satellite

OK, Here is an even longer story, told as I know it. Satellite TV provided by either of the two major providers (Dish or Direct) is provided to a permanent (stick) address. A large percentage of the country allows the providers to give you all local channels and they just add them onto your bill for a small fee. As long as you stay at that address you will get them. Most of the time as long as you stay in your home state’s boundaries you will still get them. In very rare occasions your address me be so isolated that there are no local channels available. Then they will allow you to select Distant Network Services Programming which will give you all the major networks and a few others, normally from New York and Las Angeles. The problem arises for RVers when they leave their home state. Now the rules have changed (by law) and you must sign waivers and remove any permanently attached satellite antennas from your stick house. When we sold everything in 2003 and hit the road we did not have a satellite system. We had established a mailing address. So when we went to Radio Shack to get our Dish system we told them what we were up to and they provided us with all the necessary applications for distant network programming and by the time we were under way we were all set up and never had a problem until about a year ago when Dish Network lost the right to provide Distant Network Programming to their customers. Then we had to go through a third party to get them and they were not always available any more or sometimes not all of them - no ABC in Yuma all last winter. We (RVers) are a pain in the butt for the providers and they will sometimes get really short with you when dealing with them on RV issues.

We have recently become stick dwellers again and are in the process of changing over to DirectTV. We will not attach an antenna to our stick home - we just use our RV tripod - because we are still going to be on the road 4-6 months a year and want the Distant Networks while on the road. Will the FCC check your home for an antenna while on the Distant Network Programming? I’m just not going to risk it.

FastEagle

When RVing with a satellite system and receiving a signal weather you're in the Arizona Desert or a large RV park on a Florida beach they know where you are and it's best to remember that while talking to them on the phone or they might just tell you the site number your antenna is sitting on.

I find this hard to believe. Unless I'm mistaken, your TV satellite dish isn't a transmitter.

The "electronic world" we live in has become so competitive and so "customer grabbing" because each little item (local feeds, for example) can provide the companies with a couple bucks from each customer .. seems like so little $$$, until you add up the base, then find that $2 each translates into $4 million dollars if a company has 2 million customers. And it adds little to the company overhead when it adds a customer ... and "auto-billing" just means "a computer collects the bucks" instead of a 'person'.

It is kinda tragic that we can't simply buy a service and get what we need anymore ... it's the 'add-ons' that we like and the company knows that, so separates it from the regular services -- so it can advertise a lower amount, and add tiny fees to each bill -- then look at your bill. When the company says "$65" a month, it's NEVER $65 a month ... the add-ons that primarily occurred through lawsuits over the years put as much as 25% on the bill sometimes.

OK Larry. You made me do some researching. Now I understand a little about "Foot Printing" and how the local channels are controlled. The answer of them knowing where I was must be that dedicated phone line. "Internet"! Makes a simple user into a researcher. No wonder I spend so much time on this thing. Learning never ends when browsing the net.

Wonder if all this learning at an older age causes one to also learn how to forget more, causing the onset of dementia, sooner? Oh well, better let that one slide or I'll be Googling all afternoon.

FastEagle

QUOTE: "...Wonder if all this learning at an older age causes one to also learn how to forget more, causing the onset of dementia, sooner?"

Betcha could look that up on the internet and find the answer Fast Eagle ...

OK Larry. You made me do some researching. Now I understand a little about "Foot Printing" and how the local channels are controlled. The answer of them knowing where I was must be that dedicated phone line.

FastEagle

Actually you don't have to have a phone line attached to the receiver. I've had DishNet on my house for years and have never, ever hooked it to a phone line. The only need for the phone line is if you buy PPV shows. The receiver will send a message to the provider via the phone line so they can add it to your bill. If you never buy PPV then there is no need for a phone line. I've also had a Dish receiver in my coach. DishNet is aware that I have the two receivers and one is at my house and the other in the coach. Never had a problem. My brother just recently changed from Dish to DirectTV so he could get the network feeds, which are no longer available on Dish because of Warren Buffet. (That is another story.) DirectTV sent out an installer to put their dish on his house and to reprogram his dome antennae on his coach. He gets the local channels via DirectTV on the home receiver and the distant feeds on the coach receiver. Due to FCC rules he did have to submit the paperwork for the receiver in the coach to be able to get the distant feeds. FCC could care less if you have two receivers, one in the stick house and the other in an RV. They just don't want you to be getting the distant feeds in the stick house, circumventing the local broadcast stations.