I have three exterior coax connections and Dish said none of them are working

[Wayfaring Stranger]

We own a 2016 Cardinal 3825fl. We have set it up on the property of my wife's brother, along a slough on Puget Island, Washington. We had a Dish technician come out to install a satellite dish next to it and run a coax cable to the camper. He told us he attached his instrument to the three coax connections on the outside of the camper and on the coax connections next to two of the televisions inside and none of them sent a "tone". He said he had to just run two sets of cables through window screens to feed the living room and bedroom televisions. While he was here, I had a manager from Forest River on the phone, asking him if there was something he could tell the man to help him activate the coax connections. He didn't seem very familiar with how our model was built and said he couldn't help us.

I recently had someone tell me that if the roof antenna was in the on position, it might cause the coax connections leading into the camper to go dead. Our roof antenna is showing it is turned off.

My guess is that the gentleman from Dish was unfamiliar with RV connections and did what was easiest for him. I can't explain why someone at Forest River, in charge of construction of 5th wheel campers, couldn't help sort this problem out.

So far, I've been 100% successful solving problems with the camper by coming to this forum and asking for help. Is there anyone who has hooked up a satellite cable to the coax connections in their outdoor shower compartment and had trouble getting the signal to their televisions inside? How did you resolve the issue? Thank you kindly.

[CHICKDOE]

This will only help a small bit. We have a 2015 cardinal 3825. There are three coax connections on the water bay. Of these two are together and one is a bit offset and is closest to the door. That one is for park cable. We use it at RV parks for their cable feed. To use it the antenna booster (located behind the RV in the bedroom) must be off.

We have a direct tv satellite on the the roof and it’s coax comes down and terminates in the front cabinet to the right of the front tv. We connect the satellite receiver to this coax and we can get a satellite program on any tv using the wireless video bridge.

I really don’t know how the other two coax ports in the wet bay work or where they terminate. I believe they are for satellite. But where they run to and terminate I don’t know. There might be an unused coax connector behind each tv that is the termination for these ‘satellite’ runs.

[lazyjj]

My last rig had both cable and sat connectors on the out side. However, on the inside there was only one cable connected and it was connected to the cable connection on the outside. Since this connection went to the plate on the entertainment center it ran through the tv amp which is for your over the air antenna on top. Sattelite signal will not run through that amplifier. What I did was moved the cable to another connector on my inside plate and then connected my Sat to that same cable connector on the outside and I was able to have my sat without running additional cables. The sat techs are sloppy a lot of times with home install. I don't want them messing with my RV. I hope this will help you. Bottom line is the cable connected to the outside port should go to a connector inside that isn't connected to the tv amp that you turn on and off, even if you have to add a connector to that plate yourself.

I only use my sat on the main living area tv and just use a streaming stick and over the air for the bunkhouse and front bedroom tv's.

[SeaDog]

I don't know you rig but the easiest way I have found to ring out sat connections (just did it the other day) is to remove the faceplate where your TV is connected to cable. you should find the antenna booster there with one wire to the antenna and two others leading to the cable and sat connections. disconnect these two cables and one at a time check the conn unity between your outside connection and these cables to find which is which. the third connection outside I assume is for an outside TV.

[Wayfaring Stranger]

Originally Posted by CHICKDOE

This will only help a small bit. We have a 2015 cardinal 3825. There are three coax connections on the water bay. Of these two are together and one is a bit offset and is closest to the door. That one is for park cable. We use it at RV parks for their cable feed. To use it the antenna booster (located behind the RV in the bedroom) must be off.

We have a direct tv satellite on the the roof and it’s coax comes down and terminates in the front cabinet to the right of the front tv. We connect the satellite receiver to this coax and we can get a satellite program on any tv using the wireless video bridge.

I really don’t know how the other two coax ports in the wet bay work or where they terminate. I believe they are for satellite. But where they run to and terminate I don’t know. There might be an unused coax connector behind each tv that is the termination for these ‘satellite’ runs.

Actually, that helped a lot. Our set-up is similar to yours. I will ignore the one coax connection that is closest to the front. I was thinking the other two might lead to the bedroom television or the living room tv. The bed room television has three coax connections and the living room tv has two coax connections. There is also a television in the kitchen and a fourth tv inside a front storage compartment that can be pulled outside for viewing. It would make the most sense if one or both of those two coax connections in the water bay would send a signal to the living room television. The Dish guy said he tried it and neither did anything.

It would have been helpful if Forest River had someone available to walk me though the various connections and how to connect the Dish cable to get the living room television/DVR to get a signal.

[Wayfaring Stranger]

Originally Posted by lazyjj

My last rig had both cable and sat connectors on the out side. However, on the inside there was only one cable connected and it was connected to the cable connection on the outside. Since this connection went to the plate on the entertainment center it ran through the tv amp which is for your over the air antenna on top. Sattelite signal will not run through that amplifier. What I did was moved the cable to another connector on my inside plate and then connected my Sat to that same cable connector on the outside and I was able to have my sat without running additional cables. The sat techs are sloppy a lot of times with home install. I don't want them messing with my RV. I hope this will help you. Bottom line is the cable connected to the outside port should go to a connector inside that isn't connected to the tv amp that you turn on and off, even if you have to add a connector to that plate yourself.

I only use my sat on the main living area tv and just use a streaming stick and over the air for the bunkhouse and front bedroom tv's.

This is like watching a detective show, maybe CSI Forest River. What you said seems similar to what someone else told me. I think this can be solved and I think you have made a great suggestion. One reason I signed up with Dish is that they offer free service calls. I might not need them to complete the connections needed, but they do own some helpful devices that show signal coming through the connections.

[Wayfaring Stranger]

Originally Posted by SeaDog

I don't know you rig but the easiest way I have found to ring out sat connections (just did it the other day) is to remove the faceplate where your TV is connected to cable. you should find the antenna booster there with one wire to the antenna and two others leading to the cable and sat connections. disconnect these two cables and one at a time check the conn unity between your outside connection and these cables to find which is which. the third connection outside I assume is for an outside TV.

Copy that, Sea Dog. I'm on it. Thanks for the help and thank you for your service to God and Country.

[Wayfaring Stranger]

Originally Posted by lazyjj

My last rig had both cable and sat connectors on the out side. However, on the inside there was only one cable connected and it was connected to the cable connection on the outside. Since this connection went to the plate on the entertainment center it ran through the tv amp which is for your over the air antenna on top. Sattelite signal will not run through that amplifier. What I did was moved the cable to another connector on my inside plate and then connected my Sat to that same cable connector on the outside and I was able to have my sat without running additional cables. The sat techs are sloppy a lot of times with home install. I don't want them messing with my RV. I hope this will help you. Bottom line is the cable connected to the outside port should go to a connector inside that isn't connected to the tv amp that you turn on and off, even if you have to add a connector to that plate yourself.

I only use my sat on the main living area tv and just use a streaming stick and over the air for the bunkhouse and front bedroom tv's.

I removed the wall cover inside the cabinet under the tv. It has two coax cable connections, one brown and one white. Nothing else is connected to it. But I'm wondering if I should try to get to the backside of the stock tv amp that I no longer use and see if there is another coax connection screwed into it.

[Wayfaring Stranger]

Originally Posted by SeaDog

I don't know you rig but the easiest way I have found to ring out sat connections (just did it the other day) is to remove the faceplate where your TV is connected to cable. you should find the antenna booster there with one wire to the antenna and two others leading to the cable and sat connections. disconnect these two cables and one at a time check the conn unity between your outside connection and these cables to find which is which. the third connection outside I assume is for an outside TV.

I have a clue; Back when the Dish technician was here, he stated there was no tone coming from the outside coax connection to any of the inside coax connections. The Forest River representative I had on the phone, told me the outside coax should send a signal to one of the inside coax connections, but not necessarily the one in the living room.

So, the living room wall plate has two coax connections and in the bedroom, there are two wall plates with a total of three coax connections. I just got a closer look to the bedroom connections and one of the wall plates looks just like the one in the living room compartment under the tv, and the other wall plate with the third coax connection, also has a button next to the coax connector, that pushes in and out. When pushed in, a green LED light comes on. There is also a hole just to the right of the wall plates where a coax cable feeds out. This seems like it is the major hub for the outside coax connections.

Maybe I should remove that wall plate and see what lies behind it.

[DougW]

On one of my RV’s (2014 Sunseeker MH)the plate with the double jacks had one of them connected to the outside coax connector, the other one went to the signal amplifier. They originally had a short coax like 6 inches long, that connected the two of them together. When connected to the RV park supplied cable I just pushed the button on the plate with the single coax to turn the light and amplifier off. When using the antenna I just pushed the button to turn the light and amplifier on. In order to use satellite or digital cable with a set top box I removed the short jumper and connected the cable box to the top coax on the double plate, the cable input signal connected to the coax connector on the outside of the RV. This way the satellite or digital cable could be used without the amplifier or any splitters in the line. Never can tell, you might have a similar setup.

[Wayfaring Stranger]

Originally Posted by DougW

On one of my RV’s (2014 Sunseeker MH)the plate with the double jacks had one of them connected to the outside coax connector, the other one went to the signal amplifier. They originally had a short coax like 6 inches long, that connected the two of them together. When connected to the RV park supplied cable I just pushed the button on the plate with the single coax to turn the light and amplifier off. When using the antenna I just pushed the button to turn the light and amplifier on. In order to use satellite or digital cable with a set top box I removed the short jumper and connected the cable box to the top coax on the double plate, the cable input signal connected to the coax connector on the outside of the RV. This way the satellite or digital cable could be used without the amplifier or any splitters in the line. Never can tell, you might have a similar setup.

That sounds like it applies to my situation. I only wish Forest River had someone who builds these things that could have explained it in detail to me and tell me what I need to do to make it work.

I just reread your message and wanted to add that if I find and remove the short jumper, I will be doing so on the plate mounted above the rear bedroom tv. It won't be anywhere near the Dish Hopper box in the front living room. However, based on what both the Dish guy and the Forest River guy told me, all I would need to do is run a coax cable from the connection under the front tv to the Dish Box. The outside coax connection must be designed to send its signal to the bedroom, where it can then be redirected to the double cable wall plate inside the front living room cabinet. At most, I might have to run a short cable from one of the other rear bedroom coax connections to the one that sends its signal to the front living room.

[Wayfaring Stranger]

Originally Posted by DougW

On one of my RV’s (2014 Sunseeker MH)the plate with the double jacks had one of them connected to the outside coax connector, the other one went to the signal amplifier. They originally had a short coax like 6 inches long, that connected the two of them together. When connected to the RV park supplied cable I just pushed the button on the plate with the single coax to turn the light and amplifier off. When using the antenna I just pushed the button to turn the light and amplifier on. In order to use satellite or digital cable with a set top box I removed the short jumper and connected the cable box to the top coax on the double plate, the cable input signal connected to the coax connector on the outside of the RV. This way the satellite or digital cable could be used without the amplifier or any splitters in the line. Never can tell, you might have a similar setup.

I removed the plate above the rear bedroom tv, with the single coax connection. There are three coax cables on the back side and two wires clipped on the back. This must hold the key to directing the water bay coax connection to this connection and then send the signal to the dual coax wall plate in the front living room cabinet.

[DougW]

Originally Posted by Wayfaring Stranger

I removed the plate above the rear bedroom tv, with the single coax connection. There are three coax cables on the back side and two wires clipped on the back. This must hold the key to directing the water bay coax connection to this connection and then send the signal to the dual coax wall plate in the front living room cabinet.

That looks like a normal amplifier setup. One of the wires should be coming in from the antenna, 2 of them should be going out to other TV’s in the RV, the other one should be coming in from the cable connection on the outside. If it is set up with the little jumper system I described above the one incoming from the outside connection will actually come from that plate with the two connectors on it.

[Gmoney67]

I have different unit 2018 5th wheel in wet bay i have 3 cable connections and 2 are labeled satellite those are direct runs to wall the plates in livingroom and bedroom they dont run through any splitters.the one labeled cable or park runs to bedroom and connect to ota box and one cable runs to livingroom tv.the purple colored coax is for satellite and black coax was cable and ota.

[Wayfaring Stranger]

Originally Posted by Gmoney67

I have different unit 2018 5th wheel in wet bay i have 3 cable connections and 2 are labeled satellite those are direct runs to wall the plates in livingroom and bedroom they dont run through any splitters.the one labeled cable or park runs to bedroom and connect to ota box and one cable runs to livingroom tv.the purple colored coax is for satellite and black coax was cable and ota.

Thanks for the information. I assumed the colored cables were a clue to where they went to. The two cables leading to the wall plate in the living room cabinet are different colors and the three pictured above, in the bedroom wall plate were all different colors. Two of them match the colors of the front cables and the orange one is different. I suspect the orange cable leads to the ota antenna.

My goal is to be able to disconnect the cable that currently comes into the camper via a window and attach it to the coax connector in the water bay. Then, I'd like to determine if that signal is going to the bedroom wall plate cable that is purple in color and figure out how to get the satellite signal through that cable to the purple cable in the front living room and connect it to the Dish Hopper. I seem to remember the Dish technician saying he tested the connection from the coax connectors in the water bay leading to the black and purple coax connections in the front living room cabinet and he got no "tone" from his instrument. So the key seems to be, based on what others here are suggesting, is to make some type of connection between two cables at the hub location in the rear bedroom in order to take the incoming signal and transfer it to a cable leading to the front living room, where it can be attached to the Dish Hopper box.

Sounds simple, right? One option is to call Dish and have them come out for a free service call. Even though the guy failed to get it working on his first visit, he said he was unfamiliar with campers and ultimately decided to run the cable through a window in the living room. Now that the plates have been removed to expose multiple colored cables, I think his instrument will detect the signal coming in and he will be able to reroute it from the bedroom to the living room.

Question: If the satellite feed from the connection in the water bay is coming into the bedroom via the purple cable, and there is another purple cable coming into the cabinet in the living room, what color cable is going to take the signal from the bedroom to the living room? Is the purple cable in the bedroom the same purple cable entering the living room wall plate? If so, is there another purple cable leading from the water bay to the bedroom, or is it possible the satellite cable coming in from the water bay is another color? I might try to remove the cover over the coax connections in the water bay and see what color cables are on the three connections. It would make sense if one is orange and one is black and one is purple. But is it possible that there is no cable leading from the bedroom to the living room that I can connect the purple bedroom cable to? There is a black cable in the picture I posted of the bedroom wall plate and also, there is another wall plate next to it that I have yet to remove and confirm the color of the cable behind the wall plate. It might hold the key to sending the signal from the bedroom to the living room.

I'll have more time to think about it while we get set to empty our holding tanks this morning. It's something we do every 7-9 days, since we set up on this property. Since we have no access to the septic system. we pump our tanks (with a macerating pump) into a 100 gallon bladder, and then transfer the bladder to a nearby campground down at the local marina. They charge a fee of $8 to dump the tanks.

[CHICKDOE]

i think you may be onto a few things.

the hub is behind the bedroom tv. the park cable and over the air input cables go the amplifier. there is probably an output cable from the amplifier that has splitters in it that subsequently feeds all four tv's. this is the path for park cable and over the air. i would suspect that these cables terminate directly on the coax port of each tv.

you said you have two coax cables in the front cabinet. do you have cabling a roof mounted satellite dish? if so one of these has to be the coax from the roof mounted satellite. the other one is probably from one of the outside satellite connections in the wet bay. i don't know this for sure. you said you only found it when you took the plate off. perhaps the dish guy didn't take the plate off and missed this.

i don't know if they ran a coax from the front cabinet to the hub behind the rear.

it might be worth buying a cheap tone generator and toning out all of the coax cables to see where they run.

i would not expect there to be any splitters in the two cables labelled satellite in the wet bay. they should be direct runs as the should get connected to a satellite receiver box.
from what i have read some satellite dishes have the ability to send a signal down two coax cables to two different satellite receivers. these two coaxes would support this. my guess, and only a guess is that they terminate in the front cabinet and the rear hub. and these would be different from a roof mounted satellite where the coax and control cable cone into the front cabinet.

please let us know what you find out! i've often wondered just where those cable go.

[DougW]

What color wires are on the plate in the bedroom with 2 connectors? Knowing that might help determine what goes where.

Getting your own tone generator and tone tracker would be the easiest way to get this figured out, they are about $25 for a cheaper one.

An alternate way to test is with a VOM, just look for continuity (ohms) between the shield and center of the coax, it should show none. Then you put a short on what you think is the other end of that same wire and recheck the VOM reading. It could be time consuming but the results should be accurate.

[redjet]

I have a 2016 cardinal 3850rl and run satellite and wifi into it. Now that everyone has you running in circles lets fix the problem. There is a panel that allows you to access the coax wiring and all sorts of connections behind the water inlet panel. Remove the panel and follow each of the coax cables. One ends (I assume its labeled Cable input) at the cable/OTA amplifier, then splits off to the a bedroom tv and the LR TV. The other labeled satellite will end at a splitter - you know which is the input - the other two go to the BDRM and LR. Do continuity checks to see which cable goes where. Use a straight-thru connector to connect the input to the cable going the direction you want. I punched another hole in the panel and installed another input connection and connected it to the other cable off of the splitter for my wifi input.

Also, Cardinal generally runs a coax from the BDRM to the LR. Check for it (via continuity). It will allow you to place equipment where you have space. On mine I had the DISH Rx and cable modem in the LR near the connectors. I used the connector between the LR and BDRM to connect the Dish Joey in the BDRM. The modem was connected to a router which provide coverage within 50 feet of the camper.

Satellite techs don't like to get into the rigs wiring. This is an easy fix -good luck.

[CHICKDOE]

The post above is confirming some things I heard previously. I always wondered why they ran all that coax from the front water bay all the way back to the hub in the bedroom. Why not put the hub up in the front? But you have to remember that the model 3825 is a reversed floor plan. It has the lining room up in the front and the bedroom in the rear. I’m thinking they did the wiring in the outside walls before the even put on the model specific walls. As such they would just assume the living room and hub would be in the back. The more I think about it those two satellite lines in the wet bay have to be there to support the satellite dishes that have two output coax cables. The more I think of it they have to terminate in the rear bedroom and the front living room.

[Wayfaring Stranger]

Originally Posted by CHICKDOE

i think you may be onto a few things.

the hub is behind the bedroom tv. the park cable and over the air input cables go the amplifier. there is probably an output cable from the amplifier that has splitters in it that subsequently feeds all four tv's. this is the path for park cable and over the air. i would suspect that these cables terminate directly on the coax port of each tv.

you said you have two coax cables in the front cabinet. do you have cabling a roof mounted satellite dish? if so one of these has to be the coax from the roof mounted satellite. the other one is probably from one of the outside satellite connections in the wet bay. i don't know this for sure. you said you only found it when you took the plate off. perhaps the dish guy didn't take the plate off and missed this.

i don't know if they ran a coax from the front cabinet to the hub behind the rear.

it might be worth buying a cheap tone generator and toning out all of the coax cables to see where they run.

i would not expect there to be any splitters in the two cables labelled satellite in the wet bay. they should be direct runs as the should get connected to a satellite receiver box.
from what i have read some satellite dishes have the ability to send a signal down two coax cables to two different satellite receivers. these two coaxes would support this. my guess, and only a guess is that they terminate in the front cabinet and the rear hub. and these would be different from a roof mounted satellite where the coax and control cable cone into the front cabinet.

please let us know what you find out! i've often wondered just where those cable go.

It's been busy around here. We got the holding tanks transferred to a bladder and then transported it 3 miles to an RV dump site and when we returned, we got busy trying to complete the project of digging a trench and running water, electrical, cable, and internet lines. I sent my wife out to help her brother complete that project while I took more pictures and loaded them onto my laptop.

The two cables leading from the water bay inside the camper are both white. I removed the wall plate in the bedroom with two coax connections. One is white and the other is purple. There is another cable that comes out of a small hole in the wall next to that plate and I followed in to the bottom of the tv and unplugged it. It is a sound cable. The camper has four ceiling speakers in the living room and two ceiling speakers in the bedroom.

I'll post some pictures and reply to others who are offering help.

Great, the oven timer just went off and the lasagna needs another ten minutes to brown the cheese. So I better pick up the pace.