Hooking up Sat system

[Tom of Ypsi]

I am no electronics guru, happy to get signed on to the internet, so I need help in plain English on how to hook up my roof mounted satellite that I was finally able to put up. I have the bare bones stock electronics system that came with my coach but I am having trouble hooking the system up so I can receive a picture. I have cable hooked up to the stock receiver then into the TV's and this works with no problems. Do I have to disconnect the cable system in order to hook up the satellite system? What wires go where? I am getting a satellite signal of 75 or HL so I am ok there. What I am not getting is a picture and the DW is starting to think that I should have had CW or a dealer hook up the system. Male ego says I can do it and I will.

Thanks in advance for the help.

 

[busted2341]

Hard to explain but......SAT cable goes directly into SAT receiver, TV gets hooked up to SAT receiver, if that is your set up you cannot see SAT or cable on the same TV without a video switch box, which is not what the L/M or B/H have....disconnect the cable from the TV and hook it up to the SAT and you'll have picture.....I hope.....or...you hope....

 

[jbeletti]

Tom,

As Frank states, satellite feed goes directly into the satellite receiver. But, maybe you need to break this down to eliminate other possible issues.

If all Landmarks are wired the same, out in the UDC is a horizontally mounted Satellite wall plate with 2 F81 female coaxial jacks. The jack closest to the hitch is the feed coming down from the roof. The jack closest to the rear of the trailer is the feed that terminates in the entertainment cabinet.

Consider doing this:

1. Run a coax jumper from the left-most jack in the UDC (from satellite) and connect it to the satellite input to your receiver. Even if you have to set the receiver outside on a table or chair while you do this. there is AC power i nthe UDC so you're good there.

2. Look for the TV Output on the back of the satellite receiver. You may have 2 sets. One may be another F81 female coaxial jack and the other may be female RCAs. The F81 TV output jack would be an RF output. That can connect to the antenna input on the back of a TV. The RCAs will be for baseband audio and composite video. That can be connected to the A/V inputs on the front or back of any TV that has A/V inputs. Choose either one for now and make the connection.

3. With the receiver and TV set on, switch the TV tuner to channel 2, 3 or 4, depending on the modulator switch on the back of the receiver or with the TV signal input set to the correct A/V input if that is what you are using. You should have a picture of what the satellite receiver is putting out (a test or setup screen or maybe even a satellite channel).

4. If you have no image in step 3 above, you TV is not corrected to the receiver correctly or the incorrect input is selected. By the way, the LNB (low noise block down converter) at the dish is powered by DC current fed from the satellite receiver out the satellite input port. Never hook a TV (or your tongue ) to this port.

5. Once you have any imnage on the TV form the receiver, you have proven that you are in fact connected to the dish. Disconnect everything in the UDC and add a small (12") coaxial jumper to connect between the 2 satellite jacks on that wall plate. This jumps the rooftop satellite feed onto the wire going to the entertainment center. If you ever need to use a portable dish (I do at times), you remove the jumper and connect the portable dish to the right-most jack feed the portable dish signal to the entertainment center.

6. In the entertainment center, you'll find 2 black coaxial cables. They may be marked with a wrap of green or blue electrical tape. One of these is feed "to" the Winegard video (RF really) switch and the other is the feed "from" satellite jack in the UDC. It is the satellite feed that you want to hook to the satellite input on the receiver. According to the Heartland audio diagram, it 'should" be the GREEN taped cable.

7. As for how to conenct to the TV - you have options. We use the A/V input on the back of the TV to connect to the A/V output of the satellite receiver. If your receiver has an RF output, you could use the antenna input on the TV, then tune the TV to the channel output of the modulator in the receiver (2, 3 or 4).

Hope this is helpful and not confusing. Call my cell and we can talk through it of needed.

Jim

 

[Tom of Ypsi]

Frank & Jim,
Thanks for the quick replies. I will try the hookup tomorrow, running out of daylight today and I am tired. I have a 13" portable TV that I won at Camping World and I will use that to test the sat connection. I will put this into the basement, that way I will not have to run cable into the coach through a window. I will also look into a video switch box as mentioned to make life just a little easier, think CW sells them

 

[Tom of Ypsi]

Update

Well I finally have satellite after much trying by me and four other people at several different campgrounds. I took my coach to Camping World today to see if I had a bad LNB since no one could find any reason why I could not lock on to a satellite. Come to find out after much testing, about 1 1/2 hours worth, the cable running from the UDC to the living room was bad. They could not get the old cable out since it is buried behind, what we think, a plastic piece to protect it from staples, nails etc. A new wire was run under the off door slide, fished through the same hole going up as the other cable does, behind the fireplace and up through the pantry and to the sat receiver. WOW what a job and the cost was for two hours labor and 1 hour of diagnoses. All of this actually took about 5 1/4 hours.
On another note, I found that my gas line under the off door slide is broken in half. It looks like the plastic loom holding the plastic gas line broke thus allowing the gas line to get pinched in the slide. Sure glad I have not had the gas on in the coach, could have been ugly. I will post this part in another thread as a heads up for all to see and check.









b

 

[Wild Wind]

Tom, you could have called me. My RG6 cable going to the living Rm. also turned out to be bad, see my previous posts on TV cables and connectors improperly installed and crimped.
I didnot have a TV all during the 3 day 2005 rally, it worked a month before bring it in for service. LSI could not find the problem on Saturday, therefore, they kept the unit for 2 moore weeks to fix TV and finish repairs that where suppose to be done by the rally. Got a call from Randy after 2 weeks that everything was fixed. They told me that the antena was bad, installed a new (wasted Hartlands money). That nite a the Elkhart Fair Grounds, we still did not have a TV, and found that none of the body repairs had been done either, after another 2 weeks (total of 6 weeks)
Later when we got home, after much testing and removing the bottom, I found that the splices on both the Sat. & Ant. cables had falling apart because of poor workmanship again.
Ended up doing it all myself again, I figture Hartland has saved aleast $4,000.00 with my repairs so far, and hear I ought, that I had retired from the Remodeling/Repair business.