I had to do it - Carry Out Antenna

[Guest Wayne77590]

As the topic states.... but first.

I have a portable Dish 1000 antenna and I hook it up to the DVR 722 Dish Satellite receiver. Now that is about all I can do with it. As much as I twist, turn, jitter, jab, and just cuss - the best I can do is one satellite. I think once in the past year I have had success getting all there satellites, 110, 119, and 129, just once. That was in NY and a camper had a "Birdog" satellite finder. That sure was neat, but it runs about $800. He got a bargain on ebay for a used one at $500.

Well, after 3 hours of frustration, cussing, more frustrations, more cussing, I said the heck with it and went to Camping World and bought the Winegard Carry Out Automatic Switching Satellite Antenna. Hey! Included in the sale was a portable mount that lists for around $80. I'll let you look up the price of the Carry Out - Birdog would be equal to the output.

First thing I did was SWAG'ed it. (Scientific Wild Hrummmmf Guess) I read the manual. That may be a first. Normally I just WAG it (take out the "Scientific") I also purchased a 110 to 12V converter because I'm to lazy to run 12 volts to the area I want it in, but I did have 110v there. SWAG'ing it I removed the 8 screws to the cover and set the DIP switches for the DISH network. (It works on DISH, DirecTV, and BellVu by setting DIP switches) and added the handle.

Okay! Everything assembled and ready to go. I even have a bubble level that I used to adjust the portable tripod to as near level as level can be. SWAG'ed it again, turned the receiver on and tuned to the antenna pointing mode. Turned on the power to the 12V and waited for 119 to be stable for 30 seconds. Ran "Check-Switch," and low and behold, all three satellites.

Earlene is happy. I'm happy, no more fighting the portable gremlin.

I am concerned with security. One method would be the ladder mount with it's price tag of $225. Kind of pricey if you ask me. There is a lock bolt once the antenna is in the mount and I'm thinking of modifying it with an eye bolt with a nut on the inside to run a cable to the RV.

Anyone else have this configuraiton?

[NWJeeper]

I took the easy way out and bought the Winegard Trav'ler roof mount dish. Just open a cabinet, push one button and let the dish do all the work. It has no problem tuning in all 3 sats unless there is a tree in the way.

[kevinburns8@gmail.com]

Since you were getting one satellite, it sounds like the skew was off. The skew is the amount the dish is rotated with the angle shown on the back of the dish. Once you've located 119, the dish should pick up 110 and 129 if the skew is right.

We have a King Dome on our motorhome, but there are a lot of times when we want to watch different things. I use a tripod mounted Dish 1000 for the other TV. I did have a tough time with it yesterday, but it turned out that the receiver needed to be reset. I was getting a strong signal, but it never would show which satellite. The check switch routine kept failing. Finally I reset the receiver and it all worked.

[Guest Wayne77590]

My roof is bare except for the vent pipes and to radio antennae. Putting a satellite antenna on it would raise it from 12' 4" to 12' 12" based on a 12 inch high dome (some are 15). I really gave it some though and also decided on the portable Carry Out for the purpose of not only height, but tree consideration, and just not wanting to put a hole in the roof. I also think that should I give up this lifestyle some day, I could possibly get some money back by selling the portable, whereas I'd have no return on a permanent roof top.

I'm just giving some reasons here why I purchased it - I'm sure there are other reasons that others may have. It really is not intended to persuade anyone to run out and purchase one.

Yup! I'm familiar with azimuth, elevation, and skew, and how each inter-reacts with the other. I also have a signal meter that will tell you when you are locked on to a strong signal. Of course, it is the cheap model and will not tell you what satellite, so that is a hit and miss depending on the three settings mentioned.

Today, when we left for an excursion, I undid the coax and power cables on the Carry Out, picked the Carry Out up and put it inside on the dinette table - as a security precaution. When I returned, I placed the unit back out side, connected the cables, came in, powered up the TV then the Carry Out, and within about 1 minute or so I had everything back. Of course, with the "old" portable dish I could have just left it outside. Who in the world would want to take the old system????

We have a new neighbor, and he was setting up his Dish 500 when we came back today. Being me, I just had to harass him, and then helped him try and get it set up. I will not bore you with all the details, but after a few hours, me giving him a satellite splitter and two 6 foot RG6 cables, we had all of his channels, but that was after a few hours. It may be that he goes out tomorrow and buys a Carry Out - we'll see.

Anyhow, that's my story and I'm stickin' to it.

[kevinburns8@gmail.com]

I use the Dish 1000 and 722 receiver. As a previous poster said, your skew is probably all that was wrong. Once you have 119 dialed in, 110 and 129 should be there if the skew is right. It sounds like you were this >< far from getting them all. The advantage to the Dish 1000 with the 722 is that you can feed two TVs with different programs from any satellite.

[Guest Wayne77590]

Kevin,

So many times I have been "just that close," but no cigar. So now I have automatic searching, lock on to the three satellites, and the VIP-722 feeds two televisions with independent channel viewing. Just less effort on my part now with the Carry Out.

Thanks.

[NWJeeper]

My roof is bare except for the vent pipes and to radio antennae. Putting a satellite antenna on it would raise it from 12' 4" to 12' 12" based on a 12 inch high dome (some are 15).

Height was a concern for us too as I store our rig in our garage which has a 13' opening on the door. However the Trav'ler is the lowest stow height of any of them at just 9.75" and is actually lower than my AC unit.

[kevinburns8@gmail.com]

The only problem you might run into with the carryout is that it probably has only one LNB. If the channels you want to watch are are different satellites, then you may be out of luck. If both TVs are tuned to channels on the same satellite, then you're covered. For example, most of the channels my wife watches are on 119 and a lot of the channels I watch are on 110 or 129. A single LNB dish wouldn't cut it for us. We do have a King Dome (single LNB) on the roof, but I've started using the Dish 1000 instead. It doesn't sound like you've needed to access multiple satellites at once so it's a moot point.