We do like our TV. We have this wonderful contraption on top of our motor home. You stop for the night, hit one button on this little box and magically the Winegard satellite dish raises up and finds the signals from the Directv satellites automatically. In less than five minutes from pushing that button, we are watching any program we want.
But there can be one little problem. On some occasions, the signal from the satellites can be blocked from the dish -- by trees or some other obstructions. Back in the Denver area last year, we tried everything to get our automatic satellite dish to work. We pulled the motor home as far forward on the space as we possibly could. Gary did some midnight tree branch pruning. But no matter what we tried, we couldn’t get past the obstructions and had to go three weeks without our satellite television.
After that episode, Gary decided we needed a backup plan, or backup satellite dish at least. Through some Craigslist purchases, we became the proud owners of as 18 inch round dish and a tripod. Although we bought the stuff, we haven’t had a need to use it until this stop in Vegas. As we mentioned in our last blog, we have some shade trees this stay, but those very shade trees are preventing our automatic satellite dish from being able to lock on to the satellite signals.
So, it was time for Gary to break out our back up dish and see if we could make it work. After watching a couple of YouTube videos on dish alignment and satellite box setup, off he went to aim it generally toward the satellites about 20 miles into the sky. After setting up the dish on the tripod and doing some preliminary aiming, he came in and switched out the cables in the back of the satellite box. After running a setup on the box for the different dish, the most amazing thing happened. At the end of the setup, we had picture on the television. Without any fine tuning whatsoever, he had somehow aligned our backup dish to the satellite signal and we had picture. What are the odds? With that kind of luck, off he headed to the casinos. But somehow his satellite aiming luck wasn’t an omen of gambling riches to come, but it is nice that we have satellite signal for our stay here in Vegas.
Paul keeps saying that IF we get satellite, he wants the fixed, automatic dome and everyone i know whomhas one has the portable back up one because of the tree issue. 5 years into fulltiming and we have managed to do without the satellite.
ReplyDeleteThe satellite is more like 20k miles in the sky than 20. Good on you for getting the alignment so accurate the first time. May be a second career ;)
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DeleteThanks for the correction! I now see that the perfect altitude for geosynchronous orbit is 22,300 miles. My first dish point was even more impressive :-) .
DeletePerhaps he used all of his luck on the dish and none was left for the casinos.
ReplyDeleteOr, as they say, these billion dollar casinos weren't built on the backs of winners.
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