Help Before Going Crazy on TV reception

[RCPatt]

In the beginning of this year everything was fine for us and it was just a matter of hooking up the cable to CG post. Then one place I only had three channels and all were snowy and very poor quality. The cartoon light bulb went off and I remembered I needed to scan each tv at each place we stayed. Picture was beautiful each time after that.

I didn't see you respond to an earlier post asking if you scanned. It might just be something very, very, simple.

[ENE]

One of your coax could have been installed across a sharp object and over time it wore thru the installation. 1st off I'm a retired IT Network personal and worked with coax before personal computer were invented, so I have seen just about every problem from smoke eliminator causing noise on the the coax to coax lying onto of power lines causing interference.
On my trailer one coax starts out black in the connivence box to white at the back of the tv.
Some factory splice coax in the middle to save on cost. Oh yeah they use the cheap quality coax. When I was using Directv SD satellite everything worked ok until I switched to Dish HD I only got 3/4 of all my HD channels, the rest defaulted to SD due to poor quality coax.
I had to replace the coax with a high quality coax from rg59 to rg6 satellite cable.
One of my connectors behind the tv in the wall plate had to be replace.
I'm guessing your issue is with one coax cable shorted out. All it takes is one fine braided wire to touch metal and its shorted out.
Like the person said above, you need a professional with superior test tools to come out and isolate your problem.

[sunnyinfla]

had a rv where the coaxes were hooked up wrong....trace them

[bubbles]

Originally Posted by ENE

All it takes is one fine braided wire to touch metal and its shorted out.

That fine braided wire (shield) is shorted to ground at each end (ground) and a short of it to ground in the middle will not cause an issue. Now, if one of those fine braids (shield) shorts to the center conductor; there's an issue.

[Barnhart]

We have a 417 Amp and the splitter is behind the bathroom fan shroud in the attic and the connections were loose or not even connected. I hope this helps.

[Tim Coltrain]

I finally got some feed back from forrest river as to the location of the splitter. It was in the bathroom on the south side or rear of bathroom fan deep under roof. When I pulled the 5 coax cables out the first thing I noticed was the fittings were loose. I thought for a moment I have finally found my problem. NOPE. But I did take my tester and test each line and guess what they all passed. Green for pass. I replaced my bedroom with new coax, and I replaced my living room with new coax. I still have snowy TV. I have been beaten. Everything test Pass but I still have snowy TV, I have replace switch, I tested the splitter. Do I have a ghost.

[5picker]

Originally Posted by Tim Coltrain

I finally got some feed back from forrest river as to the location of the splitter. It was in the bathroom on the south side or rear of bathroom fan deep under roof. When I pulled the 5 coax cables out the first thing I noticed was the fittings were loose. I thought for a moment I have finally found my problem. NOPE. But I did take my tester and test each line and guess what they all passed. Green for pass. I replaced my bedroom with new coax, and I replaced my living room with new coax. I still have snowy TV. I have been beaten. Everything test Pass but I still have snowy TV, I have replace switch, I tested the splitter. Do I have a ghost.

Tim, I've read two of your posts where you said you've now replaced the main tv coax. (and the bedroom but let's not focus on it now) In doing so did you replace the entire coax from the outside connection to the tv itself?

If you did and it still doesn't work are you SURE the cable connection at the pedestal is OK. I know somewhere along the way you said you hooked up directly at the pedestal but what you are now saying makes no sense if you have a known good cable from the pedestal to the tv.

Also, if using the outside connection, are you 100% positive the jumper you are using from the pedestal to the outside port is OK? Same goes for whatever jumper from the wall plate inside to the tv.

Do you still have the antenna booster in the mix?
Not only is it a booster with a power switch but it is also a coax switch that switches internally from the antenna feed coax to the cable feed coax when depressed on/off.

Did you ever try to connect to the satellite port like I asked earlier?

[Tim Coltrain]

Earlier post asking have I scanned and the answer is yes.


I decided to try again with running cable line straight to the splitter and by passing the camper line. The reception improved. I went back to the old way and reception is bad. So that made me think the primary feed is bad. But then when I put the tester on it the coax cable passes. I got to figure out how to run some high dollar cable this winter before next spring.


I really appreciate all the help that everyone has offered. Thanks

[ENE]

Some of these cable tester are only check connunity (spell wrong) they help to locate Bothe ends of the cable. You need a tester that actuals test the cables for all of it's specs and they cost several hundreds of dollars.
I have used the trick of connected a good cable to the bad cable and pull the bad cable out until the new cable comes thru. This usually only works if the coax is free from bends or tied sown inside walls or ceilings.

[Rich70]

Someone mentioned earlier that one mode had a snowy screen and another a black screen. Snowy screens occur with analog signals while black screens occur with digital signals. Your OTA is digital and hence, you would have a black screen when a station is selected and is out of range. Most satellite and cable boxes need to select a analogue channel to receive any signal, and generally it is either channel 3 or 4. Are you selecting the right channel for your box? You said that your inside TV worked well when plugged into your camper so I suspect that the correct channel is not being selected on the camper TVs.

[ENE]

Yep what ever RV site you are at if the TV guide says you get channels 3 and 4 and so on, then you want to scan 3 and 4. If you don't get 3 and 4 in that area then select no.

[Tim Coltrain]

I tested a orange coax that runs from outside connection to rear at cable/Sat switch and it passes Green Light, I tested the bedroom to splitter and it passes Green light, I tested living room to splitter and it passes Green Light, I tested bunk to splitter and it passses Green light, I tested outside to splitter and it passes Green light, I tested Satilite Gray line to living room and it passes Green Light. I tested the lines that run from house to camper and it passes green light. I test everything and they pass. You turn TV on and every TV is snowy. Same line the feeds from house I set up TV on back porch an tV is perfect. I get feeling there is a static electricity somehow causing tv to be snowy. I disconnected batteries to see NO Problem, I disconnected shore power NO Problems. There is a static ghost that I have not been able to find and solve. This one has me beat.


Just to cover this question. Yes the antenna switch is in off position, NO GREEN LIGHT.

[ENE]

I used a cable tester from work it cost $5000. You dial in the cable specs and it test for all the highs and lows. I wished you were near me I would come over and help.

[rick42wood]

Maybe I missed it but have you tried replacing the splitters one by one? Seems like the only thing left. Also, have you tried disconnecting the feed to each TV (at the splitter) to see if it clears up the signal on the remaining sets?

[ENE]

Do you have any wireless device that might be causing the problem, like wireless fridge gauge or wireless weather station etc.

[bubbles]

Make sure that the park cable feed is on the IN port of the splitter. Could be an issue.

[5picker]

You've mentioned checking with a tester and get a green light.

Please do me a favor and hook the cable feed at the pedestal to the satellite port on the outside using a known good piece of coax.

Then go inside an hook a known good piece of coax from the inside satellite port to the back of the tv.

Set the tv to do a cable scan and see what you get. The satellite feed within the R/V should be what's called a home run. (No splitters)

Let us know the results.

[ENE]

My coax problems with switching from Directv to Dish never got resolves until I replaced the Sate1 coax in my trailer.

[bubbles]

Get one of these (cheap) and bypass the splitter at the splitter with the park cable on one end and each of the TV's on the other one at a time and scan the TV's for cable channels.

[Greydragon]

I have a similar problem, it's just with the outside tv, it is snowy if it is the only TV on. Is there an antena for the outside tv that is different from the inside?