Satellite TV Delima!

[JKQ]

I am thinking of purchasing a Tailgater portable Sat Dish & paring it with a DISH receiver & a pay as you go account. Together these items amount to close to $500.00, so I don't want to make the purchase without knowing all the facts. I can't seem to get a straight answer to what I think is a simple question. Maybe someone on this forum has experience with portable satellite use & can help. QUESTION; Will the system work by plugging my antenna feed from the dish into the Trailer external cable feed OR do I need to run a separate dedicated cable for this set up? All help appreciated....thanks!

[Swamp_Man]

Quick lesson on satellite issues. First of all, a cable type connection will not work. The satellite receiver sends power down the cable to power the LNB on the dish. If there is a cable type splitter in the cable, one side will work but not both or neither one will work. Using the dedicated cable is the best way to go. If you want to split the incoming signal, you will need a device called a multi-switch. A lot of the Winneguard connection have a power switch that turns on a booster for the roof antenna. When the power is on, the unit is switched to the roof antenna. When it is off, assuming you have a park carble connection outside, it is then switched to the park cable.

More than a few poeple, me included until the YMCA where I work had an expert tells us what was wrong, have made this mistake. If you have an outside park cable connection and an outside satellite connection, you should have two connections inside.

[westernrvparkow]

MEXICOWANDERER wrote:
This brings a question. Is all RG-6 cable "standarized" for quality? Or can one find batches (brands) of substandard and or higher quality RG-6?

Thanks

For practical purposes the actual transmission wire is the same. I am sure there are different grades of wire, and if you looked hard enough, someone will claim to have a better copper core or whatever. The biggest difference in RG-6 will be the shielding, either standard or quad. Quad has additional layers of that mesh-type wire surrounding the core. This keeps out electrical interference, but is not really an issue in most situations. The other big difference is the quality of the connectors, how well they are crimped etc. I am a fan of the threaded type, and not a fan of the slip on since they are easy to pull loose accidentally. If you find RG-6 with good quality end connectors you will be fine.

[MEXICOWANDERER]

This brings a question. Is all RG-6 cable "standarized" for quality? Or can one find batches (brands) of substandard and or higher quality RG-6?

Thanks

[Thunder_Mountai]

My Tailgater works through the external sat prep on my Outback. I would try using the external connection first before running a dedicated line.

[JKQ]

Thanks for the advise everyone. I believe I'll run a dedicated line!

[rbtglove]

My TT has two external connections outside and two inside My tailgater works throught the external Sat connection, just like the old dish 500 tri-pod I used to use. I use a a-b sws to change from sat to OTA which has the amplified signal from the batwing.

[wa8yxm]

Usually, as wired, the trailer cable input can not be used for sat reception, You can re-wire it and make it work however I strongly recommend running a brand new dedicated lead and leaving that park-cable input as is (or better yet route the sat RF out (To Television) lead to it if you wish.

That is, in fact, how I do it.

[BB_TX]

The Tailgater must be connected directly to the vip211 receiver box. Depending on how your trailer is wired it may be simple or not.
Some rigs have two external connections, one for park cable and one for satellite. If you have that then it is just a matter of finding the inside connector for the sat and connecting the receiver box to it.
If you only have one external connector, then you MAY have a dual coax connector plate somewhere inside with a short coax jumper cable from one connector to the other. If so, you can remove the short jumper and use another coax cable to connect the incoming coax signal to your sat receiver box. That is how mine is wired and it works fine. But I had to remove the jumper and connect the receiver for satellite, and put it back if I wanted to use park cable. It did not affect the antenna either way.
So I added a second external coax connector for the satellite input so that I would not have to remove the jumper coax for sat and then put it back for park cable. Everything just remains in place. A pretty easy mod on my trailer.

[K_Charles]

No you can't plug your antenna into your dish. The wire for the dish and the antenna are tow different wires.

[donn0128]

Probably not. Most Rv's use cheap RG59 coax and splitters all over the place. Neither of these are conducive to having a good signal. If you choose this route, simply run new RG6 coax from a convenient place to where your receiver will be. It is usually not difficult to do, but does take some planning and the proper tools to make good connections.