T&T: Direct TV DVR with a KVH C3 - My Experiences

[Jim Barrentine]

I ordered Direct TV service for my boat in April.  I have a KVH C3 
antenna.  The boat was located in Marathon, FL and I did not tell 
Direct TV that the service was for a boat.  I just gave my slip 
number for an "apartment".  I ordered a DVR with the service.

The installer showed up and had no problem with installing the 
service on a boat.  He did have to call Direct TV during the 
installation process to get a "waiver" because there was no land line 
attached.  The receiver actually stopped the installation process and 
told him he needed a waiver.  Apparently the waiver was sent from the 
Direct TV satellite to my receiver.

My local stations at the time of installation were out of Miami.  In 
May we started north in the boat and received the Miami locals all 
the way to Titusville.  I did not try to have Direct TV change the 
locals since we were moving every day.

When we arrived in Oriental, NC I decided to see if I could get 
Direct TV to change my locals.  Direct TV was very willing to change 
my locals but said, "You will need a second dish".  Remember that 
they don't know I am a boat with a moveable antenna.  I did notice 
that all the houses had two Direct TV dishes.

I called KVH where I got completely incorrect information.  They were 
still trying to tell me that you could not use a Direct TV DVR as the 
primary receiver.  I finally called a local KVH dealer figuring that 
they would have dealt with this problem.  They had and now I know the 
straight story.

Most Direct TV programming is on the 101 (that's the longitude) 
satellite.  That is the default satellite that the C3 is set up to 
find when it is turned on.  The locals for Oriental are on the 72 
satellite, so the two dishes I was seeing on houses were pointed to 
the 101 and 72 satellites respectively.

In order to watch the locals in Oriental, I would need to tell my C3 
to point at the 72 satellite.  The KVH support person said that the 
receiver was supposed to send a signal to the dish to change 
satellites.  Wrong.  No Direct TV receiver sends any signals to a 
dish.  Some KVH systems other than the C3 come with KVH receivers and 
they probably do send signals to the dish.

The solution for me is to program the C3 for a second satellite (in 
my case, 72).  This is done via a serial cable connected to a 
maintenance port and a laptop. This only needs to be done once and 
then the C3 remembers the second satellite.   I then need to buy a 
TV/SAT switch from KVH.  This plugs into the maintenance port and has 
two positions - Satellite 1 and Satellite 2.  Then to watch 
programming on the 101 satellite I set the switch to Satellite 1 and 
to watch programming on the 72 satellite I set the switch to Satellite 2.

Many locals stations are on the 101 satellite so this will not be an 
issue for a lot of people considering the KVH C3.  To see what 
channels are on the 101 satellite, go to 
http://www.lyngsat.com/packages/directvusa101.html



Hope this helps someone.