DISH Network -adding receiver / Sat to lake dock for a boat ??

[Redbrand]

I have a house boat in a FIXED anchored dock that many other house boats have there sat. dishes attached
and working properly. I want to add a 3 receiver (existiting HD DISH service) at my home and move it to my house boat. My questions are this?

1) Can I buy a same model receiver like I have at my home and have DISH activate it ? OR do I need to go through DISH to obtain one in which they charge insurance charges on top of the 3 recv. fees ??

2) I have heard that the standard def signal is less prone to loose signal than HD when having a small amount of dish movement (dock will move slightly with wind) - is this true ??? If so then standard def would be better in my application due to slight movement of the dish.

3) I believe that most "local" channels are in HD then I may not be able to get the local channels if I opt to go with standard def - is this true?

Thanks for any advice on these questions and your help.

 

[Tampa8]

Alot more details are needed such as what receiver you are talking about, where you are (what locals you get). It is all different depending on what equipment you are talking about and Market you are in.

I don't quite understand what you mean by adding a three receiver - do mean a Hopper with three tuners, or actually adding three receivers?

I don't believe a regular dish meant to be mounted on a house or pole would work on a houseboat in the water if that is what you mean. You have to have one that keeps lock on the satellites/skew made for marine and they do work well.
And there is no difference in that respect to HD or SD keeping a signal. As I said, we would need to know your Market to know if you get SD, HD, or both.

 

[Redbrand]

Thank you for your helpful response here are some more details:

Market is Hot Springs Ark.

LOCAL channels I need are ABC / NBC / CBS / PBS / FOX

Current service I have at home is DISH HD with 1 receiver on 2 tvs (not sure of the model but will get that this eve). Adding a 2nd receiver (VP211Z HD - my choice if
I buy one and not get it from DISH for a 2nd recv) according to DISH this will only cost me $7 extra a month. I would use this at my house boat - like using a recv for RV use but it will be at a fixed location. This is cheaper than a complete new contract - adding a 2nd receiver...

There are ALLOT of DIRECT and DISH customers that use the fixed mounted dishes on the dock that I am on. At times they do exp some signal loss when bad winds
shift the dock but over all for the most part the fixed dishes work. I believe a variable tracking dish would be better in this application but I believe a fixed dish would
be ALLOT cheaper way to go but I would have to deal with possiablty of temp sig loss when high winds to hit. I am willing to deal with this since the dock is well out
of the winds in a deep protective cove on the lake. I see the fixed dishes all over other docks who are allot more exposed to the winds and there systems seemed to work.
BUt with that all being said I would be interested in a tracking type system or at least consider it if its with in my budget..

I just want the basic programming at my houseboat with local channels. I wont need a DVR or any bells an whistles with this set up - just basic.

 

[Redbrand]

The dock that the boat is parked in is anchored to the lake bed. The dish would be mounted to the anchored dock and NOT the boat....

 

[ChadT41]

Go with the 211 family reciever no matter what kind of dish you decide on. If you are only going to have one address active at a time, you Can add it to your account for the $7 a month. It has the capability of both hd and sd, and will be the most compliant with most dish systems. Someone else can pull up the arc you would need, but if I'm not mistaken, Ar falls on Western Arc, so it would be a 1k.2WA dish, if you wanted a fixed dish. So many variables with a house boat, my official recommendation would be the tracking dish that was mentioned before, but if the budget really calls for it, then I beleive I got you all correct info. I'm just running on no sleep in 2 days and don't really wanna go through the uplinks. Lol. Someone will chime in soon with it though. That's a promise.

 

[Tampa8]

Ahhh - got it. Sure, mounted to the dock will work!

A 211 receiver is the best way to go for you. No DVR fee - but you can add an external hard drive that allows recording and makes like a DVR still with no DVR fees, and it is HD.
Your Market is actually Little Rock, available in the Eastern ARC, with HD locals.

 

[ChadT41]

I would have guessed it'd be Tampa. Haha. He is great with that info.

 

[Redbrand]

Ahhh - got it. Sure, mounted to the dock will work!

A 211 receiver is the best way to go for you. No DVR fee - but you can add an external hard drive that allows recording and makes like a DVR still with no DVR fees, and it is HD.
Your Market is actually Little Rock, available in the Eastern ARC, with HD locals.

 

[ChadT41]

So a 1k.2EA dish instead of WA.

 

[Redbrand]

No sleep in two days - wow better get some soon!

Seems I am on the right track with your help then. I will plan on going with a DISH 211 recv in which I purchase on- line today.

I still presume that I can call DISH to add / activate this new receiver ???

My dish needs to be 1k.2EA dish compatable ?

Once I get the recv and dish I presume the dish alignment to either a HD or SD sat will require a spec test equip or can I get lucky and wing it. I have
been successful in relocating my old SD dish at my house before with no test equipment and using the sig strength indicator on the recv. I haven't done
HD.

Sounds like I am getting this all togethere with every ones help - thanks so much.

 

[ChadT41]

You are on the money so far. You can call and activate it. It is simple. As far as mounting a dish, make sure it is on a plum surface, and go to dishpointer.com for your angles. You'll put in the zip code and select your dish satellite system(1k.2EA) and set it to those specs. Fairly simple.

Yea insomnia is a side effect of not taking my medicine after Iraq. It sucks, but atleast I got forums to fill my time. It should get better when college starts back up next week. I'll have to challenge my mind, and that helps me sleep.

 

[Redbrand]

Thank you for your service to our country and thanks for all this great advice!!

Looks like I will get the 211 rec and dish purch (Ebay) today for in time to install this weekend. Prob next big thing for me to worry about
is the dish alignment but I will visit dishpointer.com and give it a go!!

I wonder if I would be ahead of the ball game to "activate" my new recv at home - BEFORE I take to the boat to install it or does it really matter?

 

[ChadT41]

I'm sure someone will disagree with me, but if you activate it before, just make sure software is downloaded to it. Otherwise(my preference only) authorize it after you have the signal. That way, when they do auth it, it will send a hot automatically and won't be lost in the cycle. Make sure the reciever is able to be purchased before buying on eBay. Call in the reciever and smart card number and just ask them if it's transferable.

Thank you for the support. Been out for 4 years, so not much I am helping the country anymore. But it is always nice to see support

 

[Redbrand]

You are on the money so far. You can call and activate it. It is simple. As far as mounting a dish, make sure it is on a plum surface, and go to dishpointer.com for your angles. You'll put in the zip code and select your dish satellite system(1k.2EA) and set it to those specs. Fairly simple.

Yea insomnia is a side effect of not taking my medicine after Iraq. It sucks, but atleast I got forums to fill my time. It should get better when college starts back up next week. I'll have to challenge my mind, and that helps me sleep.

I went to dishpointer and there is no selection that I can find for 1.k2EA ?

 

[ChadT41]

What's the zip code there?

 

[Redbrand]

71968

 

[ChadT41]

You're right. But if you look for a 1k.4EA(gives you the third bird) this would be your angles

 

[bigjohnok]

the standard def birds does blast out higher signals

 

[JayStil]

Thank you for your service to our country and thanks for all this great advice!!

Looks like I will get the 211 rec and dish purch (Ebay) today for in time to install this weekend. Prob next big thing for me to worry about
is the dish alignment but I will visit dishpointer.com and give it a go!!

I wonder if I would be ahead of the ball game to "activate" my new recv at home - BEFORE I take to the boat to install it or does it really matter?

I would hook it up to your home dish, let it download the current firmware and activate it before going to the lake. I find the 211 very hard to point, it's very slow to respond to changes you make to the dish. If it's got the wrong software your dish configuration might not even show up in the point dish dropdown menu.

One caveat is the receiver is going to warn you that your dish configuration has changed if your home dish is different than the lake one. You can run a checkswitch without the dish cable attached to clear the matrix and start fresh.

 

[bentjm]

If you get it mounted to the dock and aimed correctly, the dock will have to move pretty good to screw up your signal. I have a 1000.2 EA dish on a heavy duty manual rotator on the top of the radar arch on my houseboat. I have seen the back of the boat swing ten feet and not lose signal. Rocking left to right has more effect. I use the rotator and a $15 signal meter to reaim the dish when I take the boat out and tie it up to shore for the weekend.

And, JayStil is correct, the 211 family can be slow to respond to tweaks to the dish. So, I would suggest that you buy a cheap signal meter to help with the initial aiming.