Satellite in Fish House

[Nisswaguy]

I recently bought an Ice Castle fish house with a crank-up satellite dish mounted on the roof. Where my residence is located, I can't get a clear path of the southern sky, so having DirectTV or Dish at home is not an option.

What's the easiest, best and most inexpensive way I can get either DirectTV (preferred) or Dish Network in my fish house for this fall and winter? Would either one of them work with the satellite dish I have on top? I believe it's a Winegard.

[Lip_Ripper Guy]

Either one should work with the Winegard, but DirecTV is not in HD from what I've read(Dish Network is).

Dish Network is an extra $5-6/month for an additional receiver. Not sure about DirecTV.

[bkerschner70]

I've been looking into this a lot lately. If you don't already have Dish or DirecTv, they offer plans for that. It isn't $5/month though because you don't already have a plan at home. Also if you did already have an account, don't tell them you are using your receiver with a different dish. Neither company has admitted that my extra receiver will work with another dish because they want to sell you on another account. DirecTv claimed that every once in a while they send a signal out that somehow finds out if you are using your receiver somewhere other than the address you have listed and then it will send something out to disable it. Not sure how much of it is true, my DirecTv receiver works fine at the cabin on a different dish, but I am looking for a dish for my fish house now. I would say your best option is to ask someone you know that has Direct or Dish if they would let you pay the $5/month for you to get a receiver from them instead of setting up an rv account...

[Hawg]

Have a friend get you a reciever on their account. Dishs are dirt cheap and set up is simple. I personnaly wouldn't mess with HD as it's 100 times more tempermental than regular. Just put threaded lag screws on the side of your hause so you can put the dish bracket on and off easy, the up and down is constant and the sideways adjustment takes no more than a minute or two.

[Eiger0304]

I just take a receiver off the TV in the basement and bring it along. Been doing it for 8 yrs.

[HonkerDown]

Since were on the topic of dishes we have direct tv on our house and have had a lot of trouble getting signal we would try multiple positions and sometimes an hour till we get signal any tips or tricks on getting this process speeded up?

[reelguy]

Call them and have a tech come out. If you haven't had any service calls in the last year they should do it for free. I had a new roof put on last fall and they did it for me for free after the roofers were done. It is all on satellites and the position if very picky. They have a computer deal to do it quick.

[leechlake]

I had cable tv at cabin and a buddy of mine said to scrap that and just get an extra Direct TV receiver on my home account, buy a dish and your in business. While this is true the problem I ran into was getting the dish at cabin lined up with satellites.

Theoretically I thought you could just kind of "ball park" the dish but I finally had to call a local tech and he came out with a "gizmo" that showed exactly where the dish had to be aimed to get a signal. Once that was done I was 100% in business.

I don't know how this would work with a fish house that you are moving around. Maybe it's an HD thing or a particular dish thing. If you do your homework on that you should be good but make sure you do or you will have a ton of headaches from my one time experience.

[grasshopper]

I'm a truckdriver. I have 4 recievers and3 dishes. Never had a problem moving down the road or moving on lake.

[DANR]

YOU CAN BUY ONE OF THOSE "GIZMOS" (A BASIC ONE) ON LINE FOR $20 OR SO

[Hawg]

Leechlake, it's lots easier than you think for standard definition. Once the up and down is set, and lots of people can do that for you, you just tighten up the bracket the dish for the up and down setting so that stays permanent. There is a tuner on the box that emits a high pitched signal you can hear outside the fishhouse or you see the bar meter on the TV thru your window. The sideways setting takes seconds to reset when you move. If I remember when I get home I'll post a picture of mine. You need lagbolts with screw heads and a solid mount on the side of the house, then when you come and go just use thumbscrews to put the dish bracket on and off if you want. It's very, very easy. Are you HD, that is really tempermental and not worth the headache to me. Thats where the special tuner gizmo signal seeker comes in. My friend bought one of the gizmos for about $100 bucks but still seems crazy to me.

[Lip_Ripper Guy]

Do a Google for "Winegard Elevation Sensor". I'm not sure how this one compares to the one built in to the dish/receiver.

[Hardyboy]

I have direct tv and moved a receiver to the cabin. It was super easy to setup and no gizmos needed. I simply set up the dish and went to direct tv's HSOforum and got the elevation and azimuth numbers. They have a tab that you can get the numbers based on the zipcode where your dish is. If you set the mount plumb and level there are marks on the dish mount that coincide with the elevation and azimuth. Then set your receiver to test the signal then fine tune the dish position to maximize your signal. This probably all sounds hard but its super easy and im holding signal at 96% . Did it on a wheelhouse and it was just as easy.

[Nisswaguy]

If I have Dish network at home, what's the best way to add a receiver to my account for the fish house? The fish house has a crank up dish on the roof already, so can I just get a receiver and be in business? When I call to activate the receiver, do I need to tell them it's on my fish house and thus on a different dish? Is tuning in one of those Winegard dish's a difficult task on Dish network?

[mmartin]

If I have Dish network at home, what's the best way to add a receiver to my account for the fish house? The fish house has a crank up dish on the roof already, so can I just get a receiver and be in business? When I call to activate the receiver, do I need to tell them it's on my fish house and thus on a different dish? Is tuning in one of those Winegard dish's a difficult task on Dish network?

Don't tell them it is on a different dish, or they will make you open a seperate account for it. Say it is for your garage or you're adding another TV in your house.

[Nisswaguy]

Don't tell them it is on a different dish, or they will make you open a seperate account for it. Say it is for your garage or you're adding another TV in your house.

[mmartin]

Do I tune the satellite in first before I call them to activate the receiver? Can I tune it in by following on-screen prompts?

I would tune it in before you call them, and yes just follow the on-screen prompts.

[Nisswaguy]

Do I need to keep re-activating the receiver through out the year or once activated, it stays activated?

[Ziesmer]

I just did this yesterday. I have an additional non-HD dish that I cemented into a 5 gal bucket. I got an old non-HD receiver from a guy at work for free. I called up Direct TV, told them that I need a new access card for a receiver that I own. They sent me a new access card for $20. When I got it I called them to activate it. I put the box in my fish house and pointed the dish to 190 degrees. and 38 degrees up and down. 10 minutes later I was watching direct tv in my fish house. Too easy. It costs $6 a month for the additional receiver. I told them it was for a different dish that I will use in my camper and they didn't care.

[Hawg]

I THINK if its offline for somewhere between 30-90 days it needs to be reactivated. That only takes a phone call if it's hooked to an antenna though.

[grasshopper]

All u do is call and tell them u want to add a reciever and they will send a new card if the one u have in there expired.by the end of the week you'll have it, then set up unit and call and you'll be in business. plain fact been there, done it 4 times. end of story

[LakeDocktor]

You first need to have the receiver properly pointed before you can activate. Here are the steps in which you need to do before calling Dish to activate the receiver.

-Connect the coax from the satellite dish to the receiver via the satellite in port.

-Assuming you are using a Dish 500, set the elevation to 33-34 and the skew (tilt) to 110. These settings will work in all of MN and they will only work if the mast is plumb.

-Using a compass, from behind the dish, point it at 202 degrees.

-Turn the TV and receiver on.

-On the Dish Network remote, press MENU 6-1-1. This will bring you to the point dish screen. When pointing without a meter, I use satellite 119 and transponder 11. You will see these options on the screen and can navigate to them with the remote.

-From behind the dish, grab the top and gently pull back to see if signal increases or decreases. Do the same by gently pushing the top of the dish down. If nothing changes, the elevation is set. If changes need to be made to obtain the best signal adjust accordingly.

-After elevation is set, again from behind the dish, grab the right side of the dish and gently pull and note signal changes. Repeat the left side. Adjust accordingly.

-Once greatest signal is achieved, select TEST or CHECK SWITCH on the Point Dish screen on the TV. This will take a few minutes to complete.

**NOTE** This test not only confirms signal but also allows the receiver to recognize the satellite dish and LNB being used. This step needs to be completed every time the receiver is disconnect from satellite signal or moved to a different satellite dish (Home Dish Network system).

-After the test is complete, you should see 119 OK or ALL and 110 OK or ALL on the screen.

-Cancel out of the TEST screen and back to the Point Dish screen. Wait of the signal strength bar to lock on the satellite and turn green. It will say LOCKED 119 or 110.

-Once the satellite is locked in. Press CANCEL on the remote. If the software version is outdated, it should download new software. Don't be alarmed if nothing is done. You may want to press MENU-MENU on the remote to bring the System Info screen up. Note the software version.

-The activation screen will come up with the the receiver and smart card numbers needed to activate.

-Call customer service. They will ask for the receiver number (R00xxxxx) and the smart card number (S19xxxxxx or S00xxxxxx). If receiver didn't download new software in previous steps, ask if your receiver has current software version by relaying the noted software version from earlier step on the System Info screen.

I know that this may seem like a lot of steps and it sounds difficult, but it really isn't that hard. Follow these steps and you will have no problem getting your Dish Network system running. Any questions, feel free to ask!

[MuleShack]

DirecTv claimed that every once in a while they send a signal out that somehow finds out if you are using your receiver somewhere other than the address you have listed and then it will send something out to disable it. Not sure how much of it is true, my DirecTv receiver works fine at the cabin on a different dish, but I am looking for a dish for my fish house now.

I take the receiver from my office and use in the fish house every winter. In fact I had to call them from the lake one time because it was not active for some reason. I told them out right I use it in my RV Camper with a portable dish (it was a direcTV dish) for camping in the summer and winter and they didn't make any big deal about it.

[tisosy11]

Does anyone have a step by step process for Directv like LakeDocktor had for dish?

I just got mine and attempted to set it up, but had no luck the two times attempting to get signal...

[Sutty]

This might be a dumb question...

If you have a dual lnb satellite is each lnb for a separate receiver or is it to connect to different satellites? I guess my real question is how many cables do I need to run in the house 1 or 2....