Old Equipment

[mfugate]

Hello,

I need help and advice.
I've called three of my local satellite retailers trying to get some information and received three different answers. I'm hoping this site may provide the truth.

Background: I removed the dish network equipment from my parents house before we sold it in 2005. The items are as follows:

Dish 500 reflector with a LNBF of BS1D1UP201M stamped 110 deg & 119 deg
DishPro DP301. R0035526000
A yellow and blue smart card
100 feet coax cable

Question: Can I use this equipment for my RV. I would like to buy a tripod, mount the dish to it and use it possibly 30 days per year as a portable. I do not have a dish account at this point and I am not interested in putting dish network in my house at this time. What are my options?? I was told to scrap the equipment by one source and that it could be used but it would be very costly from another. The third would not discuss the equipment, he just wanted to sell me a Tailgater system. One retailer claimed none of this equipment is supported by Dish any more - is that true? What if my parents were still in this house, would they have had to buy new equipment somewhere along the line?

Is some of this stuff usable with minimum expense? If there is a big cash outlay it's not worth it for 30 days a year.

Someone please let me know the truth about this stuff. It seems that it would be an absolute shame to just send this stuff to the landfill.

Thanks in advance, Mark

 

[tempVAdish]

I don't think the 301 rcvr is supported, but the dish should be fine. I have 2 old 311 rcvrs that are still active, you should be able to pick up one of those on the cheap...

 

[TheKrell]

Dish is preparing to convert all sat transponders to 8PSK modulation, which the 301 can't handle. If your parents still had Dish, they would have received the latest purple smart card in the mail, and sometime soon if not already, a 311 to replace that 301. I have no idea if you can still activate a 301 nowadays; you will at minimum require a new smart card.

 

[boba]

Everything except the receiver/smart card is still usable. Of course the receiver is the most important piece. As The Krell pointed out DISH would have upgraded free of charge existing customers. You could check with the three dealers to see if they have any used equipment they would like to sell. Or ebay is the most common source for used equipment. If you go ebay come back here and check out the equipment you find before you waste money buying some other boat anchor.

 

[mfugate]

Thanks everyone for the reply - it appears the DP301 is trash and should go into the recycle bin. With that in mind will a 311 reciever work with the remaining parts of my equipment? I looked and they can be purchased reasonably. Do the smart cards come with the used equipment or is that something I would have to purchase from a Dish retailer. If so any idea how much they would cost?

 

[navychop]

You might be ahead to just buy a ViP211k for just over a hundred bucks. Then start/stop service at will.