a question about my camper.

[sederjerry]

hello, everybody, a quick question . ive got a 98 alpenlight34 ft rk fifthweel, and my question is,is there any way i can hook up my direct tv to the cable hook up. i use a single l n b with twin plugs and i have to run the wires into the windows in the living room and bed room. when i try and hook it up to the outside plug my signal strenth drops from 98 to 69. thanks in advance, jerry sederjerry@yahoo.com:confused:

[jdensie]

First, you should be able to go through your outside plug.
What it sounds like is you have a bad wire or connection.
It doesn't take much to drop the signal strength.
Most likely it is one of the ends is bad or might be pinched somewhere.

[stevesandidge]

hey jerry
when they built your rig back in 1998 they were using a different cable than what they are using now. the cable used in sattelite systems is bigger in size and much better about signal loss. now you can use your existing cable and live with it, or just install the new cable wherever it needs to go. if you were to take it to camping world lets say and have a sat installed they would most likely just run a new cable across the roof and drill a hole and seal it up after.
steve sandidge
fix-it rv service

[whodo]

Yes you can, it is a very easy modification that is required.
The problem is the outside "cable"connector for cable TV goes through the Winegard amplifier. Satellite must be a direct voltage passing connection. The Winegard amplifier is the problem, it must be by passed, Winegard has a simple solution show in the picture below.


http://i2.photobucket.com/albums/y45/Browzin/Winegardsathookup.jpg


Now if you find that the Winegard method is not to your liking, you can go to this web page http://www.flamingsquid.com/images/satellite_rewire.pdf and follow the picture and instructions shown here for another method of converting things over.


Just for what it is worth the short runs of RG59 cable that are used in your RV will not induce enough loss to be of any problem.
For your outside connection from the Satellite dish to your RV, use RG6 preferably RG6 Quad cable, it will last a life time in all weather conditions.

[dspa4398]

Regarding Whodoo's reply: if you re-wire so you can hook up your portable satelite dish to the outside cable hookup--then I presume you are eliminating your ability to use cable at the same hookup. I really wish the guys at Camping World told us all of this before we bought the #*&!%$ portable dish--we have never, not one time, been able to use the portable dish while camping. The only time, and that was with unbelieveable trouble, was at home by hooking the dish directly to the receiver. So it works at home--BIG DEAL.

[whodo]

dspa4398 if you re-wire so you can hook up your portable satelite dish to the outside cable hookup--then I presume you are eliminating your ability to use cable at the same hookup.
If you follow the pictured instruction from Winegard, you will need to do 1 of 2 things. First make sure you have a Sat. rec. hooked in line, this will allow for pass through of off air or cable to the TV. OR, second, you will need to place a barrel connector between the two cables to make a completed circuit.

If you follow the method shown at http://www.flamingsquid.com/images/satellite_rewire.pdf then you will follow the instructions shown there for being able to use Cable with out interruption.

Now there is a third choice!!! A GOOD quality A/B switch box will allow for the selection of Satellite or Cable with just the flip of a switch.

dspa4398 we have never, not one time, been able to use the portable dish while camping. The only time, and that was with unbelieveable trouble, was at home by hooking the dish directly to the receiver.
Now you didn't mention if you were having problems aiming the Dish or just getting the signal from the dish to the Sat. rec.

You have to have a cable connection capable of passing DC Voltage to the LNB on the Sat. dish. In other words it can't pass through a amplifier or a regular cable splitter, they are not designed to pass DC voltage.

Now if your problem was aiming the dish correctly, a inexpensive Sat. signal finder will help solve that problem.