King Tailgater or Winegard Playmaker?

[gypsyken]

Thanks, Dutch, for explaining why I am able to get TV despite the trees.  When I had to aim a C-Band and then a Dish Network dish, I had to know and use azimuth and elevation (not to mention skew)..  But using a dish that is supposed to aim automatically, I had no idea what the elevation of satellites is where I am at.  However, the first question of Dish Customer Representatives has always been, "do you have a clear view of the southern horizon?"

[Dutch_12078]

Since I manually aim a Dish 1000.4 triple LNB dish at one arc or the other sometimes daily, I'm always well aware of the numbers needed. I also use a phone app that shows the selected satellite positions overlaid on the camera view to check for a clear view when needed. It rarely takes me more than 15 minutes to go from unpacking the tripod and dish to watching TV with our Hopper. Back in my C-Band days, I only had set it all up once.

[WeBeFulltimers]

9 hours ago, Dutch_12078 said:

Since I manually aim a Dish 1000.4 triple LNB dish at one arc or the other sometimes daily, I'm always well aware of the numbers needed. I also use a phone app that shows the selected satellite positions overlaid on the camera view to check for a clear view when needed. It rarely takes me more than 15 minutes to go from unpacking the tripod and dish to watching TV with our Hopper. Back in my C-Band days, I only had set it all up once.

Same here, but I use a Dish 1000.2 with Hybrid EA or WA LNB and Hopper3.

[D&J]

Make sure all your cable connections are tight all the way to the receiver , the reciever uses the coax to send power to the Tailgater so it needs good connections including the ones inside the coach.

Denny

[Dutch_12078]

49 minutes ago, WeBeFulltimers said:

Same here, but I use a Dish 1000.2 with Hybrid EA or WA LNB and Hopper3.

Cool! I'm not planning on upgrading our Hoppers w/Sling (H2) to H3's until Dish supports more than one on an account. When the new DPH42 switch is finally released to the general public, I should also be able to continue using our 1000.4 dishes without needing the hybrid LNB's. I understand the DPH42 is currently being beta tested in Puerto Rico.

[whj469]

I have had a Tailgater and 211 Receiver for more then five years and it seems that there has always been some type of problem. I got them both for $199 from a Dish dealer in Jacksonville, FL. They FedExed it to me two day service and it was ready to go. No sales tax because I am in Texas so that also saved me about $17. I had to have Dish help from the start but I did get it going and it was all right. After being at RV parks that had cable TV and also upgraded the RV after about a year and one half I needed the Tailgater and of course it wouldn't work. After dealing with both the Tailgater Tech people and the Dish Tech support for way to long I had the Tailgater going directly to the receiver, not thru the RV, and the receiver directly to the TV, not thru the RV, all I got was a 981 warning which stated that I was downloading software and not to disconnect until the message left the screen. After some time and the indicator on the bottom of the screen showing that nothing was happening I called and was told to reboot and start again and it may take 4 or 5 hours! I new better but I did wait for over 6 hours and when nothing happened I called and was told that the receiver must be no good and the are giving me a new receiver and I must return the bad one within ten days. The receiver is due tomorrow. I will let you know how that works out.

My better half wants me to upgrade to a Wally or Hopper but if I don't get service now why would I upgrade now? Thank for the option of the other SAT.

[gypsyken]

If I were a suspicious person, I would have to knock on wood as I write this, because since connecting my Tailgater directly to my 211k receiver on May 13, I have experienced only minor problems that I attribute to bugs in the Dish system.  (When I tune to a PBS or commercial network channel, I sometimes receive the message that I am "outside viewing area."  When a timer sends me to a channel from the one I am watching and I press "recall" to return to the original channel, I sometimes receive the "complete signal loss" message.  Though these malfunctions are inconvenient, they have been overcome easily by going to my channel list and clicking on the one I want to watch.)

Although I had previously experienced problems with the Tailgater when it was connected directly to the receiver with the cable that came with it ;and I encountered the same problems on May 13 when I connected them using the in-motorhome cable, using a shorter cable through a window, though not a neat installation, cured them.  So it appears at this time that although I do not know the exact cause of my problems, they were due to a cable or cables.  I will have to do more investigating some time, at least if I move to a location where a through-the-widow cable is not feasible.  I do not know if it is possible to test the integrity of the cable that came with the Tailgater and the in-motorhome cable from connector to receiver.

Incidentally, because I had had so much trouble with the Tailgater, on the way to my present location I bought a Winegard G2, which a Camping World salesperson told me was top of the line.  But upon reading the instructions, I found that it is much more complicated than the Tailgater to install, so after waiting a while to make sure the Tailgater was working, I returned it. 

I remain more than a little peeved (I can't bring myself to use the term that's now more common) at Dish for discontinuing the PBS National channel (without any notice to subscribers or apparently to Customer Service staff), because the local channels that carry PBS programming do not include all the programs I liked to watch, Tavis Smiley, for example. 

[Zulu]

3 hours ago, gypsyken said:

Incidentally, because I had had so much trouble with the Tailgater, on the way to my present location I bought a Winegard G2, which a Camping World salesperson told me was top of the line.  But upon reading the instructions, I found that it is much more complicated than the Tailgater to install, so after waiting a while to make sure the Tailgater was working, I returned it. 

I remain more than a little peeved (I can't bring myself to use the term that's now more common) at Dish for discontinuing the PBS National channel (without any notice to subscribers or apparently to Customer Service staff), because the local channels that carry PBS programming do not include all the programs I liked to watch, Tavis Smiley, for example. 

After re-reading this thread and your posts, the phrase caveat emptor comes to mind.

However, you keep taking the advice of salesmen over the people on this forum who have actual day-to-day experience.

It sounds like you may be the problem, not DISH. From what you've said, if it ain't simple, you can't deal with it. I can appreciate that, but you might be more successful and less frustrated if you just stick with OTA programming.

I say this because it sounds like some of your "signal loss" problems may be caused by moving out of range of your local stations. Do you ever call DISH to change your Service Address?

Finally, DISH dropped DNS (Distant Network Service) years ago. Time to move on. PBS is available on most local TV stations.

[gypsyken]

As I thought I implied but did not state explicitly, I've been in the same spot since May 13, so I should not be receiving Out of Viewing Area notices.  (If I call Dish about them, I'll be directed to reset my receiver, which, in my experience, may take as much as an hour.). Dish did not drop the Distant Network service years ago; the company that had provided it, which had originally provided C-band satellite programming, went out of business.  (I had a C-band dish and receiver installed in my motorhome when I purchased it new in 1993; the monthly Orbit magazine listed the C-band program schedules,  I kept C-band until it no longer provided channels of interest to me--losing CNN was the last straw--upon which I went to Dish in 2006.  (The Dish dish was installed where the C-Band dish formerly was.)  PBS National was not part of the Distant Networks, and I received it until the 7th of last month, when Dish discontinued it.  I can't receive CNN, MSNBC, C-Span, etc., OTA, and as I stated, local PBS stations do not carry all the PBS programming provided by PBS National.  While I appreciate information provided on this forum, I have no way of evaluating the expertise possessed by the persons posting on it.