Setting up Dish on Bighorn

[joaquin45]

I have a 2016 Bighorn 3270RS and want to install my Dish VIP211K receiver with the portable Tailgater System.

Has anyone suggestions/input on installation; i.e. where to place the receiver in the unit and what connectors, also do I use the same outside connector that is used for cable connection and any other suggestions or input would be appreciated.

Thanks

 

[danemayer]

Hi joaquin45,

Congratulations on the new Bighorn and welcome to the Heartland Owners Forum.

In addition to the cable TV coax connector in the Universal Docking Center (UDC) you probably have 4 satellite coax connections. The coax wire from the dish gets connected to one of those 4 connections. 2 of them go to the roof for a rooftop Winegard dish, if you were to get that. The other 2 go to living room and bedroom locations. The bedroom connection is probably in the closet. The living room connection is near the TV.

You'll put the receiver near the TV you want to use with satellite.

The cable TV connection will not pass satellite signals between dish and receiver.

If you want to use 1 receiver with 2 TVs, that gets complicated. Like a residence, the normal way to do so is to get a 2nd receiver. But I'm not sure your Tailgater supports more than 1 receiver. If you can split the output of the receiver, you may be able to run the receiver output back into the cable TV coax connector next to where the receiver gets the satellite signal. You may then be able to use the other TV by way of its cable TV connector.

Before trying to set things up with the RV connections and internal wiring, run coax directly from the dish to the receiver. Once you've got it working, you can try out the internal wiring.

 

[Westwind]

I agree with going straight to the receive on the initial set up and connection. I called the number on the box and the Dish rep was extremely helpful because I was trying to use the connections in the UDC and they were not working. We left it that way for the 3 months we were in Florida. Now I'm going to work on the FW when I get a chance and see if I can find the problem. I definitely will be upgrading the connectors and splitters since they are not labeled as use for satellite use. My Bighorn is a 2012 manufactured in April 2011 and Heartland hadn't realized that what they were using for components wasn't correct. If everything was connected correcting your fifth wheel should be all ready to go, hopefully without any problem.
We located our receiver on top of the shelf above our fireplace, in the 3070RL floor plan that is the only place you have. That's another task I have on my list.

 

[SNOKING]

I think you will find the the four Sat input are defined on a label in the UDS. Like myself and others you will find that the coax connectors were not screwed on tightly, and need some attention. My cabling worked as labeled right out of the box and both TV came up on the sat antenna without problems.

I have DTV with a SWM HD dish.

The living room receiver/DVR is in the cabinet above the TV and is set for RF signals vs IR.

If you swing the TV out on the mount, you can route the cabling between the receiver and TV. My is a HDMI connection.

The bedroom receiver is in the front closet and they provided a HDMI cable to the bedroom TV location, again running RF not IR which is line of sight. You will two HDMI patch cables to connect this up. And hopefully your sat receivers have HDMI outputs.

I put my SWM splitter on the back side of the UDS, and will have to run another coax across the zoo/dungeon for a belly TV.

Chris