Portable Satellite connection?

[BlackJeep22]

Just bought our first motor home, Coachman Concord 300DS. Doing a little research before purchasing anything regarding satellite. I do have one question:

Can I simply connect a portable satellite dish to the exterior wall jack and then simply connect my DirecTV receiver to one of the jacks located at any of the 3 cubbys and expect it to work, or do I need to connect the dish directly to my receiver?

Thanks in advance,
SP

[spock123]

That's what I do with my Cedar Creek


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[BlackJeep22]

Originally Posted by spock123

That's what I do with my Cedar Creek


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I've been told (on another forum) that most coaches are not (sat) connected throughout and that I would need to connect the coax cable from my portable dish directly to my sat receiver.

[NO3putt]

For Dish satellite recievers like a Talegater, it will not work if there is a splitter in the line. We have a roof mounted dish and a talegater for when trees get in the way. our cable that is installed in the MH has several splitters so when we use the talegater we just run the cable thru the window and directly to the back of the reciever.

As for DIRECT TV, i would just try to connect to your outside wall connection and hook up from you inside outlet to the reciever.

[spock123]

Not me, first I made sure I had the satellite working and then I searched for the cable connection outside, I just tried different connections until I found the right one. Then I left a short cable to that connection. With my Direct tv the power to the dish I keep hooked up in the basement. It has to be out of the weather. It doesn't stay hooked up all the time just when I'm using the dish. Works for me


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[BandJCarm]

Originally Posted by BlackJeep22

Just bought our first motor home, Coachman Concord 300DS. Doing a little research before purchasing anything regarding satellite. I do have one question:

Can I simply connect a portable satellite dish to the exterior wall jack and then simply connect my DirecTV receiver to one of the jacks located at any of the 3 cubbys and expect it to work, or do I need to connect the dish directly to my receiver?

Thanks in advance,
SP

Everyone is right.

Your question, though unintended I'm sure, is not 'either or'. The dish has to be directly connected to the receiver, even if via extra connected coax like MIGHT be in your coach. But you have to make sure you find a Home Run cable, like Spock did. If you have one, then yes, just hook to it. But if there is no home run, you might have to come in through a window via flat coax, and connect directly that way.

Pull the plates and find the color of coax......that's the easiest way to see if one goes straight from the outside connection to the inside connection.

[BlackJeep22]

Originally Posted by spock123

With my Direct tv the power to the dish I keep hooked up in the basement.

You have a basement in your RV and power to your dish?

[Blackhat6mike]

I'm fortunate enough to have a sat cable directly to the inside entertainment center. I hooked the cable from the outside coax connection into the power provider for the auto dish, then into the receiver, then into the BlueRay system. The BlueRay system goes out [HDMI] to only two of the three tvs in my unit. I used a separate rf transmitter system to get the signal from the receiver box out to my outside entertainment center's TV. Very clear pix outside, but only about 12 ft away.
My installer said that only "power-pass splitters" will work as they allow power to get back to the sat dish.

[OldCoot]

Originally Posted by NO3putt

For Dish satellite recievers like a Talegater, it will not work if there is a splitter in the line...

Beg to differ, I have one 4 cable splitter and a 3 cable splitter in my 5er and use a Tailgater with no problems. Have 2 inside tvs and one outside. Get Dish on all 3 or can use the roof antenna. I ran cable from the 4 cable splitter to the pinbox, to the rear ladder, to the outside cable receptacle (in case I have to use the tripod for the Tailgater) and into the Dish box where it is split to the bedroom, living room, basement and roof antenna.

[Dryfly46]

It will save you some frustration if you buy a cheap coax cable tester, about $10 on Amazon. My satellite cable connection on the outside does not terminate anywhere on the inside that I can find. My cable hookup terminated on the back of the rooftop antenna amplifier behind the TV. I disconnected from the amplifier and used it for the satellite cable.

I might also note that all factory connections were very loose.

[Azzy1016]

I have been splitting satellite signal for years. You just need to correct splitters. Typical cable tv splitters will not work. You need specific "satellite" splitters for the DC voltage to pass through. Now, I haven't ventured into RV satellite wiring yet, but have split at my home several times.
good luck

[Thurman]

Having recently purchased a DISH satellite system this thread was interesting. Luckily I have a friend who's job is to install DISH systems and he helped me with the initial setup of mine. The co-ax port on the outside of my TT, a Coachmen 310BHDS, has been used in campgrounds with cable hook-up but never with a satellite dish. We could not get the new dish and Wally to work. He then ran a direct cable to the Wally from the dish and all was well. We removed the plate in the entertainment center that had two co-ax connectors. The top was labeled "SAT IN" and the bottom was labeled "CABLE TV". There is also the infamous power booster button next to the bottom connection. When he removed the plate there was nothing attached to the SAT IN connection and three runs of co-ax going to the bottom connection. We had to trace the co-ax runs out, also known as "ringing the wire" to some. We labeled the co-ax as "CABLE IN", "BUNK TV" which goes to the TV in the bunk room, and "RV ANT" which was the co-ax from the roof mounted, and useless, antenna. We had to make a new run of co-ax to go from the top connection on this plate to the front storage area. ALL of the other co-ax cables were run through the attic area of the TT and we didn't want to mess with that. We ran a cable from the SAT IN connection down t the back of the entertainment center, under the bed, to the storage area, and left about 25 feet of co-ax there. That is where I will hook the co-ax coming from the DISH antenna until I buy a port to place on the outside of the TT near the front storage area. My DISH friend did tell me that IF I wanted to run co-ax to the bunk room TV that I would have to have a splitter made for DISH antenna use.