Free to Air Satellite TV Receivers

[Lance Norris]

I drive tractor-trailer long distance for a living now, and am going nuts because all I can get is over the air tv reception. There are times when I cant receive anything, because of where I stop for the night. So Ive decided to equip my truck with satellite tv. Its a simple thing to do, most drivers carry a home type dish with them and when they get stopped for the night, set up the dish, find the satellites and watch tv. I didnt want to mess around with setting up the dish and manually finding the satellites, so I bought a King Controls VuQube, which is a motorized dish you aim with its remote control. After I decided what antenna to get, I called Dish Network because the VuQube will only receive Hi-def programming on Dish Network, not Direct TV. So I tell the people @ Dish I want the Hi-def package and my local channels. "Im sorry sir, we no longer are allowed to offer long distance networks" Huh...? What's long distance networks? Its the ability to be able to see your local channels. Ok, Im cool with that as long as I can get ABC, CBS, NBC, and FOX. "Sorry sir, your not going to be able to do that." Long story short... I cant get the 4 major networks thru either Dish or Direct TV. Honest... Ive checked. If I had an rv, I could get them after I prove its an rv, by sending a copy of the registration and asking the FCC for a waiver, and then I could get the 4 majors through All American Direct, but only if its an rv, not a commercial vehicle(semi).

So then I see there are Free to Air receivers that work with the VuQube. The channel listings show local channels(from major cities)affiliated with the major networks. Does anyone have any experience with something like this? If I buy a FTA receiver, can I get network programming with one of these? Thanks for any responses.

[David G Baker]

A friend of mine pulls his home unit and takes it with him in his RV when he goes up North for the Summer. I don't recall his complaining about anything.

[James Jaragosky]

A friend of mine pulls his home unit and takes it with him in his RV when he goes up North for the Summer. I don't recall his complaining about anything.
Or buy some beater RV and park it on the back forty, and use the registration for the the receiver in the truck. i see beater rv go for as little as $300 on CL.
Jim J.

[Frank Hagan]

We used to have the east coast network feeds on Dish, up until just a few years ago. We were among the last cut off from it. We can't get antenna reception here (except for ABC out of Santa Barbara), and that used to be good enough. But the networks and local affiliates were able to stop that.

I'm surprised that a commercial truck doesn't qualify like the RVs do for an exemption.

If your truck stops have good wifi, you can also check out using a Slingbox and a laptop (either watching the show on the laptop or using a HDMI out to watch it on a TV). The Slingbox allows you to "sling" your TV reception anywhere you can get a fairly fast internet connection. Might be cheaper than paying a monthly bill to a satellite company.

Or, you could simply take one of your home Dish receivers with you. But you do have to plug it into your home phone line (or network) occasionally so it can "phone home". You may not get your locals everywhere in the country; I seem to remember that Dish uses "spot beam" transmission for the locals from different satellites, and they have a much smaller coverage area. But you'll get the rest of the programming for sure (and the locals for another area, maybe? Not sure).