Little Domes Everywhere

[freestoneangler]

So during our campground walks this past week, my wife and I noted all the various dome shaped devices sitting near folks rigs.  She asked if they are something we need and of course I said absolutely .  Looks like many no longer have these mounted on the roofs but simply sit on the ground - is that because the technology keeps changing and it's easier and less expensive to use in this manner?  I just looked through this forums threads to see if there was a "which one should I get" but did not see one. We don't have a cable or satellite TV provider at home as we get by fine with Roku and a Sling subscription.  Is there a system that seasonal full-timers can get that provides a good value?

[chirakawa]

I imagine those little domes are for TV service, not internet access.

[redcrzr]

My little "dome" provides me with Dish for my RV.  It's a satellite TV receiver that I can either mount permanently on the roof or as I do, leave it portable so that I can move it around to get past trees and other obstructions.  Nice thing about their RV service is that I can turn it off when not in use.  It runs around $70 a month when on & $5 when off.  That's with 2 receivers, which I own.

Todd

[Dutch_12078]

The downside of those "little domes" is the receiver limitations that go with them, but they are easy to use. We use a portable tripod mounted dish that receives three satellites at once, allowing us full use of the multiple tuners in our Dish DVR receiver. The downside of our setup is the need to assemble and aim it each time we move, but with practice, that seldom takes me longer than 10-15 minutes. Of the domes available for Dish sat service, I feel the Winegard Pathway X2 is the best choice. The X2 works with both sets of three satellites that Dish uses, and has a larger reflector than the others, for a stronger signal with less rain fade.

[Mark and Dale Bruss]

A little dome is fine if you only watch one channel at a time in the RV.  We watch different programs and are recording others so we use a ground tripod.  Like Dutch_12078, the time to setup isn't much more than leveling the dome and we get all three satellites at once.

You will find trying to maintain your viewing habits via the Internet like you did at home is problematic.  The cost can be high and the availability of enough Internet bandwidth is seldom enough.

 

[freestoneangler]

Are their quite a few RV parks now offering cable TV as part of full service/hook-up?  I'm thinking more at winter destinations like AZ as opposed to more off the beat and path locations.  While in Ennis, we were able to get about 10 channels just using the roof antenna and most if not all were being broadcast from Bozeman about 50 miles away.

[Dutch_12078]

Many parks do offer cable TV service ranging from relatively few channels to a hundred or so. Before we had satellite though, we almost never found a park cable service that offered all, or even most, of the channels we wanted. With satellite, we get to choose the channels we want, although they're usually packaged with lots of channels we never watch as well.

[freestoneangler]

We're not huge TV watchers and the prices I'm seeing for mobile satellite TV are not worth it to us.  So far, at most of the places we've stayed, we've been able to p/u enough local channels to suffice.  I think our bigger need is going to be internet service during winter snowbird travel.  The service available at the RV parks has, thus far, been frustratingly slow.  We currently live in a rural town and our wireless service runs at a whopping 8-10Mbs; though that does work well enough for the two of us to be on-line and also drive our Roku TV.

My wife will still want to run her web based internet business while away and now we're looking into options.  We currently have ATT monthly Smart Phone plans; nothing fancy.  Just starting to look at the internet service options on this forum - any immediate recommendations?

[Chalkie]

Not going to help with the internet, but if you have Dish at your home base you can get RV service as an add on for $7.00/mo. To me that is a heck of a deal. We own our Tailgater and Wally which only allow one satellite at a time. Sometimes the DW would like to have more, but agrees that for no more than we watch TV on the road it is not worth the added equipment costs. 

[bigjim]

Briefly what is Roku and sling?

[Big Greg]

From our experience you can not depend on campground WiFi.

The most reliable internet access for us is our Verizon cell phones hotspot.

Greg

[Bill Joyce]

9 hours ago, bigjim said:

Briefly what is Roku and sling?

Roku and Sling TV are both streaming TV services that let you watch multiple channels/feeds.  (Dish owns Sling TV.)

[freestoneangler]

2 hours ago, Bill Joyce said:

Roku and Sling TV are both streaming TV services that let you watch multiple channels/feeds.  (Dish owns Sling TV.)

Yes.  And in our case it uses our internet service (somewhat amortizing that cost) and is 1/2 the price of Dish or Direct with comparable programming.  Plus, no contracts and you can add/delete packages as you wish.

11 hours ago, Big Greg said:

From our experience you can not depend on campground WiFi.

The most reliable internet access for us is our Verizon cell phones hotspot.

Greg

Do you tether your laptop or PC through the smartphone? 

[Big Greg]

We use the cell phone's wireless hotspot.     Greg

[bigjim]

Thanks Bill

[freestoneangler]

On ‎11‎/‎10‎/‎2017 at 4:21 PM, Big Greg said:

We use the cell phone's wireless hotspot.     Greg

We recently tested our low end Moto E phones, on ATT's month to month plan, as a hotspot.  They seem to work just as good as the local service provider in our area - which provides a whopping 8 mbs here in the rural southwest MT.  Also pretty happy with the ability given that our cell phone signal strength is not really that good here either. This should work just fine for our needs in Yuma and around the greater Phoenix area.

[Pat & Pete]

We're currently on the south side of Queen Creek ( SE of Phoenix ) using a Mobley . Just to give an idea I did a speed test :

[freestoneangler]

1 hour ago, Pat & Pete said:

We're currently on the south side of Queen Creek ( SE of Phoenix ) using a Mobley . Just to give an idea I did a speed test :

We've been living on those speeds and less for 1-1/2 years now. Of course we don't stream video, do FB, or game.

[Pat & Pete]

1 hour ago, freestoneangler said:

We've been living on those speeds and less for 1-1/2 years now. Of course we don't stream video, do FB, or game.

Not that long ago , we survived on a lot less than those speeds .

[Dutch_12078]

I've streamed at ~2Mbps 3G speeds and had minimal buffering while watching an Amazon Prime movie with our FireTVstick. The video resolution dropped down, but was still very watchable. We also streamed a hockey game not long ago with our Mobley at 7-8 Mbps with no buffering at all. Where we are now, we're seeing 20-25 Mbps down speeds though, so no problems streaming of course.

[jcussen]

Have streamed netflix and amazon with no buffering on my att netgear 711s at 3.5 mbps. Wasn't HD for sure, but better than SD.

[Grand Adventure]

I've got the King Tailgater for Dish and a Dish Wally, and love it. Fully automatic and I can set it out anywhere within 75' of my rig to get a clear view of the southern sky. The Tailgater I got for $100 off as a refurb unit through Tweety's: http://tweetys.com/king-controls-vq4500-tailgater---for-dish-network---factory-refurbished.aspx

[TXiceman]

We had 3 Tailgaters and after the 3rd one was repaired, I sold it.  Bought a Winguard G2 Carryout. and no more issues.

Ken