I have read some discussion about the Winegard antennas, but does anyone have any experience with KingDome's? PPL has a pretty good price on the KD5500 series, stationery.
Googled this model and found this forum discussion. Worth a read.
"First off, let me ask, did you purchase this "Kind Dome" new? Or did you get it used? The reason I ask is, based on mine and many other folks here and RV.net, experiences with the "Kind Dome", no matter what model, they've got a fairly poor track record. The tech line has been of little help to many here. Yes, they say to do this and do that, but for most, the problems still exist......"
But others think it is OK.
See.. King dome kd5500 - iRV2 Forums (http://www.irv2.com/forums/f101/king-dome-kd5500-131551.html)
We have a Winegard Traveler and have had no problems. Highly recommend, but it is more expensive.
I have a tracstar 360 and love it. IT has worked for me on a couple different coaches. All told I have used that dome about 8 years. I will look at getting a Wineguard traveller as well one day to have HD TV but so far I am happy with the Tracstar.
Meant to post a picture from campground at OSH, couldn't believe traveler saw all three dish birds while aimed at a huge oak 20 feet away. Coach came with in motion dome and wineguard traveler, gave away dome
If in-motion is not necessary, it is hard to beat the Wingard HD open dish.
We picked up Directv signals 500 miles north of the US border in Ft McMurray Alberta with our Winegard SK-3005 Trav'ler. Cannot do that with any dome. And we don't have rain-fade or morning dew problems.
And no company makes a Directv HD dome (fixed or in-motion) antenna. And if one has an HD TV and not using a HD receiver, a great picture awaits.
RV Antenna - Winegard Roof Mounted RV Satellite Antennas (http://www.winegard.com/roof-mounted-satellite-antennas/index.php)
OH OH, something's wrong here!! We have a Kingdome satellite dish on our GV (it came with the coach when we bought it) and it works great with DirecTV. Push the ON button and it searches for the 101 satellite. I take the DirecTV receiver box from the office and put it in the overhead compartment above the passenger side and have everything prewired for hookups.
Our Kingdome is fairly new, possibly four years old, and I think the model # is 522.
Ok, I guess I'm different. I brought a Dish Tailgator and a Dish VIP211k. It's a carry out deal, but can be mounted at the rear ladder. Strickly stationary. Have not used it much, but we have a Dish account at home, and just call Dish and tell them to turn on the VIP211k and take off and have Dish most places we go. Cost something like a additional $5 a month. It came in really handy last week cause we had a power surge at home and it took out our stick & brick VIP722k dvr. So I grabbed the VIP211k out of the motorhome and switched units until the new dvr came in. But the only place the Tailgator could receive the bird was in the front yard sitting on the roof of my Jetta. Could not use the house mounted antenna cause it looks at different birds.
We're taking the old satellite system off the roof (can't even Google it, it's so old) and will be moving to a carry-out system. I'm glad to get the roof space back, frankly. Better put to use for solar power. We never watch TV while moving but I do like to watch the various info channels (History, Smithsonian, etc.). We have 5 years before we are anywhere near snowbirding and I'm pretty sure something new will be along the pike before then. :D
Craig
We use our VIP211k at home and move it to the coach when we travel. We do have a Winegard Trav'ler on the roof, but in some campgrounds we stay at in Maine and Vermont (like all of 2009 and 2010) and last year in Santa Fe the roof dish pointed at trees. We use a bought-off-eBay Dish mounted on a heavy duty tripod from TV4RV Heavy-Duty Tripod (http://tv4rv.com/sunshop/index.php?l=product_detail&p=7) and a signal finder to shoot through the trees. Works great!
Michelle