First time having my own tailgate, and am interested in setting up the tv. I have uverse at home, and I'd like to find a way to watch games before our game.

I don't have a generator, but I've heard you can simply buy a battery and an inverter at Wal Mart or something and run it off that. But where would I pick up the dish in order to get the signal? Does it work through my system at home? Any tips would be appreciated.

you cannot be serious. uverse will not work unless you use sling and a wifi solution OR a very very long cable. If you want ABC/CBS you could use OTA antenna, anything else will require wireless internet accesss (mifi) with computer/sling/espn3 or satellite dish and receiver.

Unless you plan on being a "professional" tailgater and do it often your cheapest and easiest route is to setup next to somebody who already has a tv solution.

You can't setup a receiver and portable dish with uverse? You can with Directv, cant' you?

uverse isnt sat service like dish and direct. it runs of fiber optic and stays at your house.

get dish if you want to watch outside the game

oldyella...what channel are you able to get ABC with an OTA antenna in CS?

Ok. So if I get an OTA antenna only, what would the setup be?

HDTV, generator or batter/inverter, OTA Antenna...and that's it?

And yes, I'd like to know if you're able to get ABC/CBS using the OTA outside of Kyle as well, like kristin asked.

[This message has been edited by Dr. Stewart Price (edited 9/13/2011 10:59a).]

beat me to it.

[This message has been edited by AG 07 (edited 9/13/2011 10:59a).]

Sorry, I'm not a techie. I had no idea. Does it really matter?

ABC OTA is broadcast in HD on 40-1

[This message has been edited by FlyingAg14 (edited 9/13/2011 11:01a).]

dp

[This message has been edited by FlyingAg14 (edited 9/13/2011 11:02a).]

Your very own tailgate eh?

I know we can get CBS (KBTX) on digital channel 3.1, but didn't think we could get ABC. I'll have to try it when I get home this evening. If so, I will be one happy tailgater!!!

[This message has been edited by kristin87ag (edited 9/13/2011 11:04a).]

When I was camping out for tickets outside of the zone I was able to get all the local HD channels with a cheap antenna. 40-1, 28-1, 23-1, and 3-1.

Go visit some other tailgaters this weekend and see what they have going on. Talk to people and take notes and see first hand what works. Find a tailgate that looks fun and find the person in charge of the tailgate, tell him what you want to do and ask for tips.
Of course doing this will probably just get you invited to a bunch of tailgates that are far better than a grassroots ("im not a techie" tailgate and you'll save a lot of time and money just going to one of their's instead.

[This message has been edited by gigemrangers (edited 9/13/2011 11:14a).]

For some perspective from what I consider myself to be a "professional". This took several seasons to "mature" since I budget what I spend on tailgating crap each year.

Audio/Video Layout:
1800 Watt Generator
1000 Watt Generator (Backup)
1000 Watt Power Inverter backup to backup
DirecTV SWM dish mounted on a tripod
Three DirecTV receivers HD21,22,25
Three TV's 2x32, 1x37
Sony AV receiver multi HDMI in and out
2 Blaupunkt outdoor speakers
Nintendo Wii

Laptop Computer
Verizon 4G mifi hotspot
ESPN3 account

[This message has been edited by oldyella (edited 9/13/2011 11:21a).]

Holy ****.

Where are you? I need to come by and draw a f'n diagram and figure that out.

I am doing this for the first time this year at our yearly tailgate (OK st.) for us.

This is what we have we are going to run two 125amp/hour marine deep cycle batteries in parallel with a 400watt inverter to a 32" LCD tv.

We are in the middle of trying to get our direct tv to work we are not sure if it is a problem w/ pointing our dish, or a problem with the dish itself or a problem with the dish and receiver trying to communicate with each other. We found this old dish in a friends garage.
So worse comes to worse we are going to use an antenna... and from what i hear it def. picks up ABC and CBS. In CS they get ABC from Waco and it used to be hard to get a signal w/ an antenna but they set up a repeater station several miles from campus so the signal should be solid is what i hear.

No generators allowed a spence park which is why we decided to go battery. If you are going to tailgate around Reed by all means a generator is probably going to be a little easier to work -- not as many pieces and wires, etc. and you can always bring extra gas in case you run out. W/ batteries if you run out you're done.

Lauzarus

The dish must work for the receiver. If you have an HD receiver the dish must say slimline on it. If it is just round and you are using HD, no worky. Also it must be perfectly plumb in relation to gravity and pointed almost due south with the right elevation and angle offset (HD is much trickier than SD). If all that is good, check the cables (I had a problem with that last year). My advice is to start with a known - at your house with good power, good dish, good receiver and start decouplping from there.

quote:

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This is what we have we are going to run two 125amp/hour marine deep cycle batteries in parallel with a 400watt inverter to a 32" LCD tv.

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How much does a batter/inverter setup run?

Also, is there a directional issue with an OTA Antenna at all?

[This message has been edited by Dr. Stewart Price (edited 9/13/2011 11:34a).]

FlyingAg...what brand of cheap antenna are you using to get those OTA channels. I'm not having any luck with mine on the NBC or ABC channels (23-1 and 40-1)

[This message has been edited by Kristin87ag (edited 9/13/2011 6:16p).]

#1 Tailgate rule- probably 80% of us have tailgated in the same spot for years and years (at least in Spence). Dont be a carpetbagger and take someone elses real estate.

^^^THIS

I would highly recommend the Tailgater made by Dish. The dish/receiver setup will cost about $500, and they allow you to go month by month on the subscription, no contract. The nice thing about it, is it is an autofinding setup. You just plug it in and it finds the signal for you (which if you've never tried to set one up before, finding the signal is a big pain in the rump). Recommend the Honda 2000 generator, it is quiet, fuel efficient, and best of all is a true sine wave generator so it won't damage your sensitive electronics.

oldyella - some people just don't know how much work this tailgating can be and what all goes into it do they? They need to take a gander over to our lot and we can teach them a thing or two!

Tailgating is not that hard, but not easy either. I have friends that help set up. Dishnetwork is usually the best. I can set mine up in 15 min,bought two receivers from
dish that are In HD. I did not have to sign a contract. I tailgate in parking lot E come by and I can help you set up.
Email me at rbrinnel@att.net



[This message has been edited by Cancia (edited 9/14/2011 10:08a).]

I'm ready. I bought 104 miles of HQ coax and will use my home's digital cable connection for the feed. Just attach it to a semi-portable HD TV run off of my IPAD and I'm ready to go.

I am curious as to the brand of HD antenna also. We have direct TV and run our rig off 3 marine batteries. I would like to add the HD antenna as a backup.

Below is the setup my Dad and I have put together over the past 3-4 years. Every year we have added something new. We started fartin around with power inverters running off of our pickups, and decided that was not enough power so we got a generator. Then after I graduated we didn't have anywhere to store all of our crap so we bought a cargo trailer and mounted a 50" TV in the side. After a year of messing with a dish trying to find the signal we invested in an HD dish that automatically finds the signal. (probably our best investment yet) Last year I completed it with a QSC sound system. We can be set up and watching TV in about 10 mins these days. It is amazing how much crap you will end up with.

dont you have to have 2 dishes to get local channels and non local channels?

did somebody say Blaupunkt?

Guess who else has a Blaupunkt?

How are first timers supposed to know what is someone else's real estate? Do you take a piss around the perimeter each week to mark your territory?