"satellite prep" connection

[bobert3002]

I just bought a 2012 cougar 318sab 5th wheel and am trying to connect a satellite dish and cannot get a signal. I am connecting the dish cable to the "satellite prep" connection on the outside of the trailer. Do I have to do something special to "prep" this setup?

[hankpage]

Robert, Welcome to the forum. I do not have sat. prep. but I think there is a jumper cable at the entertainment center that will give you through signal. I am going to move your thread to the "Technical" section of our forum so you will get more exposure ..... Hopefully. Hank

[bobert3002]

Thanks, Hank.

[ktmracer]

I just bought a cougar 318sab 5th wheel and am trying to connection a satellite dish and cannot get a signal. I am connecting the dish cable to the "satellite prep" connection on the outside of the trailer. Do I have to do something special to "prep" this setup?


on some outbacks, the sat input on the outside of the trailer just feeds through to a coax jack on the inside of the trailer. You then need to connect a coax to the jack on the inside of the trailer and run it to the sat reciever and connect your sat reciever to the TV. so the "sat prep" is simply another feed through coax connection on the trailer that you must then connect up.

[therink]

Hi. On my 2010 Outback fiver, there is a Grey coax cable that comes out of the wall in the satellite receiver cubby beneath the tv in the living room. This is the direct feed to satellite in connection on outside of the trailer. Good luck.

[bobert3002]

I have tried everything. Nothing seems to work. Still can't get a satellite signal through the outside connection. When I run the cable through the window to the receiver I get a signal.

[therink]

I assume that you have located the extra coaxial cable at main tv, have connected this to your sat receiver, and are not connected to the rv antenna booster circuit. Two other thoughts: could be that the satellite prep feed coax is damaged somewhere inside a wall, or the connection on outside of the trailer is mislabeled. Do you also have a second "cable in" connection on outside? Have you tried connecting dish to this one? Mislabeling is common thing on rvs.
Good luck

[slewis95407]

On some trailers the satellite connection starts in the bedroom. Usually where the booster connections are there is a double coaxial connector plate.

[Jim W]

Hi, I have a 2010, 318SAB Cougar. I could never get the satellite connection port in the service bay to accept any input from a satellite dish. I used an Ohm meter and a very long jumper cable and I came to the conclusion that the signal from the receiver to the satellite dish would not get through due to the Signal booster for the antenna. This will block the signal from the receiver for the satellite system.
I feel the satellite port in the service bay should be labeled cable TV connection. I have used this for the cable wiring in campgrounds that offer cable TV and it works fine.
Now I did add a weather connection for cable for my satellite system. I installed the port in the curb side slide out. I installed the port in the floor of the unit in the same cabinet that the DVD/CD/FM/AM unit is located. I then ran the cable up in the wall and out of the same hole behind the TV. Both of the cable connections antenna and satellite are then routed to the receiver box and then just one cable from the output to the TV. This way I can switch from local channels to the Satellite TV. I do need to turn off the booster signal for the antenna to watch Satellite TV.
Jim W.

[bobert3002]

Thanks Jim. You have answered my question. I will re-label that connection to "cable" and add a new connection similar to what you described. Doesn't make sense why Keystone would label it "Satellite Prep". Thanks again.

[webslave]

I don't have satellite in my "Satellite Prep" '11 318SAB, but, will pass on what I was told by the dealer concerning it...

In the bedroom, where the television amplifier plate is located, is another dual coax plate with a short (~8 inch) coax cable coming out of one connector and going back into the other, forming a "U".

That is where the bay's connector comes up, through one of those connectors, through the jump coax, back into the same plate and then over to your amplifier plate.

Directions were to remove the jumper and connect your satellite receiver to the side that goes to the bay. Neither connector is labeled, but, if I had to guess, the connector on the right side (farthest from the amplifier plate) comes from the bay and the connector closest to the amplifier plate goes to the amplifier. In theory, the satellite signal from your dish would go in through the bay, up to the dual coax connector, into your satellite receiver, out of your receiver and back into the other connector that the jumper came of off, and over to the amplifier plate for distribution to the television in the bedroom and the rear living room. Of course, that means that your satellite receiver is in the bedroom.... Your receiver would have to have an RF remote to be usable from the rear living area (an IR remote, of course, is "line of sight").

Neither coax connector that has the jumper is labeled "From Bay" or "To Distribution", etc. You could experiment, or just pull that plate...it should be easy enough to tell which one goes to the basement and which one goes over to the amplifier plate... It would have made much more sense, to me, if they had put the jumper plate in the living area and labeled the connectors on it as "From Bay" and "To Televisions", in fact, I'd have put the amplifier plate and the proper labeled dual coax plate in the living area so that the receiver and the amplifier controls would be located where the bulk of the television watching happens, but, heck, that's just me :)

That's the way it was explained to me, and, in theory, it should work that way since the CG's television signal passes through those connectors without a problem. Jumper comes off, one side gets connected to your satellite receiver's "signal in" coax connector and then the satellite receiver's coax "output" gets connected to the other coax connector. Go to the other plate (the signal amplifier plate), turn the amplifier off (as you would with standard cable input) and you should then have satellite television at your bedroom and living room connectors. If only it was that simple... :rofl:

[Roller4Tan]

DirecTV hooked me up as long as I had the dish working. We left AZ for MI and dismantled the dish. Upon our first stop we attempted to use the campground's cable tv. Naturally, it didn't work. :( I tore into the amplifier and two port plate looking for a clue. I managed to rewire the cabling to get it to work and I think it'll work for the Dish if I ever get it back together. This is what I did. I left the antenna lead hooked to the amplifier as well as the lead coming in from the storage connection. The DirecTV installer had put their splitter into the cable coming in from the outside port. I ran a cable from one side of the splitter to the two port plate and the other to the cable running to the living room TV. The other side of the two port plate runs to the amplifier. So with the short jumper in place, I can get shore cable tv to all sets. To use satellite I disconnect the jumper on the side coming from the DTV splitter and plug in the power insert to the dish which also feeds the bedroom tv. (this is a SWM dish, one cable feeds all) The cable and antenna leads are black and the other feeds are white, so it takes some trial and error to figure out which are which. Once I figured them out I marked them with some permanent pens my wife uses for her crafts. Hope this helps..
Cougar 318SAB

[Pappydude]

I too just purchased a new 318SAB and after nearly 7 hrs of frustration trying to get my satellite dish/set up to work, I called Direct TV. They were helpful in setting the dish up by connecting directly from the receiver to the TV but nothing through the Satellite prep connection. They knew nothing about it. So I called the dealer and took the trailer in. They advised that there was nothing wrong with the wiring through the trailer. HOWEVER, in the bedroom is a double connector with a short piece of cable attached to each connector. I was told that the one on the right was for the input from the Sat Prep connection outside. If you're watching on cable or using the antenna the loop is necessary. If you set up your dish, put the receiver in the bedroom and connect to the Sat prep outside - using the connector on the right of the loop will allow you to set up your Satellite system. (The short piece of cable connected to the other side is ok to leave attached on the left side) OK, that worked great. Then I thought: I'll spend most of my time in the living room - will it work there. NOPE, it didn't. If I run a cable from the bedroom to the receiver in the living room, it will work fine. But then I lose the satellite in the bedroom. That makes absolutely NO sense to me. The dealer can't help me. Direct TV can't help me - and apparently Keystone isn't offering much assistance from what I've read here. My solution was to run a seperate input cable from the dish to the receiver in the living room and use the Sat Prep connection for the bedroom. I quickly read here that someone else has done that and added a seperate connection for the living room TV. My thought was to run the extra cable between the flap on the living room tip out and the wall - but perhaps an additional cable connector would be best. I will re-read the information. My two cents worth!!

[Roller4Tan]

Under the two port plate that the dealer told you to disconnect for satellite service is a cable run to the living room area. My SWM dish uses one cable for up to 6 receivers. Like I posted earlier,the installer had put a splitter in the line to be able to have a receiver in the bedroom and one in the living room. The living room has to have a separate line for another receiver HDDVR. So by taking the incoming cable line and splitting it to the living room and to the two port plate, I have a separate hookup for the bedroom and the living room. When I install the jumper on that plate the incoming cable connects the living room with the antenna/cable hookup. I've made a hand written schematic, if I can figure out how to post it I will.

[Roller4Tan]

Oh by the way the splitter has to have a range of 2-2050 Mhz. A regular cable splitter won't work for a SWM dish (HD) because each receiver needs its own frequency.

[Roller4Tan]

This is how I've hooked up the cabling for sat and regular cable or antenna.

http://www.keystonerv.org/forums/picture.php?albumid=178&pictureid=772

[Outbackmel]

I went through many of the same steps you are being frustrated with. I could not get DISH to work using the sat port feed. DISH came out and MADE it work. (Mine worked the same as yours. When outdoors and running a cable through the window, all worked well for DISH)

During my first RV camping experience cable was offered and guesss what?! DID NOT WORK.

I had to go back to the dealer and had it rewired to specs and after that, all 3 options worked GREAT and have been. (DISH, Cable or Air). This was out of warranty and it cost me $100 BUT cured my problem.

How can your dealer say everything is fine? Can't you take the DISH with you and have it work in your presence? After all, isn't that the benefit of DISH or Direct TV? We just returned from 7,000 miles, 3 months...used cable and air as offered and had a great trip and NEVER had a day without TV. I placed my DISH in dormant mode for 4 months.....

If you are not as "handy" as many of these folks here, get capable assistance and make your life better. Life is too short to be frustrated. Just find a resource, drag that thing there and have it repaired to your liking. Go camping and ENJOY your unit.

[DaleB]

What Jim has done is about the only way around it. I also wonder why Keystone labeled the outside jack "cable prep" I called keystone and they told me that I would have to put the satelite receiver in the bedroom and use an infra red remote to operate the receiver from the livingroom of my 2011 Couger. Yah right! what I did is just run the cable from the dish thru the window for now. I am going to install a permanent jack near the TV and run it thru the wall.

[Roller4Tan]

:D Just posting to say that I finally got my Directv set up. The hookup I hand wrote WORKS for Directv HD with two receivers. The bedroom has the dish power and HD receiver. The living area has the HD-DVR receiver. I plug the dish into the outside port by the water hookup and in the bedroom area disconnect the short jumper and plug in the dish power to that port. Both receivers can then watch different stations(for those days you just have to watch the game and DW wants to watch her soaps :confused: . So as far as I can see there is no reason to mount a separate connector for the Satellite dish. If I need cable hookup it uses the same outside port or turn on the amplifier for the antenna. Works great. "bouncey:

[Pappydude]

In the bedroom where the cable inputs are - there is a looped cable - one of those loops must be unhooked and the "blank spot" gets hooked to your satellite input and to your satellite receiver. On my 318SAB the one on the right is uscrewed and a cable goes from there to my receiver . Then another cable from the receiver to the TV. Make sure the power booster is in the "off" position. However, this will only bring satellite from the "prep" connection - to the bedroom TV. Stupid design.......if you want satellite in the living room leave it connected the way it came - problem is, whatever channel you're watching in the bedroom is what you'll be watching in the living room! To get around that, I connect the bedroom satellite to it's own receiver and use another receiver in the living room. I run the cable from the dish outside (portable) through the rubber flap on the side of the slideout - and to the living room receiver "in from satellite". Then another cable goes from the receiver from the "out to TV" using the cable it came with. You don't need the wall connection Keystone installed. If I was mechanically inclined and knew what I was going to prevent even the slightest leak, I'd wire one in as previously mentioned.

[Roller4Tan]

Pappydude, the hardest part of rewiring the cable connections is figuring out which cable is which. You also need a 5 mhz to 3.4 ghz splitter to pass the satellite signal through. Pull the cover plates and make sure you get the stock splitter out. Also pull the fuse for the antenna as the supply is hot and bare. Like I said my hookup works with two separate receivers, watching separate channels using the same input spot outside the trailer.:p

http://www.keystonerv.org/forums/picture.php?albumid=178&pictureid=772

[LarryL]

When I tried to hook up to the satellite prep no signal.
I called a cable guy to come out to the campground to
get Directv, after almost an hour checking all the connections
and getting the dish in line he found no signal going to the living
room went to the bedroom signal was there he changed the
cables in the bedroom so signal would go straight from
satellite prep on outside of trailer to living room.
when I went back to the dealer to tell them that it cost
me $100 to get Directv hooked up because the cable
goes to the bedroom not the living room,
they said you put the receiver in the bedroom and if
the tv is in the living room you just point the remote
at the receiver in the bedroom to change the station
all I could do was laugh at them so stupid Keystone:bfart:

[2011 keystone]

all I could do was laugh at them so stupid Keystone


I would say stupid dealer:confused:

[LarryL]

Well really both the dealer I did laugh at for saying what
they said that was stupid.
Putting the satellite prep going to the bedroom thats
Keystone thats a:bfart:
But on the walk through the dealer said on the outside
of the trailer here is your satellite prep did not say
it went to the bedroom and that is keystone putting it
in the bedroom that is stupid.

[Roller4Tan]

Bobert, On page two of this thread I posted a schematic of what I did to make the satellite prep port work for two receivers for Directv. True the cabling done at Keystone should have been reversed, but I got it to work. Just make sure the splitter used will work for satellite. Directv uses 2.4 Ghz for HD. "bouncey:

[pedalsteelpicker]

this might be un orthodoxed but in the past I have taken a coax cable that is long enough to run from the outside connections to the inside connector and check continuity with an ohm meter to make sure I am on the same line and there arent any un seen breaks in the cable within the walls

[Puff1019]

I have a Springdale 303BHSS and here is what I did. Next to my TV there is a box with two jacks that had a wire running from one to the other. That is how you know if your RV is sat prepped. Run a cable from the top jack to your SAT IN jack on your receiver. Then run the out to TV line to the bottom jack. Congrats you are done. I personally ran an HDMI cable to my TV but you don't have to.

[rudythegreat]

There is a 318SAB Social Group and you might be the 3rd or 4th 318 there. :cool: I have run Sat. in my 318 for 15 months now. E-mail me and I'll try and walk you thru it, but you must like to read first, I'll get detailed on-ya. :banghead: If I don't set Sat, Mama gets pretty cranky :wlcm:

[rudythegreat]

There is a 318SAB social group (FYI). Other than that, I have 2 LNB lines running from my Sat. One line goes in the basement. That line hooks to Mama's bedroom TV. The other line runs threw the window at the back. You said something about putting a port or Sat. hook-up threw the floor of your slide? I would like to do the same but have worried about drilling up threw the floor. Any precautions I should worry about. Or, what should I buy?

[bobbychuck]

I also went through this recently with a Dish 211Vip receiver & Tailgater Antenna on our 2010 318SAB. Turns our that the "Satellite Prep" label is totally misleading. The connection is only usable with Cable TV systems. On the Weingard website, the antenna booster (RV7012) is designed not to pass current out of the unit, and thus cannot power the antenna. This is apparently done to protect the cable system electronics.

The best solution is a second path entering the TV bay just inside the outer wall, where it is away from mechanical interference from the slide-out, although a flat ribbon cable through a window would also work. I was then able to hook up the original cable to the antenna connection on the 211Vip to receive local stations and the Satellite feed. I still have the ability to use park cable as a backup if necessary.

[Pappydude]

I too have a 2012 318SAB and had the same issues with the cable connections. I thought there was a problem in the wiring so I hooked 'er up and drove to the dealer who assured me there were no problems with the wiring. They told me that the satellite prep connection must be connected so that it by-passes the Ant/Cable connections. The cable from your dish must be connected to the satellite prep connection outside. The attached photo shows the connections in the bedroom - for the bedroom satellite receiver only. Remove the short cable from the red x side and connect your satellite receiver to the connector near the 12v hole. Connect the satellite box to the TV and have at it. If you connect the run-through cable in the bedroom and try to watch tv in the living room, you will only be able to watch whatever the satellite box in the bedroom is set on. The bedroom receiver controls both TV's. Living room watches what the bedroom does.
To defeat that - I installed an exterior connection through the outside wall of the curbside slide out. You MUST make certain it is properly and adequately sealed to prevent leaks. I do not have a picture of that but you can by waterproof connections most anywhere. I have two satellite receiver boxes - one goes in the bedroom and one in the living room. Of the two cables coming from the satellite dish - one goes to the satellite prep connection, the other goes to the connection installed in the living room wall. Of course Keystone won't tell you this - and Direct TV, my provider, had no idea either. I got the information from my Direct TV installer. Great guy!!

[Roller4Tan]

Well, all i can say is mine now works. Dish to outside port, jumper disconnected. Dish power hooked to open port. cable to receiver in bedroom and another receiver in the living room. If I want antenna or cable I hook the jumper back up and change the tv input to air or cable. :applause:

The cabling under the amp and 2 port plate HAS to be rewired. Also the splitter inside has to be replaced with a 2.4 Mhz for DirecTV or satellite signal pass thru. The way it comes from the factory will not work for two receivers.

[oldfireman47]

I ran into the same problem. I finally quit trying and added another input jack on the outside which feeds directly to my sat receiver. I also added another jack to the outside for an external television. I have had no problems with a signal. I now have satellite, cable and antenna.

[kenn209]

Well our 2010 318 I would run the cable in thru the window, So I got tired of that and looked horrible. Any hooked up to the sat prep connection, made sure the Ant was off and was able to watch Directv in the living room and in the storage connection. Haven't tired putting the receiver in the bedroom. I tried to unplug the little pigtail to see if I could let the wife watch TV off of the antenna in the bedroom, but that didn't work. She could watch tv off of the antenna but it cut out the sat.