DirecTV on the boat without the antenna

johnesch wrote:
Why not pick up a cheap used antenna, take a box from home of buy one on Ebay and for $6/month you have DirecTV.* It's worked for me for several years.*

*

John Esch

Fet-Esch

Click to expand...

*After much thought, I think that's the way I'm going to go. We get limited but good enough programming with the on board antenna when we anchor. But I would like DirecTV when at the dock.

So John how does this work, just get a new or used sat box, antenna and hook it up?

Since I already have a DirecTV account I can some how get a duplicate card to put in the new sat box?

Buy a reciever from a box store like Best Buy or another store. You can pick a dish up on line cheap. Receiver will cost about $65 and comes with a card. Take it home and plug it in, call 1-800-directv and tell them you added a new receiver in your bedroom. Unless they changed policy,*if you tell them it is for a boat moored at a marina*they will want to sell you another subscription. *Once you have your new receiver registered, you can take it wherever you like , no problem.*

Don't buy a used receiver from somebody. Directv will make you buy a new card for it, they're $20.

Also give some thought to how you will mount the antenna. Home dishes have a mount which is designed to be mounted on a flat surface and once setup they are not swung. *Your antenna has to be level so when you swing it around to acquire the sat. it will be at the correct elevation. Maybe an RV dish would be best for you?

Larry B


-- Edited by Edelweiss on Saturday 23rd of July 2011 09:53:33 PM



-- Edited by Edelweiss on Sunday 24th of July 2011 11:10:45 PM


-- Edited by Edelweiss on Sunday 24th of July 2011 11:13:20 PM

>>After much thought, I think that's the way I'm going to go. We get limited but good >>enough programming with the on board antenna when we anchor. But I would like >>DirecTV when at the dock.So John how does this work,

>>*just get a new or used sat box,antenna and hook it up?Since I already have a DirecTV account I can some how get a duplicate card to put in the new sat box?<<

Basically the answer is you buy/acquire a DirecTV antenna. If you buy a new box* you have to get another access card from DirecTV.* The access cards are identified to a single box so you cannot just bring the card from a home unit and put it into another box. At the dock you can even mount the antenna in a rod holder if you don't want it up all the time.

Remember that the local channels at the boat will be the same as home if you are within range.* Otherwise you will not get local channels.* Drop me a line if you want to chat about this..

Tim, The simplest solution is to call DirecTV, tell them you want another receiver for a bedroom, have them set it up and then take it to the boat. You will need a separate dish for the boat and they will charge you $5.00 per month for the second receiver. Don't make it too complicated. Chuck

Thanks again guys for all the advice.

I'm going to get a new sat box and leave it on the boat. I thought about using it in the bedroom but then I would have to lug it back and forth. We have a TV in the bedroom that gets its signal from a composite cable from my current sat box. That works fine but no HD. I'm OK with that. My family room TV gets its signal from a HDMI cable direct from the sat box. Some day I may get a component video cable and run it from my current HD sat box to the bedroom and then I would have HD there also. It eliminates the cost of another box, but both TVs always view the same channel.

Concerning the dish at the boat, I'm going to mount it on a piling that's located midway abeam the boat. I'm going to fabricate some rod holder system like John mentioned, one that will be easy to put up and take down. I may put an indexing pin so as to eliminate the necessity of realigning it every time. If anyone has a good system one they put up and take down every time they're at the boat, post some pics.

It's too bad internet access is so expensive. They're some great options for very little money if you can get broadband. A roku box and slingbox are just a couple of examples.