Hopper - Joey

[atom ant]

Finally got some weather to install a Hopper - Joey. I had to install a Solo Node at the antenna which I wasn't thrilled about. Had I gone with the Hopper - Joey originally when I installed the antenna, I could have put this in the ceiling through one of the lights.



The hopper went in the living room, and one Joey in the bedroom and one in the basement. The piggy back plate for the Joeys allows you to mount in using he same 4 screws that hold the TV to the bracket, which worked out slick for the basement TV factory mount.



I removed the splitter in the ceiling of our 36RL bathroom to allow for direct connection down to the basement TV from the bedroom. As Tony said, the slitter is within reach of the ceiling light by the bathroom door in the bedroom.

System connected right up and now gives me HD at all the TVs along with the other Hopper features- however....

I have this set up as an RV account - pay as you go. Dish Network has a
real aversion to Hoppers being mounted in RVs because of exposure and damage to the hard drive, so even though I set this account up months ago and they said it was OK, when I went to activate it, they said it couldn't be done.

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The guy even got saucy with me and I was about 3 seconds from throwing it all away and going for the dark side (Direct) but I would lose all of my investment in equipment. In the end, they turned it on and it worked great. I talked to them today and a different operator told me with purchased equipment - there should not be a problem, they just won't lease it for an RV. From now on, I just refer to this as a "cabin" and take the word RV out of it - that way my account will work and I only pay for the days I use it. If I need to change zip codes for local TV, I'll have to call them and refer to it as an RV and take my chances again. Full timers no issue.

[brenkco]

Brad,
Not sure what you mean with the solo mode. It appears to go on both the coax legs. Where would you install it, by what lights? Planning on doing this soon. Haven't got the dish yet....I was waiting for the wireless joey's that you mentioned in another post.

Ken

[atom ant]

Hi Ken,

First let me say that you may not need it with the wireless Super Joeys. I just don't know enough about those.

I did need it for the regular Joeys. I think it allows for two way communication between the hoppers and Joeys across coaxes, without interfering with the sat signal, kind of a bridge.

http://www.amazon.com/DISH-Network-1.../dp/B009P87NVW

As far as the light - On the inside of the rig above the chairs in the curb side rear, I removed the halogen light in the ceiling just about below where the cables are roughed-in through the roof on the prep package. The Solo Node fits through that hole. Given I was starting again, I could have pulled the prep cables down through the roof and connected them to the node, pushed new cables out through the roof hole, and hid the Solo Node in the ceiling. It would have made a neater installation, but because I had already installed the antenna last year and had lap sealed the roof penetration, I didn't feel like pealing that all off so I just mounted the Solo Node to the roof next to the satellite antenna.

Those super Joeys should be nice, and will make install real easy! Good luck on yours.

[brenkco]

Brad,
Thanks for the clarification and the heads up with dish. I had the same issue when I was traveling with the 722. They didn't like the hard disk in the Rv, probably assuming in motion use.

Ken