Switching To DISH

[JEBar]

I bet you could lure ole Coop in there with some fresh baked cookies Jim

that could most certainly be arranged ...

[cooperhawk]

Did someone say COOKIES?

[JEBar]

just name your favorite ...

[cooperhawk]

just name your favorite ...

I like them all.

[JEBar]

come on down, we will even throw in some brownies ...

[cooperhawk]

come on down, we will even throw in some brownies ...

Well, I'm afraid I wouldn't impress you very much. Just an old short fat man is all I am anymore. But I do like Brownies!

Sunday all the children were to come out for dinner and the Wife baked up a storm for them. Then due to the weather and colds only half of them showed up. Well, we gave away a lot of it out of self defense, but there was this pan of lemon bars that somehow remained, so for three mornings now it's been coffee and a lemon bar, or maybe two.

[JEBar]

Well, I'm afraid I wouldn't impress you very much. Just an old short fat man is all I am anymore. But I do like Brownies

that makes two of us on all points

[JEBar]

did you ever do something and later ask yourself, is that really a good idea .. .. the campground road by our camper is a very tight two lanes wide .... as can be seen in the pictures I posted a couple of days ago, I had to setup our portable dish antenna and in doing so placed it pretty close to the edge of the road .... in retrospect, I realized that almost certainly wasn't the best of ideas .... during a lull in the rain, I moved it to the location shown below .... once again, the Satellite Finder app shown in earlier post came in handy .... that's certainly nothing major but it sure has reduced my level of paranoia ..

[JEBar]

​earlier today while driving cross Alabama on our way home from Texas, Maureen called DISH RV to ask them to switch our local station reception back to our home area (Raleigh, NC) ..... her call was placed on hold and that hold lasted something over 20 minutes .... must say, their recorded message got old in a hurry .... the first thing the lady who answered the call did was to apologize for the lengthy wait time .... she went on to say they had been caught off guard by a large number of calls from customers who were sheltering at home due to the Coronavirus and wanted to increase their number of channels .... as was the case when we changed to get local Texas channels, it only took her a minute or so to make the switch .... after doing so she apologized all over again ....

[JEBar]

UPDATE :

with Dish's pay as you go RV pricing program, we've decided to add satellite TV reception to our second camper .... we've decided to use our Carryout 2+ as the portable dish for that system and have purchased a Pathway X2 ===> https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00G1 ... UTF8&psc=1 for use with our camper .... the Carryout (first picture) works perfectly and should continue to provide good service .... the advantages offered by the Pathway will really come in handy .... those include :

a larger dish which results in as stronger received signal .... at least theoretically, having a much stronger signal may well reduce our signal loss from bad weather ..... readings taken with the Carryout and Pathway placed on the same spot .... the 3 main DISH satellites are in what they call their western arc :

Dish Satellite # 110 signal strength 45 with our Carryout, 62 with the Pathway


Dish Satellite # 119 signal strength 25 with our Carryout, 59 with the Pathway


Dish Satellite # 129 signal strength 30 with our Carryout, 53 with the Pathway


in addition the Pathway is the only portable automatic antenna that is capable of locking onto signals from DISH's Eastern Arc satellites #'s 61.5°, 72.7°, 77°.... over time we've camped on sites many times when the southwest was blocked but the southeast was much more open ....

[JEBar]

as noted above, we setup our new Pathway dish antenna late yesterday afternoon .... shortly after daylight this morning it survived its first thunderstorm .... its still locked onto a strong signal from each of DISH's Western Arc Satellites ....

[GFK]

Interesting setup. Thanks for the idea.

[JEBar]

as noted our Carryout G2+ is a fine unit .... it is very solid and can be roof mounted on a camper; in fact, we have one permanently on ours .... it has been in use during most of our travels and performs well .... I don't believe the new Pathway can be roof mounted .... we've just had another heavy rain move through and their claim that it can hold a signal under conditions where the signal would be lost with other portable antennas .... that appears to be true .... based on using our G2 during many rain storms, it would have lost signal .... the signal on our Pathway fell to 25 but still locked on and we were able to watch TV throughout the entire storm ....

[markiver54]

That's great Jim. Really frustrating to be really into a program or movie and lose signal.
We are trying, STILL to get internet up her at the cabin, but there's only one provider for up here and we've been waiting three years. The only way I'm on here right now is by jumping off our closest neighbors service. He gave me his password.
They are about 100 yards away, so I have to be in the bedroom on that side of the house. Same for cell phone service but luckily we have a land line.

[JEBar]

in thinking about it, if you install DISH at your home, you could have the same package of shows at your cabin for an additional $7 a month .... a real plus with that program is you can turn the service at the cabin on and off so that you don't pay for time you aren't there

[JEBar]

learned something about our new Pathway antenna and I consider the lesson to be a positive one .. .. the strong thunderstorm mentioned in the Advisory below just roared through where we are parked .... their is no doubt that we would have lost signal while using our G2+ Plus antenna .... as with our former G2+ our new Pathway sitting on its tripod didn't move .... it remained locked onto DISH satellites .... it didn't lose its signal .... that to me was impressive

copy of local Weather Advisory :

"...SIGNIFICANT WEATHER ADVISORY FOR CENTRAL DEUEL...NORTHEASTERN HAMLIN AND SOUTHEASTERN CODINGTON COUNTIES UNTIL 1245 PM CDT... At 1210 PM CDT, Doppler radar was tracking a strong thunderstorm near Goodwin, or 8 miles west of Clear Lake, moving east at 30 mph. Pea size hail and wind gusts up to 50 mph will be possible with this storm. Locations impacted include... Clear Lake, Gary, Goodwin, Altamont, Lake Cochrane Rec Area, Tunerville, Moritz and Lake Alice. PRECAUTIONARY/PREPAREDNESS ACTIONS... Torrential rainfall is also occurring with this storm, and may lead to localized flooding. Do not drive your vehicle through flooded roadways."

[cooperhawk]

Well, I'm afraid I wouldn't impress you very much. Just an old short fat man is all I am anymore. But I do like Brownies

that makes two of us on all points

Still old short and fat, but I have new teeth!!!
OK, that has nothing to do with DISH does it?

[cooperhawk]

A quick look at the radar shows that weather bearing down on me. I'm watching NASCAR on DISH and I'll bet it shuts me down for a while. We have a permanent dish on our house but that doesn't always get through the clouds.

Looks like a gully washer on the way.

[JEBar]

understood on having a dish mounted for home use .... we have the same and even with signal strengths in the upper 60's to mid 70's, service has been lost for storms passing over or south of us ....

[JEBar]

UPDATE :

one of the claims made for the Pathway automatic DISH antenna is that it can lock onto a much stronger signal .... when the DISH Tech installed a good size antenna at our home he told me that a signal strength of 75 was about as good as it can get .... as I recall ours showed a strength of a little over 70 .... further a strength of 20 or better was acceptable and the higher the number the better in stormy conditions .... we have lost signal at home during rough weather .... as previously noted, both of our roof mounted and portable Carryout G2 and G2+ antennas are very good units .... when used they usually show signal strengths from 30 to 50 (sometimes lower, seldom higher) and provide us with a good quality picture .... both have lost signal during storms .... as can be seen below, our Pathway portable antenna is delivering a very strong signal .... one that is far stronger than any I other portable antennas I've used or have heard of and I must admit impresses me .... during the short time we have used it, we haven't experienced any signal loss and there have been few which I have no doubt would have caused a signal loss in the G2's .... there can be little doubt that sooner or later it will happen ....