Hooking up a portable satellite dish

[Oldnapapartsguy]

I am sure this has been talked about before but I couldn’t find anything that answered my questions. On my Series 4 it has an outside coax connector marked cable/satellite. My question is can a portable dish hook up to that connection or does it need something done? We have a Winegard roof mounted antenna but many times trees are an issue. Any help is appreciated.

[JWood422]

I sure as heck hope so. We’re considering buying a dish and figure that’s where it will hook up. Sooooo, I’m looking forward to hearing what others say.

[Oregon]

A good chance it won't work but you'll have to hook the portable to it and see.
Often there is a splitter involved which negates the satellite working.

Being more than just a tad tech challenged I had an independent guy come out and look at mine. He redid a bunch of ends on wires the were put on poorly (to put it mildly). Then added a wire and ta da had satellite both front and bedroom.

If you are handy here is a place that explaines the problem and the fix.
tv4rv.com

[Reverse_snowbird]

You can hook it up, but usually you need a satellite subscription and a receiver for actually using the satellite service.
Not recommending this, but this is an example.
https://www.amazon.com/Winegard-PA-1...p_pl_dp_1&th=1

If you're camping in tree covered area, you're probably going to have the same problem as your antenna.

The good thing about a portable unit is you can usually move it to a less tree covered area. We don't have one, but I'd probably get one that automatically finds the satellite signal.

[jmcclocklin]

In order for your satellite dish to work it has to he connected to a receiver. Some RV,s are satellite ready which means it has a connection outside. But without a receiver it won't work. And if your in an area with lots if trees the dish won't find the satellite. I have mine mounted on top of my RV and it automatically finds the Satellite.

[rjshiflet]

Another issue you may encounter - depending on the type of portable antenna you get there may be a 50' maximum coaxial limit. And, that includes what goes from your SAT hookup to the receiver.

I know that's try with the Dish Wally and their "Playmaker" domed dish.

[milkman55]

Post 3 is correct. You can’t have a splitter between the dish and the receiver. Once you go through the receiver, you can have a splitter downstream, just not before the receiver.

[TowPro]

The outside jack goes straight to cable input on antenna amp switch. All splitters are on output side of antenna switch. I don't ever hook up to cable so I disconnected the input wire at antenna switch and wired it to a different faceplate that i hook my sat receiver to.

[stephensatt]

It should work if the coax is a straight through coax from wall jack to outside jack. My RV has 2 coax connectors at the tv. One is a straight through connection to the outside, so use that with a portable dish or fixed cable tv connections which some RV parks have. Also the coax could be a different OHM than the coax on the dish, but even that difference has worked for me in the past. All you can do is try it.

Some RVs have one connector on the outside and thats to hookup to exterior source like a dish or cable connection and there is a small button on the interior wall plate. One position is cable TV, thats the outside jack, thats where your portable dish hooks up, and then that goes to the satellite receiver, if you push the button in, i think, i could have it reversed, a little light comes on, and that is the rooftop antenna but with an amplifier built into the wall switch. Pushing the button out is CABLE, that switches on the outside jack and whatever is plugged into it, thats your dish.

[bubbles]

Originally Posted by stephensatt

Some RVs have one connector on the outside and thats to hookup to exterior source like a dish or cable connection and there is a small button on the interior wall plate. One position is cable TV, thats the outside jack, thats where your portable dish hooks up, and then that goes to the satellite receiver, if you push the button in, i think, i could have it reversed, a little light comes on, and that is the rooftop antenna but with an amplifier built into the wall switch. Pushing the button out is CABLE, that switches on the outside jack and whatever is plugged into it, thats your dish.

This is so wrong.

To the OP. You should be able to connect a carryout sat antenna when trees are an issue for the rooftop sat antenna. There may or may not be any minor modifications (routing) needed to the outside coax inside termination point where the sat receiver is located. You don't say if you have Dish or Direct and what sat receiver you currently have.

[TowPro]

My findings in depth
this outside jack goes to antenna switch without any spliters.
I bet you could hook your portable dish to this single outside jack and if antenna switch is turned off, you could hook your SAT receiver to the output of antenna switch faceplate jack. I would try it.

But I changed the way I wire mine so I removed the coax that comes from outside to my switch and hooked it to the inside the wall side of the jack labeled SAT (mine does not have a dish on roof, but its pre wired)

Now I can use the coax output of my 211 receiver and send that back into Forest River wiring so the other RV's can see the output of SAT receiver (even though it only Standard Definition) using the input side (behind the wall) of the antenna switch. doing it this way still allows use of antenna just by turning on the switch.

I have the Winegard X2. I always had a mount on my rear ladder top that I drilled holes that matched the feet on the X2. I would lift the X2 onto this platform and feet would slip into holes in platform than use bungy cord to hold it down. never had a problem (I would always remove it before driving).

Since my RV is pre wired I thought of carrying my telescopic ladder (no rear ladder on this rig) an setting X2 on roof. this height would also stop it from getting stolen.
but have not looked into it too much yet. I know roof is rounded, and I would need a way to strap it down with bungy cord, plus the ladder is 20 lbs of weight to carry
I might try this today. give me something do do. I know the dish has to be "sort of level" but maybe it will work on the roof. Sure would hate to see that $400 some dollar dish disappear.

[Oldnapapartsguy]

Originally Posted by bubbles

This is so wrong.

To the OP. You should be able to connect a carryout sat antenna when trees are an issue for the rooftop sat antenna. There may or may not be any minor modifications (routing) needed to the outside coax inside termination point where the sat receiver is located. You don't say if you have Dish or Direct and what sat receiver you currently have.

Sorry. Directv. I think it is the H24 receiver.

[HaulinMyHarley]

My trailer (SOB) has a separate satellite jack on the side besides the cable jack. The satellite jack is cabled directly to a wall plate next to the other tv connections and all you do is connect a jumper from the wallplate to your brand of satellite receiver. If Sat/cable connection is labeled as such, you'll have to make sure that cable is not thru a splitter before connecting your receiver.

[DnL]

I use a through the window connector - coax from satellite dish to window connector to receiver. For me it's a simple solution. Here's an example on Amazon:

https://www.amazon.com/Cable-JUMPER-...s%2C219&sr=8-4

[dave1650]

Originally Posted by Oldnapapartsguy

I am sure this has been talked about before but I couldn’t find anything that answered my questions. On my Series 4 it has an outside coax connector marked cable/satellite. My question is can a portable dish hook up to that connection or does it need something done? We have a Winegard roof mounted antenna but many times trees are an issue. Any help is appreciated.

If the connection is direct wired to a connection inside marked the same cable/satellite it should work. If it is split to go to another outlet and they used the correct splitter it would still work. If they used the wrong splitter it won't. There are a combination of ways a dish can be connected to one or more receivers. Easiest is to just connect the receiver and dish and see if it works. If not you will have to change the wiring or maybe just install the correct splitter. The correct splitter would have power pass through the input to one output.

[lmiken]

I have a satellite dish (dish network) which works with the satellite connector on the side of the trailer. I recently got a Winegard G2. It will not work with the satellite connector on the side of the trailer (either wrong cable or too long). So I currently connect the Winegard directly to the receiver. Also, when I first setup y dish antenna, I could not get it to work. I eventually found all of the cables where not completely tightened down and had to tighten them all.

[Luke Moseley]

If I can't get TV on the antenna, I just read or listen to the radio. Im not paying to watch what they offer, but that's just me.

[Hi Rider]

When I first tried my dish, I had problems. Worked fine when dish connected directly to the receiver. But not when going through the RV wiring. The trouble was a one-way only splitter. Your cables and/or splitters must have two-way communication between the receiver and satellite. I do have at least one splitter, and it does allow two-way communication. Other than that I've had no problems other than positioning the dish to pick up a signal. Practice.

[TGO Bill]

I have 2018 Cardinal Fifth Wheel and I have an outside connection that says SAT. I hook up a direct TV portable dish on a tripod to it and With the direct TV boxes inside , I get direct TV in my living room and my bedroom. No problem.

[bclemens]

Originally Posted by Oldnapapartsguy

I am sure this has been talked about before but I couldn’t find anything that answered my questions. On my Series 4 it has an outside coax connector marked cable/satellite. My question is can a portable dish hook up to that connection or does it need something done? We have a Winegard roof mounted antenna but many times trees are an issue. Any help is appreciated.

I think there is a longer thread on this, but to put it simply NO. You can't just hook up the portable receiver into that outside outlet.

The newer carry-outs/portable sats get their power FROM the receiver. That means that it needs to connect directly to the receiver that that jack does not. It goes to a winegard dsitribution/booster plate.

So, you can either provide power using a power inserter (which I think someone has done) OR, you can trace the coax that goes to the plate, disconnect it from the backside of the Winegard plate and then add on to that directly to the receiver. The only thing you would lose is "Park cable" in the even that you want to watch cable provided by the campsite.