Dish in RV

[Hocky]

Hi all, perhaps you can shed some light on my situation.
Just purchased an RV Class C . It has a satellite dish already installed & a Video Control Center. Dish is a Winegard RV Digital Satellite System Model RM-4600. But no receiver. Front TV is original from 2004. Couple of questions. Do I just need a satellite receiver to complete this to receive Dish Network, I have Dish at home with 4 TV's set up on (2) receivers with slave units. Could I use a home receiver & just call Dish or can/should I just use it? Any suggestions will be appreciated.
Thanks, Ron (Florida)

 

[Tech#344]

Yes you need a receiver. I only suggest using single tuner receivers. While duals like you have in your home will technically work they require two cables (travel trailers are only prewired with one) and both tuners have to watch channels off the same satellite. Also you need to set the dome to the correct mode, the newest winegards have 3 dishnetwork modes a "standard" a "hybrid" and an "eastern ark"(in Florida I'd use eastern arc mode). To set the mode you have to open the dome and change the dip switches (a more detailed explanation should be found in the manual). For a receiver I'd would suggest a 211k.

 

[JayStil]

The Winegard 4600 is a single focus crank-up satellite antenna, so there's no dome. Unless it's got an elevation meter installed, you'll need to learn how much each crank raises/lowers the elevation to reliably be able to point it. I have a similar model on my RV and for the northeast I crank it all the way up and then down 7 full turns. That gets me in the ballpark for 119° - then I've just got to worry about the direction (azimuth). There's an outer collar on the hand crank that has a mark to set north. Once you do that there's degree marks you can use to at least narrow down where you should be pointing. Be aware of a couple of things. First, trees or other obstructions could be blocking your signal. With a roof mounted antenna your only options are to move the RV or point at an unblocked orbital position and be limited to the channels coming from that satellite. With the EA in the northeast this is less of a problem than it used to be due to the high elevation angle. Also when you set the north marker in the RV your compass might not be very accurate from inside the rig. I usually take the compass outside for a better reading, and then visualize that direction inside the RV.

For a receiver, a single tuner will keep things simpler. Hopefully a VIP which will allow you access to the EA satellites. You'll also want to familiarize yourself with "The List" to learn which satellite location(s) your favorite channels come from. You can repoint the dish to pull channel(s) from a different orbital, but you'll need to run a "Check Switch" everytime you do.

 

[SAT COOL]

This is what I use

I use a wingard carryout automatic dome. I used to use the tipod model but that became a hassel to use and I would spend more wasted time to aim it and not having fun camping. It only takes five minutes to set it up to watch tv. It was well worth the money. Shop around for one the prices are droping on them. I also got the tipod for it so I can move it around if trees are in the way. You want to spend more time camping than messing around with a manual dish.

 

[Hocky]

Thank you all for the information. Since I need to count the CW turns to get the correct elevation, I am wondering if the crank bottoms out or tops out so I have a starting point to count the turns from.
Thanks, again, Hocky

 

[Hocky]

Thank you all for the information. Since I need to count the CW turns to get the correct elevation, I am wondering if the crank bottoms out or tops out so I have a starting point to count the turns from.
Thanks, again, Hocky

 

[dbajaer]

Another option, depending on your antenna setup skills, I do the following, I use a tripod antenna with a DPP twin and use the crank up antenna for 129, connect that into the twin and end up with 119,110 and 129. It takes a bit of alum foil and a bit of practice to set up the twin at first then it gets very easy. When you travel out of your local area and out of the locals spot beam its nice to have an RV waiver and Distant Networks. The advice on doing a switch test is golden, it tells all, I use a Birdog meter, not much to invest to make things very simple. Then there is always the campground cable to hook into, easiest of all.