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Chuck MC8 (207.69.11.216)

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Posted on Thursday, November 21, 2002 - 6:36 am:   

Hi all, I'm nearly ready to put the plywood on the ceiling of my conversion, and am giving some thought to the roof mounted satelite system.
What I have in mind would be to have the roof mounted 18" dish, (manually aimed) and also have the capability to have a second dish, tripod mounted for use when overhead obstacles are a problem. I think the roof mounted unit would be nice for "boon-docking" in the Wally Mart lot, and not having to put out the tripod antennae.
At the same mounting location for the crank-up job,I'd also like to pre-wire my bus for the "in-motion" satelite reciever ( when my ship...,er, bus..comes in). Anyone using the "In Motion" unit?
I havent found any current articles or real "up to date" information on the web regarding these systems. (dosen't mean it's not there, I just haven't found it)
I'd like to hear what you all are either have planned or are using, as well as sources for the equipment ( at the best price, of course).
As always, I appreiciate your comments. Thanks Chuck
Steven Gibbs (12.148.43.8)

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Posted on Thursday, November 21, 2002 - 7:08 am:   

Chuck,

Camping World carries a combined amplified antenna and dish.

I have installed it and the antenna part works great. We can get local channels and weather without setting up sat.

We just recently subscribed to DirectTV at home and received a two receiver system. I have not yet had time to play with the sat. on the bus, but will soon.

My plan will be to take the dish on the house and someday use it for the tripod unit when needed.

However, DirectPC is starting to look pretty good. It needs a different dish though. The crankup unit will do altitude and direction but not the third setting (azimuth? or tilt?) needed for DirectPC.

FWIW
Steve G.
MC9
Pontiac
Scott Whitney (66.82.9.22)

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Posted on Thursday, November 21, 2002 - 11:02 am:   

DirecPC (now called DirecWay) uses a different dish which is larger. It needs to move the three axis, azimuth, elevation and skew. If someone wanted to plan ahead for a future Internet system, they would want to run two pieces of RG6 from the dish to the computer area. Leave some open conduit to later run a control wire from computer area to the dish location. Then run additional RG6 to anywhere a TV receiver might go. (usually one to BRoom and another to LRoom).

Scott
Jim Lawrence (66.82.9.34)

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Posted on Thursday, November 21, 2002 - 11:30 am:   

I have the manual crank T.V. dish. Works really well. Also use the 'on the ground' setup for those treed areas.

Recently the roof dish was 'wiped off', in a wind storm, by the awning. Installing a new dish was not a problem....but it was now discovered I would never be able to replace the coax as I really did a good job of making it permanent....my point....try to install your coax in a way that it can be replaced when the sun destroys it.

I just installed the 'Motosat' mobile two way internet dish.....its great, pricy now, but the price should drop as does most electronic equipment. You may want to include a way of installing the cables required for the Motosat or similar setup (DirectPC). Unit required two coax and one control cable with the option of a third coax for direct T.V. A 3/4" PVC pipe would handle all four.
Scott Whitney (66.82.9.18)

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Posted on Thursday, November 21, 2002 - 2:30 pm:   

Hi Jim,

Yes, when I was referring to the DirecWay dish above, I was talking about the MotoSAT Datastorm as it is the only approved mount for mobile use. (uses the DirecWay dish on an automatic motorized mount)

The system actually supports a total of four coax and one control cable. (two coax for Net, one for front TV and one for rear TV plus control) I think the ideal situaion to would be to leave plenty of space in conduit. Never know when you may want to do some future installation of who-knows-what.

Scott
George Myers (12.85.14.246)

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Posted on Friday, November 22, 2002 - 7:44 pm:   

Put in the largest conduit from the antenna area to the TV center, and another to the computer, that you can reasonably fit in. Who knows what the requirements will be for tomorrow's equipment.
CoryDaneRTSII-the TRUE sports car of the bus industryIL (4.17.253.248)

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Posted on Saturday, November 23, 2002 - 1:28 am:   

I picked up my AutoAim dish from RonTheBusNut. It works perfectly with my older DSS dish controller. The dish coax goes to a junction in the storage bay where I can disconnect the roof dish and connect a portable, hand aim dish. from there the coax goes up to the satalite control box. From there the coax to the tv goes into the system.
- DSS equipment can behad from Best BUy for unbeleavably low prices.
- You might want to look into some of those flat screen monitors. They take little room and can be hung anywhere. You can watch tv through an adapter box that can be found on Ebay for about 50 bucks. I dont recall what it is called but someone out there can post it for us.
- Technology is creeping in on us and its getting more sophisticated but so much better for us.
- As for future requirements and more space, the route is easily accessed in my bus with easily removable panels. I think most buses have this in mind also. Hope I helped - cd
Richard Bowyer (Drivingmisslazy) (66.190.119.82)

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Posted on Saturday, November 23, 2002 - 8:38 am:   

I got a 42 inch plasma flat screen about a year ago from Costco for 3995. I just checked and they are now down to 2995. You will need the $199 tuner also. Great picture.

http://www.costco.com/frameset.asp?trg=subcat%2Easp&catid=79&subid=2341&hierid=3314&log=&NavTop=

Richard
CoryDaneRTSIIil (4.17.253.77)

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Posted on Saturday, November 23, 2002 - 4:11 pm:   

LOLOL
A 42 inch screen, where did you mount this screen? I have seen some upper end coaches have them hinge down from the ceiling so not to lose living space due to its size. I could live with a 20 or even 15, but you are at the movies, even when youre not at the movies. cd
Gary Stadler (68.7.217.217)

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Posted on Saturday, November 23, 2002 - 9:00 pm:   

I picked up a flat 15" LCD monitor (VGA) for cheap from ebay, and mounted it right over my windshield center.
http://www.heartmagic.com/00BusMonitor.JPG

The adapter "box" Cory mentions is called simply a "VGA box", they retail for $99 but you can get one almost any day on ebay for half of that, often even less- check this one-
http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=1940643823
The box takes in 4 analog video signals and one VGA signal, and converts what ever input you select to VGA and sends it to the monitor. Really cool.

So with my little setup, the monitor serves as television, DVD theater, Internet (motosat) or the backup camera, which ever I select on the VGA box. So far everything works perfectly but I still have to catch up with Scott to get the motosat working...

Cheers
Gary
Gary Stadler (68.7.217.217)

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Posted on Saturday, November 23, 2002 - 9:06 pm:   

..I forgot to mention that both the monitor and the VGA box will operate straight from 12 volts DC
Gary
Scott Whitney (66.82.9.17)

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Posted on Saturday, November 23, 2002 - 11:03 pm:   

Hi Gary,

I plan to be in California on Dec. 20. We can get that Internet dish lit up then if it still works with your holiday plans.

Scott
Gary Stadler (Boogiethecat) (68.7.217.217)

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Posted on Sunday, November 24, 2002 - 12:53 pm:   

Purrfect Scott!
JackInKC (65.28.19.120)

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Posted on Saturday, December 28, 2002 - 12:19 am:   

I have seen photos of the 42” screens mounted inside a cabinet and flush to the wall under the window. When you want to use it a motor raises it.

I think that I will go the VGA route. The Samsung sync master 150mp is down to about $550 I think. It has a built in TV tuner and two auxiliary inputs.

Do the small plasma screens have a better picture than a VGA screen?
Keith-Flx-FL (Keith) (65.33.37.243)

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Posted on Saturday, December 28, 2002 - 1:27 am:   

The plasma screens are awesome.... especially with a computer generated signal. I toured some featherlite's which had 3 42" plasma screens... mad me sick :).. One over drivers seat, one on bedroom wall and one in a bay on a pull out rack to catch the game while enjoying the outdoors... The really sick thing is each of those monitors cost more than my shell!
Ron Vandegrift (207.222.248.64)

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Posted on Saturday, January 18, 2003 - 11:32 am:   

Just a thought. Unless you have kids, you will very rarely watch TV while going down the road.
I had a roof mounted sat TV and found that I aways tried to park in the shade, which meant that the roof mount never worked. I removed the roof mount when I installed a rubber roof on my Eagle model 10. I rewired the whole TV system to my hook-up bay, which is the rear left. I installed a sat TV splitter which allows me to run 4 sat receivers from a dual-feed dish (Radio Shack). I have a 50 foot dual cable to run to my dish which is the normal home dish and mount with 1" aluminum square tubing legs that I made and bolted onto the home mount. The legs have leveling bolts in the ends. Now I park in the shade and set the dish in the sun. With a cheap compass, and the on screen set-up guide, it takes less than 2 minutes to dial in Direct TV. I have a front receiver for the lounge, a rear receiver for the master suite and a third receiver in the front right outside bay, along with a 17" TV, stereo and drink frige for sitting outside and relaxing. For my needs, I have found that this is the best and easiest set-up. Sometimes best is also the simplest. But, everyone has different requirements and/or habits. Incidentially, in my floor plan, the entertainment center is a 3' by 3' triangle with a 4' face area behind the drivers seat, with three shelves for the 32" TV, Sony DVD/surround system, VCR and Direct TV receiver. The 45 degree angle of the face of the cabinet is perfect for viewing from the lounge. Since I use only a laptop, space for a large computer is not an issue.
Ron Vandegrift - kimron77@netzero.com
john marbury (Jmarbury) (65.100.118.5)

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Posted on Saturday, January 18, 2003 - 9:11 pm:   

Ron,
How do you like the rubber roof? Is it white?
Does it attract dirt and does it clean off well?
John

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