Direct TV wil not install a dish

A 500' roll of RG6 costs $35.00 at Home Depot. Obviously, the installer was not willing to try and pull a cable thru the RV walls, but we are talking about a 26 year old rig. So drill a hole through the wall and run the cable thru it. If you want to be fancy, spend another $10.00 and put a wall plate on the outside of the RV so the cable from the dish to the RV can be disconnected. Seal around the cable in the hole with some silicone. My guess is if you have the hole drilled and cable fished thru, the installer will be happy to put compression connectors onto the cable if you don't have that ability (or want to spend the 30 bucks for the proper tools.). The installer just doesn't want the liability of drilling that hole. Forget about the wiring that is already in place. It is 26 years old and no telling how many splitters are hidden in the line. This is a $25.00 (you don't need a 500 foot roll, a 50 foot piece would be $15 and overkill for what you need) and 30 minute project requiring only a 1/2 inch drill bit, some silicone sealer and very basic common sense (don't drill your hole thru a door, thru an electrical junction box etc).

Bill.Satellite wrote:

Bill,

I would have to disagree with your thoughts on RG59 as being "acceptable" for sat receivers.

You are welcome to do so and we will just have to agree to disagree. If you take 50' of RG59 and 50' of RG6 and run them from an antenna to a receiver my bet would be that IF you could tell a difference at all in signal strength between the 2 it would be in the 1-5 point range i.e. no difference. Take that out 100' and you might find 10 points. If the antenna is well pointed this would also not create any noticeable difference to the end user.

I think both are correct. It depends on the receiver. We have a dish 222 HD receiver that will not work with 25ft. RG59 but we have another receiver that is not HD and it will work with the same wire.

Good day.

Bill,

I would have to disagree with your thoughts on RG59 as being "acceptable" for sat receivers.

You are welcome to do so and we will just have to agree to disagree. If you take 50' of RG59 and 50' of RG6 and run them from an antenna to a receiver my bet would be that IF you could tell a difference at all in signal strength between the 2 it would be in the 1-5 point range i.e. no difference. Take that out 100' and you might find 10 points. If the antenna is well pointed this would also not create any noticeable difference to the end user.

A Tip: Both the DTV HR24 and HR44 receivers support RF remotes so you can mount them anywhere. My receiver is mounted vertically inside a cabinet which solved the depth problem associated with many RV cabinets.

donn0128 wrote:
A 1990 rig most likely will not have RG6 coax, thus no matter what will not work. Newer Direct receivers demand RG6 coax. So, your best option is to either DIY or hire an independent contractor to come and run all new cabling from someplace outside to where your receiver is. BTW not only a dish, but you will need a new SWM power supply to make everything work correctly.

I beg to differ but RG59 will work just fine.I'm running my basement TV with direct tv HD unit on RG59 works fine.
I had to run from my front entertainment center through the basement back to the TV all I had was RG59 which I have used in the past in the house. No Problems what so ever.

Some RV's come with TWO cable inlets on the outside, service side, ONE is marked for Sattelite, one for park cable.

But if you only have one then the DirecTV Rep told you the truth

Many "Re-Task" the cable for Sat use but frankly I very strongly recommend you not do that.
instead run a nice RG-6 Line from wherever you want the Receiver to wherever you wish to connect it.. THIs can be done (Believe it or not) Without drilling much in the way of holes (or any in some cases) I can get it out without drilling on my rig But then I cheat.. I know my Rig.

donn0128 wrote:
A 1990 rig most likely will not have RG6 coax, thus no matter what will not work. Newer Direct receivers demand RG6 coax. So, your best option is to either DIY or hire an independent contractor to come and run all new cabling from someplace outside to where your receiver is. BTW not only a dish, but you will need a new SWM power supply to make everything work correctly.

This is not correct. While RG6 cable is recommended for the best signal, it is by no means "required" to make the system work. If you use a standard definition receiver in the RV, no SWM switch is needed. This is only for HD. Chuck

Bill.Satellite wrote:

Newer Direct receivers demand RG6 coax

While an RG6 cable is good, it's not required by any current satellite TV receiver. If you have a very long run the loss between antenna and receiver can be reduced by the better quality cabling but since we are generally not talking about really long runs the RG-59 inside a coach will do just fine.

Bill,

I would have to disagree with your thoughts on RG59 as being "acceptable" for sat receivers.

While it is possible to use a short piece (10ft or so) as a test rig, it is not ideal at all for normal use.

Typical RG59 found in most stores like Walmart, Home Depot, Lowes are only 80% shield, not 100% foil shield..

RG6 unlike RG59 is easy to find in 100% shield pretty much anywhere.

RG59 has a much higher loss at the IF frequencies, makes for much less signal getting to the receiver.. The BULK of the tuning work IS done in the receiver (important, please hold this thought)..

The LNBs do a "block" down conversion of the frequencies beamed down from the satellites, the block conversion means ALL of the sat channels are down converted to this IF (Intermediate Frequencies).

The tuner in the receiver works BEST if it gets as strong as possible IF strength.. As the IF gets weaker (long cable run or cheap cable) the tuner in the sat is not able to cleanly tune the channels.. The result is drop outs, blockies, freezing pix..

There are actually several "grades" of RG6, unswept and swept..

Sat grade RG6 is frequency swept to verify the acceptable loss in the sat IF frequencies is not too great and the coax must be able to pass this testing to be marked as such.

Many years ago, I worked for a "C" band (big dish) installer, learned all about using better coax.. If you want a trouble free install, it PAYS to do it right the first time..

RG59 is not a very good coax to use between the dish and receiver..

3 years ago when I upgraded to a SWM receiver DTV said my 8 year old RG6 coax was good but the connectors were not. They replaced them all with L1RC SMS Ultimate compression fittings and barrel connectors HF-81 with a yellow insert. Just a FYI.

robsouth wrote:

WyoTraveler wrote:


Waste of money and time using RG59. Do it right and use RG6.

But if it already done, no need to redo it.

Remember the old days? in 95 I signed up for Dish. If you went over and bought the system and set it up youself they threw in RG59 coax for free. Just tell them how many feet that was needed. My system worked but not that well. Had signal dropouts etc. Few months later I took my box over to the dealer and he checked it out. All OK. He then gave me RG6 and said Dish had lots of complaints because of dropouts of signal. Yes it works just a PITA. Hooked up RG6 and no more problems. If it is already installed I'd use it until it becomes a PITA. Just keep in mind they didn't switch to RG6 for no reason. It wasn't lets switch because it is cheaper etc. They switched because of lots of complaints of signal dropouts. Most RVs switched after 2000