Which cable to use for the satellite receiver

[Rexjc]

Hi All

We just picked up our new DX3 37ts and I want to hook up a DISH Wally satellite receiver. I went up on the roof and changed the dip switch settings in the Winegard satellite antenna. There are three coax cables in the cabinet with the HDMI matrix. Two are black and one is blue. One of the black cables has a hand written tag with the letters "SEC". The other black cable is marked with a piece of red tape. The blue cable has no markings. Which cable to I connect to the satellite receiver box (Wally)? What are the other two cables for?

Thanks

[JGraber]

Blue is a homerun to exterior utility bay for a portable satellite dish. Black are MAIN and Secondary (SEC) from the Winegard T4 satellite on the roof, which gives you the ability to hook up two receivers if you want. Use the black coax not labeled SEC, i.e. the main coax.

[Rexjc]

Originally Posted by JGraber

Blue is a homerun to exterior utility bay for a portable satellite dish. Black are MAIN and Secondary (SEC) from the Winegard T4 satellite on the roof, which gives you the ability to hook up two receivers if you want. Use the black coax not labeled SEC, i.e. the main coax.

Thank you. Great information.

[FirstFiver]

Just hooked up the Wally to my Cardinal 5'er this weekend.
Hopefully whoever wired your RV did a better job than mine.

Ran the wire to the "Sat" input in my water hook up cabinet.
Then went to the TV. There were two wires in the wall box. Chose one and figured if it wasn't the Sat wire then i would switch to the other.

Went to load the Wally and it would not let me enter info for "State". Called Dish. Guy says there is something wrong in your RV wiring.
I go and pull the basement wall panel to get to the back of the hook up cabinet to make sure they actually connected the cable to the outside connector.

It was connected, except they connected it the "in" line to the "out" line of the splitter. I was able to see that on my set up it was "White"/Sat., "Grey"/Cable, and "Orange"/roof antenna. Called Dish back and they activated it now that i could enter my "State" info.

Except it would not "Activate". 4 1/2 hours on the line with 4 different Dish reps before the last one who was a self described expert on the Wally/Playmaker ran through the troubleshooting and told there had to still be an issue with the RV wiring, as in they kinked it or cut it somewhere because the Playmaker Antenna wasn't getting adequate signal. Suggested I run the cable from the Playmaker Antenna directly into the Wally box and bypass the entire RV coax.
Once I did that everything was perfect.
System works great and I am happy with Dish.
One small "bug" is that the system does updates etc. on its own even when the box is off. My antenna is on the roof over the bedroom and it does updates in the middle of the night. You can hear the antenna moving when it does it.

Also I will add that my Summit TV was not listed in the list of TV's to be able to pair my remote. Three reps said too bad you have to use your TV remote to control the sound because even though Summit is the most popular TV in RV's, Dish doesn't list it.
When i finally got the Wally expert on the phone she told me the others are dumb and she got me to sign up page that had the code for Summit TV's. Now my Wally remote works the volume on my TV.

[bubbles]

Originally Posted by FirstFiver

It was connected, except they connected it the "in" line to the "out" line of the splitter. I was able to see that on my set up it was "White"/Sat., "Grey"/Cable, and "Orange"/roof antenna. Called Dish back and they activated it now that i could enter my "State" info.

The coax interconnect from the Playmaker to the Wally cannot pass through a splitter unless a specific kind and it would not be what you have. This condition is documented in numerous posts on this forum. It must be a straight shot from the antenna to the Wally. Any splitters etc. from the Wally for TV distribution is not an issue.
If your unit has dedicated sat antenna coax ports, it would be unusual for them to be connected to a splitter.

[FirstFiver]

Originally Posted by bubbles

The coax interconnect from the Playmaker to the Wally cannot pass through a splitter unless a specific kind and it would not be what you have. This condition is documented in numerous posts on this forum. It must be a straight shot from the antenna to the Wally. Any splitters etc. from the Wally for TV distribution is not an issue.
If your unit has dedicated sat antenna coax ports, it would be unusual for them to be connected to a splitter.

Good to know about the splitter.
So apparently I would have to run a second dedicated coax from the antenna (my Playmaker has the second coax hookup) to a second Wally box if I were to have a TV in the bedroom also. (I don't).
I do have the dedicated connections.
The splitter sends one coax to the living room main tv and the other to the bedroom tv.
Same set up for the dedicated "cable" connection if I were to ever hook up to campground's cable service provider.

[Rexjc]

Originally Posted by FirstFiver

Good to know about the splitter.
So apparently I would have to run a second dedicated coax from the antenna (my Playmaker has the second coax hookup) to a second Wally box if I were to have a TV in the bedroom also. (I don't).
I do have the dedicated connections.
The splitter sends one coax to the living room main tv and the other to the bedroom tv.
Same set up for the dedicated "cable" connection if I were to ever hook up to campground's cable service provider.

My DX3 comes with a HDMI matrix box that allows you to easily switch inputs (Wally, Playmaker, Amazon Firestick) to any TV in the RV. I don't know if Forest River sells these separately (they should), but maybe someone has a link to where you can find one. Here is a link to the how-to video for the HDMI matrix

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_X1mjzq-oGQ

[The Newsoms]

Different camper but I got sick of messing with it and just installed a second connection box near the receiver and ran new coax. Works great now.