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SWITCHING IS BETTER THAN FIGHTING
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To paraphrase an old commercial, I would rather quit than fight. We were in a radio repair shop in central Florida in mid April to have the truck radio repaired and noticed that they were installers of Dish Network. I had already seen on the Internet that Dish was now carrying Major League Baseball Extra Innings and had checked that a land line telephone connection was not required.
A few weeks earlier I had checked with King Dome and was assured we could continue to use their system with Dish Network. We got a new switch for the system that would enable us to switch between satellites 119 and 110, but we never use it as all of the programming we normally view is on the 119.
The local shop was more than willing to install the Dish system for us and would even come to the campground to do it. They sent our national remote network waiver paperwork in via fax a few days before the installation so that we would not have to wait long for the network packages. I was thrilled that we would have PBS once again. Our network programming was turned on in just a few days. That is a lot faster than our experience with Direct. It took Direct several weeks.
Everything went well. The installer spoke to King Dome on the phone to make the necessary changes to the elevation and we were in business. We were even able to subscribe to the WB and UPN networks originating from New York City for a few dollars per month. Direct TV does not permit mobile accounts to subscribe to the national PBS, UPN and WB. We found that we were getting more stations for a lot less money than we were paying DirecTV. The service is infinitely better than it was with Direct, too.
When we began to reach northern areas the King Dome needed to be reprogrammed. King Dome charged my credit card 150 dollars plus shipping costs to send me a keypad. I called them when I received it and they walked me through the programming. I returned the keypad and they gave me credit for the 150 dollars plus the shipping cost. I was impressed with their service. The Escapees RV Club Magazine September and October issue carries my story about the King Dome conversion on page 45.
When we are staying in one spot for a while, I put up the tripod so that we can take advantage of the extra programs on the other satellite. With 2 receivers, it is impossible to watch programs on different satellites with the King Dome. I also kept the old Direct dish. When there are a lot of trees and one small hole through them, it is easier to point this dish at just the 119 satellite than it is to point the Dish that has to be skewed to receive two satellites at once.
Dish Network never requires a telephone connection unless one is ordering pay per view movies. This can also be done via internet, something that Direct did not permit. We do not watch them anyway.
Both the Good Sam Club and the Escapees RV Club, Inc. recommend Dish Network over DirecTV for RVers. Since it has never been the policy of Dish Network to invade the privacy of its customers, the no phone line policies of Dish are a much better fit for RVers. The pricing is better, too.
One other bonus of Dish Network is the free music channels from Sirius Satellite Radio. Dish has many, many more music choices than their more expensive competitor. With its welcoming policy for mobile accounts, more programming and better service, I only wish I had switched years ago.
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