I am on my second KVH antenna and use Dish Network. I originally had a Trackvision 4, 18" dome and it worked with very little maintenance for 14 seasons - mostly software updates. It is mounted on a stern pole. It went obsolete this spring so I had to get a new model and it will do HD where the old one wouldn't. The new one is Trackvision 3, a 14" Dome, and it has an app that allows software updates wirelessly. It has nearly the same receive area footprint as the old T4, good for 100 miles offshore. My insurance limits me to 75 NM off shore, so this is all I need.
We just pay for an extra box that is on the boat so our home service covers the cost plus just the extra monthly box cost. We live in Clarksville, TN and Nashville is our "home" area. Our boat is on Kentucky Lake very near Kentucky Dam. When we went to Florida in 2013/14 down the Tenn-Tom to Mobile, then partial ICW and across the Gulf, ending in Punta Gorda, we switched " home" areas to continue to receive the major networks. We used Columbus, MS, Mobile, Panama City, Clearwater/Tampa and then Punta Gorda which uses Ft Myers. We had no problems in the Gulf and watched Tennessee and Alabama play football and my wife watched the Today show every morning as she does at home. It was great for keeping track of weather on the Weather Channel. On our crossing from Panama City to Clearwater and our return from Clearwater to Pensacola, we called Dish on our Globalstar and switched out "home"areas in the middle of the Gulf. To switch, you just give them an address like a marina where you are going and reset the box and it is changed. The whole process takes five to ten minutes max, including the call. The only thing that changes is the local channels as the rest of your channels stay with you all the time. It also changes your home service, so if you leave your boat somewhere and return home, you change back to your home area and then change back when you return to the boat.
We put a hard drive on this new setup and now have a DVR capability that we didn't have before. It is only able to record one channel and it is the channel you are watching, but you don't have to miss your favorite show if you are sailing to a destination, justbrecird and watch later.
The Trackvision 3 antenna is around $3000. My install was a couple hundred and bought a 211k receiver as that is the model that works with this antenna. We don't watch as much tv as we used to, but like having it when there is something we want to see.
You lose connection in heavy weather like you do at home, but the signal from KVH is stronger because it tracks on the satellite. I'm sitting on my boat now, going through some very heavy rain and we have been off and on now for about an hour. We had gusts to 30 knots a few minutes ago.
