Forum Discussion

_tpc_'s avatar
_tpc_
Explorer
Apr 28, 2015

How to set up portable satellite dish...

Ok so here is the story. Have a TT, 2014 Keystone passport. It has the crank up regular style winegard antenna with the small wall panel that has the booster, and the cable comes from this panel into the tv. I know when not using cable the booster is on, when using cable the booster is off.

The satellite thing will be dish network with the latest box (bundle kit). Hasn't arrived yet. I'm guessing the box will have HDMI out to the tv.

Here is the dilemma. I would like to keep the regular antenna intact in case of some reason I would want to use it over the dish. Since most parks (at least here in michigan) cable has been regulated to the need of the digital converter box in order to get any real stations, much like our homes here are, the cable input on the oustide of the trailer is relatively useless.

With have the dish setup I cannot see ever using the cable anyways. So what would be the best way to get the sat line into the trailer from outside, without running the cable in through a window or door? Can I use the cable input somehow and rewire it?Should I start dropping the chloroplast and drilling holes into the trailer from the outside to wire it in?

I'd like to be able to attach the dish cable to the back of the trailer somehow. Or maybe I can come up through the bottom someway and attached a fitting to the frame?

Any thoughts on this?
  • Not wanting to jump in here and step on anyone's toes, you may or may not be able to use the existing cable run to connect a satellite antenna/receiver.
    IF (notice the big IF) the cable runs directly from the outside cable connection to the wall plate that is used as an A/B switch between OTA and Cable then it's as simple as removing the Cable coax connected to the back of that wall plate and making an extension to the satellite receiver. You could also add an A/B switch and run that disconnected cable to the single port on the A/B switch and the outputs could go right back to the port you disconnected and the 2nd to the satellite receiver. By doing this you would not lose anything and have the option to use Cable or Satellite by simply pushing a button.
    Here's the problem. Not all RV's are wired from the outside connection directly to the wall plate with the on/off button. If your is not, and there is any splitter of any kind between the outside connection and that wall plate, you are done and you must run a new wire.
  • Thank you all, I will report back when I figure this out. :)
  • So this is what I found out. First I ended up modding my setup so that i could disconnect the line running to the back of the trailer from the rest of the booster system. I can also connect it back up if necessary. Second, my cable connection on the back runs straight to the booster, no splitter that I know of, at least that gave me any issues anyways.

    Third, I had to make my own rg6 cables for the length I needed for the mods. I just bought a pre made rca rg6 cable and some ends and a crimper, and just cut off and made whatever I needed.

    System works great! No problem in degradation of signal or anything so long as I can find a good line of site to the sky. My only complaint is the scan it has to run through everytime I connect it up. This doesn't have anything to do with the cabling setup or mods I made, just must be how dish works. But once it goes through that (which takes longer than one would expect) everything works fine.

    I did have one worry after I reconnected the regular antenna and booster but forgot to disconnect the X2 antenna outside that the booster might feed back into it and mess up the motors or something. It did not, but I will be much more careful in the future, too pricey a system to mess it up over a simple thing.

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