DirecTV at Camp

I've got DirecTV at the house with a main receiver and a couple of satellite boxes for each of the other TVs. Is it possible to use one of these satellite boxes at camp with an old DirecTV satellite? This is my first time doing this so looking for a little help.

Yes. That's what we do in Junction. All your local chanels will be the same as your house though. Not that that's necessarily a bad thing.

Yep I took an receiver and old dish and got it hooked up out at the ranch and it works like a champ.

I knew several guys that brought there boxes to the lease in Sterling to watch football.

If you had DISH, they have an antennae (the tailgater) and you can either buy another control box, for cost of the box plus $7 a month for 367/24/7, or pay as you go, or take the house box.

I was going to try this same thing at our new lease. I have DirectTV at the cabin and was going to cancel this coming fall 'cause the basic stuff, at 64.00(!)a month, absolutely sucks! (Although those two women constantly selling sex toys always look so perky and professional. )

'Guess I'll take it out there on a feed run and see what the other guys think.

Having free TV as a kid, even if it was only 3 channels and one grainy UHF Spanish channel really spoiled me. (I forgot PBS - 4 channels)

TV at deer camp?

You guys don't hunt hard enough of you got time to watch TV. No TV in our camp, by choice.

Yeah, yeah, the other guys are the sports nuts. I prefer the front porch, a glass of whiskey, and a good cigar. Campfire is even better. But no, I'm not on my hands and knees tracking down the biggest, baddest buck in the county every waking moment.

And TV comes in real handy if Iran tries to blow the Holy Land off the map, or, if another cuddly lion gets killed somewhere.

Just call Direct TV and see if u are up for a upgrade and I kept the old box and just leave in Rock Springs in the 5th wheel

When I go thru junction I go to there App and send a Ping and it's up and running

Down load that App also so when setting up the Dish it will go smooth, also hit up a RV dealer for a good deal on the Dish

Amen brother Creekrunner. I go to enjoy the whole thing, if it includes a good football game, cup of Joe and a smoke, I'm in.

BTW, "therancher", would have a meltdown if he knew fellow hunters didn't condone what others where doing in there camp

There's nothing more entertaining than watching your buddy fall into the fire.

I don't watch TV at home either, so my gripe is moot.

If you spend a lot of time at your lease throughout the year, I would suggest picking up a used receiver on eBay and add It to your account. I didn't pay more than $20 bucks fir my deer lease receiver, and it costs me just $7 a month to keep it active on my account. Just make sure there is not an unpaid balance on the receiver when you buy it. The seller can provide information on the receiver before you buy it to ensure it didn't belong someone who left without paying their bill. Just call your satellite service provider and give them the information to confirm it's open for use. Or better yet, buy a used receiver from your provider.

Got 2 HD DIRECT TV at the house and an SD in the Travel Trailer. Standard dish set up at lease and portable dish for vacation. I just call DIRECT TV and have 'em turn on the SD receiver when I need it and turn it off when I'm through....... It's only like $5 bucks and you have to pay for the whole month. At the least I usually turn it on in Oct and Off in Feb.

We have an antennae at our place in Runnels county, we get TV out of San Angelo, Abilene and Brownwood. On really weird days we get some religious channel that we have no idea as to where it originates. Thought it was Midland, but not sure on that.

Jade Helm frequency testing DC, trying ISIS mind control, through religious commentary technology. If the wife comes out of the shower with a towel wrapped around her head, she has fallen prey to it,be ware.

We did that for years and it worked fine.

Eldorado perhaps.

When you're aiming your dish, just remember that the post MUST BE PLUMB. Once the post is straight all you have to do is turn the dish until you get a signal lock. (if you're going SD with the old style round dish) If you've got the big oval dish then I think there is a lot more to aiming.

Treebark here on the THF does this stuff for a living. He works out of Graham if that's anywhere near where you hunt and he's a good guy.

Very true. All the setup angles will be off and you'll have a much harder time getting a strong enough signal when trying to aim the dish correctly.

My son installed the systems for a living for a couple of years. He can get a dish set up in just a few minutes.

I would have fed that Man Steak and Beer all weekend Mike if he would have went to the Lease w me back when I set mine up

Before I got that App I stood on a ladder turning listening to that beeping and Lovie saying not yet on the signal

you can buy the direct tv set up for a little over $100 without the box. Use one from home or do what RAB said. You can also buy them on CL for about $20.

or under $100 shipped....

http://www.amazon.com/Directv-Folding-Po...=directv+rv+kit

Good link BuckRage.

If you're doing SD, the one below is what you need.

Standard Def DirecTV tripod setup

You can get dishes on CL for $15 bucks. The tripod I bought at Radio Shack like this one: Tripod

X-2

I went the portable tripod and receiver from home route but soon got tired of repeatedly having to aim the dish and connect everything. Then I decided to set a metal pole in concrete with a dish that I picked up on CL, and a receiver off eBay.

Those tripods work but they can be a pain...put a post in the ground or something solid as Texas Dan has mentioned. You will be glad in the long run. Also, you can pick up a device called satellite finder for around $20. which can help a lot.

We enjoy Directv at the lease. News, sports, and movies are great in the evening while eating dinner.

Since the local channels are carried on spot beams that point at a specific area, if you are within a couple of hours from your house, odds are good you'll still get them and be able to get them in HD. If you are 3 to 4 hours it might be a bit sketchy and you may need to turn them in SD. 4+ hours away, you'll probably need to get an antenna and try to pickup whatever city is near you. The rest of your DTV stuff will be fine no matter how far away you are. I'm in Houston and my lease in Pipe Creek is just outside the edge of the Houston SD spot beam. So I can only watch my local Houston channels after it gets dark and the signals get a little extra strength.

For the dish, do what the others have suggested and put it on a pole in the ground. I had one of the tripods and while they work great for a tailgate, they aren't a decent semi-permenant setup because they flex too much. They also cost a fortune. You can go to a muffler shop and get an 8 foot pole for less than 20 bucks, mine cost 10. Throw in a $2 bag of quick-Crete and you have a pole that isn't gong to fall over the first time you get a gust of wind.

I have the insurance plan thru Direct which has paid for itself more than once! It's only $5/mo. Also, I recently upgraded to the "Genie" program, which also changed the receivers. However, at camp I had an older HD receiver. Last fall, we had a really bad storm at our lease in Comanche that took out my dish and lost the signal. I had always been able to realigned the dish and regain the signal with no problem. After getting everything set up again, I tried for hours and could not find the signal because it was very narrow.

I called Direct, told them the problem and they sent out a technician, who game from Granbury! He planted a new pole, realigned the dish and got me going again. There was no charge because it was covered under their insurance!

Have DIRECTV dish mounted on fence post at lease and use receiver from my study. Gotta tune in to the Oh U football games & get weather updates.

OK all of you Directv guru's... I went to the lake today with a spare receiver that is activated and I pay for. There was an existing dish up there. Plugged everything in and nothing... What am I doing wrong?

When you say nothing, we know nothing. Elaborate please.

Power to the box but no guide, no menu, nothing. It's as if it wasn't even plugged in. The cable was already there from the dish into the house, I hooked in from there. Does it make a difference which receiver I hook up? This one was not the main receiver in my home but one of the satellite ones in an unused bedroom.

how do you have it connected to the tv. hd video cables etc. when we take our receiver we have to switch from hd to video. you should have a direct logo even if your satellite is not adjusted correctly. we don't take our main receiver and it works fine.

I have it hooked up the same way it was in our house to the same tv. Cable/antenna. Is it possible that the dish no longer works?

It's the receiver that's suspect at this point. Recheck the connections and make sure the settings on the TV agree with the connections. You should see the directv box display its screen regardless of the dish.

this^^^^
if you cannot see the direct tv logo the problem is from the receiver to the tv. your Lnb can go out in the satellite but you are not there yet.

Thanks Gentlemen. Will take a look at that next time.

Something that took me a year to figure out was changing the resolution of my TV to not allow 1080. I changed it to allow only 780 and this allowed me to get more stations. Prior to that I could only get a few stations like the music channels and non-HD channels. I could not get any of my local stations from Austin here at the ranch and McCulloch county. This might be helpful to someone trying to self install. I can only get my signal strength up to 58% for some reason. Anyway, I pretty much get all the stations here now.

I use the instructions from Gritch94 from this forum and it worked really well:

http://texashuntingforum.com/forum/ubbthreads.php/topics/5144754/2

Still got no direct tv signal last time I was up. Will look at it again the next time and see if I can troubleshoot. I have an HD antenna up there but during football season would like to watch the games.

Exactly, and you're legal that way, and ethical.

DirecTV will also let you sign up a vacation property, and only pay as you go, 6 mos minimum. That also rules out the chance of something not working, and getting good new equipment at that location installed and serviced by them.

Last thing, if you travel far from home, the local channels may not be available, as they are broadcasted narrowly. You can also sign up for local ABC/CBS/FOX/NBC or national on the vacation box.

There are also several different types of dish heads and you will have to change it in the Set up menu if the dish is different than the one at home.

Ok, I am back. I have the HD +DVR hooked up and at least getting to the menu now. It is telling me that no signal can be found. Any ideas?

Now you go to setup, find the signal strength meter and adjust the dish. It will face south and about 30* above the horizon. You can get much better figures online.

And I am in! Thanks Cast, and everyone else. Without THF I would not have even known this was an option .

I have Dish and one of the fellas here on THF gave the alert that the tailgater systems was on sale, I lucked out and was able to get the whole package for $300+ off what it was going to cost. Got the cable box, auto tailgater antenna, many different peripheral wire sets and coax, all for $199 online from Nebraska furniture Mart thatnks to the THF'er.

Guy's here are a lot of help.

I've got a Dishnet tailgaiter back on the market in the nonhunting classifieds

For what it's worth......Mrs HnF and I decided to pass on the heat wave and took off on a spur of the moment trout fishing trip to Central Colorado. Got the trailer set up, made a phone call, and voila DIRECT TV. Took a little bit to get the dish aimed, but got a 95% signal. Couldn't get FT Worth Channels though. While I was on the phone they mentioned that I was a long time subscriber and gave me another free 3 month trial of STARZ & ENCORE.


(We do get the local stuff at the deer lease!)

That is a hell of a deal. Got mine a few years ago, and it was around $500. I probably don't use it enough to actually justify the cost, but it is nice to be able to watch football in the middle of nowhere.

I finally called Direct TV and they set me up with a free receiver and Dish at the lease for no cost. the catch is I can only use when no one is using my Direct TV at the family ranch. There is a number for me to call to switch it back and forth from one location to the other. There is another option but when I heard all new equipment and set up for free I didn't ask about it!