setting up dish antenna

[thebehrs]

Hi All!
I just got on board. We have a used 2015 North Trail and haul it with a 2004 Chevy Silverado 1500. Lots of good info here, I see.

Now on to my question. I know many folks use dish antennas, but I am wondering how to hook it up. I have a Dish Tailgater. On my old rig, I had a separate cable coming into the receiver box for it. I am considering hooking up either the campground cable when available or my Tailgater to the outside connection. I think I may need an A-B switch and some arrangement.

Any ideas out there or are there some guides I have overlooked?

Thanks,

Tony

 

[dbbls59]

You must hade a dictated satellite connection on the outside of the trailer or run the cable inside through a window directly to the receiver. It will not work using the cable connection. I am not familiar with a North Trail but my Big country has the connection in the UDC and has connections for both satellite and cable.

 

[danemayer]

Hi thebehrs,

Congratulations on the new rig and welcome to the Heartland Owners Forum.

Sounds like your North Trail may not be pre-wired for satellite. If that's the case, you'll have a couple of choices.

You can get a flat cable and run the coax through a window. Here's a link.

You can drill a hole through the exterior wall near the entertainment center as a more permanent solution. You'll need an outdoor coax plate that's waterproof.

You generally can't use the cable coax connector for satellite. That line usually goes through a signal booster that is shared with the over-the-air antenna. Satellite signals won't go through the booster. If you wanted to use that wiring, you'd have to bypass the booster.

Your dealer may have the plates and connectors for a permanent exterior solution, and might be willing to give you guidance. Or you could let them install it for you.

 

[d_fergie]

I do like danemayer says with my North Trail, using the flat cable thru my kitchen window...

 

[thebehrs]

Thanks for the quick replies. I think I will put the wiring back to original and stop trying to set up anything fancy with an A-B switch. Then I will run a dedicated line and put in a nice connector on the outside. By the way, the Dish Tailgater that I have, uses a coax cable not flat wire.

 

[danemayer]

The flat wire I linked to is to allow you to go through a window and then close the window on the cable. It's also coax.

 

[pegmikef]

Thanks for the quick replies. I think I will put the wiring back to original and stop trying to set up anything fancy with an A-B switch. Then I will run a dedicated line and put in a nice connector on the outside. By the way, the Dish Tailgater that I have, uses a coax cable not flat wire.

I had an NT 26LRSS Caliber Edition and a Tailgater. That's what I did too. Just added an outlet (see link) above the existing cable outlet on the outside and ran RG60 coax to another outlet that I installed near the TV. That way I could have one piece of coax from the new outlet to the Dish receiver and HDMI from the receiver to the TV. I just left the existing cable from the original outlet hooked up. That way I could switch from one to the other on the TV depending on what I had hooked up (cable or satellite) without having to change any cabling.

http://www.amazon.com/Prime-Product...057469&sr=8-1&keywords=rv+tv+cable+receptacle

Or optionally, you could just use the cable Dan showed you through the window. Just connect your coax from the Tailgater to the outside end and the cable to your receiver to the inside end. No installation required.

 

[SeattleLion]

The flat cable that Dan pointed to is coax. It is just flattened for a short distance. Since DirectTV approves, it will work for Dish too which is in the same frequency bands. Also, the installed cables go through splitters as well as the amp, none of which probably have the bandwidth to avoid attenuating the Sat. signals.

 

[Cjackg]

If you have slideouts near the TV-receiver you could consider hooking up a Tailgator by just sticking that coax cable into the camper through the rubber boot on the side of the slide. No drilling, no flat wires, simple as it gets, just have to cover it up on the floor inside routed to the TV...

 

[Silverado23]

I added a diplexer to my NT just prior to the coax outlet. The diplexer now allows me to connect my sat dish to the exterior cable connection or cable TV and automatically routes the appropriate signal to the sat receiver and tvs.
You can see more details on this thread.
//heartlandowners.org/showthread.php/30234-SOLVED-Satellite-TV-Hookup-question?highlight=diplexer