Coaxial cable problem

[SREED]

I am new to the RV world. We bought a 2013 Shasta, Revere. I am trying to get my satellite to work with my camper but I am not having any luck. I know the satellite is working fine. I run my cable straight into camper from dish and it works. I can not seem to get a signal when I connect the cable to the labeled satellite port on the outside of camper. I have a satellite and a cable connection on the outside. I've tried both to see if they were miss labeled and still doesn't work. I have also bought a Coaxial cable tester as I use it for work. I have checked every outlet in the camper and cannot seem to get a signal anywhere. I was wondering if anyone has any ideas where to look for the splitters that are used or where the cables are generally ran to in order to make the connections inside before splitting. Any help would be GREATLY appreciated!!! Thanks,

Shawn

[Ida Ratherbe Camping]

Look to where the booster is for the air channels. Wires probably crossed in there.

[BarryD0706]

You didn't say where you are connecting the receiver inside. Do you have an Aux/Sat port like in this picture or some separate connection marked "Sat"?


Do you have a Sat outlet at more than one TV location? Hopefully not, which would suggest no splitters.

There may just be bad fittings on the Sat wire.

[SREED]

At my entertainment center there are two outlets. Neither are labeled. One has the 12v outlet with the power button to the digital antenna and a coaxial connection. The other plate just has a plate with a coaxial. So there are two separate plates with coaxial connections. There is one in the master bedroom that has one coax connector and in the bunkroom there are two coax connectors on two separate covers. There is also one in the outdoor kitchen as well.

[SREED]

I tried connecting to the coaxial at the 12v outlet to see it the wires were crossed but that didn't help. When I pulled the covers off and tried to trace the wires I did notice that I have an orange coaxial cable at the entertainment center and when I took the outlet off that is located outside, that cable is white. That's why I believe there is a splitter somewhere and hoping that there are some loose connections there or something that simple!!!

[Ida Ratherbe Camping]

Like I said my splitter was at the plug that Barry pictured. Have you tried to unhook the cables at both plugs and test them with your tester. Mine was not so much air and sat crossed as input was mixed with bedroom outlet. Clear as mud, huh....

[BarryD0706]

So there are double outlets in the bunk room and double in the living room. Yes, it sounds like they put a splitter in the Sat line. I think that splitter will be behind one of the bunkhouse outlets or one of the living room outlets.

You haven't said what Sat provider and outside Sat dish you are trying to use. If it's a DirecTV SWM system you'd be fine with the splitters if you put the power inserter outside. If it's Dish, splitters aren't allowed unless you're using a Hopper receiver.

[SREED]

I am using DirecTv with the SWM LNB, and a slimline dish. I didn't try the SWM outside first. Should I be able to get a signal from the outside port to the inside port with my tester?

[BarryD0706]

Sorry, I don't know anything about your tester.

[SREED]

I'll go and put the SWM on the outside and see what that does. I'll be back in a few minutes.

[SREED]

OK. I tried putting my power converter for the swm outside so that the power went straight to dish and I still don't have a signal inside the camper. How many splitters are typically inside when you have that many outlets? Are you suppose to be able to watch satellite on all of the outlets or just at the entertainment center?

[BarryD0706]

With the equipment you have you should be able to put a receiver in both the bunk room and the living room. (Where you have a single outlet, that is likely to be for OTA TV & Cable.)

It may be that the splitters are not the right type to support DirecTV. You should start by finding it (probably just one) and bypassing it to see if that is working.

They might have miswired things too. If you can use the wire color as you mentioned to verify where the external Sat port connects to and where the splitter outputs go that would be a good idea.

[BarryD0706]

Let me add that you should basically have two isolated systems there (no connection between them).

The outside Sat input should go to a splitter, the outputs of which go to coax connectors in your two rooms that have dual outputs.

The outside Cable input should go to the back of the antenna booster control switch (and nowhere else). There will probably be a splitter coming off an output of the Antenna booster control switch which delivers OTA/Cable signals to the non-Sat outlets you have in other places.

[SREED]

OK. So here is where I stand as of now. I found a PDF on here about a similar problem. When I pulled the cover off that has the 12v outlet and the coaxial on it, I found the circuit board that is connected to this outlet. There are three different coaxial cables connected here. I took the black on off and connected it to the receiver and Boom I got my signal. Not really sure how this works but that's what I have now. I will try to add some pictures to hopefully make sense and see what I should do next. I will also see if I can add link to the pdf to see if anyone can help me understand what they are doing in that solution.

[SREED]

Here are some pictures of the outlet that has the 12v outlet and the coaxial

[BarryD0706]

Here's the layout of that outlet:


So as you can see, they've wired what is identified as the "Sat" connection on the outside of your RV to the "Cable Input" of your non-Sat TV system. I had the same problem in my RV. In my case it was easier to swap the labels.

So now you know that the outside "Cable" input is what you should be using for your Sat system and have to trace that wire down. My guess is that it goes to a splitter behind one of the wall plates in the bunkhouse.

[Ida Ratherbe Camping]

Thats where my cables were mixed up at. The pic that barry posted. The set 2 output and the antenna wire or cable wire were crossed up.

[SREED]

SO I took the cable that is black in the above picture, which is where I was able to find my satellite signal, and moved it to my other outlet that only has one single coaxial outlet on it. I moved the coaxial cable that was on the single outlet to the port where the black cable was in the above photos. Not sure if I will still be able to get cable on that or not, we haven't been to a camp ground yet that offers cable. At least I have my satellite working now.

Interesting enough, I pulled the cover off in the master bedroom to see if I could see anything and when I pulled on the cables, it kind of sounded like the splitters might be above ceiling. I couldn't get enough slack to pull to the hole to see.

[SREED]

Thanks for all the information and help.

[BarryD0706]

You said you have only a single outlet in the bedroom. That should be driven from the "Set 2"
output of the Antenna Booster control, probably thru a splitter. It will be where you have two outlets that one will be for Sat and you might expect to find the splitter.