King Dome & Directv

bill crommett · Post by **bill crommett** » Tue Apr 04, 2006 9:45 pm

We bought a Built for Two with a Kingdome already installed. So we subscribed to Directv so we could get better receptio when we were camping.
However, we neither of us is an ardent TV fan. and would just as soon spend our evenings reading, we soon found that our tolerence for comeciials could be reached sooner when away from home than at rest in our recliners in the den. Then Directv raised the price a few dollars per recever so we told them to cancel our contract and we would settle for what we can get off the air.
So we have a King Dome for sale. If anyone is interested, I will contact the factory in Humbolt to see if they will switch the KingDome during, or before or after the Homecoming celebration. Does $950.00 sound good to anyone out there ?

CHARLOTTE · Post by **CHARLOTTE** » Wed Apr 05, 2006 12:05 am

Sounds like a really fair price to me, and would be interested except for the monthly fee you mentioned. Here in No. Calif. I don't have alot of choices for cable...Comcast being the only cable co. in town...then of course there's DirectTV which I think is the same as Dish Network. My bill for Cable and the Internet connection just came in this mo. and it was $102.00. I do not have any premium channels...no HBO or Starz or anything. So I've decided to cancel my internet connection with them as it went up from $25 a mo. to over $40 and I'm looking into a cheaper system for the TV. Have never had anyone else but Comcast so I'm sort of in the dark...but very unhappy with the soaring costs...so I'll do my homework. If you could PM me with how that King Dome works...I'd appreciate it. I guess the most important thing is...do you have to pay a monthly fee to have cable at home and then a separate monthly fee for the service in the BF? Didn't mean to get so talkative but really ticked off that my cable bill went up so much this past month....just blowing off steam!!!

Jim Hofmann · Post by **Jim Hofmann** » Wed Apr 05, 2006 1:21 pm

Charlott, we have Dish network at home. When we go on the road I just take the receiver from the den and put it in our BF. On the BF we have a winegard automatic dish. The receiver does not care if its at home or in the BF so we watch local new (L.A.) even while in Montana. With this arrangement we have only one monthly television bill.

CHARLOTTE · Post by **CHARLOTTE** » Wed Apr 05, 2006 2:35 pm

Jim: Thank you so much for the information. While in Quartszite I tried talking to the salespeople about their 'satellite' TV products. I wasn't interested in spending $4-$5 K plus a mo. fee...and of course when they found that out, the conversation was over....so I never got much infor. on how I could pursue this. Please explain: What's a Winegard automatic dish? Do you buy that separate? If so, who installs? Does it cost a lot??
Can I get it at BF while in Iowa? Any info. would be oh, so appreciated...

Jim Hofmann · Post by **Jim Hofmann** » Wed Apr 05, 2006 6:30 pm

Charlotte: Winegard is a brand name of a firm that makes Satellite dishes for RV's. You can get a very cheap dish for less than $100 and place it on a tripod outside your BF and hand orient it. Or you can pay more and have it permenently mounted to the roof (this way you don't have to find a place to stow it and the cable when driving down the road. Camping world, PPL Parts Superstore, Utah Satellite are just a few of the firms that have dishes for RV's. These dishes will work with any satellite service you get ( Dish Network, Direct TV etc.) You will find that there are both manual and automatic. The new automatic ones have built in gps so all you have to do is turn it on and it finds and locks onto the satillite. With the manual ones (assuming roof mounted) you need to hand crank the dish in an up and down as well as a horizontal circular direction to find the satillite. I have not used the manual type but have been told it requires a bit of patience. There are domed and regular dishes. The Domed have the advantage of not having to be lowered when you are ready to hit the road. Also they are less prone to get cought up in low lying branches. The Domed will be a little more expensive than the regular type.
There is also an in "motion" veriety. Much more expensive and in my estimation not needed. Why watch TV when going down the road as there is so much wild life and life in gereral that you will miss seeing if your nose is buried in the TV.
So, I would suggest that you go on line and read up the the various dishes and then "bite the bullet" or "just do it" as the sayings go.

bill crommett · Post by **bill crommett** » Wed Apr 05, 2006 8:02 pm

Charlotte: Jim is right about watchiong TV going down the road. How is anyone going to keep his attention on his driving if only one eye is on the road ? That is the model we have, and it just proves that some people try to live at a level they cannoy afford, or the unit would not have been put on our coach in the first place.
About the recievers, I just took the one from the shop and hooked it up in the Born Free when we got ready to go.
It looks to me that you live in an area where one supplier has a manopoly and can charge what ever the demand allows.
At first blush it looked to me that a dome would be a good thing because it doesn't take up any storage space -- it is all on the roof. But now it gets in the way of the Born Free rabbit ears, so there is a little less sweep available.
Bill