What's Best Satellite Service: April 2014

Wednesday, April 30, 2014

Satellite Radio SXPL1V1 Onyx Plus with Vehicle Kit

Decent unit - had a Roady several years ago and was ready to come back to sat radio again. Regular FM radio and Pandora and other internet radio isn't always cutting it for me. Was able to use the existing antenna that I had installed for my Roady which was nice and can use the existing mount, although had to do a little bit of a modification with my Dremel so that the connections could be made, simple fix. Not easy for me to do a manual tune, although it is available as I have found out. Takes a little bit of learning to use it but nothing too hard to understand if you are patient. Only thing I don't like is the subscriptions that Sirius/XM have....they don't let you turn off auto-renew easily (I despise these kinds of things on my bank acct/credit card) and they're alot more expensive now than they were when I had my Roady a few years back. From what I found out, they apparently deleted my account from my previous usage so they have no 'specials' for former users coming back, which makes no sense. With their financial and stock issues, you would think they would give something, even if it is small, to welcome back a former user, but guess they don't want to reward those who have come back to their service....the service side when you talk to someone on the phone I know was never really good and seems they haven't fixed it - hope I don't run into the same problem as the last time when the agents don't understand the word NO. Anyway, we'll see how the next 6 mo goes. If you want a good radio unit, this is a great one, just be ready for any cust service issue that you have to talk to someone as being sub-par
Satellite Radio SXPL1V1 Onyx Plus with Vehicle Kit

Winegard MP-1 Portable Satellite TV Antenna

This is our second Winegard MP-1 dish (my brother-in-law just had to have our 1st one!)

To say this works well, is an understatement - it is incredibly easy to setup and align, decent fade margin under most conditions, and never gives us the slightest trouble - then, it is incredibly small and the package is perfectly designed for storage (everything, including cables, (even 50' extra) sat alignment meters, sighting compass, (yes I know it comes with one, but I prefer my Suunto sighting compass) and some assorted connectors)

Winegard MP-1 Portable Satellite TV Antenna

When the automatic dish on our RV is blocked, this is a perfect work around (or it could be your ONLY dish for that matter)

There really are no negatives for this small manual dish - If I have to come up with one, it can be a bit "twitchy" for the first time user to set the elevation, but that's a "reach" to find something - azimuth is simply not an issue especially if you use the supplied base (but we seldom use the base) - no skew adjustment to deal with - we also don't use the water "weight" container, haven't needed it - If you do use the "weight down" container, maybe use "VERY DRY" sand in the winter

Price is VERY good in my opinion and the product simply works!

I can hardly believe how well it works!

Winegard MP-1 Portable Satellite TV Antenna

Tuesday, April 29, 2014

Satellite Satellite Finder Meter For Directv

I could not line up my DirecTV satellite antennae, so I bought this meter, at a better price than I could find on e-Bay or anywhere else ( by about $35.00!). I still could not get it to work, so I called in a professional installer. It turned out the problem was elsewhere, but I was most impressed with the meter, and so was the technician. He said it worked better than his did, and after fixing the real problem, used mine to line up to the satellite. When I told him what I paid, he said he was going to replace the one he had, and order this one! We had 80 mile an hour winds come through this week, and of course, they blew my antennae off target. Lined it back up in minutes!

Satellite Satellite Finder Meter For Directv

Monday, April 28, 2014

Manual Portable Satellite TV Antenna

Winegard GM-MP1 Carryout Black MP1 Manual Portable Satellite TV Antenna

Manual Portable Satellite TV Antenna

Bought this for our new travel trailer to use with our second DishTV receiver. Not very easy to find the satellite and of course can only view one satellite at a time. If you want HD, you have to shift locations, and then back to others for different channels. Wished I has saved my money to apply towards a VuQube which will find all satellites on it's own and you only have to change channels and it will find the satellite for you.

Manual Portable Satellite TV Antenna

Sunday, April 27, 2014

Satellite DirecTv 18-Inch Satellite Dish

When setting this up, it is nice to know that this is considered a normal 18" round dish in the Directv satellite setup even though this on is an egg shaped. Then select multi-switch and SWM greys out the normal 18" round on the setup screen.

The bar has a level which makes it easy to plumb.
Satellite DirecTv 18-Inch Satellite Dish

SiriusXM Satellite Radio XEZ1V1 Onyx EZ Satellite Radio

If you have a subscription to SiriusXM in your car or if you want to listen at home, this is a small unit that picks up satellite radio and plays it through any radio.

1. I play this through a home stereo CD/radio through the auxiliary port. This is an outlet on the back of most stereo systems. Simply connect the cable from this port to the Onxy and select "AUX" to hear satellite stations through your stereo system. You will be controlling the choice of stations on the Onxy unit.

2. If you don't have satellite radio installed in your vehicle, or if you want to share one subscription between two vehicles, you can mount a magnetic antenna on the outside of the car, and play this by connected through the 12v DC "cigarette lighter" outlet in the car or if your car has an "aux" connector to its stereo system, you can use that.

This radio comes in two "flavors"--home kit and car kit. If you want both, you'd have to buy an accessory kit to add home or auto capability to whatever choice you make.

You need a subscription to XMSirius. If you have a subscription for your car, you can add an additional radio for home use. It's an extra subscription charge to also play over the internet on your computer. If you prefer, you could use an internet subscription and play via your Kindle, tablet, phone over Wifi rather than using a radio and a stereo system.

Downsides:

Not easy to change channels in the car, even with presets on the buttons.

If you are using the FM broadcasting method to pick the radio up in your stereo, it's a bit weak in terms of signal.
You have to be right next to the radio and sometimes the "blank" channel you choose will become a broadcast channel as you travel down the road

SiriusXM Satellite Radio XEZ1V1 Onyx EZ Satellite Radio

EZ Satellite Radio with Vehicle Kit

This radio is great, and a welcome replacement from my aging Starmate replay. The problem is that this radio is NOT a Sirius receiver, it is an XM. By activating this receiver to my existing Sirius account (for a $15 activation fee), I lost channels that I already had with my Sirius subscription (Howard Stern, Nascar, Ect.). After an hour wasted wasted with an "account specialist", they told me that XM didn't offer the same package that I had with Sirius BUT they would be happy to "upgrade" my account to their "all access" plan for an additional $3 a month to get back the channels that I was already receiving for a cheaper monthly rate. Absolutely ridiculous! If I had known this Prior to purchasing this radio, I never would have. Don't make the same mistake that I did, if you are already a Sirius subscriber. The problem in my instance was not the Onyx at all, it is SiriusXM extorting their services in a sleazy way.

EZ Satellite Radio with Vehicle Kit