WinegardPA-6002 Dish Pathway X2 Portable Satellite TV Antenna

Its really not fair to post a raving review after owning the product for only 24 hours, but I want to give my first impressions of this package deal. It came in a big box with no apparent damage and both the satellite and the Wally were brand new unused items. Setup was quick and the activation and Flex program package were painless to setup through Dish customer service. Once the initial setup and programing was completed and paid for I unplugged the Wally and moved the dish over a bit as during the activation process I noticed the signal was at 31 because it was aimed directly at the Chimney on my roof. After plugging the Wally back in it was exactly 11min from plug in to watching TV on the screen. The signal was now at 53. My Dish salesman was great, but you got to listen to them when they start reading the Agreement because the rascal tried to slip the protection charge in there that I did not want. Only time will tell how this system stands up to the riggers of camping but I would highly recommend it to anyone. Servicing your account through myDish is very straight forward as well. Next in line for us will be the DVR activation and possibly the OTA adapter. I will update all this as time permits. For now I just setup the dish on a flat level ground, so I did not purchase the stand for it.*Update 3/26/2018* After leaving the system setup for 3 days, all updates and Channel icons have downloaded. The DVR still gives you only one record at a time while still having to watch what you record, but not a big deal to me, just record stuff in the middle of the day/night and you'll have plenty to watch. I've tested both Eastern and western arc satellites with no problems.*Update 5/13/2018* System still working great, but like Dish says, your external hard drive has to be the powered type or the hard drive will act up and has to be reformatted. Not so with the powered hard drive. DO NOT buy the OTA adapter, it will only pick up About 2/3 the channels your rabbit ears will pick up. IE 72 on rabbit ears for me and only 51 on OTA adapter, and never the all the local channels at the same time.

My last Pathway X2 lasted 8 years. It worked great at temps above 100 deg F and below zero. When it rained or snowed I almost always had good signal. The only time I lost signal was in extremely hard torrential rain. When it finally quit working a week ago I picked up the latest King Tailgater. Now every time we get even a light rain with the Tailgater, we lose signal. I’m returning the Tailgater and buying another Pathway X2. The better performance of the Pathway during weather events is due to the bigger dish size of the Pathway. NOTE - the Pathway X2 is getting hard to find these days. I believe Weingard may be discontinuing these - too bad. Pathway X2 is hands down the best portable automatic dish on the market.

I waited to review until we had a full camping season. I set up the unit in my back yard with clear view of eastern arc satellites, but not so much of the western arc. When I had difficulties, I contacted Dish, and she said I should use western arc satellites for first set-up. She said I should download “SatFinder Lite” app to assure my dish had a clear view of all western arc satellites. It really helped and I continued to use the app thru the summer. With the western arc satellites, I was able to set up the system.During the season, we we used eastern arc sometimes and western arc sometime, depending on reception. A bonus to the wingard x2 is the availability of both arc satellites. Every trip I was able to access either eastern or western, but never both.I purchased the tripod stand but don’t use the ground stakes nor tie down. I purchased a 15 lb boat anchor and hang it from the bottom of the tripod. That allows me to use it on top of my camper as well. Caution: used a commercial roof walkway pad to protect the camper roof from the feet of the tripod.

Works great but it is bigger than tailgate which would be much easier to move if you are a RVer.

This has been an awesome addition to my camper. I use it with the portable tripod stand and anchor it down up on the roof. I was putting it all on the ground but I was worried that it would grow legs and run off :)It works as it should, automatically searching the sky for the DISH network satellites. The software to do that is on the VIP 211z receiver that I also purchased at the same time as this antenna. The antenna is powered by the receiver. I have it connected with a 25 foot coax cable that came with the receiver. I have very little issues with storms interfering with reception, maybe only once did this happen. One time someone walked in front of it, when I had it set up on the ground, and it lost the picture for a few seconds, I guess you could say that that is sort of like a burglar alarm :)I have not been able to see if it picks up the east coast satellites like it is suppose to and I won't be able to until next year when we venture out to Maine. Also, I have not bought a HDD to hook up to the receiver and use as a DVR. This antenna is suppose to be able to have 2 receivers hookup to it but I think the ability to watch 2 different shows on the 2 different receivers. I will report back when I know more or if I experience any problems.