Cable tv??

[gearhead]

So we've had the cougar xlite 28sgs almost a year. We're on a 2 week (so far) road trip. I thought what the heck lets watch cable tv. We've only used the batwing antennae for over air tv in the past. We went the first week of this trip without even turning the tv on. So I hooked up the cable, turned the antennae booster off, switched tv to cable, and can't get a signal. Any ideas from y'all? Really feeling stupid.

[Floton]

Have you done a channel search on the tv?

[{tpc}]

I'm not sure. I assume this tv has a digital converter or the place your getting signal from does it for you?

When I hook to my comcast I only get one channel that tells me I need a converter. But I know that going in. However the channel scan took forever to give me that one channel.

[gearhead]

Yes, I scanned twice.
The wife is watching cooking shows on air tv. I'll check the campground office in the morning to see if there are issues.

[Road-King]

Did you switch the TV from "Air" to "Cable" in the TV menu? (oops I see you did that) Do you have two coax input jacks on your TT? If so try the other one. One might be a satellite input.

[GaryWT]

And if you do have 2 input jacks there is no guarantee that they are labeled correctly.

[gearhead]

Originally Posted by GaryWT

And if you do have 2 input jacks there is no guarantee that they are labeled correctly.

Labeled, labeled?? That's asking a lot. No they're not labeled inside behind the tv. I switched back and forth, the other one must be the satellite.
The outside hookup is labeled though.
Campground owner checked his pedestal and was good, with me looking over his shoulder. He gave me another piece of coax to try from the outlet to tv...no help.
I may try running the coax through a window to the tv, just to see what happens.

[{tpc}]

Its possible that inside the wall plat either on the outside or inside the trailer that the connection came loose. Possible but unlikely.

What's more likely to me is that when the fitting was crimped onto the end of the cable (and I am talking about the cable that is inside that you can't see, running from the outside wallplate to inside one) that is wasn't done "cleanly" and that there is a piece of the ground shielding that is now sticking out and touching the center conductor. This would effectively ground out the line not allowing the signal to pass.

You're on the right path to troubleshooting. Try the cable straight to the TV. If that works, your cable is fine. If not, then closely inspect the cable for damage, and look deep inside the cable ends where the center conductor comes out. All it takes is one little "hair" of the shielding to touch and it will kill the signal. If the cable checks out ok, then look the same way at the cable behind the wallplate(s). You can also use a voltmeter on it to see if it is shorted center conductor to ground, but I would have both ends unconnected when doing so.

The reason I think this is that it could have worked before, then you tow it, it shakes and now you have a short. It doesn't take much. I had a similar thing happen at my house, and there was no towing or shaking to cause it. Maybe we moved the wire cleaning, but one day it worked, the next day, no joy. On occasion it would come back, but only when temps went up or down (we assumed expanding and contracting happening).