Hopper with sling OTA dongle

[menelfloss]

I am running a year 2015 "Hopper with Sling" using a dongle for OTA reception.
I have noticed an increase in lost reception and lower reception values in the past 6 months.
My question is;
Is the OTA tuner built into the dongle, or is the dongle simply a security device which allows the user to use a built in tuner within the Hopper?
If the Dongle is the tuner, are there better third party dongles that work with DISH that I can buy to improve my reception?
Thanks,

 

[Bobby]

The dongle is the tuner. No, there is no other tuner that will work except the DISH one and the AirTV one. They are the same tuner but the AirTV is cheaper.