Television on the road???

[XCMARK]

Me and my wife just came back from Fisherman's Memorial in Narraganset RI. In the state park like most there isn't hook up for local TV so I cranked up the trusty powered antenna only to discover about 9 stations of every version of HSN you can imagine..... Thankfully there was 2 channels that ran re-runs of the older shows like Law and order so the rain day wasn't spent totally drunk.

So my question is anyone have suggestions and typical cost for dish type TV set ups and suggestions on what equipment to buy so I only do it once. On air TV is fine around my house in Foxboro Mass. but apparently its not the same every where. So I was looking at the King dish and Wally , the dish would most likely be a carry out an tripod so it could be aimed better if the trees on the site of the week cover the roof to much. I wouldn't rule out a roof dish but its unlikely to have the signal strong ever time we set up. In your post if you can give me the good and bad with what you have done that would greatly be appreciated.
We are looking for so local new in the morning and maybe some entertaining TV just before getting in the rack.

Thank You
Mark & Melissa

[homeguy]

We have dish and it is hooked to our house account. $7 per month and same local channels. When you travel over a certain range, you will not get local channels and will have to switch your service address. We use the XP1. We did have 1 go out after a year, sent it in and got a replacement. We have a hard drive hooked into the set up so we can DVR also. Have never used the pay as you go option though.

[brenkco]

Mark & Melissa,

There have been many posts on this subject. I have had all 3 antennas using Dish network. The portable was easy and convenient but had too many limitations:

1. Only one channel at a time (single turner is all that works)
2. For all practical purposes, only one TV at a time
3. Length of coax limited from antenna to TV
4. The farther north I traveled, the more atmosphere the little dish had to shoot through, thus shorter cable runs or I lost HDTV.
5. Bad option for boondocking as switching from generator to inverter power takes a 20-25 minute recycle.

Full size dish and tripod.
1. Least expensive option
2. No receiver restrictions
3. No coax length restrictions
4. Multiple TV support
5. A learning curve to set up. With the right equipment, I could set up in 5 minutes

Roof mount:
1. Most expensive option
2. Seamless operation
3. Limited by where you park, no reception if in the trees.

Hope that helps!

Ken

[Bigrisky]

We bought the roof mount for Direct TV, works great, but like it's been said, you have to park in a clear spot.. and, you need to have the inverter power it if you want to use it without a generator or shore power. We moved our 1000 watt inverter to the bedroom and installed a 2000 watt in the living room. We also upgraded our batteries to 6 6volts for longer cycles.

[piper guy]

I went a little differently and have 2 Dish Tailgater Pros mounted on the roof in quick release mounts. I also have one tripod for it if taken off the roof because of trees, etc. have a Dvr on each Wally. With discounts and some haggling, I'm into the whole setup for about $1k total. Roof install was easy and both antennas are hooked into the Redwood factory runs. To me, other than not having th bilirubin to rthe cord one channel and watch another, it gave us the best of both worlds. Also was about half of th Traveler price and lately we've been long term in places with trees .....

[watts888]

just use a steaming device or smart tv and be done with it all!! Past 6 year direct tv Rver!!!

[Jim & Mary]

Where do you get 15-20 GB of data on the road consistently to stream your content? What's the cost if you go over your monthly cap?