What is the best 'Automatic' Satellite dish for a Po Boy?

[OlePhart11]

My wife is P.O.'d from all of the frustrating hours upon hours of trying to set up our old Satellite dish with her compass, level, shovel, and cusswords, and said she's not doing it that way anymore. Kerput!
So, I need to bother you guys to tell me the very best satellite dish thathas the capability of 'finding the dang satellite' itself', that is not too awfully expensive. I don't need to watch TV while going down the road.........
I would love to stay under $700 if at all possible..........
I would Really appreciate it, and then I can retire my Ear Muffs. har har
Thanking you in advance,
OlePhart11 in Texas

[Hipshot]

Some speak highly of the Vucube. I have never used it but I camped beside some folks last year that had one and loved it. Try ebay there is one now for $599. I carry a Direct TV HDTV antenna like the one on my house. I can set up and have HDTV in less than 10 minutes. I did have trouble in the beginning with my system and it can be very frustrating. I am fortunate my wife does not watch american TV. But she wants the internet so she can download Korean soaps.

[JohnandPandra]

You need the VuCube 2000 stationary automatic that goes for $659 plus shipping from PPL. I have the VuCube 1000 with remote set up that costs $450-$500 depending where you get it. I am very pleased with it and only takes a few minutes to get locked in. Good Luck!

[fbconsults]

I have the Wineguard Minimax Automatic, now on sale at Camping World for $699.00. It comes in a model to mount permanently on a portable model. It has 2 LNBs and is HD for Dish Network, but Standard Def for Direct TV. Works good, Camping World installed mine on my motorhome for $150 and I've had it for a year. Good feature for Dish is that the HD reciever will power your second TV from the one reciever.

fbconsults
(Forrest and Donna)

[LadyWindrider]

Forgive me, but I got to wonder. If you have to have satellite, internet, cell phone, ....... why even bother to try and camp?

Sorry, but to us, camping is the last "neighborhood" in America, where there is little crime. your neighbors are nice, and you can share a meal with complete strangers and have a good time. It's where you wear the same pair of jeans for three days, and nobody cares, where cell phones and televisions don't work, the closest wal mart is over 50 mile round trip, where the closest store is a nice one mile walk, with your wife and children in the late afternoon, and where you enjoy a fire at night, either your own or the neighbors, and roast a hot dog, or make "s'mores", or have a "pie iron" and make hobo pies. Remember the commercial from last year about the people camping, and the little child asking about all the stars? Get out from in front of the computer and the internet, and go look at the stars, and the trees, and the flowers, and the birds, and...... hope you get the picture.

Sorry for the rant, but as I read this post, it reminded me of sitting in church watching the ushers go down the isle with cell phones on their belts, and I have this thing about that, if you are so important that you can't spend an hour in church without your cell phone, you need to hire some help. [I]feel the same way about television in a camper, it is not needed, we're camping.

Now to set the story really straight, yes there is a 19 inch television in my camper. In over 60 nights of camping, I have spent two nights where I could even get reception. We take a lot of nature photographs, and use it hooked to the laptop to view our pictures sometime, mostly we wait until we get home. We have never camped and had internet, and spent over 30 nights without cell phone reception. Works for us, and that's camping, everything else is dragging your house around.

[Filthy Beast]

Windrider,
I think that may be a little harsh, if that is the way the couple wants to rv then so be it. Maybe they are long term campers, by the signature it almost sounds like they are out for extended periods. I like to see the news every couple of days when camping.

I personally load movies onto my laptop due to the fact that I have chronic pain issues and do not sleep well. It also makes it hard to concentrate on reading some times. And I am sure my neighbors at the campsite don't want me out wandering around at 1:00 AM. So I watch a movie while the wife tries to sleep.

I love looking at the stars also, but again the cold can raise havoc with my legs, and we usually camp in the early spring and late fall when it is cold at night.

I love all the toys you have listed, I used to ride a Harley and take flying lessons but both of them cause issues also.

Happy camping!

[doctort44]

Windrider... We don't "camp"... we RV. We see our trailer as a chance to get out of the city. But, we still like to watch TV at night and check our emails and we see the trailer as a little apartment. We've never boondocked and never been where there was no cell phone reception. I could just as easily have said to you "Why in the world would you want to be cutoff from the rest of the world like that?" But, you know, there are all kinds of ways to enjoy an RV. We're not all "campers". What a boring world it would be if we were all alike.

[caper]

Windrider I have sat. tv, a cell phone and I also have a landphone in my TT. Janet and I sold our home last year and are now fulltime RVers. Not everyone that has a RV use is for weekend camping. Some of us live in it fulltime. We like if for the reasons you stated why. There is very little crime, you have good neighbours and if you do not like your neighbour you can always move.

[donn]

Nuff ranting!
Back to the OP's question. Last year I had the Winegard automatic installed. It is as I remember the only automatic HD antenna on the market. So if you want HD then go for the automatic. As a substitute if we cannot get a signal I also carry one of the portable in a box antennas.

[OlePhart11]

Thanks Filthy Beast, Doctort44, Caper, and Donn.
I really appreciate the support.
Yes, I'm kinda leaning toward the Winegard portable unit.

OlePhart11

[jimh]

i have the wineguard automatic. don't know the model. i felt like i was taking too much time setting up when i could be doing something else.
the wineguard, that i have, has a single lnb and two outputs. whatever polarity or ur on is what u will have to watch on the other (not the same channel no). when it sets itself up, it finds 110, 119, and 129 and sets their position in memory...if the dome moves a little, u have to reset it up...ie, it doesn't track.
i like it.
found out abt it changing positions when i had it on uneven surface with the wind blowing. as it rotated, the weight would shift and it wouldn't be locked on anymore.
unfortunately, it was $700+. if u get one, get the little tripod stand for it as well. makes it a lot more stable.

[OlePhart11]

Terrific, I appreciate it very much.
Yes, that's the one I'm thinking about getting, the 'Carryout' and I'll get the tri-pod also.
One of my Sons lives in Lake Charles, and works at that Grace plant.
Thanks again,
McCord

[MotocrossCamper]

If you have a receiver at home, and you have a wireless internet card or access to internet at the campgrounds you stay at, I would look into a slingbox. Thats what we use and it works great! Plus we can watch anything we want that we have recorded on our DVR. No setting up a dish, ever!

[OlePhart11]

Oh Wow, now that would be the way to go if someone just camped in campgrounds where you have cell phone access, but we camp from 3 to 4 months out of the summer, and at least three-quarter of that time we are out of cell phone range.
We love to get up in the mountains and let my wife seek out those elusive Rainbow Trout to catch and cook up.
I really appreciate all of your help and advise, much more than you know.

Best regards, and safe traveling,
OlePhart11

[MotocrossCamper]

The nice thing is that for work I have a Sprint card and for personnal use I have a Verizon card, plus we have a cell booster antenna so even in the mountains we usually always get a signal. In all the years we have had a motorhome we have only camped in a campground once.

[OlePhart11]

Wow, Cool!
My wife just got a (I think) a 'Sprint card' that she sets by her puter, and her puter gets on-line, sends, and receives e-mails faster than my Hughes Satellite set-up we have at our summer cabin in Ruidoso, NM., so heck, that might be the ticket.
I also have a cheapo cell booster that's just a gimmick, but I've seen the more expensive ones, and that's probably the way to go.
I appreciate it very much MotorcrossCamper.
I was on my way to buy a Toy Hauler when I happened to see this Rockwood that I bought. I can't haul my Kawasaki Mule in it, but I can sure use my 2011 F-250 4X4X4 instead of the Mule, and it doesn't 'foam' my beer like the Mule did.
Thanks again, I really appreciate good people like you.
OlePhart11

[slpybeartx]

We use a VuQube 1000 we found on Craigslist for $300. We have an extra directv receiver at the house that we pull. Slap the VuQube on the roof at the campground/statepark/rv resort/boonies and there you go. in less than a minute we have our satellite up.

[OlePhart11]

Heck, that's Great!
I didn't realized the VuCubes were Automatic.....
Maybe it's just the 1000 that is, reckon?
That's allot less than the Wineguard Carryout, but
where we live is a long ways from a Craigslist city.
Thanks Slpybear.
OlePhart11

[sleblanc63]

Originally Posted by windrider

Forgive me, but I got to wonder. If you have to have satellite, internet, cell phone, ....... why even bother to try and camp?

Sorry, but to us, camping is the last "neighborhood" in America, where there is little crime. your neighbors are nice, and you can share a meal with complete strangers and have a good time. It's where you wear the same pair of jeans for three days, and nobody cares, where cell phones and televisions don't work, the closest wal mart is over 50 mile round trip, where the closest store is a nice one mile walk, with your wife and children in the late afternoon, and where you enjoy a fire at night, either your own or the neighbors, and roast a hot dog, or make "s'mores", or have a "pie iron" and make hobo pies. Remember the commercial from last year about the people camping, and the little child asking about all the stars? Get out from in front of the computer and the internet, and go look at the stars, and the trees, and the flowers, and the birds, and...... hope you get the picture.

Sorry for the rant, but as I read this post, it reminded me of sitting in church watching the ushers go down the isle with cell phones on their belts, and I have this thing about that, if you are so important that you can't spend an hour in church without your cell phone, you need to hire some help. [I]feel the same way about television in a camper, it is not needed, we're camping.

Now to set the story really straight, yes there is a 19 inch television in my camper. In over 60 nights of camping, I have spent two nights where I could even get reception. We take a lot of nature photographs, and use it hooked to the laptop to view our pictures sometime, mostly we wait until we get home. We have never camped and had internet, and spent over 30 nights without cell phone reception. Works for us, and that's camping, everything else is dragging your house around.

Well said..... for someone looking to leave the busy world behind. For those not able to do that... you don't know what you're missing.

[OlePhart11]

To each his own big boy.
You do it your way, and I'll do it mine.......OK?
OlePhart11