Not Getting All DISH Channels on Carryout MP1 Manual

[kjopc]

I feel I must be missing a concept here with my Winegard Carryout MP1 Manual and DISH pay as you go.

I set up the satellite antenna outside the RV and got a signal. We got everything activated and subscribed to a $35 programming package. So far so good. We get a nice signal.

Then, I noticed I was supposed to be getting CNN (channel 200) and a number of other features. DISH took me through some troubleshooting and it looks like I'm only getting one port... and not the one with CNN. When they found out I was in an RV they said they don't support customer installs.

Is it that I need to repoint the antenna to get the other channels I'm paying for? Have I pointed it incorrectly? Do I need more equipment to get all of the ports at the same time?

While happy about getting good reception in the RV, I'm not too pleased if I wasn't warned about some built-in limitation of the Winegard Carryout MP1 Manual.

Thanks,

Ken

[Bill Adams]

Dish Network uses 3 satellites to provide the complete range of programming to their customers (actually it's 6 but 3 at a time depending upon your location). The MP1 is only capable of pointing toward one of these satellites at a time. That means you will never get all of the available DN channels without re-pointing the MP1 but by pointing toward 119 you should get more than 50% of DN's SD channels or you could point to 129 and get most of the DN HD channels but lose many of the "regular" channels we all like to watch.
It's a matter of choice and you are going to have to choose what's important to you and point the antenna toward that satellite.

[kjopc]

Thanks Bill for the very helpful response.

Now I wish I'd done more research before buying the antenna. I assume there are dishes that can hit multiple satellites?

[kjopc]

It's a matter of choice and you are going to have to choose what's important to you and point the antenna toward that satellite.

Could you direct me to a list of which channels are available on which satellite?

[Bill Adams]

http://www.satelliteguys.us/thelist/index.php?page=sub
Give this site a try. You can select 110, 119 and/or 129 one at a time or all 3 at the same time. It's a long list but it is alphabetized making finding the channels you receive easier.
For reception of at least 110 and 119 you would need a Dish 500 antenna and for 3 satellites including the HD programming you would need either a Dish 1000.2 or 1000.4 antenna (Eastern and Western Arc satellites). Winegard does not make a manual mount for either of these antennas so a Google search will get you information of the setup required for this kind of setup. It's much more complicated to locate 2/3 satellites simultaneously and the hardware required is much, much larger but it is certainly being done by many RVers.
The Winegard Trav'ler is a fully automatic (usually roof mounted) antenna which uses the Dish Network Dish 1000 antenna to receive the 110, 119 and 129 satellites.