"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]

Originally Posted by bobert3002

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

[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.

[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?

[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.

[slewis95407]

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

[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.

[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.

[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.

[rudythegreat]

There is a 318SAB Social Group and you might be the 3rd or 4th 318 there. 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. If I don't set Sat, Mama gets pretty cranky