I'm posting this as a curiosity for most, since it would likely only be of functional interest to a few fellow RV'ers with a similar setup.
When we bought our then 12 year old motorhome several years ago, it came equipped with a Winegard RM-DM46 manual crank up and aimed dish installed on the roof that's functionally equivalent to an 18" Dish 300 and non-DP LNB. We normally use a portable tripod mounted Dish 1000.4 with either an eastern or western arc DPP LNBF installed depending on our location. But occasionally, for one night stops on our way to a destination, we found we could quickly raise and aim the small roof dish to grab a single satellite signal for our VIP211K receiver to watch a few select programs without needing to set up and aim the tripod 1K4. Then we upgraded to Hopper 2, and not surprisingly, found that the roof dish was no longer usable. A check switch wouldn't even complete with it connected, so we just used the 1K4 as needed.
Fast forward a year or so, and I was talking to a Dish tech that was working on an RV Hopper 3 install nearby, and mentioned the roof dish. He suggested that if I could install a single DP LNB on the arm and align it to the dish correctly it might work as a pseudo wing dish by connecting it to the input port on a spare 1K4 LNBF, and connecting the LNBF outputs to a Solo Node to the Hopper. I said I would give that a try when I had a chance to get the DP LNB and if I could modify the RM-DM46 arm to accept it. Before he left, he dropped off a single DB LNB that he had in his truck. Jump forward to this week, and I finally got around to figuring out how to modify the existing arm to accept the DP LNB, finishing it yesterday. Today I hooked everything up as directed, but once again, a check switch would not complete. I was thinking I may need a 33 or 44 switch, but just for the heck of it, I connected the roof dish to my signal meter and dialed in the 110 sat, and then connected the dish directly to the Hopper 2. I was pleasantly surprised to see the 110 sat show up on the dish pointing page with a decent signal strength! I rebooted and ran another check switch, and this time it completed, showing only the 110 sat feeding a single tuner. I exited out and tried tuning the Hopper to channel 111 that I knew existed on the 110 sat, and it popped right in! Yea! The EPG didn't update, but I didn't try to force it either, since I was switching back to the 1K4 for normal viewing anyway.
The first photo is of an unmodified Winegard RM-DM46. I forgot to take one, so I "borrowed" the photo from Winegard. The second photo is the DP modified dish, and third is a screen shot of the aiming screen. I am getting a "Reception error" on that screen, and I assume that's because of the DP being limited to single tuner.
When we bought our then 12 year old motorhome several years ago, it came equipped with a Winegard RM-DM46 manual crank up and aimed dish installed on the roof that's functionally equivalent to an 18" Dish 300 and non-DP LNB. We normally use a portable tripod mounted Dish 1000.4 with either an eastern or western arc DPP LNBF installed depending on our location. But occasionally, for one night stops on our way to a destination, we found we could quickly raise and aim the small roof dish to grab a single satellite signal for our VIP211K receiver to watch a few select programs without needing to set up and aim the tripod 1K4. Then we upgraded to Hopper 2, and not surprisingly, found that the roof dish was no longer usable. A check switch wouldn't even complete with it connected, so we just used the 1K4 as needed.
Fast forward a year or so, and I was talking to a Dish tech that was working on an RV Hopper 3 install nearby, and mentioned the roof dish. He suggested that if I could install a single DP LNB on the arm and align it to the dish correctly it might work as a pseudo wing dish by connecting it to the input port on a spare 1K4 LNBF, and connecting the LNBF outputs to a Solo Node to the Hopper. I said I would give that a try when I had a chance to get the DP LNB and if I could modify the RM-DM46 arm to accept it. Before he left, he dropped off a single DB LNB that he had in his truck. Jump forward to this week, and I finally got around to figuring out how to modify the existing arm to accept the DP LNB, finishing it yesterday. Today I hooked everything up as directed, but once again, a check switch would not complete. I was thinking I may need a 33 or 44 switch, but just for the heck of it, I connected the roof dish to my signal meter and dialed in the 110 sat, and then connected the dish directly to the Hopper 2. I was pleasantly surprised to see the 110 sat show up on the dish pointing page with a decent signal strength! I rebooted and ran another check switch, and this time it completed, showing only the 110 sat feeding a single tuner. I exited out and tried tuning the Hopper to channel 111 that I knew existed on the 110 sat, and it popped right in! Yea! The EPG didn't update, but I didn't try to force it either, since I was switching back to the 1K4 for normal viewing anyway.
The first photo is of an unmodified Winegard RM-DM46. I forgot to take one, so I "borrowed" the photo from Winegard. The second photo is the DP modified dish, and third is a screen shot of the aiming screen. I am getting a "Reception error" on that screen, and I assume that's because of the DP being limited to single tuner.
