Anyone with Winegard RD-9046 portable dish receiver experience?

[sharkhead]

Hello,

Does anyone have any experience using the Winegard RD-9046 potable dish with free to air receivers?  If so, how well does it work?--can you use it with an HD FTA receiver?  Any info or advice is greatly appreciated!

Ben III

[ClydesdaleKevin]

My only experience with Winegard is with their old fashioned umbrella type antenna that folds up manually into a PVC tube (decent omnidirectional reception, a good price, they still sell them new for around 40 bucks, but not amplified) and the new Winegard Sensar III, HD and digital ready, amplified, and with OUTSTANDING reception (again, a decent price, easy to install if you follow the directions carefully, and did I mention the reception is outstanding?).

I have a grudge against dishes...lol!  I refuse to PAY for television...if the government wants to lull the masses into complacency by entertaining them into mindless oblivion on the boob tube, then it should sure as heck be free!  And I'll get a free channel I enjoy now and then to watch a free program I enjoy now and then...like House, Bones, 24...the news and weather...and some informative stuff on PBS stations.

Antiestablishment Kev...lol!

[ibdilbert01]

This is a topic I too been interested in.  I've looked into the in motion winegard dishes and have been read on other FTA forums that it probably will not work.   I'd bet the Wineuard RD-9046 will work though, as it appears to be a normal style dish.  I hope you continue to post what you find out as I'm interested to read about your answers. 

"I have a grudge against dishes...lol! " Kev, FTA is Free to Air, you don't pay for the service.

[ClydesdaleKevin]

Hmmmm...sounds interesting, especially since you can get the History Channel and several PBS type stations.  I Googled "FTA" to see what you were talking about and did some research.

But in English it seems the choices are very limited and we can get as many channels of the genre we would actually view on our UHF/VHF antenna.  Looks like the majority of the FTA stations are either Religious (From Christian to Al Jazeera), or are ethnic in various languages. 

I'd still like to know more though, so if anyone else uses this FTA type system, then by all means let me know what channels you are actually recieving.

Another drawback to FTA that I saw was that it uses two bandwidths.  KU Band is the one that allows you to use the small dishes that would be convenient for use in an RV, but it seems to be VERY limited in channel selection since most of the KU bandwidth is taken up with pay stations.  C Band has a lot of channels, including internationally much like Short Wave radio, but it requires the use of those HUGE old style satellite dishes that you see covered in weeds and vines in people's backyards from time to time.

And to get enough channels on the KU band to make the system actually worth the cost, it appears that you have to be very good at aiming a dish, because you have to aim it at multiple satellites depending on what channel you want to watch, or else have a motorized dish that will aim itself once you set the coordinates, or get a VERY expensive self-tracking dish...but again, even KU band requires a good sized dish, not a mini-dish, so your choices are limited.

I could have some of this wrong, but that is what I've learned so far from reading about 7 different websites on the matter.

Kev