Therefore, in this post, I want to explain what I learned, why the Dish error messages are so misleading, and, most importantly, how you can quickly determine whether your setup is actually working correctly before wasting hours chasing the wrong problem.

The Frustration

After our trip to Caprock Canyons State Park, I learned something new about Dish Outdoors and how the satellites work. Unfortunately, one thing that never surprises me is that the support folks know less than me. Frankly, that should never be the case. I am not sure if they just don’t have a good script to follow, or if they simply don’t know the right questions to ask. Either way, this has been an ongoing problem ever since we have used satellite TV in our travel trailers for 10 years or so.

Since I did a video about satellite TV not long ago, I wanted to add what I learned on this trip. As you probably know, there are many things that can derail your setup. Because of that, I wanted you to have all the information, especially since I missed this in the video. So, here is the scenario that you may encounter:

You connect your receiver and run the test switch process, and then you see your local channels still listed in the guide after you boot up. In fact, the DISH Guide even shows what your local channels are televising (the channel description). However, once you select a local channel, you will get a blank screen along with one or two messages. First, one message will incorrectly tell you that something is obstructing the signal. Of course, you will know that is incorrect because the receiver checks that both satellites are received. Meanwhile, the other message will tell you that “Dish knows there is an issue with local channels and is working on it”. Unfortunately, both of these messages are misleading. Instead, a more helpful message would be something like, “National Channels are only available in this area.” Certainly, that would have helped me out a lot!

However, let’s talk about what is really going on in this case and what I learned. First of all, keep in mind that we have traveled many times far away from our home zip code and still received local channels. In fact, Dish subscribers can typically travel 150–300 miles from their service address before local channels become unreliable or disappear. Up until now, that has certainly been our experience, and that is exactly what sent me down a rat hole. So, with that in mind, let’s clear things up.

However, first a quick word about the Dish satellites:

• Satellite 119 = The majority of core legacy national programming.
• Satellite 110 = Some additional nationals + local channels.

There are actually two beams that Dish sends to your outdoor dish on satellite 110 (remember, you also receive satellite 119). First, there is a SPOT beam for local channels, and then there is a CONUS beam (Continental United States Beam) for national channels. Once you travel far enough away from your home zip code, the spot beam no longer delivers your local channels. However, despite that fact, it still sends the channel lineup information to the Dish guide.

The important takeaway here is that, even though local and national programming physically originates from the same satellite position (110°), they are transmitted differently. As a result, it is a nuance that can make things surprisingly frustrating.

This is exactly why I was so frustrated. I was getting all the channels associated with satellite 119. Therefore, it seemed like I wasn’t able to receive any channels associated with satellite 110. However, that is where I made my mistake. In reality, I was getting all the national 110 channels, just not the local ones.

What would probably help in situations like this would be a complete list of channels carried on satellite 110. That way, you could quickly determine whether you are truly missing the satellite or simply missing the local spot beam channels. In our case, these would be the local channels for satellite 110 based on my zip code:

DISH Guide Channel	Station	Network	Local
8	WFAA	ABC	LOCAL
11	KTVT	CBS	LOCAL
5	KXAS	NBC	LOCAL
4	KDFW	FOX	LOCAL
33	KDAF	CW	LOCAL
21	KTXA	Independent	LOCAL
13	KERA	PBS	LOCAL
27	KDFI	MyTV	LOCAL
23	KUVN	Univision	LOCAL
49	KSTR	UniMás	LOCAL
39	KXTX	Telemundo	LOCAL
68	KPXD	ION	LOCAL

Here are the National Channels for satellite 110 and my zip – They would still transmit because they are CONUS.

DISH Channel	Network	National Channel
112	HLN (Headline News)	NATIONAL
125	FXX	NATIONAL
129	Bravo	NATIONAL
130	Hallmark Channel	NATIONAL
133	IFC	NATIONAL
187	Hallmark Mystery	NATIONAL
192	Investigation Discovery	NATIONAL
202	HDNet Movies	NATIONAL
401	Golf Channel	NATIONAL
105	USA Network	NATIONAL
107	A&E	NATIONAL
120	HGTV	NATIONAL
140	ESPN	NATIONAL
139	TNT	NATIONAL
300	HBO East/West feeds	NATIONAL
318	Starz feeds	NATIONAL
327	Showtime feeds	NATIONAL

Finally, here’s what you should do instead of jumping to conclusions like I did. First, don’t assume that the guide is indicative of what you will actually receive on your TV. Instead, check the CONUS channels, and then you will know for sure whether your satellite dish is receiving satellite 110 programming.

I just wanted to share that information here because it caused me considerable frustration. Unfortunately, the Dish Outdoors folks were totally clueless about what was actually going on. As with just about everything else I have learned about Dish, I have mostly had to figure it out on my own.

You would think that the Dish support folks would immediately say, “Let’s check some non-local channels that exist on CONUS 110.” However, that never even came up. Instead, the representative offered the following explanations:

The representative told me I probably needed a signal refresh, although I knew that wasn’t true because I was already receiving channels from satellite 119.

In addition, the representative suggested that I might have an internal trailer wiring issue. Again, I knew that wasn’t the case because satellite 119 was coming in just fine.

Finally, he suggested that my satellite dish itself was not working. However, that explanation made even less sense. After all, why would I still be receiving satellite 119 if the dish wasn’t working?

The long and the short of it is this: with Dish, or really any outdoor satellite provider, you are pretty much on your own. Unfortunately, that is just the way it is.

Hopefully, this information helps. After all, many folks I have talked to have expressed incredible frustration with their satellite reception, some even to the point where they want to cancel the service altogether. That is exactly why good support is so important. Unfortunately, however, it is also something that Dish still does not seem to have a handle on.

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The good news about switching TV service is that my Winegard G2+ antenna works just fine with Dish as well as DirecTV and Bell TV. That means there is absolutely no concern about having to invest in a new satellite antenna. Click here if you would like to learn more about the Winegard G2+ antenna. We have been very happy with it’s performance over the last two years. It automatically finds the satellites providing you have a clear view of the southern sky. Some other good news was that during my preliminary discussions with Dish Network, it appeared that these folks really had their act together on the RV end of the business (unlike our DirecTV experience). However, as it turned out, that couldn’t have been further from the truth.

After I set up an appointment for our house, I ordered the receiver for the RV. It would arrive a day after the technician would be here working on the house. I was pretty sure that hooking it up in the travel trailer would not be an issue. However, I asked the representative that if there was a problem, would they come back at no charge and get the RV set up. They assured me that this would be the case. As it turned out that was a complete falsehood.

Once the new receiver arrived I installed it in the travel trailer and began the step by step instructions. The receiver froze during the “Searching for Software” process. This began a four hour plus phone conversation with Dish Support. Not only did they not have a clue what to do but they told me that 1) not only wouldn’t they send a tech to the RV to hook me up (keep in mind the RV is here at my house) but that 2) I would be required to pay for a service call. Next came the shocking revelation; they don’t really have an RV business unit. They have farmed the RV business to a third party (which they refer to as their “outdoor department” which is very misleading). To say I was upset would be an understatement.

I came in the house and told Tammy that if I could unwind the deal with Dish, I would. That not being a possibility at this point I was now on a mission to figure this out for myself. I spent over an hour on the computer searching Facebook pages and other venues to see if I could figure out the underlying issue.

Then I thought of a new approach; since the software wouldn’t download through the G2+ then let’s try to hook the new RV receiver to my home dish and see if I could download the software. Within ten minutes I had all my software downloaded. Later the next day I moved the box to the trailer and immediately had satellite TV. However, I wasn’t done yet. I also left some very honest feedback on-line about the service I received; and the deception I felt took place to get my business. Dish Network actually reached out to me a few days later. The representative apologized and gave me a small credit on my account for the trouble (and by small I mean $20.00, hardly compensation for the hours spent on the phone or the resulting frustration).

So what have I learned? Neither DirecTV or the Dish Network really has a handle on the RV industry. Both companies seem unable to troubleshoot any common RV issues. This isn’t rocket science. Most of the issues that I have encountered are easy to resolve. All of it would be easy for a service representative to handle over the phone. Tammy and I have talked at length about how easy it would be to educate their own installers on how to get an RV set up. Certainly if I can do it, it should be a piece of cake for them.

Now as far as the Dish product, well, it is better than DirecTV. It is better from an overall price standpoint as well. As far as the travel trailer is concerned, you can pay as you go with your RV. This means when you want to use the satellite, you call Dish to activate the signal. Once activated, they charge you $7.00 for a month of service. So if you are not traveling there is no reason to pay a monthly service fee. We never know when we will be traveling; so, I told them to just leave the signal on to our RV receiver.

I am happy, overall, that we made the switch to Dish. Although I certainly didn’t feel that way the first night.

Regardless of what satellite provider you use I highly recommend pricing each service out yearly. This will make sure that you are getting the best pricing available. Both services will work in your travel trailer.

If you are curious about how DirecTv worked in our trailer; you can view our blog about it by clicking here.

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