RV'ing and Local Stations

[FickleFinn]

We travel in our 5th wheel @ 5-6 months of the year and would like to have local stations wherever we land.

I carry a dish 500 and our 322 receiver from home.

1. Can I change my local stations?
2. How can I do this?

I changed my address a couple of years ago and got major grief from Dish when I got home before they changed me back. Their logic was that the receiver had to stay home as is was theirs and they needed to know where it was at all times!! Bad logic!! They suggested I buy a receiver for the rig, $17/month now, I don't like this solution.

Thx,
Mike

 

[Randall DBS]

The best way to get local stations while your traveling is to get them through All American Direct. That will get you the New York and San Francisco stations with your Dish equipment, that way you dont have to deal with Dish at all. There phone number is listed on channel 240. I believe the package is 14.99 a month.

 

[Brussam]

The questions is whether you want locals channels as in broadcast channels or local channels as in channels in the local area?

But first, it is total BS that your receiver has to stay at home so they know where it is. We live full-time in our RV and we have leased receivers and we do not tell Dish where we are.

Now if you just want broadcast channels, then Randall is correct, All American Direct is the way to go. Since you have an RV, you qualify for the RV Waiver to get DNS service which will get you ABC, CBS, FOX and NBC from New York or San Francisco, or both. Bpth is really great for recording up to four programs in the same prime time slot.

If you want channels from the local area, that is more interesting. First off, you can use your TV antenna and connet it to the 322.

If you want the local area channels off of the satellite, you are probably going to have to get at least a 1000.2 dish to add satellite 129 for the central and western US. Then you call Dish each time you change locations to enable the correct spot beam. In the eastern US, you will need a second dish for satellite 61.5 for your locals.

We have been on the road for 4 years and only had DNS for broadcast channels, first from Dish and then from All American Direct. Recently the spouse wanted to watch some of the local area channels to check for things to do. We upgraded from a 622 to a 722 so that the OTA signals were available on TV1 and TV2, her bedroom TV. Since we changed the programming package at the same time, we wound up getting Dish satellite locals as part of the new mandatory package rules. We used the Dish locals while we spent the winter in Texas because they were HD and the DNS channels for the West coast feeds . We are leaving for our summer tour and do not plan on changing our "location" to keep getting the Dish locals except for one stop that will be a month long. As we travel, either the local area channels come in on the OTA antenna or we live without them.

 

[Tomboy257]

Wouldn't it be nice to get the spot beamed locals when you plug in the Zip for aiming.

 

[Mr Tony]

just go through All American Direct. Its just easier than calling Dish every time you go to a different local area.

If all you want the nets for is the network programming and dont care where the local news is from, AAD is the easiest

 

[JayStil]

I get by fine pulling in the locals via antenna at most of the places I take the RV to. Might miss a network or two but can usually get at least a few. My roof mounted crankup dish is only a single too, so I usually just point it at 119. My trips are only a week or two at a time though. If you're full-timing I can see where you might want something more permanent.

DISH doesn't even have my home locals anyway, so I'd likely be looking at AAD. A little pricey for my blood.

 

[nrholland]

What's the latest on Dish being allowed to do distants again? Is it near the end of the line for AAD? Or will it continue? I hope things stay the way they are.

 

[Mr Tony]

I dont think they would be able to do distants...maybe "fill in" for markets that dont have all the nets which allows them to use neighbor markets to fill in like D* does