New Rooftop Dish Antenna

A while back I replaced the old Dish antenna with a new HD one and it works great. But now we’re in Port Susan under the trees and it doesn't work any better than the old one!

The original satellite antenna on the Horizon roof was installed when there were only two satellites in the sky for Dish.  It only locked on one at a time.  As you changed a channel on the other satellite the antenna automatically switched.  As time went on more satellites were sent up. Our antenna starting failing to lock on its satellite. As I understand it, the antenna located the first satellite using GPS then it used that location to locate the second satellite.  When it started failing, it was finding one of the new satellites, which it couldn’t identify, and that sent it searching until it stopped without finding anything.  Winegard, the manufacture, said it needed new some new parts and software but neither of which were available.

The new antenna can lock on all three Dish satellites at the same time.  I had decided to buy the antenna and have it installed on this trip as we traveled through Quartzsite. I contacted a couple of dealers and got the cost to remove the old one and install the new one, around six hundred dollars. After reading the installation manual and watching a video I decided to do the installation myself.

The hardest part of the install was lifting the new antenna up to the roof by myself. 

One task I worried about was having to cut a hole in the roof to route the new cables inside.  It looked like the hole would have to be a lot further forward , about eight feet,  than the existing access hole.  I thought I would try to pull the new wires in with the old wires. I hoped the old wires weren’t  fastened inside the roof.  I attached the wires together and then pull on them. They move about six inches then hung up. I pulled with all my strength and hooray they broke free and the new wire came through.

Dish replaced my old receiver with a new unit and now we can record two show and watch a recorded show at the same time.

The new antenna works great. Finds and locks on all three satellites, except under trees!