Tracvision and Direct TV

I had a older KVH in my 2001 Monaco. It took some digging to figure it out, but I managed to get it to work with little fuss once I figured out when it needed a "reset" before trying to find the satellite. After that it would lock onto the DirecTV 101 without issue all the time unless I had a lot of trees int he way.

I know my KVH S model only automatically found the correct one if it had the low speed com port on the original box it was designed to work with. But it worked just fine with the latest gen of the DirecTV SD boxes, you just had to him the search button 4 or 5 times till it locked into the proper SAT.

The way I got mine to behave was the following sequence.

Get plugged in, level, and turn the box on so it would boot. By the time you where done with all the site setup and getting slides out my box would be just sitting at the searching screen.

At that point I would menu over to the setup/satellite/signal strength area and turn on the KVH. For whatever reason it liked that sequence. After that, it would boot up and start searching. Each time the light stayed solid I would hit it again. Usually in 1-5 clicks of the botton it locked on, if I got past that I would do the reset (hold the search button for 10 seconds when you turn the power on.) It worked every time for me.

Once it locked on I found you need to turn the tracker off, if you loose 120 and it sees the loss of power to the LNB it restarts the tracking sequence when the power is back on. It was not great, not as nice as the newer windgaurd on my 5th wheel, but it worked and it was better then spending over 1k to replace it.

Here is Link to the User Guide PDF

I noticed I had the S4 on the old bus, but the S3 is still capable of performing.

Hello, we're "New" to the RV world, just purchased our first coach, 2004 Mountain Aire 43'tag, low miles and exceptional condition. Anyway, not being familiar with many features as yet, I'm wondering which is the best satellite network to use with an in motion unit, Direct TV or Dish. Any sugestions?

Thanks,
The Jackster

OK, good luck. Let us know if you have any success with the KVH. The 18" round should work great in the US and N. Mexico but likely not enough dish for mid to Southern Mex. A dome has almost no hope of success in Mexico.

Thanks Bill. I would not spend more than $9.99 on that old POS! If I understand the manual correctly the system is supposed to use the low speed data cable from the dish to the rcvr. to track the correct bird. So if I use one of my old rcvrs. for that hookup it will send the correct data to the dish to get to the right bird. My D12 rcvr. will be hooked up to the dish and all should be good. I will only be using the dish about 3 times a year as we will be in Mexico where there is no Direct signal. The dish is a 2005 model SF which needs no programming to change from Direct to Dish. The Low speed data connection is supposed to give you the correct Bird. I will try it one day when I am in the USA. I have an extra D12 and an old RCA rcvr. with the data port. I almost threw it out last week!!! Next option would be an old round dish on a stand outside! Our older Bounder had the Winegard crank up and other than problems in the wind it worked well. I could often get a strong signal in less than 2 minutes.

Moisheh

It is quite likely that your antenna will no longer acquire the satellite automatically (the reason for pushing the button over and over) due to its age. How old is your coach/antenna?
Some of the KVH antennas required a receiver with a low speed data port (no longer available) but if you persist the push, push, push option should still get you TV. You should find out for sure if the previous owner had DTV. If not, you need to find a KVH tech with the necessary computer and software to reprogram the antenna for DTV reception.
If you can't get it working I would not spend much money trying to get it fixed when you could buy a new functional antenna from another company that would carry you well into the future.