Dish Network releases portable satellite antenna for tailgaters

Shawn Knight

Posts: 15,240   +192
Staff member

Kickoff to the 2011 college football season is less than a week away and the NFL officially gets things started the following week. Diehard football fans can often be found tailgating outside the stadium or on the campus of their favorite team, but doing so typically means missing coverage of other key games going on simultaneously.

Dish Network has come up with a solution to this dilema called the Tailgater, a portable television satellite antenna designed to keep tailgaters up-to-date on games from around the league.

The 10-pound device is encased in a weather-proof plastic shell and features a handle for easy transportation. Furthermore, the actual dish inside the shell can rotate to align with the closest satellite in the sky. A 50-foot coaxial cable is used to connect the dish to a near by television and requires a 110-volt power source. Users will also need a special receiver, model ViP 211k HD Solo, to tune in high-def channels.

Dish Network is offering the Tailgater for $350 and the Solo receiver is an extra $149.99. Current Dish customers can add the Tailgater to their monthly bill for $7 and the device can be deactivated once the season is over.

Of course, the Tailgater isn’t just for sports fans either. If you frequent the outdoors and would like to keep the kids entertained before bedtime, this could be a great option. And if you don’t believe there is a market for such a device, just visit any SEC school on a Saturday afternoon during the fall.

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LOL...DISH just now getting around to this, eh? DirecTV has had one out for the last 4 years at least. One of my good friends has no less than THREE 36" HDTV displays running via his mini-DirecTV satellite dish during tailgate parties. His tailgate spot is a very popular place. ;)
 
You friend is not watching HD programs from Directv on an automated portable dish like this - there is no such animal for Directv. Looks like this new antenna provides full HDTV access which would be much better on a 36" screen IMO.
 
LOL - OK Guest...I'll be sure to mention that to him as we're all watching HD football games on his 3 HDTV's in the stadium parking lot using his DirecTV satellite dish - going on 4 years now. And in fact, happening again this weekend. Yay! Football is finally here. :)
 
Tom is it a regular house hd antenna? i mean even dish users can do this.. or is it an actual portable lightweight antenna?
 
I'm guessing it's just a regular dish. Does it have 3 or 5 LNBs Tom? I've seen a DirecTV dish for RVs that mounts on a tripod, but it is still just a standard dish. I haven't seen anything like this one for this kind of price though. This seems like a real nice option.
 
I have spent more than that on decent tickets to one game for myself and a couple friends (Not counting concessions and souvenirs). $500 +$7/mo sounds like a pretty good bargain to me war59312.
 
I was gonna say that I've been seeing these all over tailgates for a few years now, I guess that was just DirectTV.
 
We snowboard on the weekends but we also love football so with DISH Network?s Tailgater we can have our party, board and watch the games. Here?s a quick look at it http://goo.gl/vd4M4. There are several cool features about the device but in my opinion as an employee of DISH the best part is it has 1080i resolution.
 
Personally I love my Tailgater. I’ve been using it a couple months now and take it camping several times and to one tailgating party so far. It’s performed flawlessly, set up is a snap and the picture looks great. Being a DISH Network employee I remember being really excited when I first heard about it, but now that I’ve used it I can honestly say it surpassed my expectations. SO much easier and more convenient than dragging around a dish on a tripod and having to acquire signal manually.
 
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