Wow, the Puppy is getting bigger and there is a camping trip coming up at the end of June. Our plan is to try camping out with Eva at Tyler State Park.

Tyler State Park is only a couple hours away for us so if it becomes a little too much for her (or us) its an easy ride home. We think she will be just fine.

Eva Grace at Day 1
Eva Grace at Day 1

What a change in size has taken place over the last 10 weeks, not only in size but personality – she has a big one.

Eva Grace at 18 weeks
Eva Grace at 18 weeks

Her personality seems just fine for camping, except she can be quite vocal, but what Shepherd isn’t?

Ok, so back to camping and whats been happening since the puppy arrived – not a whole lot. However I did activate another receiver for Dish TV in the bedroom of the Travel Trailer and I am going to try to give you a brief overview of how that works.

First, just a little background on what we have:

Our Satellite TV provider is now Dish-TV but we have had DirecTV in the past. Our portable satellite is the WineGard Carryout G2+. The G2+ works with Dish, Directv, and Bell TV. In order to receive satellite TV in the RV bedroom, I did need to purchase another 50 feet of Coax. The additional coax is needed because there are two connections on the satellite dish; one for the living room (the Primary Connection) and one for another room in the trailer (the secondary Connection).

I just want to say that the G2+ has been a good satellite for us, but there are cheaper ones on the market that probably do just as good a job. If I were buying one today knowing that I’ll probably stay with Dish-TV, I would get the Winegard Dish Playmaker. It’s less expensive because it only works with DishTV otherwise the features are the same.

OK, enough background, now for the set-up:

  1. It’s a pain to update the new receiver unless you are hooked up to your home satellite; at least that is what we have found with the G2+ Carryout by Winegard. Once you get it hooked up to an antenna that will download the software then you can move it out to the trailer, which is where the real fun begins.
  2. Once in the trailer you need to get your Winegard satellite hooked up and ready to go. Plug the receiver in and power up the antenna. Let it find the satellites and when it stops grunting (searching), then turn it off and disconnect the coax from the back of the receiver.
  3. Now go to settings on your receiver box and pick diagnostics and then Dish from the left hand menu.
  4. Press the “Test Installation 5” to start the check switch test.
  5. The receiver will go through a number of tests and then come back with previous information cleared.
  6. Reconnect the receiver coax cable and go turn the antenna back on.
  7. Now, go through the above process with the “Test Installation 5”, this will install a Dish receiver setting “SW64”
  8. You should be ready to go at this point.
Step 7 in process

Unfortunately this can be a very frustrating process, and one that is not completely documented in one place. When you are trying to go through this process, you better turn your air conditioner on because more than likely your blood pressure will go up.

Now, one very important thing you should know before adding a receiver in another room is that the second receiver is a “slave” to the primary receiver. Therefore if someone is watching a channel in the living room (our primary) and it is from satellite 110, the other TV can only watch channels provided by satellite 110. If the primary user switches midstream to another satellite (say satellite 119 for instance) you will be booted off the channel.

To further complicate matters, now the secondary receiver will need to be rebooted to pick up the new channels associated with satellite 119. This is because the way these dishes work are that only one satellite can be picked up at a time; and satellites are channel specific. Obviously this isn’t a great way to watch tv in another room but I really don’t foresee this as a huge issue for us.

A word of caution: don’t expect your satellite TV provider to be much help if your having problems. The RV Satellite support network (no matter who you have) is really lacking in my estimation. I wish I could say otherwise but it would be a lie. Most problems we have encountered I ended up finding a solution. You will too.

I hope all of you are staying safe and getting some camping in. I will update everyone on Eva’s first camping trip in a few weeks.