD DVRs from Direct, unless something has changed in the last 6 months since I installed a DirecTv system. 90% of the systems we installed were Dish Network. If we had someone switch it from one to the other, it was always from Direct to Dish. I used to work for Dish corporate so maybe I am a little bias, but seeing both and installing both, I would still go with Dish Network.

Fishy, I totally understand. Sometimes someone leaves a bad taste in your mouth that you can never get rid of. If you were to go in there and told Tom that I said to come in, I would probably be the one installing your system. With that many receivers through Dish Network, you would need a few extra components to make all the receivers work. The dish is only capable of running 3 receivers directly from it (up to 6 rooms, 3 HD and 3 standard def). You would need to get two DPP44 switches to run all 5 of the receivers and they run about $200 each.

DirecTv is known for shotty installs. They subcontract most of their work to unskilled installers working out of the backseat of their personal cars. I heard that some of their installation offices closed so they had to resort to subs to do their work and it has only caused problems. A satellite is only as good as the installer is that installed it!

[SomethingFishy*]

A satellite is only as good as the installer is that installed it!

I have heard this to be the truth in most cases. It also seems the people that have had the most complaints in regard to their service quality stem from a shotty install job.

I was told with Dish Network I would have to have a telephone line in order to use one reciever to power 2 tv's, I don't have a home telephone so unfortunately that configuration doesn't work for me. I also like with DirecTv that you only pay 1 HD fee and 1 DVR fee per account where as it appears Dish charges the fee on each piece of equipment.

I am basically looking at 2 packages either the every channel package including premiums or every channel and no premiums.

If any of my info is incorecct or misleading please let me know.

[LakeDocktor]

Fishy, you don't need a phone line for it to operate two tvs. The phone line is mainly for communication with the system and for ppv events and movies. You can still run a Dual tuner receiver, however, only one will be in HD and the other in standard, The dual tuners aren't capable of producing two HD programmings. Depending on the amount of time you watch all of your HD tvs at the same time, you could get a HDMI matrix or switcher. This allows more Tvs to modulate a HD picture off of one receiver.

Those prices from Direct, is that a promo they have going on? If so, be sure to check prices of both after the promos are completed. Most promos last 3-6 months and then you pay regular prices for the package you have for the remainder of the 24 month contract.

A bit off topic, where did you find the sythetic cable for your winch. I need to find some for the Grizz before the snow flies.

[SomethingFishy*]

Mine came on the winch, however in the past we have gotten them from Moto Alliance in Rogers but most dealerships should carry them.

[MuleShack]

Just out of curiosity, how do you guys run your cables out of the fish house to the dish? Do you have the wire run out the wall? Has any one of you ever seen a retractable spool for Coaxial cable like the electric ones? I tried to find something on the net on Sunday but couldn't locate. I figured this would be neater than having the wire laying around when not in use. My plan was to put the spool in the storage cabinet and punch thru the wall with a little box on the outside with a cap like the electric plug.

[bwtrout]

The cable is a mess on my setup right now, that would be a cool idea! Rv dealers have through wall coax outlets. I use a tv tuner cardbus on my laptop (easy to cart around, plus its a music, game, and dvd player in one small package) I'm planning on picking up a car stereo amp that accepts 1/4" inputs. I'll just use an adapter to plug my laptop in for better sound. I also just picked up a 12v adapter for the laptop. I think my Dishnet receiver uses 25w and the laptop uses 70w, . The one hassle I have with Dishnet is that if it's left unplugged for long periods of time, I sometimes have to call Dishnet and have them re authorize it.