Question regarding satellite signal through coax outlet

[rexmitchell]

Hi all, got our first travel trailer a few months back. 29 ft Cruiser Crossroad and we love it. Decided to get a king tailgater portable satellite to run when we are on the road. The dish won't be mounted so we will have to setup each stop. Now, my question is, what is the difference in the coax inputs on the outside of the trailer. I have one for satellite and one for cable towards the rear of the rig. I also have another input towards the center on one side, and one of the side with the door. My instincts tell me the satellite input is the one to use but what are all the others for? I also was warned that sometimes the signal from the satellite won't go through if there is a splitter or relay in the trailer. Any experience with this? Thanks for the help in advance.

--Rex

[rexmitchell]

Good deal, I'll get one tomorrow. Thanks in advance for the help!

[dougrainer]

Crossroads changes things and I really need a Pic of your cabinet and wires. Doug

[rexmitchell]

dougrainer wrote:

rexmitchell wrote:
Hi all, got our first travel trailer a few months back. 29 ft Cruiser Crossroad and we love it. Decided to get a king tailgater portable satellite to run when we are on the road. The dish won't be mounted so we will have to setup each stop. Now, my question is, what is the difference in the coax inputs on the outside of the trailer. I have one for satellite and one for cable towards the rear of the rig. I also have another input towards the center on one side, and one of the side with the door. My instincts tell me the satellite input is the one to use but what are all the others for? I also was warned that sometimes the signal from the satellite won't go through if there is a splitter or relay in the trailer. Any experience with this? Thanks for the help in advance.

--Rex

On Crossroads, the outside SAT is for your external Dish. That goes to a dedicated coax inside at the entertainment center and usually labeled SAT. The CABLE is ONLY for the CG cable system and on Crossroads, that goes thru the Antenna wall plate with the antenna booster. If the booster light is ON, that means roof top antenna is to the TV's. If the booster is OFF, that routes the outside Cable to the TV's. The other outside wall coax's are for you to connect a TV outside to watch and will only receive the Roof top OTA antenna or that Cable input just like the inside RV's. For those outside TV coax plugs to get a SAT signal from the Sat receiver, you would have to rewire the internal coax cables at the Antenna booster. Doug

Hi Doug, thanks! I didn't notice an inside outlet labeled "SAT". However, I have another question now.....I have a jack in the entertainment center in the living room with a DC outlet, coax jack and a button w/ light just like you described. I also have a coax wire that is fixed and run through the wall. Do you have any idea which of these I need to use?

[dougrainer]

rexmitchell wrote:
Hi all, got our first travel trailer a few months back. 29 ft Cruiser Crossroad and we love it. Decided to get a king tailgater portable satellite to run when we are on the road. The dish won't be mounted so we will have to setup each stop. Now, my question is, what is the difference in the coax inputs on the outside of the trailer. I have one for satellite and one for cable towards the rear of the rig. I also have another input towards the center on one side, and one of the side with the door. My instincts tell me the satellite input is the one to use but what are all the others for? I also was warned that sometimes the signal from the satellite won't go through if there is a splitter or relay in the trailer. Any experience with this? Thanks for the help in advance.

--Rex

On Crossroads, the outside SAT is for your external Dish. That goes to a dedicated coax inside at the entertainment center and usually labeled SAT. The CABLE is ONLY for the CG cable system and on Crossroads, that goes thru the Antenna wall plate with the antenna booster. If the booster light is ON, that means roof top antenna is to the TV's. If the booster is OFF, that routes the outside Cable to the TV's. The other outside wall coax's are for you to connect a TV outside to watch and will only receive the Roof top OTA antenna or that Cable input just like the inside RV's. For those outside TV coax plugs to get a SAT signal from the Sat receiver, you would have to rewire the internal coax cables at the Antenna booster. Doug

[dougrainer]

wa8yxm wrote:
I forgot about the wall plates with the SAT connection.. On those, if you have one, and do NOT have a dedicated SAT connection outside, you need to move the cable (Center one) up to the SAT conneciton, which is a simple double female barrel connector.

And again, if they used RG-59 I'd rather you ran a dedicated RG-6.. I do not even buy 59 any more here. 6 is always better.

I do not know of any OEM that does not use RG6 in the past 15 years. Also, RG59 will NOT cause any problem with a Sat signal. I had a customer that argued that with me. So, I had him set up his tripod and lock in the signal going thru his RG59 cable input on his 1995 Allegro Bus. Had a perfect pic and 85 percent signal. I then connected a 250 ft roll of RG59 between the Tripod and the Cable input. NO DROP in strength or pic quality. I then connected a 2nd box of RG59 so now we had 500 feet of RG 59 and the 40 feet internal of the motorhome and no problem with signal or pic. RG6 is BEST if you have it and are running coax. Doug

[wa8yxm]

I forgot about the wall plates with the SAT connection.. On those, if you have one, and do NOT have a dedicated SAT connection outside, you need to move the cable (Center one) up to the SAT conneciton, which is a simple double female barrel connector.

And again, if they used RG-59 I'd rather you ran a dedicated RG-6.. I do not even buy 59 any more here. 6 is always better.

[Byrogie]

My first trailer had an antenna cable and a park cable, but only a single jack by the tv. Had to take the plate off to switch cables...

[ICamel]

Also, you might want to pull the wall plate out and check the inside connections. We found that the port marked "Sat" on the wall plate had no cable of any type connected on the back side of the wall plate.

[rexmitchell]

Thanks for all the replies. I'll be doing a little experimenting this weekend and will report back my findings.

[wa8yxm]

Some RV's have a dedicated SATELLITE input and coax. The wiring diagram (simple) looks like this:

Input jack on ouside of coach-----Coax----Jack or coax connecter INSIDE coach

Note the only thing between the inside and outside connections is.. COAX. RG-6 to be specific.

The "Cable tv" jack however looks like this

Input---coax-----Stuff--Inside jack

The coax is often RG-59 lowest bidder 59 at that (not nearly as good) and the "Stuff" blocks the signals from the Sat Receiver TO the antenna (Dish/dome) so this simply does not work.

The stuff, is usually a wall plate, with a 12 volt outlet, Switch, Light and Antenna connection, if you remove the plate from the wall the COAX ends at the middle connector on the back, You can use it (With greater signal loss) if you disconnect from the plate.

Alternate "Stuff" is a box of many buttons, Cable will be labeled on the back of the box, same comments.

But if you have a dedicated SAT input.. USE IT.

[Dave_H_M]

I run the single RG 6 50 footer from my Slimline 3 thru the hook up on the fifth wheel and then split the signal inside.

Got no problem with the HD Pictures.

[WyoTraveler]

RVs have had RG6 cable for 10 to 15 years. Suspect you'll be fine. You can use a diplexer on a sat dish cable but not just an old style splitter. A diplexer costs about a $1. Usually the biggest problem is checking where each cable goes. I use the diplexer on the back of the dish receiver so I can feed in either the portable dish or park cable on the same cable. If you use a diplexer the outputs are specifically labeled. Not interchangeable. On previous posts when they say no splitter they are referring to the old style splitter that has been around for years not the diplexer.

[K_Charles]

If there are two, the one marked satellite does not have a splitter and is for satellite. The one on the door side is antenna out.

[jerseyjim]

I've used the "cable" hookup for my satellite (tripod,dish,compass, strength meter)...and the picture is just fine. I DO NOT have HD...and my TV is 19". Everything goes thru a passive switchbox.

[RoyB]

Like Harvard says I don't get DC Control Voltages to pass through the CABLE-SAT labeled connections on the outside of my trailers.

Back in the day when I was using SAT TV I ran my own RG cables through the pass-thru doors to get from my portable DISH tripod usinag a dual head and two SAT RCVRs that I would bring along from my DIRECTV home account. Worked out great for me doing it this way. I connected the SAT RCVRs VIDEO output to the VIDEO INPUT of the HDTVs and then could use the TV remotes to switch between CABLE-OTA-SAT.

Once the NATL BROADCAST SYSTEM went to Digital TV I stopped bringing along my SAT TV items on the trips. Full blown HIGH DEF TV for free was much better using the OTA setup pointing to the local towns...

Have no idea how the newer TV setups are operated these days. Going down the various posts sounds like a very expensive endeavor with all the things you need to purchase to make it all work...

We get our NEWS WX RADAR and NCIS fix just fine when camping off grid using the National Broadcast free network.

Roy Ken