I attended two seminars in the morning on RV satellite TV systems, each presented by one of the two satellite TV vendors at the Escapade. Linda stayed at the coach and made phone calls related to the pending sale of our old house and insurance changes we made yesterday on our motorhome and towed car. She then attended a seminar on healthy living.
Although I have invested a fair amount of time in researching communications and entertainment technology options for our converted coach, I have not yet come to any conclusions regarding many of the systems, especially satellite TV. Thus, I continue to attend seminars and glean new insights from each one, and today was no exception.
Each of the seminars talked about both Other-The-Air (OTA) and satellite (SAT) antenna systems, as well as TV sets (monitors). The monitors and OTA antennas are a settled issue in our coach, as already discussed in previous blog posts. Still, the seminars confirmed our choice of 1080p monitors with digital tuners and rotatable antennas to capture the highly directional UHF digital TV (DTV) signals.
The big insights today had to do with SAT antennas and programming. As mentioned previously, Moto-Sat is no longer in business, which I had not heard prior to the FMCA rally. Former Moto-Sat employees created RF Mogul, which I had also not heard of prior to the FMCA rally, but whose SAT dishes were very much in evidence both at FMCA and at Escapade.
If /when we add SAT capability, we want to be able to watch different programs simultaneously on our two monitors, including a mix of standard definition (SD) and high definition (HD) channels. There are only two ways to do that, and only one that involves a single SAT antenna (dish). An “obvious” solution is to use two SATs as each one can then fix on its own satellite, even if it is a single satellite dish. Any dome-type antenna could be used in this configuration as all domed antennas are one-satellite-at-a-time. That might be a solution, even with the added costs of duplicated hardware and programming, but we cannot mount any SAT dish on the roof, much less two of them, so this is not a solution for us. I learned that the only single SAT solution that meets our requirements is a 3-axis multi-satellite dish (multiple LNBs). These dishes come in manual models, like the ones used on fixed houses, and automatic ones, as seen on many RVs. In our case, we would have to mount the dish on a tripod or set it on the ground, and figure out where/how to store it when not in use. The manual dishes are not too heavy and not very expensive, but have to be aimed manually (duh). I have talked to folks who have manual dishes and it can be a time-consuming and far from certain process to get them lined up with properly. The automatic dishes find and lock on to all of the required satellites at the push of a button but are heavy at about 50 pounds. They are also large, which is why they capture signals well, but that poses a storage problem when not in use.
The two major sources of these open, fold-down, 3-axis dishes are Winegard and RF Mogul, each represented by one of the presenters. Although both dishes appear to work well, it appears there are differences, especially with respect to maintenance. The Winegard dish apparently has two controllers, one of which is in the motorized dish base, while the RF Mogul has only one that goes inside the RV. Also, it appears that the RF Mogul dish has field replaceable positioning motors, whereas the Winegard does not. What this comes down to is that it appears the RF Mogul dish can be repaired in-situ, while the Winegard dish must be returned to the factory. That’s a potential problem even if the dish is not mounted on a vehicle, and a bigger problem if it is.
With respect to programming services, both presenters seemed to favor Direct TV for various reasons from programming choices, to signal acquisition, to technical support. We were leaning towards Dish Network, but we are now reconsidering that choice. The issue of major networks (ABC, CBS, NBC, and PBS) remained unclear to me.
Basically, residential satellite TV customers typically get the local OTA channels (major networks) for their geographic market. The satellite companies do this by using “spot beam” technology where the satellite signals for a major market like Detroit are beamed (like a flashlight) to an area on the surface of the earth a couple of hundred miles in diameter. If you take your home receiver outside of that area, perhaps in an RV, you lose those local channels, and you do not get the local channels for whatever area you happen to be in. Both Direct TV and Dish Network appear to “solve” this problem by offering RV programming packages that include either the New York or Los Angeles local OTA stations, as these are transmitted to all of the continental US just like the rest of their channels.
The choice for us is bigger than just RVing. We do not have cable or U-verse at home, and are too far from the local OTA transmitters to receive them very well, so we have not had any form of TV since mid-April when we moved to our new house until we started RVing in June and got our OTA antennas working (sort of). If we get satellite TV at all, we are looking for something that will work at home and in the RV. We are also considering simply not having satellite TV.
After lunch we went to seminars on Full-Timing, presented by George Maylaben of the RV Driving School, and Windows 8, presented by Chris & Jim Guld of Geeks On Tour. George gave a thoughtful overview of the issues facing full-timers and those considering moving into this lifestyle. The Geeks did their usual excellent job of presenting an understandable and actionable overview of the topic, and Linda was able to go back and use some of what we learned on her laptop.
We spent some time in the Paul Everts outdoor RV display area and then went to the Tri-Chapter (6, 36, and 51) social at 4:30 PM. There was a small but friendly group present, and we got to chat with a full-timer couple from Michigan who are now residents of South Dakota. There weren’t any evening activities that interested us, so we had a quiet evening “at home” and watched a program on Wyoming PBS about Mt. Rushmore.