Cable doesn't work

Happy Campers

Well-known member
I plugged in the cable jack but it only got 3 channels and they were snowy.I tried different settings until i gave up,but finally ran the cable in the front door and plugged it into the tv,it works.Is there a easy way i can check the cable running thru the 5'er myself ?.We are a long way from a dealer.
Thanks
 

Happy Campers

Well-known member
christianson,
Yes,the booster is no help since we can't get any tv on the antenna where we are located.When i brought the cable line in and plugged it directly into the tv it worked.I'm thinking it is the cable running thru the 5'er.I could be wrond.
Thanks
 

Happy Campers

Well-known member
I may be on to something here,we have used the antenna w/booster in different areas and it worked great,it was also plugged into the cable jack.I just switched the satillite into the cable jack,inside and outside and cant get a signal from the dish.I think i'll take the plate cover off on the outside cable and take a look.
Thanks
 

Happy Campers

Well-known member
I struck out on my idea.I pulled all the plates off on the outside on the cable jack and found no problems.I removed the wall plate in the bedroom,where the booster is.At that point i put it all back together,we are both sick so standing a long time is out but that might be the problem with one of the ends.Their are five cables going into that location but it will have to wait.
Thanks
 

StevieWonder

Well-known member
Might be a bad cabling connection on one of the cables inside the trailer but at this point you don't know for certain if the problem is even in the trailer.

If your TV is small enough, or you have a second smaller one, you might try taking it outside and doing a direct hookup to the source cable and see if you have a good picture. At least that way you could determine for sure if the issue inside the trailer. Possible it's grounded at the hookup point at your camping spot.

One last item: any chance somebody changed a setting on a connected VCR?
 

timk

Well-known member
John, if the booster is on or off has something to do with the pass-thru signal of the cable. So it might be an ez fix to be sure its off.
TimK
 

Happy Campers

Well-known member
StevieWonder,i have already ran the the source cable thru the front door and hooked it up directly to the tv and got a great picture.There is no vcr.
Thanks

timk,That was mentioned before but yes it is off.
Thanks

Suggestions are always welcome.
 

ChopperBill

Well-known member
Get a cheap continuity tester and check the continuity between the center wire and the outside shielding (nut) on each cable end. The bulb on the continuity tester should not light up. If it does replace an end. You have a 50-50 chance that you will get the bad one the first time. If you replace both ends and you still get a light that means the cable probably has a nail or staple through it and the whole cable will have to be replaced.
 

Handy

A Florida camper
cable

Same thing happened to me. The cable would not work but on one or two snow channels. I unhooked the cable outside and relocked it to the satellite connector and then hooked the TV to the satellite connector inside and all was OK then. What I found when I got home was the connector inside of the RV that was hooked up to the input connector outside was shorted. I seen a small strand of wire looking inside the connector shorted to the center wires. I took my knife and cut it away and plugged everything like it should be and everything worked fine. I guess the strand of wire was in there from the get go and going down the road made it short. It did work when I first got the RV
 

Happy Campers

Well-known member
Handy,i have already taken the connectors apart,inside and outside, and found nothing so far.I have a satillite hooked up and it's working but i'm trying to hook up the cable so we can see the local weather and news.
 

Princess Kathleen

Well-known member
We had the same problem...went to RV Specialists...Todd explained that the tv needed to be on channel 3 or 4....you might have to add the channel...and of course make sure you have the aux button pushed on the booster panel.

PK
 

mountainlovers76

Mississippi Chapter Leaders
I had the same problem. Turned out the cables coming down the back wall of my '09 3600RE were never connected from the factory. I would look there. The dealer had to drop the bottom at the rear to splice them together with connectors. The we found that the front end was not connected either. When he went to pull it and connect it to the splitter in the storage area the cable was several feet to short. Had to run a new cable from front to back. Cost me $80 worth of diesel to carry it to the dealer to get corrected what should have been done at the factory. And I am still finding things like this....all quality control issues. If the factory would simply test things a lot of this would not happen. Don't get me wrong, I love my Bighorn. I looked at hundreds of coaches and this is still my choice, but it is getting expensive going back and forth getting things repaired. In fact, it is in the dealers shop right now, again.
 

Rich Knight

Wolfer Wagon
I had a simular problem with my 3670 RL. When I hooked up my Dish I got nothing. When I checked the cable with a continunity tester I found that I had a bad cable. I had to run another one. This was the same situation with the front and the back cable input. The TV Antenna cable worked ok, but? The way the cables are routed it could be bad also.
 

Happy Campers

Well-known member
Sorry it's taken so long but it's fixed,there was a end that didnt look like it was shorted but i didnt like it so i refixed it and now everything works.Thanks for all the help.
 
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