Satellite TV Connections/Wiring

[woodrow38]

I have a new purchase of a 2010 Alpine model 3640.
I will be having a satellite dish installed on a permanent post and then cable connected to the exterior connection in the exterior control box.
My question: Can the satellite dish installer connect the dish cable to the connection in the exterior connection box and the TV receive signal? Or is there a separate cable connection from the satellite dish to be installed instead? I have seen other different ways to install from other member and is confusing.

Also, heard of a switch that needs to be switched from antena to satellite. Anyone know where this switch is located on a 3640 Alpine. Of course, if there is a separate cable installed for the satelite this may not be a issue.

Appreciate any suggestions from members that have Alpine 5th wheels.

Woody

[rgwilliams69]

I just bought one of those also and am picking it up in a week. We are considering a satellite setup as well so I am certainly interested in how you get this to work. Which satellite are you going with?

[Festus2]

Welcome to the forum, Woody. You might try a search on the forum which might help you find an answer to your question. There have been quite a few posts about satellite TV and setting it up. If you type in "satellite TV" you will get a number of posts dealing with this topic.

[Maxzd]

Originally Posted by woodrow38

I have a new purchase of a 2010 Alpine model 3640.
I will be having a satellite dish installed on a permanent post and then cable connected to the exterior connection in the exterior control box.
My question: Can the satellite dish installer connect the dish cable to the connection in the exterior connection box and the TV receive signal? Or is there a separate cable connection from the satellite dish to be installed instead? I have seen other different ways to install from other member and is confusing.

Also, heard of a switch that needs to be switched from antena to satellite. Anyone know where this switch is located on a 3640 Alpine. Of course, if there is a separate cable installed for the satelite this may not be a issue.

Appreciate any suggestions from members that have Alpine 5th wheels.

Woody

It sounds like your unit is pre-wired like mine is with an outside Satellite connector. Mine is in the basement hatch with the rest of the shut off values, city water connection etc.

So from your message I can't quite understand if you have a satellite dish that is externally mounted to a post, or if the satellite dish is mounted to the roof of your unit.

If it's external, then run the coax cable from the satellite dish into the external Pre-wired outlet. It's likely labelled as such, for satellite in your basement or perhaps even an outside outlet. Once that's done, in the entertainment center where the TV is, it's determining which coax line is the external satellite feed. Satellite signal will not pass thru the Antenna Amplifier. There is likely two-three coax fittings behind your main Television. The one which also has a 12 volt plug, that won't be it, that's a connection and a splitter for other TV's from your roof antenna. That other coax connection will be it. Now sometimes there are two coax fittings on one wall plate attached with a 6" coax cable a little loop. That small cable makes the pre-wired external satellite connection act as if it's just a regular outlet. So when connected and if you aren't using it for satellite you could hook a TV up outside and get signal from the Antenna like any other coax connection in your unit..

Typically they use black insulated Coax Cable for the external connections. If you unscrew that dual coax wall plate, one will likely be white insulated coax, the other black. The black one is going to be the pre-wired satellite. To be sure, check for zero resistance with a multimeter (google multimeter on coax cable it will explain how to do this if not familar). If you see zero resistance, that's the one you want. Then from there you'd hook the satellite receiver up just like you would normally, as per the manual..

If you're roof top mounting permanently on your RV you might be better off running a permanent coax cable down from the roof into the unit. You have to decide if it's easier to fish right to the TV to a new outlet, or feed it through and spice into the cable from the external satellite jack. You'd want it to always be connected so it makes sense to have it connected always. It would take a bit more work to get it setup permanently..

Good luck, hope that helps explain it a bit. It's disappointing that keystone doesn't label the coax outlets it would have save alot of headache and confusion..

[slewis95407]

Great post Maxzd. To add a little more info. My Cougar: The satellite connection goes to the bedroom first (2 coax wall plate) and the only connection to the entertainment center is thru the powered coax connection. The satellite receiver had to go in the bed room. This was ok but not the best reception at the entertainment center. Couldn't get HD to the entertainment center. Also the Cougar didn't have a phone connection.
Solution: Installed a coax and phone connector in one duplex inlet on the slideout behind the intertainment center. Behind the tv in the intertainment center I installed 3 shelves for my vcr, dish receiver and printer. There is about a 1 inch gap below the tv and the shelves. The receiver has to be raised to align the IR port with this gap.

[geo]

Very good posts from Maxzd and Lewis95407, and there is good information to be had there. However,the Alpine 3640 is wired a little different and from looking at another 3640 at a RV Show, I can say that they all are not the same. I am in the starting stages of installing DirecTV. I have one one the newer units with SWM technology. SWM is Single Wire Multiplex and appears to be an answer to RVer's dreams. One coax from the dish into a demux unit and multiple coax out to the TVs.

My Alpine 3640 has two coax connections at the upper right of the WaterWorks area - Satellite and Cable. Each of these connections has their own set of RG6 coax running from the back of the WaterWorks out to the TVs. I have noticed that it appears that the Cable coax runs up into the wall between the toilet and the bedroom, alongside the vacuum relief plumbing for the black water tank spray. I should say that the coax appears to run up and return down from the inaccessable area. I have given the coax a slight tug and it is attached. I think that this probably runs up to attach to the Wingman antenna on the roof above the bedroom. At least it sounds like a reasonable explanation.

The Alpine 3640RL coax connections for the main TV are at the bottom back of the TV well behind the fireplace. You need to be skinny with long arms to reach it otherwise you may have to pull the fireplace. I have yet to find screws to open the back of the rear cabinet. Why the DVD, etc., connections are in the overhead cabinet while the coax connection is barely in reach behind the TV in a well . . . who knows. I would assume that I will have to fish a coax down along side the other coax to connect to the outlet. However, in the upper utility basement behind the WaterWorks and behind the basement wall, there is a splitter that sends coax to the main TV and to the bedroom. This is where I am hooking the demux and powerport for external the RG6 coax. Back from that is a splitter for the outside connector in the basement. To connect properly to the demux unit, I just have to remove that splitter and run that coax to the demux unit. Depending upon the unit that you get, you can run 8 or 16 TVs from one dish and demux unit. Each TV needs to have a single coax running to it from the demux unit.

It is my understanding (subject to change) that one can have the DirecTV DVR/tuner hooked up to the single wire RG6 coax that comes out of the demux. Just have to put in the proper splitter and run the one coax to both ports on the DVR (with no filters).

There are several posts on the Forum, and as I said, it doesn't look like all the Alpines are wired alike even in the same model number. Best thing is to do a little investigating before you get to far.

When I hook mine up I'll post some pictures. That may help a few folks.

Ron

[Maxzd]

Scott and Ron - Good Conversation on this topic.

Ron you are spot on saying units are not all the same. I have seen same RV Model with electrical wiring path done completely different.. I guess as long as it works that's all the factory quality control is looking for.

The one thing that you can be sure of in an RV is expect to do some investigation!

Ron not familiar with the newer Direct TV setup. In the older setups you could run a single satellite thru a switch (example SW-44 switch might be a newer version of it) and split the single from sat 91 and sat 82 up to 4 receivers with a dual LNB dish setup.

Good luck with getting your install setup and the wires all fished into the walls. It will be nice to have it all setup so you can kick back and enjoy. I'm still working on permanent solution for mine. Right now I have to connect and disconnect my sat receiver and cables all the time. There is a much easier way..

[geo]

Maxzd and others -

Here is the SWM-8 (Swim eight) information site:

http://swm8.com/index.php

Note that SWM-8 can support a variety of dishes - yes, you can have multiple satellite dishes connected to the same multiplexer to feed into the RV on one coax line to a splitter. Or, you can get a LNB-5 Slimline dish that has the SWM multiplexer on the dish to feed in on one coax to the RV. (Earlier I made a mistake calling this a demultiplexer rather than a multiplexer for all you other techno-nerds.) So, this technology allows one to use newer dishes, or if you want to combine older dishes with newer dishes you can, or you can combine . . . well, look at the Website.

For my Alpine 3640RL, it appears that I will be able to utilize the satellite cabling, using the connection within the WaterWorks area (only one wire in for multiple DVRs and HD reception), and connecting to the input line immediately behind the WaterWorks area. The splitter and power inserter can attach at that point. One line back to the rear living large LED TV down the utility tunnel, one line up to the bedroom TV, and one line to the basement connection for outside TV. The power inserter can plug into the power at the same duplex outlet that the Dirt Devil central vacuum uses.

I also got a heavy duty industrial-type tripod modified for RV-type installations. I opted for the tripod instead of a roof mount for two reasons: 1) I didn't want to attach anything to the rubber roof of my Alpine, and 2) I wanted the ability to locate the dish to "see" the satellites rather than have to rely upon parking the fiver where its mounted satellite dish wasn't blocked by trees. Since I found this only at one website, if you are interested, search for "heavy duty tripod satellite rv".

Ron

[WYO1936]

I have a remote dish that hooks up to cable in water works. but I had the problem with know single at main tv,the dealer was lost,I find out there is a loop connector in bed room by the single booster that was not connected, the jumper was there,simple just hooked up works
this is on a 2010 3450pl Alpine.

[dave67]

Anyone have pics of how they hooked up the cables in the basement?I'm going to tackle mine this weekend and any and all help would be great.I have a 20011 3640RL

[Bob Landry]

I wouldn't think Keystone would mess with the expense and effort to inventory multiple systems to install in different models, but since that seems to be the assumption, wouldn't it be a lot simpler to call Keystone with your specific model and ask how it's wired? Just a thought. KISS.