RV receiver, how far from the home address can go?

[Dish Sub 2015]

Apparently if a RV receiver goes to far from the home ZIP it shows message that is to far from the viewing area.

The question is how far from the home zip un RV receiver can go?

 

[Jim5506]

Sounds like it might be outside the spot beam of the DMA to which it is allocated.

In that case just call dish or if it is designated as an RV account there is a place in the Dish website to change your locals to your current location.

 

[NYDutch]

Your Dish receiver and antenna can go anywhere the satellite signals reach. You may be thinking of the spot beamed local channels that are confined to a limited geographical area, typically a few hundred miles from the center point at most. Even that can be easily overcome by simply asking Dish to change your service address to your current location, assigning the appropriate locals. We are full time RV'ers and we move to different parts of the country regularly, changing our local stations with Dish as often as daily at times. As long as we have a clear view of the satellites for our portable dish, we have service.

On edit: Jim got it in first, but I'll leave my post anyway...

 

[Dish Sub 2015]

Thanks.
If you have only the RV receivers on the account you just change the zip.

My question was in the situations where there is a receivers at home and only one of them is in the RV traveling across the country.

 

[NYDutch]

We have one H2 (Hopper w/Sling) that's installed at our upstate NY family cottage, and another H2 that's installed in our motorhome. When we change our locals as we travel, the cottage Hopper is also changed, but normally is not able to receive the current locals because it's outside of the correct spot beam. Fortunately, the cottage Hopper is able to receive the area locals OTA, so it's not really an issue when family members use the cottage and turn on the TV. Service address changes are account wide, so all receivers on the account are assigned the same satellite locals, no matter where they're actually located and whether or not they can actually receive them. For example, we're currently at a National Forest Service campground in Salt Springs, FL, where we're getting the Orlando, FL locals. When I look at the program guide for the cottage Hopper with Dish Anywhere, it lists the Orlando locals along with the cottage area OTA locals, but the Orlando locals show no signal if you try to select them. There are a few areas, such as Jacksonville, FL, where the locals are CONUS beamed nationwide on one of the six satellites, usually the eastern arc 77 sat. When we're in one of those areas, the cottage Hopper also gets them as long as they're on the eastern arc.

 

[Dish Sub 2015]

The reason i am asking that question is that i have seen dish customers moved from far away and the receiver shows message "Out of the viewing area" and doesn't show any channel , not only the locals.

 

[NYDutch]

The reason i am asking that question is that i have seen dish customers moved from far away and the receiver shows message "Out of the viewing area" and doesn't show any channel , not only the locals.

I've neither seen nor heard of anyone running into that other than with the locals, so I have no idea what would cause it. Assuming their dish is properly aligned, I suspect a simple phone call to Dish CS would correct the issue. Dish receivers have no GPS capability that detects their location.

 

[Claude Greiner]

I've neither seen nor heard of anyone running into that other than with the locals, so I have no idea what would cause it. Assuming their dish is properly aligned, I suspect a simple phone call to Dish CS would correct the issue. Dish receivers have no GPS capability that detects their location.

It wouldn’t surprise me if Dish wrote software that determined a receivers geographic location based on spot beams.

For example if you lived in the Detroit DMA, you could get a signal from the Cleveland oh, Toledo oh, Lansing Mi, Flint mi, Grand Rapids Mi, Chicago IL DMA’s only.

There would be no possible way to get a spot beam in Atlanta, Dallas, Denver or any DMA’s further away.

Using spot beam signal levels, it’s possible to write software so a receiver would only work within a specific DMA.

It would cut down on account stacking, and grey market accounts.

One of the biggest benefits would be if a customer had service in Michigan and a vacation home in Florida, they could force the customer to split the account and now Dish would have 2 customers instead of 1

 

[comfortably_numb]

It wouldn’t surprise me if Dish wrote software that determined a receivers geographic location based on spot beams.

For example if you lived in the Detroit DMA, you could get a signal from the Cleveland oh, Toledo oh, Lansing Mi, Flint mi, Grand Rapids Mi, Chicago IL DMA’s only.

There would be no possible way to get a spot beam in Atlanta, Dallas, Denver or any DMA’s further away.

Using spot beam signal levels, it’s possible to write software so a receiver would only work within a specific DMA.

It would cut down on account stacking, and grey market accounts.

One of the biggest benefits would be if a customer had service in Michigan and a vacation home in Florida, they could force the customer to split the account and now Dish would have 2 customers instead of 1

Yes but how is the receiving "phoning home" to alert Dish that you've left your DMA? If it isn't connected to the internet, there isn't any way for them to know you've strayed outside your home area, is there?

 

[Claude Greiner]

Yes but how is the receiving "phoning home" to alert Dish that you've left your DMA? If it isn't connected to the internet, there isn't any way for them to know you've strayed outside your home area, is there?

It doesn’t need to “phone home”

As long as it shuts down, the customer would be the one calling customer service to report the receiver is working incorrectly.

As far as “gps” it’s very similar to a hand held GPS unit. Instead of relying on dozens of GPS satellites, it’s using readings on several spot beam transponders to determine location

 

[cpalmer2k]

Are they using some type of in motion satellite system in the RV? The reason I ask is I've seen this happen with DirecTV's in motion systems before. Every other year the school I teach at does a trip to NYC. On several occasions we've had charter buses with DirecTV systems onboard. Every time you went under an overpass it would flash a message that said you have driven outside your service area or something like that. (Annoyingly it also knew as soon as you had left your local channel geographic area too. We live right on the state line so within 10 minutes we crossed into NC and the Charlotte DMA. Because the bus company was from our home market the CBS local station we were watching immediately cut out with a message about the channel not being available outside our area. We were WELL within range of the spot beam and would have been for another 100+ miles) but it knew we were outside where we were supposed to be. Maybe Dish's mobile satellite systems have a similar feature on some models?

 

[Dish Sub 2015]

I have only seen this with people moved from hundreds if not thousands of miles and was wandering how far can you go with your RV before your receiver quit working

 

[NYDutch]

I have only seen this with people moved from hundreds if not thousands of miles and was wandering how far can you go with your RV before your receiver quit working

We left upstate NY the first week of January, and now we're in central Florida. Our Dish service never stopped working other than losing the locals when we moved out of the current spot beam footprint. When we were in southern Virginia, I gave Dish a St Mary's, GA address that gets the Jacksonville, FL locals that are CONUS beamed, and we didn't change again until we reached our current campground in Salt Springs, FL a week ago and switched to the Orlando, FL locals using the MyDish app on my phone. At no time did we lose the non-local channels since leaving NY. When we were getting the Jacksonville locals, the Hopper at our upstate NY cottage was also getting them. The distance we travel has never affected the non-local channels.

 

[Dish Sub 2015]

Thank You for the current info.

The reason i am asking the same question multiple times is because i am Dish tech and i have seen on multiple occasions customers moving from Florida or west coast to New England having that problem with the message "Out of the service area" and some times even customer support cant fix it???

Thank you, again

 

[reubenray]

Are the "out of service area" messages only pertaining to locals? I plan on having a Wally with me on trips while the Hopper 3 stays at home. I will depend on getting locals using the OTA adapter.

 

[NYDutch]

Thank You for the current info.

The reason i am asking the same question multiple times is because i am Dish tech and i have seen on multiple occasions customers moving from Florida or west coast to New England having that problem with the message "Out of the service area" and some times even customer support cant fix it???

Thank you, again

Without knowing which receiver models and channels this occurs with, and if there's been an arc change, etc., it's difficult to even guess at a cause. The Hopper w/Sling we leave in upstate NY is getting a "No Signal" message for the Orlando, FL locals while we're down here using an Orlando DMA service address. All of the national channels are available as usual. The Hopper in our RV is getting all of the subscribed channels, including the Orlando locals of course. I don't know if normal residential accounts are arc locked or not, but we're definitely not since I switch arcs regularly for the best line of sight as we move around with no problems.

 

[Tampa8]

Some of this discussion has turned to slightly ridiculous. (I won't point fingers)

You can go anywhere and as long as you are receiving a satellite signal you will get the satellite cable channels. You won't get your local channels when you stray too far from where that signal is beamed to. Anything else about software tracking is simply not true, not true for me, not true for my friends with a Hopper in their motorhome and travel extensively.

So you may see that message for your locals. If you are from Hawaii or Alaska perhaps you see that message and you may have to rescan for the satellites you are receiving. If you are only getting some/one of the satellites in the ARC you are presently using you may get that message though it probably would say can not lock on channel. But there is nothing preventing you from getting your subscription channels (minus your actual locals) when you travel.

 

[Bobby]

Maybe a western arc to eastern arc thing. If you don't do a check switch first the receiver is looking for the wrong satellites...

 

[NYDutch]

Maybe a western arc to eastern arc thing. If you don't do a check switch first the receiver is looking for the wrong satellites...

I'd expect a "Dish tech" to suggest that as a basic troubleshooting tool...

 

[Bobby]

I'd expect a "Dish tech" to suggest that as a basic troubleshooting tool...

But ya gotta remember the tech...