It Works!

The TV, that is.  Five years ago, when we bought our last new 5th wheel trailer, we had a technician come out to where we were parked at Chatfield State Park to help us install our Dish Network satellite service in the RV.  He did get that working, sort of, to the main TV but not to the set in the bedroom.  When we got to Mesa, we had another technician come and he fixed it so we could see the Dish service on both TVs.  He also showed us how to change the connections and use the roof-top antenna.  We were never able to hook up to cable TV, which is available in most RV parks. And in the past year, the antenna signal also failed to work.

With this new RV, we have had excellent reception with both the antenna and cable.  However, the rig is wired to use a roof-top Direct TV satellite antenna and we have a Winegard carry-out Dish antenna. So, we called around Mesa until we found someone who would come to the RV and install the system for us. That wasn't easy.  Dish wanted to guide us over the phone to set it up ourselves.  I called the technician recommended by Dish and never received a call back.  The local Radio Shack couldn't recommend anyone.  Finally, we found someone willing to help us. Were we ever lucky!

Doug of Components Electronics in nearby Gilbert came.  They install home theater systems, among other things.  Doug is very thorough and a perfectionist.  He had never seen a system like ours.  That big TV I showed in a previous post is on an electronic lift and raises and lowers from a cabinet.  There is virtually no access to the back of the TV.  There is an electronic box in the cabinet where each component of the system is wired to so it communicates to the TV.  He knew what all the parts were, but it took him a while to figure how to integrate our Dish receiver into the system.

John explained the problems we had in the past and asked that he please not take apart anything that was already working.  It took him two hours, but he got everything working!  That means satellite, cable, antenna, CD player in the bedroom and Blue-ray player in the living room.  Wow!  We are delighted.  When we told him how hard it was to find someone to do this job, he said lots of people won't come out on a job that is less than $1,000.  As much as we like our TV, it certainly isn't worth that!

After Doug left, we headed to the Container Store in Scottsdale. Many of the cupboards in this new RV are large but don't have any shelves. We needed lots of stuff to make those spaces more useful and to keep items in place, especially when we travel. Look at what we came home with.



Once installed in several different places, our storage space is much more useful. Maybe in another week or two, we will finally feel like we have a place for everything and everything in its place. Right now, we are always looking around, asking where did I put the "________" last time (fill in the blank).

All Better

Earlier this week, I complained about problems. Everything is back in working order now. And today was a completely ordinary day. Yea.

The new satellite TV antenna that we bought and set up didn't make a bit of difference. We gave it a try for one evening, then decided it wasn't the fix we needed. By that time we had checked out every possible problem--the wiring, the settings, the antenna location, the antenna equipment--except the Dish receiver, our DVR. As Barbara and Ron suggested in a comment, that was the only part of the system we hadn't addressed.

Thursday I called Dish and was routed to a higher level technician. She quickly agreed, the DVR could be the problem. She ordered a new one to be shipped to us. After checking to see how long we had been customers, she even shipped it air overnight and waived the extra charge! We also boxed up the new antenna and shipped it back. The old antenna is back in place.

The DVR arrived about 10 am Friday. After nearly 90 minutes on the phone with Dish to get everything working correctly, we finally have TV that doesn't break up.

Not only that, but John took the gas strut supports for our bed to RV Traders and the head service tech showed him how to reattach them properly. So we can again easily access the under bed storage.

It was so nice to spend all day today not addressing problems!

Problems

Just because we are relaxing in the Arizona sun for the winter doesn't mean we don't face problems once in a while.

Our Dish Network TV signal was working fine for the first 6 weeks we were here. Then the picture began breaking up (pixelating) periodically. But more on that later.

Today, we lifted up the mattress in our bedroom and everything moved--in new ways. We knew there was some sort of problem. We moved the mattress to the side of the bed and saw this.



Anyone who has an RV with under-bed storage knows that space is not supposed to be there. The screws holding the top section of the hinges pulled out of the wood. Oops! Here, John is looking through his screws to see if he could find what he needed. Nope. So we made a trip to Lowe's.



He reattached the first hinge, then tried to lower the mattress support. It wouldn't budge. Apparently, the gas struts were damaged when the hinges came loose. Here, he is unscrewing one end of the strut so we could lower the support.



He had tools, tool boxes and screws everywhere.





After reattaching the second hinge, he went to the internet, trying to find a solution to the inoperable struts.



Then, it was back to the TV problem. We had spent maybe an hour on the phone with Dish Network, trying to fix the bad picture. Finally, they said we would need to find a local technician to troubleshoot our problem. So, we spent $89 on a technician who spent over an hour moving the satellite dish and checking all our hardware. He finally said it had to be the Winegard Carryout dish. So, we ordered a new one. Today, it was delivered.



John assembled it.



And it made no difference at all! We are getting a signal strength of only 32 or 33 for satellite 119. The RV across the road has a signal of 77. And we have a better view of the southern sky than they do.

So, this problem has not been solved yet.

A Mini-Vacation

We spent five nights in Big Bend National Park—with no cell phone signal and only minimal internet when we walked up to the Rio Grande Village store. It has been ages since we were in this situation. No blog reading. We couldn’t look something up on Google. I couldn’t check the bank accounts. Or do any other business. No youtube videos.

We were ready to move on and get back our connection to the outside world. But the enforced isolation made this into a mini vacation. That meant we did more exercise. We did more reading. We looked out the window and then went to take pictures of what we saw. We slowed down.

In our early years of RVing, before we had broadband cards for internet and before most RV parks offered free wi-fi, going on a trip meant leaving the outside world behind. Back then, we often didn’t have TV either. At Big Bend, our satellite TV worked great. So we were only sort-of cut off.

How many of you remember going to the campground office to download email from their fax line or plugging a phone cord into the side of a pay telephone? And you needed a calling card to make phone calls. Broadband, wi-fi and cell phones have changed all that and made it much easier to live full-time on the road. But once in a while it is good to take a vacation from all that connection and just relax.

Frustration...Resolved

Anyone who knows what John is doing in this photo knows the frustration he is facing.



Each time we move to a new site and set up the RV for more than a day or two, John pulls out this portable satellite antenna, gets out the compass to find out where north is, enters our zip code in the "point dish" screen on our TV, makes sure the tripod is level, sets three angles on the antenna, then starts looking, actually listening, until he has a strong signal. We turn on the walkie-talkies and when he gets a signal, I tell him how strong it is and what satellite it is from. Often this whole process takes an hour or more.

Finally, the frustration was more than he wanted to deal with. So our first day here at Lathrop, we went on the web and ordered a Winegard Traveler antenna and tripod. Friday it arrived.



The frustration is resolved. While I was working that evening, John was able to set up this wonderful new gadget, hook it up, and wonder of wonders, he immediately had TV reception from all three satellites we need for local stations, HD and all regular channels. The marvelous piece of equipment finds the satellites all by itself. We are so excited!

Friday night, after I came home from the Camp Store at 8, it started to rain. It really poured for a while, then rained lightly most of the night. When John went out Saturday morning to clean fire pits, he found about 3 inches of water in his bucket. That much rain caused a number of problems around the park. This campsite had a lake when the campers woke up.



These folks had a wet sleeping bag they hung on their truck to dry.



The maintenance staff had to pull out the heavy equipment and the shovels to repair road damage in the Yucca primitive camping loop.





Oops, these folks must have had more than their sleeping bags soaked in the rain.



And there was a new lake in the picnic area in front of the Visitor Center.



On Saturday, just as we came back to our trailer for lunch, we received a call that a friend from Denver, Sharon Stewart, was there to see us. We drove down to meet here. Sharon was parish administrator and senior warden when John was rector at St. Gabriel's in Cherry Hills Village. She had been visiting Kathy Boeschenstein, the vicar of St. Luke's Episcopal Church in the nearby town of Westcliffe. They were out for a drive and decided to bring their lunch to Lathrop and see if they could find us. We had such a good time talking that it wasn't till they had driven away that we remembered we hadn't taken their picture.

Three's a Charm

I hope three times really is the charm. Because that would mean we are done with problems for a while. At the first of the month one of our two air conditioners died. With a 36-foot RV you need two and that week in Richmond, VA, was very hot. Last week our Dish Network DVR died. Tuesday John’s computer looked like it was on its death bed.

After getting a new adapter cord for the computer, when we returned to the RV, Windows wouldn’t open. So first thing Tuesday morning we took it back to Staples in Glen Falls. The tech, Keith, thought it just needed to go back to a previous restore point. That didn’t work, so we left it with him to do diagnostics. He called later and said the hard drive was kaput and we needed a new one. Go ahead, we told him. To make a long story less long, about 7:30 pm we told him we would run down to the store at 9 am the next day to pick up the computer before we drove out of town at 10. He said he would come in early the next morning to finish the job. When we arrived at 9, he had been working since 6:30 am and, finally, it was working.

Then we drove to Syracuse to Camping World, where our air conditioner was waiting. After the new one hadn’t arrived in Richmond after 11 days, we had moved on. Dometic first said they had to get the first one they sent returned before they would ship one to another location. I finally talked to a supervisor and they agreed to send a new one to a Keystone dealer, Camping World RV Sales, in Syracuse, NY. We camped out in their parking lot over night Wednesday and they installed it Thursday morning. When I say camped out, I mean it.






They offer electric hookups, but the electricity voltage was so low we didn’t dare use it. So we got out our two Honda generators to provide electricity to run the air conditioner.



The water hookup didn’t produce water, so we drove to Walmart to buy jugs of water. But it is a free overnight spot! And I didn’t have to cook dinner—we stopped at KFC and picked up a meal.

Thursday morning we planned to spend the time sitting in our truck with the cats. However, they didn’t want to unhitch our truck and trailer, so we sat in the waiting room with the two cats for three hours. Thank heavens the cats are old enough to sleep all that time.

The new Dish DVR was delivered to the RV park in Waterloo, where we are spending two days, and we installed it this evening. Tomorrow we will set up the satellite dish and hope everything works.

Now we are whole again—if it works. We certainly hope we stay that way for a while.