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TV Roof Dishes

Red Rover, Red Rover, Send Tige Over
Last Changed 1/25/2012

Winegard Trav'ler Dish 1000
Roof Dishes The Winegard Trav'ler Dish 1000 (SK-1000) is an automatic positioning satellite TV roof mounted dish for DishTV.  There is a built in GPS receiver unit that helps the SK-1000 lock onto a satellite.

The SK-1000 has three LNBF (Low Noise Blocking Feedhorn) heads.  This means the SK-1000 can lock onto all three satellites used by DishTV which are 119º, 110º and 129º which includes all the HDTV feeds.

The SK-1000 has two satellite box connections.  Generally, the primary satellite box connection is in the living room area of the RV while the secondary satellite box connection is in the bedroom.  Since the SK-1000 is locked onto all three DishTV satellites, the problems we encountered with the AS-2003 were eliminated. 

Winegard Trav'ler DirecTV Slimline KU/KA
Power Management The Winegard Trav'ler DirecTV Slimline KU/KA (SK-3005) is an automatic positioning satellite TV roof mounted dish for DirecTV.  There is a built in GPS receiver unit that helps the SK-3005 lock onto a satellite.

The SK-3005 has five LNBF heads.  This means the SK-3005 can lock onto all five satellites used by DirecTV which are 99º, 101º, 103º, 110º, and 119º which includes all the HDTV feeds.

The SK-3005 has two satellite box connections.  Generally, the primary satellite box connection is in the living room area of the RV while the secondary satellite box connection is in the bedroom.  Since the SK-3005 is locked onto all five DirecTV satellites, the problems we encountered with the AS-2003 were eliminated. 

Winegard Trav'ler DirecTV Triple LNBF
Power Management The Winegard Trav'ler DirecTV Triple LNBF (SK-3003) is an automatic positioning satellite TV roof mounted dish for DirecTV.  There is a built in GPS receiver unit that helps the SK-3003 lock onto a satellite.

The SK-3003 has thee LNBF heads.  This means the SK-3003 can lock onto all three satellites used by DirecTV for regular TV which are 101º, 110º, and 119º, and which does not include the HDTV feeds.

The SK-3003 has two satellite box connections.  Generally, the primary satellite box connection is in the living room area of the RV while the secondary satellite box connection is in the bedroom.  Since the SK-3003 is locked onto all three DirecTV satellites, the problems we encountered with the AS-2003 were eliminated.

RF Mogul Eagle
Roof Dishes The RF Mogul Eagle is an automatic positioning roof mounted satellite dish for the DishTV network.  The head of the Eagle has a triple LNBF and can lock onto satellite 110º, 119º and 129º at the same time.

The Eagle can be equipped with a Hybrid LNBF head for use with a Dish Hopper 3.

Motosat MD500
Roof Dishes The Motosat MD500 is an automatic positioning roof mounted satellite dish for the DishTV network.  The head of the MD500 has a dual LNBF and can lock onto satellite 110º and 119º at the same time.

With the dual LNBF head, the MD500 solves the problem of the living room and bedroom satellite boxes receiving signals from either satellite at the same time.  This is a major improvement over the Winegard AS-2003.

The MD500 still has the limitation of only locking onto the two primary DishTV satellites and therefore not being able to receive all HDTV channels.
(No longer sold)

Motosat MHDTV
Roof Dishes The Motosat MHDTV is an automatic positioning roof mounted satellite dish for the DirecTV network.  The head of the MHDTV has a triple LNBF head and can lock onto satellites 101º, 110º and 119º at the same time.

With the triple LNBF head, the MHDTV solves the problem of the living room and bedroom satellite boxes receiving signals from either satellite at the same time.  This is a major improvement over the Winegard AS-2003.  Also, the MHDTV can receive the DirecTV HDTV channels.
(No longer sold)

Motosat HD-SL5
Roof Dishes The Motosat HD-SL5 is an automatic positioning roof mounted satellite dish for the DirecTV network.  The head of the MHDTV has a five LNBF head and can lock onto satellites 99º, 101º, 103º, 110º and 119º at the same time.

With the five LNBF head, the HD-SL5 solves the problem of the living room and bedroom satellite boxes receiving signals from either satellite at the same time.  This is a major improvement over the Winegard AS-2003.  Also, the HD-SL5 can receive the DirecTV HDTV channels.
(No longer sold)

Winegard RM-DM46
Roof Dishes The Winegard RM-DM46 is a manual satellite TV roof mounted dish.  The RM-DM46 has a single LNBF head.  This means the RM-DM46 can lock onto only one satellite at a time.  Since the RM-DM46 is manual, the changing from one satellite to another is a user task.

All satellite boxes will be on the same satellite at the same time.

One advantage of the manual adjusted dish is that it can be aimed at more than the basic two satellites used by the satellite TV services.
(No longer sold)

Winegard AS-2003
Roof Dishes The Winegard AS-2003 is an automatic positioning satellite TV roof mounted dish.  There is a built in GPS receiver unit that helps the AS-2003 lock onto a satellite.

The AS-2003 has a single LNBF head.  This means the AS-2003 can lock onto only one satellite at a time.  The AS-2003 can be used with two satellites by swinging the single LNBF between the two satellites.

The AS-2003 is usable with DirecTV and DishTV.  For DirecTV, the AS-2003 swings between satellite 101º and 119º  With DishTV, the two satellites are 110º and 119º.

For both satellite TV services, the two satellites the AS-2003 provide most of the regular TV channels.  For both services, the two satellites do not provide most of the HDTV channels the services offer.
(No longer sold)

The swinging between the two channels for the AS-2003 is automatic.  When the satellite box connected to the primary cable connection wants to connect to the other satellite, the AS-2003 swings the dish.

At first blush, the automatic swinging of the AS-2003 seems a very good solution.  The user does not have to do anything for the satellite change.  But there are two satellite box connections.  Generally, the primary satellite box connection is in the living room area of the RV while the secondary satellite box connection is in the bedroom.  Only the primary connection controls satellite selection, thus a change in the channel of the bedroom satellite box cannot select the other satellite.  Also, when the primary satellite box causes a satellite change, the bedroom box loses the satellite it was connected to.  This will often induce a shout from the bedroom about “what the heck is going on!”

The automatic functions of the AS-2003 preclude it from being aimed at a third satellite which is necessary for full HDTV channel selection.

This is the automatic dish that is installed on Tige.

note - This dish has been replaced by the Trav'ler styles

This happened to our AS-2003 dish
Our AS-2003 stopped working, and there was no failure of the unit.

The problem arose when Dish TV put two new satellites into orbit to improve the ability of their subscribers to receive signals in the Eastern United States. The satellites were put into locations at 77° and 72°.

Since the AS-2003 was designed and built before the launch of these satellites, the electronics of the AS-2003 doesn't know about the satellites at 77° and 72°. But the electronics does find these satellites during the scan for satellites and the satellites have Dish TV signatures. The finding of the extra satellites confuses the AS-2003 electronics and it gives up on locking on satellites.

Nothing is broke in the AS-2003 but it doesn't work because of the changes in the Dish TV satellite configuration.

It would be natural to expect Winegard to create a fix for the AS-2003 to handle these new satellites, but that is not the case. Since we are talking about a very limited number of units, the upgrade of the AS-2003 would cost almost as much as the replacement Trav'ler especially in light of the many extra features of the SK-1000.

At this time, we almost always used the ground tripod dish because the AS-2003 didn't receive from the HD satellite 129. So there isn't as big inconvenience. We will replace the AS-2003 with a SK-1000 probably in 2011. When we have the SK-1000 installed, we will use the roof dish most of the time with the ground tripod dish only being used when we have obstructions (trees) in the way

Domed Dishes
Roof Dishes In general, the domed dishes have single LNBF and operate similar to the Winegard AS-2003.  Some of the dome dishes have automatic tracking so they can be used on motorhomes to provide TV while driving down the road.  Since it is illegal in most states for anyone to ride in a trailer, a dome dish on a trailer only has the advantage of a lower profile when in use.

See Single versus Multiple LNBF dishes.
Disclaimer: The information in this site is a collection of data we derived from the vendors and from our personal experiences.  This information is meant as a learning guide for you to  make your own decisions  Best practices and code should always be followed.  The recommendations we make are from our personal experiences and we do not receive any compensation for those recommendations.
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