Satellite connections???

teasac69

Well-known member
On the Sat coax issue. Inside the UDC on mine was a splitter in the Sat feed. It was rated for cable TV, max of 900MHz frequency usage. Sat TV is 1700-2200 MHz. It will show continuity but won't work for satellite.
We replaced the ends on the SAT coax, behind the UDC and at the cabinet end. There was no splitter. thanks for the input
 

'Lil Guy'

Well-known member
Has anyone just hooked up their new satellite dish and have it work using the provided connections? Just bought a new Winegard Pathway X2 with tripod and 2 211z receivers for our new coach. 1st time to use and try out will be at the Texas rally in Quanah in March. At least there will be some people with experience with this issue on site.lol
 

jbeletti

Well-known member
Has anyone just hooked up their new satellite dish and have it work using the provided connections? Just bought a new Winegard Pathway X2 with tripod and 2 211z receivers for our new coach. 1st time to use and try out will be at the Texas rally in Quanah in March. At least there will be some people with experience with this issue on site.lol

Frank - we'll be there and I'd be happy to assist if you run into cabling issues. I know nothing about your dish but I generally do know how the coax cables are routed and where connectors/splices are. Install your receiver before you hit the road so that part is done.
 
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'Lil Guy'

Well-known member
Will do Jim and thanks for the reply. Hopefully, we aren't going to have any issues even though this would be a very minor hiccup if a problem arises.lol Looking forward to seeing you again and you just have to love these Heatland rallies.
 

danemayer

Well-known member
Frank,

Where Jim suggests installing your receiver before the rally, connect the dish directly to the receiver and get it running without using any of the RV wiring. Then when it's time to switch to the RV wiring, you'll know you have a working system.
 

avvidclif

Well-known member
Frank - we'll be there and I'd be happy to assist if you run into cabling issues. I know nothing about your dish but I generally do know how the coax cables are routed and where connectors/splices are. Install you receiver before you hit the road so that part is done.


Good, I'll want to pick your brain also.
 

'Lil Guy'

Well-known member
We'll bring it home before the rally and try it out. We were going to try to hook it up and get it working in the driveway but I see what you mean. I'll just plug the receiver into 110, connect it to the satellite dish and tv bypassing the coach's coax from UDC to TV. If that works, and it should, I'll go ahead and hook it up to the RV wiring and see what happens. Thanks for the info.

- - - Updated - - -

On the Sat coax issue. Inside the UDC on mine was a splitter in the Sat feed. It was rated for cable TV, max of 900MHz frequency usage. Sat TV is 1700-2200 MHz. It will show continuity but won't work for satellite.


I thought I had 2 sat in hookups with 1 to the main TV and the other to the bedroom TV. Also, 1 cable hookup I thought shared front and rear TV.
 

jbeletti

Well-known member
We'll bring it home before the rally and try it out. We were going to try to hook it up and get it working in the driveway but I see what you mean. I'll just plug the receiver into 110, connect it to the satellite dish and tv bypassing the coach's coax from UDC to TV. If that works, and it should, I'll go ahead and hook it up to the RV wiring and see what happens. Thanks for the info.

- - - Updated - - -




I thought I had 2 sat in hookups with 1 to the main TV and the other to the bedroom TV. Also, 1 cable hookup I thought shared front and rear TV.

Frank - you have a great plan. This will ensure you have any service/receiver activation issues resolved as well.
 

SeattleLion

Well-known member
FWIW in my 2014 Big Horn there was a cable connector that was in the basement area that came undone. I had it checked out under warranty after a day doing cable checking and the tech found the cable had come undone.

One issue I have with the "factory cable setup is this. There is only 1 sat cable connector. If you have a DR receiver you need 2. At this time have to run the second coax through the kitchen window. Factory really need to setup 2 cables as a default since any of us have more than the old single tuner receives.


I have a 2014 BH. There
are 2 sat cables in the UDC: One for the BR and one for LR. There are two cables going to the roof as well. I have my Trav'ler and multiswitch on the roof. It attaches to the two cables to the UDC. We have a jumper in each outlet pair from the roof to the appropriate room sat. cable. All works fine. The BR sat cable terminates in the bedroom closet for our trailer.
 

Roller4tan

Well-known member
I'm going to jump in here with my recent experience. Last year we upgraded our Directv to the genie receivers. The main Genie DVR is set up for the living room and the mini was for the bedroom. Over the last year the main receiver has worked fairly well but the mini has been erratic, having issues connecting to the main receiver. A couple days ago, the mini just wouldn't connect at all. A call to tech service had me resetting receivers til I was blue in the face. I was convinced the genie mini was bad, they said it was the cabling. They finally set up a service call, I pay a small fee each month for insurance, so it was no extra charge.
Tech came out and went right to the UDC. I have a splitter there to get the signal to both locations. It was a 2GHz splitter with power pass, but it had been in there a year so he changed that. Then he pulled the connectors out of the UDC wall and replaced the barrel connectors on both plates. He then went inside and replaced all the barrel connectors to all the wall plates connected to the satellite cabling. When I asked him about that he stated that the barrels can "burn out" because they are not rated for the frequency that the SWM dish operates on. These barrels have an orange insert, while the cable and antenna connectors are white or black. He also said that even a static discharge can easily "burn out" those other connectors.
After all was done, both receivers work perfectly. And I was wrong about thinking the genie mini was bad.
 

teasac69

Well-known member
I'm going to jump in here with my recent experience. Last year we upgraded our Directv to the genie receivers. The main Genie DVR is set up for the living room and the mini was for the bedroom. Over the last year the main receiver has worked fairly well but the mini has been erratic, having issues connecting to the main receiver. A couple days ago, the mini just wouldn't connect at all. A call to tech service had me resetting receivers til I was blue in the face. I was convinced the genie mini was bad, they said it was the cabling. They finally set up a service call, I pay a small fee each month for insurance, so it was no extra charge.
Tech came out and went right to the UDC. I have a splitter there to get the signal to both locations. It was a 2GHz splitter with power pass, but it had been in there a year so he changed that. Then he pulled the connectors out of the UDC wall and replaced the barrel connectors on both plates. He then went inside and replaced all the barrel connectors to all the wall plates connected to the satellite cabling. When I asked him about that he stated that the barrels can "burn out" because they are not rated for the frequency that the SWM dish operates on. These barrels have an orange insert, while the cable and antenna connectors are white or black. He also said that even a static discharge can easily "burn out" those other connectors.
After all was done, both receivers work perfectly. And I was wrong about thinking the genie mini was bad.

I also replaced (or had a technician) the barrel connectors at each end of the Sat coax, one in UDC and one at Wall in entertainment area. The tech said those connectors are certainly varying levels of quality and could interfere with the highest level of signal being delivered. It did not improve my situation.
 

SeattleLion

Well-known member
have you tried running coax through the window directly from the signal source to the LR TV? That would rule out any problem other than the cable.
 

cookie

Administrator
Staff member
Since you said that you ran a coax through the window and all was well and you also said you were given enough coax to run from the UDC to the slide, have you tried running that coax? Or at least hooking to the barrel connector for the coax that runs up into the slide?
It's actually a pretty easy job.

Peace
Dave
 

teasac69

Well-known member
have you tried running coax through the window directly from the signal source to the LR TV? That would rule out any problem other than the cable.


yes, I bought a new tailgater and new coax for outside, ran it thru the window and all is well. hook it up thru the UDC and nadda
 

bobca1

Well-known member
Has anyone just hooked up their new satellite dish and have it work using the provided connections? Just bought a new Winegard Pathway X2 with tripod and 2 211z receivers for our new coach. 1st time to use and try out will be at the Texas rally in Quanah in March. At least there will be some people with experience with this issue on site.lol
Nope didn't work for me either. Tried to connect my pathway x1 to the sat connection in the UDC (tried both of them) and the receiver to the wall plate in living room. Receiver would not detect the dish. I didn't bother troubleshooting since that was temporary use I have since permanently attached my x1 to the roof and run 2 new cables direct to the basement down the black tank vent. As expected with my own direct runs receivers work perfectly.
On the positive side, cable TV and Antenna runs work fine, to the living room and bedroom. Just not the sat runs.
 

'Lil Guy'

Well-known member
Couldn't you just attach a sat cable to the sat in in the UDC to use as an extension and use an ohm meter to try the cable connection by the TV? Certainly there is a way to check the sat cables in the RV without actually hooking up the antennae. Seriously, just a jumper wire from the UDC to the outlet in the bedroom and living room. If there isn't a break in the cable, it should work.
 

bobca1

Well-known member
Yes but the way I read the question does the sat run actually work straight from the factory? After following these threads seems the consensus is no, it's pre-wired but requires some tracing and reconnecting based on buyers intended use. Something to be aware of during PDI. Continuity test not a good guarantee the sat signal will pass, if there are splitters in the middle for instance.

my cyclone does not have sat pre-wired on roof so that's why I ran the new feeds to roof.

Sent from mobile using Tapatalk
 

teasac69

Well-known member
Since you said that you ran a coax through the window and all was well and you also said you were given enough coax to run from the UDC to the slide, have you tried running that coax? Or at least hooking to the barrel connector for the coax that runs up into the slide?
It's actually a pretty easy job.

Peace
Dave
Now this sounds like a feasible approach. If I can locate the barrel connector in the belly that then goes
through the expanding joint that carries the interduct to the outside of the slide, I could either determine that's where the issue originates OR worst case, just use that as my connection for the sat cable from the tailgater????? worth investigating. Not sure where that barrel connector is but will pull down the poly and see what I can find.

I'm about to have to live in my coach for 4-6 months while we build a new house and I sure don't want to be without satellite while we're locked in for the winter.

I appreciate everyone's thoughts and input. You're good folks. Sure hope someone with Heartland is listening to these problems. Way to easy to fix this at the factory for this to be an on-going problem. Someone needs to understand the satellite feed must be higher quality than simple cable or antenna and that it needs to be tested at the factory to ensure it will work. with an actual DISH or DIRECT connected satellite and get it right. very disappointing to have the variety of crap I'm dealing with in this coach. Not hearing from anyone at Heartland that gives a dang. another source of disappointment to me.
 

danemayer

Well-known member
Not hearing from anyone at Heartland that gives a dang. another source of disappointment to me.
Tim,

Heartland Brand Managers monitor selected parts of the forum, but even then don't necessarily see every post in those areas. This sub-forum is not an area that is monitored by the Brand Managers.
 
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