WINEGARD TRAV®LER HD Satellite Dish
installed by
Ft. Myers Camping World Service Center
Last year (2007,) we received a notice from the President's Club of Camping World, that Winegard was shipping their new Automatic Satellite dish for DirecTV's new High Definition (HD,) satellites. Along with the notice was a coupon for a discount on the dish that helped Marie and I to make a call to Camping World in Ft. Myers, FL to make the purchase. Our call was transferred to John Wilson, the CW Rep. for Winegard, who took our order and Credit Card ... CW requires payment when the order is made, and we have no problem with this policy.
Here is where the tale gets murky :-) ... just as we placed our order, Winegard Research and Development announced that one of the motors failed the test! Deliveries to vendors, such as CW, were halted so Winegard could identify the problem and correct it. Impatience has ever been my cross to bare, and after waiting a suitable time, approximately a week, I placed a call to John Wilson with dire threats of cancelling the order and going elsewhere. He patiently waited for me to wind down, explained the problem, where-upon I said "Oh, OK!" Well, maybe not that easy, :-) ... but we did get back together and in February, the dish arrived, and we had an installation appointment.
The following Pictorial shows the dish being installed, after the old "In Motion" dish was removed. The young fellow doing the work is Dan, and I cannot fault any of his work, everything was done correctly and finished professionally. Oh, did I mention this was the FIRST Five Satellite monitoring dish they had installed? :-)
FINAL POST SCRIPT: Before leaving an Installation Center, make SURE all channels are working properly. We drove all the way back to Ft. Myers to learn that DirecTV requires two pass-through filters to change the frequencies to something their DVR can use. Lesson learned ... read ALL the manual.
And last but not least, a really big Thank You to Camping World for allowing Marie in the work area to take these (and many more,) pictures. If you are going to keep DirecTV, you will eventually need one of these Satellite Dishes, I hope you get someone as knowledgeable and friendly as CW's John Wilson.
We like our system even more now, because a heavy dew used to knock the in-motion off the air!
Getting this big dish lined up just right takes concentration ... eye to detail is what makes a good installation, and a Happy Customer!
Then, Dan the Man hoists the NEW up on our Country Coach!
(CLIFF'S NOTE: Where is John Wilson?)
Ahhhh! That's better! Working 5x5 ... time to head back to Ft. Lauderdale.
All lined up! Time to bolt it in place.
Now ... finding room for the control box inside an already packed cabinet. Does anyone still Tape shows :-) Dan put it on top of the DVD player. It's the Black Box between the VCR and DVR.
Ready for the SlimLine DISH.
Dan is average size, so you get an idea how large this dish really is.
Goes on easy as you please!
Knowing how makes it seem so, anyway!
Just about finished! Only a few wires to lock down and connect.
One more chore, caulk all those "new" holes in the roof. We need no LEAKS!
Run it through a few times, and take it outside to see some High Definition TV off the DirecTV satellites. Notice the dish is lower than the AC now.
What!?!? ... Did you run SETUP yet?