Satellite TV Connection

Sandpirate69

Well-known member
I'm on my 1st trip in my new rig. I tried to connect the sat tv & no dice. I looked @ the connection instruction on the storage door & my connection ports are not as described on the storage door. According to instructions, it should be left to right ( lnb from roof, sat/ tv direct, cable, & phone jack). My connections have the phone jack first, I have tried everything but contacting heartland, which I will do on tuesday. Any help will be appreciated.Happy July 4th to all.
 

DMitch

Well-known member
Sandpiratee69 - Search the forum for sat. connections. You will find numerous threads on the subject. These sat connections have several know problems and there is all the info you need to get them fixed. It has been and seems to be a continuing problem.
 

Sandpirate69

Well-known member
Thanks, I will check it, im getting ready to do a little finishing. De-stress a bit & then take a look at it. Im down @ mm 0 (key west), smokin Hot down here.
 

trippingt

Member
I just got my 3950 this weekend too. The label say the same thing as yours;lnb from roof, sat/ tv direct, cable, & phone jack . But mine only has a single coax and then a double coax. All of them marked "cable". I have reviewed the posts and don't see a diagram for three coax cables.

I called the manufacturer rep and he said that was his weak area. No one can know everything. Seems like there is no consistency among the models.

Sandpirate - please keep me in the loop on how your satelite is wired.

Thanks,
trippingt
 

Cimriver

Well-known member
Very possibly could be a bad coaxial connection. Many on the forum have reported that issue. I'd start by taking the face plates off and looking at the terminations. I had to go through the entire coach and replaced virtually all of the connectors.
 

danemayer

Well-known member
Sandpirate69,

1st step is to connect coax directly from the dish to the receiver without using any Heartland connections. When you have it working, then start trying the connectors in your rig. I've got some experience at pointing at the wrong satellite and thinking I should have a picture on the TV.

If there are 3 coax connectors to plug the dish into, and maybe 2 that the TV can plug into, you only have a couple of minutes of testing to see if any of the combinations work. If it's a mislabeling problem, this approach will quickly let you sort through it all.

If you still don't have a signal, I'd start looking at crimps as mentioned earlier.
 

jpdoggett

Well-known member
That is one reason I got rid of my dish, always something that would not work cable on RV was ok but the dish company was garbage, And will try not to have another one more problem than they are worth just my opin.
 

Sandpirate69

Well-known member
Just an update on my situation with the Satellite Dish. I contacted Heartland Customer service. The guy on the other end was helpful. He told me that he would have to contact one of the Engineers to have them draw up a schematic of the wiring diagram for the cable & Sat. connections. In my Road Warior & Cyclones, for that matter, have a splitter just behind the radio. I have not been able to continue to trouble shoot because the weather here has been horrible, (lots of rain). If I end up with a schematic diagram I will definitley post it for all to see. As far as the connectors on the face plates. I will replace them, just to make sure that later down the road they don't cause any problems. Thanks to all for the help.
 

trippingt

Member
There has been some great insight in the posts that have helped me troubleshoot my problems as well. First here is my layout. I have a satelite ready RV. At the connections is a single port that is labeled Cable. And then to the right of it a double port each labeled cable. At this point I was a little nervous if I really had a satellite ready toy hauler. (Can anyone confirm that all 3959 2011's are satelitte ready.) To test my satelite, I have a single 18" round dish that I set up independant of the rig. So I know my satelite set up works. I then plugged it into each connection try to find satelite signal. I did not. So I started troubleshooting.

After some trouble shooting, I have found that the left most wire goes straight to the bedroom. I took out the wall plate and the wire was not in the connector. I am another unit that has a coax quality issue. I fixed the connector. Behind the second cable run was a spliter that ran to the main TV and the bay. It would not pass satelite because it was a cable spliter. I went to radio shack and bought a satelite spliter. So now the bay and big TV are watching satelite. (I have not tried using both at the same time-But that is my goal and I will post once I do.)

While I was at Radio Shack, I also bought a set of diplexars and this time a 4 to 1 satelite splitter. Since the bedroom feeds cable to the rest of the coach, I should be able to have my cable and my satelite too. I plan to put a diplexar to the bedroom to pass cable and satelite. I haven't gotten this to work yet. But I ran out of time.

I cannot figure out where the third cable goes. I am hoping that is my satelite to the roof wire. If it is, that is where I want to get the autodial in satelite dish. But I will save those questions for another day after I have my rig wired the way I want it.

Once I get this working, I will post a schematic and more instructions.

trippingt
 

Sandpirate69

Well-known member
This whole satellite connection is crazy. I contacted HL and the gentleman on the other line was great. The RW's don't have a wiring diagram. But the guy emailed me a diagram from the Cyclone. He said that it should be similar. This diagram doesn't have a connection in the storage area like mine. But the connections in the UDC are identical. Telephone, Cable, Sat (roof), Sat. (coach). Therefore, the only thing I can figure is that this diagram will give me a starting point.

trippingt , If i understood what you said. I have 2 connections in the bedroom, one works with the exterior antennea the other I don't know. but in the storage compartment and the living room tv i also have two connections. Could those 2nd connections be for the Sat.? Well I will play the Lotto tonight and see if those 2nd connections are for the Sat.

Thx.
 

wdk450

Well-known member
Gang:
For everyone trying to trace out and test the quality of connection of these coax (and other electrical wires and cables), I would recommend you go to Home Depot (or equivilant) and get a

Gardner Bender Cable Tester Plus Coax & UTP/STP Cable Tester Model # TT64202 $27.99"

This is a 2 piece set with a tone generator and receiver that indicates signal strength.

Here's the URL: http://www.homedepot.com/h_d1/N-5yc...splay?langId=-1&storeId=10051&catalogId=10053
 

trippingt

Member
This whole satellite connection is crazy. I contacted HL and the gentleman on the other line was great. The RW's don't have a wiring diagram. But the guy emailed me a diagram from the Cyclone. He said that it should be similar. This diagram doesn't have a connection in the storage area like mine. But the connections in the UDC are identical. Telephone, Cable, Sat (roof), Sat. (coach). Therefore, the only thing I can figure is that this diagram will give me a starting point.

trippingt , If i understood what you said. I have 2 connections in the bedroom, one works with the exterior antennea the other I don't know. but in the storage compartment and the living room tv i also have two connections. Could those 2nd connections be for the Sat.? Well I will play the Lotto tonight and see if those 2nd connections are for the Sat.

Thx.

The bottom connections of the storage compartment and the TV were connected directly to a splitter behind the UDC. However, the splitter was not for satelite like the diagram said. When I replaced that splitter with a satellite splitter (up to 2Ghz) it passed signal.

Once you get that working, I'll tell ya the secrets for the bedroom.

Trippingt
 

Wmnmy

Well-known member
Ok I've been following you guys and got my sat working how bout them bedroom hook up secrets haha will the booster interfere with signal
 

wdk450

Well-known member
Yes, The VHF/UHF antenna signal booster will cause problems with the higher frequency satellite signals.
The booster should be on ONLY when using the roof mount over-the-air antenna.
 

Wmnmy

Well-known member
Thxs can I still use trailer cable outlet or do I need to run a separate line to sat
 

trippingt

Member
trippingt , If i understood what you said. I have 2 connections in the bedroom, one works with the exterior antennea the other I don't know. but in the storage compartment and the living room tv i also have two connections. Could those 2nd connections be for the Sat.? Well I will play the Lotto tonight and see if those 2nd connections are for the Sat.

Thx.

The storage and the living room can be configured for the satelitte. But there is not a second wire that connects to the bottom connection in the bedroom. The outlet looks like there should be one. And mine it is even labeled satelitle. But when I looked behind it, there wasn't a wire. That is where I had to use the diplexar to run box satelite and cable to the bedroom.
 

Sandpirate69

Well-known member
Well, I hope everyone is having a great weekend. I finally made a little head-way on my Satellite project. I finally figured out that the first cable connection in the UDC belongs to the 2 coaxial connection in the storage area. The 2nd cable connection feeds the 2nd coaxial connection for the living room TV. Now, trippingt, I need your help with the satellite splitter. Also, how you used the 2nd coaxial connection in the bedroom. A couple of my friends tell me to disconnect the cable from the power booster and place it on the 2nd connection and just run the satellite at all times. I have somewhat of a problem with that, because if a storm hits you will loose the signal, and with kids I need to keep them busy. Were you able to run a new coax to that connection? And where can I get a sat splitter ?

Thanks
 

Sandpirate69

Well-known member
Yes, the booster will interfere. The question is, How to fish a new coax to the 2nd connection on the face plate. If you don't use the antenna and only use your satellite then you can put a satellite splitter where the cable splitter is (mine is behind the radio, Road Warrior). If you use a SWM (i think that's what its called) type dish you can use a powered spiltter and could get the signal up to 6 TVs. I have the 18" oval DirecTv dish, so i'm trying to make it work for now. The bedroom is the challenge.
 

Delaine and Lindy

Well-known member
Greetings form Red River New Mexico. Every 5th wheel we have owned, I've had to remove the spliter or by-pass it.. We have HDTV on both TV's. Out of 6 5th wheels this is the first one that was wired properly. We do have the roof mount Winguard Traverler Dish, I highly recomend the Traveler. Its fully automatic push one button and in minutes you have HDTV. Happy Trails.....
 
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trippingt

Member
I got a little more educated on this too since I last posted. So I will tell you what I did and what I learned. I used two satellite splitters and two diplexars. You can get both at Radio Shack. I ran one satellite splitter from the UDC. The output of that splitter went to the diplexar and to the other satellite splitter. The diplexar then ran up to the bedroom. Now that same diplexar also took the cable feed feed from the UDC. The bedroom used another diplexar to break out the satellite signal and cable signal. Both the cable signal from the UDC and satllite feed signal run along the same cable from the cargo bay to the bedroom. That is where I bought 2 short cables and ran them from the diplexar to the wall plate in the bedroom.

The other side of the first splitter went to another 2 way satellite spliter. That is where I ran the living room and bay satellite runs. I thought I could get away with a 4way splitter, but that was to much loss for the diplexar.

Come to find out this is the cheap way to do it. Because apparently when you do it this way, you lose other ??channels??. A satellite installation guy told me that. He eventually will install the automatic satellite dish and run all four satellite cables in the bay. I will remove all the splitters and each TV will get its own cable feed. I don't understand how I lose the other channels as he describes. If anyone knows, I'd love the education. He said the horn has a different voltage on it depending on which satellite channels you are viewing. And when it is on that voltage, none of the other Directv boxes can watch shows from the other satellites.

I am lost here. I am just fortunate that the splitters and diplexars worked for me. And I have been happily watching satellite at three different locations on different channels with different boxes.
 
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