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Antenna, Satellite, or both?


Nomad Hiker

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Pay-As-You-Go is really for part-timers. If you are full-timing, then your TV needs are full-time.

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Mark & Dale
Joey - 2016 Bounder 33C Tige - 2006 40' Travel Supreme
Sparky III - 2021 Mustang Mach-e, off the the Road since 2019
Useful HDT Truck, Trailer, and Full-timing Info at
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Just learned about the pay as you go option. Is that a viable option for full-timers?

Yes, we are full timers (4-1/2 years) and pay as you go works best for us. Some months we are in a good OTA area so we opt out and save $$, and other times we are in a remote area so those are the months we sign up for the Dish pay as you go. Our basic dish service plan cost $20/month and on the first of the month, we call Dish (or use internet) and authorize a credit card payment for the next month. We bought our Winegard dish and 211 receiver from Amazon for $350 about 3 years ago. We did start out with a tripod dish, but found the automatic Winegard to be so much better.

We use Verizon for both internet jet pack and 1 smart phone, and a Walmart pre-paid Trac phone for back up (about $100 +$7/month).

Greg

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We are long timers we are all over the country .We have what we need to make our travel experience pleasant. We have been using DirecTV on a tripod for years and this year experimenting with a dish that can be set on the ground or a picnic table. We use the OTA when needed. We use a Verizon hot spot for internet access. We have two smart phones and couple of tablets. NOt exactly low cost be it serves our travel needs.

Helen and I are long timers ..08 F-350 Ford,LB,CC,6.4L,4X4, Dually,4:10 diff dragging around a 2013 Montana 3402 Big Sky

SKP 100137. North Ridgeville, Ohio in the summer, sort of and where ever it is warm in the winter.

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I'll chime in on this.

 

Since we enjoy watching TV we have a Dish set up. I started out with a Wineguard Carryout, but when it started acting up I got a 1000.2 house style dish and a tripod with a simple meter and compass. There's a learning curve to finding the satellite, most often related to being able to look up in the sky and know whether or not you have a chance of getting the signal through the trees. Aside from that, I can get the signal within a few minutes.

 

Like others, we have the antenna on the roof but seldom use it. Frankly, the absolute best HD picture you will ever get is over-the-air. You can see it especially when watching sports. However, since I can't record over-the-air and since I really dislike watching commercials, I seldom if ever watch anything over-the-air.

 

Now, having said all that, and to answer the original question: if you don't watch much TV and don't expect to spend extended time out on the fringes of over-the-air signals, save your money - or at least hold off for a while. You'll have so much fun in the vacation-mode phase of fulltiming that you won't worry much about TV anyway.

Our "Here and There" Blog

 

2005 Safari Cheetah Motorhome

 

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Scott, I thought there was an OTA adaptor for the Dish receivers that fed the signal in, and thus could be recorded on your DVR??? Mark Bruss would know....he knows the most about Dish of anyone I've ever met. Mark?? OTA??

Jack & Danielle Mayer #60376 Lifetime Member
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Yes there is an OTA adapter for most Dish receivers. The recent receivers use a USB OTA adapter. At this moment, there is a scarcity of the USB OTA adapter since Dish in in the process of coming out with a dual OTA adapter. Not sure which receivers will support the dual adapter.

 

Previous DVRs like the VIP722 and VIP622 had OTA tuners that were installed into the DVR.

 

If your receiver has an OTA adapter added to it, it is an addition tuner which can be used for recording. So a VIP211 could record OTA to an added disk drive while watching a satellite show. Or on a Hopper 3, your can record OTA along with the 16 satellite tuners.

 

Having a DVR really fits in with the RV lifestyle as you do not have to watch programs when they are aired but when you want to. I watch many nighttime shows in the early morning.

Please click for Emails instead of PM
Mark & Dale
Joey - 2016 Bounder 33C Tige - 2006 40' Travel Supreme
Sparky III - 2021 Mustang Mach-e, off the the Road since 2019
Useful HDT Truck, Trailer, and Full-timing Info at
www.dmbruss.com

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Scott, I thought there was an OTA adaptor for the Dish receivers that fed the signal in, and thus could be recorded on your DVR??? Mark Bruss would know....he knows the most about Dish of anyone I've ever met. Mark?? OTA??

 

I am using one of the adaptors on my Hopper3 with excellent results.

Fulltiming since September 1, 2010

 

2012 Ford F-350 PSD SRW Lariat Crew Cab

 

2012 Montana 3585SA

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We have single tuner OTA adapters on both of our Hoppers, and as said, they work well. We normally leave one of our Hoppers at our Adirondack cottage, and as we move around and change our service address for the area local stations the NY Hopper loses the satellite locals as expected. The OTA adapter lets us record network programming there that we would otherwise miss while underway for later viewing with the DISH Anywhere streaming feature. We can also use the NY Hopper to record satellite programming we would miss while underway of course. When the new dual tuner OTA adapters are widely available and the software to use them is fully implemented, I'll have to evaluate whether we would get enough benefit from them to justify replacing the single tuner versions.

Dutch
2001 GBM Landau 34' Class A
F-53 Chassis, Triton V10, TST TPMS
2011 Toyota RAV4 4WD/Remco pump
ReadyBrute Elite tow bar/brake system

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Having an OTA adapter installed has another benefit for RV'ers, in that in some locations you can get dual market locals. For instance, we're currently in central Florida where our satellite locals are from the Orlando market, but our OTA antenna is receiving the Tampa market locals better. The general network programming is the same of course, but there are many differences in the local and sub-network programming, offering a wider selection to chose from.

Dutch
2001 GBM Landau 34' Class A
F-53 Chassis, Triton V10, TST TPMS
2011 Toyota RAV4 4WD/Remco pump
ReadyBrute Elite tow bar/brake system

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I have this Channel Master DVR for OTA only: http://www.channelmaster.com/DVR_Plus_p/cm-7500gb16.htm

I can't really recommend this as it seemed to degrade my picture a bit. It is disconnected on a shelf about to go to an estate sale my wife is doing this coming weekend.I do love the guide on it. It also is a smart device with add on apps like Netflix and others. I put one of my spare external enclosure 500GB hard drives on it.

For RVrs, it is not a good choice because it needs an Internet connection to work properly.

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Retired AF 1971-1998


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Glad I revisited this post. Great info. Do any of you mind sharing what you pay for Direct or Dish?

We use directv I forget which package. We have 4 receivers 153.31 per month. We use OTA when we need to . We are long timers .

Helen and I are long timers ..08 F-350 Ford,LB,CC,6.4L,4X4, Dually,4:10 diff dragging around a 2013 Montana 3402 Big Sky

SKP 100137. North Ridgeville, Ohio in the summer, sort of and where ever it is warm in the winter.

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