Finding a signal

[vankemp]

This past summer was my first real test using the GM-1518 in real outdoor camping scenarios.

Im saddened to report about a 60% success rate -- So Im looking for some advice for the future. On may occasions, I spent HOURS moving my dome around to try to find signals. The majority of our camping trips are throughout northern Michigan. Here are some questions that I have.

What sats do I need for Dish Network using the vip211k? 110,119, and 129?? If this is true -- What is the best way to determine possible obstacle's ? Hours of moving around? or has some of you had luck using a sat finder?? I have since downloaded a sat finder app on my android phone that gets good reviews, but have not tried it yet.

I do not have a tripod -- Would/ Could this help? Do they make them with a 100' boom??

Is there a limit on the coax or power cord lengths? In some cases, an additional 50' might do the trick.

Any other tips or suggestions would be great -- Thanks in advance

[Bill Adams]

You do need to be able to "see" 110, 119 and 129 to get all of the Dish Programming. If you download this program http://www.dishpointer.com/2009/augment ... te-finder/ (Dish Pointer) then you have a good starting point but it is NOT perfectly accurate as it depends upon the compass in your phone and they tend to be off and vary from moment to moment. If the sky area is wide open the app will show you so but if you spend a bunch of time in the trees you may have a lot of problems trying to use any app to find that one magic gap that spans nearly 20 degrees of sky.