have dish, receiver, co-ax now what??

[Chandler Bing]

I have a portable dish and a receiver that we were not using, not how do I hook everything up? We have a 2005, voyage 38J.

[Chandler Bing]

I have a portable dish and a receiver that we were not using, not how do I hook everything up? We have a 2005, voyage 38J.

[John_Canfield]

Installation guide

RV-specific details depends on how your coach is wired. On ours, we have a jack in the electrical bay specifically for an external/portable dish. The other end of it is with the entertainment electronics. If I am blocked in with trees and desperate for DirecTV, I hook up the portable dish and move the sat receiver "sat in" cable from the King Dome antenna to the portable dish.

Then I spend 20 minutes trying to get the darn thing pointed correctly.

[Clay L]

<BLOCKQUOTE class="ip-ubbcode-quote"><div class="ip-ubbcode-quote-title">quote:</div><div class="ip-ubbcode-quote-content">Originally posted by Chandler Bing:
I have a portable dish and a receiver that we were not using, not how do I hook everything up? We have a 2005, voyage 38J. </div></BLOCKQUOTE>

There are several ways to do it. Winegard reccommends the following:

Note that this assumes your front TV is connected to the coax connector on the front of the wall plate. If yours isn't, you should put a splitter in the line labeled "To second TV" . That will send the signal to both the front and rear TVs (if you have two TVS).

You will be using the cable input in the service bay to connect the external dish.

[Clay L]

<BLOCKQUOTE class="ip-ubbcode-quote"><div class="ip-ubbcode-quote-title">quote:</div><div class="ip-ubbcode-quote-content">Originally posted by John_Canfield:
Installation guide



Then I spend 20 minutes trying to get the darn thing pointed correctly. </div></BLOCKQUOTE>

John, you just need a little practice. I usually get my external dish pointed in a few minutes.

I have been in a couple of places though where I had to pull out the satellite finder and use it.
I only have to use the external dish a few times each year, but it's worth carrying for those times I guess. I would hate to miss Dirty Jobs and Mythbusters.

[doc]

Hey John,
We have a 2000 Horizon with the Winegard crank up dish. I have wondered if the cable inlet in the electric bay would work with a portable dish. What do you think? Sure would be good if we had to camo w/o a sky view.

[John_Canfield]

<BLOCKQUOTE class="ip-ubbcode-quote"><div class="ip-ubbcode-quote-title">quote:</div><div class="ip-ubbcode-quote-content">Originally posted by doc:
Hey John,
We have a 2000 Horizon with the Winegard crank up dish. I have wondered if the cable inlet in the electric bay would work with a portable dish. What do you think? Sure would be good if we had to camo w/o a sky view. </div></BLOCKQUOTE>I certainly don't see why not (assuming there is NO SPLITTER in the cable run) because Winnie probably uses the same kind of coax for both. The cable type would be more important for long runs or where a transmitter is involved like my Datastorm (satellite Internet.)

Clay - I bet I don't use the portable dish more than three or four times a year so getting it set up is always a challenge. On our way back from Alaska I was suffering from DirecTV withdrawal and I got the dish out in BC Canada - the look angle (dish elevation) and signal strength was so low, I probably spent 45 minutes getting it tweaked. Even then not all of the transponders would work.

[Izzyblueye]

I have a 01 Suncruiser and the outside cable hook up will not pass voltage for the portable dish. I understand this comes from a splitter in the system installed by the factory. Some guys run a new line and port under the coach to the front. Some just run a wire down the windshield corner post and install a port in the front cap wall. I use a flat cable under the driver door and have since 01, it is just simpler. The rubber seal on the door cushions it. Have never had a problem.

[wagonmaster2]

I have a 2004 Meridian and am in the process of hooking up the roof crank-up dish and a stand-alone tripod dish thru the cable connection in the utility compartment (which I have already done this but I want to use an A/B switch to be able to switch back and forth). I used a diplexer at the entertainment center to use the utility connection for cable/tripod dish hookup and the A/B switch where the roof dish cable comes in to switch between roof/tripod dish. There have been a lot of pictures and discussion on this over the last several months on this forum and RV.Net Open Road forum that have helped me tremendously. I don't have a TV cable to test that yet and haven't tested the A/B switch in both positions yet, but I know the roof dish works with the A/B switch and the cable connection with the tripod works hooked directly to the receiver without any switches . Worst part so far is that the roof dish is a single head and the tripod dish is 3 head and both don't get the same stations.
Wagonmaster2
2004 Meridian 36G