Direct TV Satellite Dish Hookup in WC

I recently got a new HD Direct TV satellite dish installed on the house. I took my old (non-HD) Direct TV dish (w/ 3 LNBs) and plan on using it for camping in the WC. I will install it on a tripod and buy 100'-150' of cable. My question is this: How do I go about installing this dish to my WC? I will take one of my home satellite receivers and put in the WC when we go camping, so I already have the Direct TV service. Being it's a triple LNB dish.......how many cables do I need to buy? There are 4 (output) female connections on the bottom of the LNB device where the cables attach to.
Details on the triple LNB mechanism are as follows:
WNC triple-feed, Multi-Satellite LNB (Built-in multi-switch with 4 outputs: Compatible with Direct TV Phase III 18"X20" Dish Antenna).

Do I need a separate cable for each LNB? I'm confused.

Also, the Direct TV guy mentioned that I can't run the cable to a splitter in the 5th wheel; he says it won't work at all if I do that. So how do I wire the cable (or cables) into the Concertone? My head hurts already, just thinking of fooling with that darn system. If it were up to me, I'd remove that Concertone POS, shove a couple sticks of dynamite in it and blow it into millions of pieces! Whoever designed that POS can lick my SNS and have his head examined!! :x

I would think you could get a single LNB dish from somewhere and use that with one cable. Get a tripod to mount the dish to.

I've got a Single LNB direct tv dish still on top of my house thats not in use.

As for hook up, run it to the cable IN on the outside. on the inside remember you have to jump the recepticle with one wire to make the cable/ ant work. the recepticle with the 2 coax cable hook ups that seem to go nowhere. thats the one you want to jump. theres a few diagrams on here that show you how to do it.

heres the best link to the diagram. If you look real close you'll see the jumper I"m talking about.
http://www.wildcatcamperforum.com/maintenance-repairs-trouble-shooting-service-warranty-f12/cable-connector-diagram-by-shooter-t138.htm?highlight=cable+hook+up

Hi Kilo,
First things first, don't listen to the satellite guy. He is only right in one aspect. Satellite "usually" doesn't work on splitters that you pick up from HD, Lowes, or Circuit City for less than $10.
I have an HD dish with 4 LNB's (at home). I have 4 cables coming off the dish into a powered splitter ($150 from Circuit City) that puts 13 and 18volts on the signal cable. (why, I have no clue!) but I have 4 cables into the splitter and 8 locations throughout the house with satellite!
Your 4 LNB dish is a great dish so there is no need to go find a single LNB dish. Just run 1 cable from the dish to your camper and your good to go. If you want to take along a second or third satellite receiver box then run additional cables and watch different shows on each TV!
Follow Admin's directions above and you should be watching satellite in no time!!
Good luck and let us know how it works out.

Schleprock wrote:Hi Kilo,
First things first, don't listen to the satellite guy. He is only right in one aspect. Satellite "usually" doesn't work on splitters that you pick up from HD, Lowes, or Circuit City for less than $10.
I have an HD dish with 4 LNB's (at home). I have 4 cables coming off the dish into a powered splitter ($150 from Circuit City) that puts 13 and 18volts on the signal cable. (why, I have no clue!) but I have 4 cables into the splitter and 8 locations throughout the house with satellite!
Your 4 LNB dish is a great dish so there is no need to go find a single LNB dish. Just run 1 cable from the dish to your camper and your good to go. If you want to take along a second or third satellite receiver box then run additional cables and watch different shows on each TV!
Follow Admin's directions above and you should be watching satellite in no time!!
Good luck and let us know how it works out.

So does it matter which of the 4 connections I run the 1 cable from? I'll try it one-by-one and see if I can get it to work. Thanks to the both of you guys.

Admin wrote: As for hook up, run it to the cable IN on the outside. On the inside remember you have to jump the recepticle with one wire to make the cable/ ant work. The recepticle with the 2 coax cable hook ups that seem to go nowhere, thats the one you want to jump. Theres a few diagrams on here that show you how to do it.

heres the best link to the diagram. If you look real close you'll see the jumper I"m talking about.
http://www.wildcatcamperforum.com/maintenance-repairs-trouble-shooting-service-warranty-f12/cable-connector-diagram-by-shooter-t138.htm?highlight=cable+hook+up

If I use a jumper coax cable on that one receptacle, where do I run my satellite cables to the receiver and from the receiver to the TV? Don't I use that one receptacle that you say to jump?
Here's where I am now with this mess:
I finally was able to get a 97% signal strength from the satellite dish. I have my main satellite cable (from the dish) screwed into the cable outlet on the outside of the WC. Inside the WC, I have a satellite cable coming from the bottom of the receptacle that you say to jump. Then it's plugged into the back of the receiver. From the receiver, I went directly to the TV. I am able to go to the signal strength page and see that it is locked on at 97% signal strength. I am also able to go to the Guide page and see all the programs that are on the TV, but whenever I select one to watch (on any channel), it then attempts to look fo ra satellite signal, but the screen goes black as it looks. On the bottom left side, it says to standby.......it's searching for a satellite signal. That is as far as I can get. Any ideas? :x

You only need 1 cable. I put HD on my WC works GOOD. HD uses 4 to 8 cable box but still 1 cable per. tv but if you get DVR you need 2 cables per tv and try to stay under 100ft. You don't need a power spliter for DTV. I got one for my house and a teck had to come to my house and he took it off and put a 4 to 12 box on for my DVRs he ask why I did that, I said ??????????????

It does not matter which outlet you use on the LNB, but i always start using the one farthest to the left and work my way to the right.
I went to Home Chepo and bought direct connectors that i put in for the main entertainment center and the forward bunkroom.
Now no worrys about pushing buttons, jumping outlets or worrying about splitters not working.

I did the same thing you are tring to do, i took my old dish mounted it to a tripod, hooked up another cable connection to the outside of the 5er, on the inside the cable go's from the new connection to the back of the receiver, from the back of the receiver i use the red-white - yellow cables to hook up to the AVI box under my tv then turn the tv to the AVI 1 or 2. On the outside i pick one of the 4 cables coming from satilite and connect it to a satillite meter finder and move satillite until locks on, disconnect meter, hook cables together and enjoy camping trip. Unfortunly it doe'snt go through the surround sound but when i have the time i will run it through the concertone system, GOOD LUCK

i use a hdmi cable from the box to the tv and av cables to the concertone. I also bought a RF Remote from DTV and now when we sit outside i can change channels on the DTV box and use the concertone remote for volume. I cant get the DTV remote to learn the signal from the concertone so we have to use two remotes.

That's what I like about RVing it! Roughing it and getting back to nature!

I have mine hooke dup this way and with the satellitebox in the family room I get a great signal. When I hook up a separate box in the bedroom I can get no signal at all into the box. Any thoughts?

I just switched from comcast to directtv HD to enable me to take my cable "on the road". Since I'm starting from scratch (including the tv) for the camper, i've decided to go hi-def.

Here's the dish kit I'm looking at ... http://cgi.ebay.com/Directv-kaku-5-lnb-slimline-hd-Dish-+Rv-tripod-camping-_W0QQitemZ220369328986QQcmdZViewItem

I understand that the HD kaku sat dish is extremely hard to set up. I feel confident I can do it, but I don't want to spend hours aligning a dish everytime I set up camp.

Anybody out there familiar with this setup? Is it really that difficult? And finally, someone on this thread said you needed to hook up two cables for dvr, but my HD-DVR currently only has one cable going to it.

Thanks for the help,
Joe

Hey Mark,

I can "rough it" with the best. I'll gladly sleep on the "cold, cold" ground and eat MRE's if I have to. But come Sunday afternoon ... I GOTA HAVE MY NASCAR FIX !!!!

Joe

I've got dish network and DirectTV is the only one with SpeedHD.

and its killing me........................

MrZss wrote:Hey Mark,

I can "rough it" with the best. I'll gladly sleep on the "cold, cold" ground and eat MRE's if I have to. But come Sunday afternoon ... I GOTA HAVE MY NASCAR FIX !!!!

Joe

Joe, I'm with you on the NASCAR fix!! The Cat sure has spoiled the family. Our definition of roughing sure has changed! I like waking to the coffee pot going off while still in bed!!! We try not to let the kids watch too much TV while camping.

Has anyone been able to run 1 line form the LNB to the Cable in on the outside of the CAT and have both the tv at the concertone and tv in the bedroom work?

When I run only 1 cable I cannot get the cable outlet in the bedroom to get the satellite signal? Am I doing something wrong?

cummins2500hd wrote:Has anyone been able to run 1 line form the LNB to the Cable in on the outside of the CAT and have both the tv at the concertone and tv in the bedroom work?

When I run only 1 cable I cannot get the cable outlet in the bedroom to get the satellite signal? Am I doing something wrong?

i'm thinking you have to have a reciever between the tv and the outlet. i never tried to get it to work any other way.

I did have a receiver there and the receiver was not receiving the signal

Maybe you should try to run the cable into the cat from the dish through the window and make sure that you are getting the signal to the tv through the interior wiring. ONce you have it working that way then unhook the cable to the reciever and attach it to the side of the Cat and see if it still works.

On mine I have a reciever that will control two tv's. I have the wire from the dish come to the Cat then it attaches to the back of my reciever. From the reciever I have one cable that attaches to the living room tv and another cable that attaches to the interior wiring on the Cat that goes to the second tv in the bedroom. I've also added an exterior cable tv connection outside so I can just move the bedroom tv outside and hang it on the side of the Cat and plug it in to watch tv.

KILO wrote: Whoever designed that POS can lick my SNS and have his head examined!! :x

I don't even want to know what SNS is!

Why are you using the Concertone? Just hook your sat dish to the park cable, then run a cable from the park cable jack inside your cat directly to the Satellite receiver and connect the receiver to your TV; done.

Diagram

I plan to do the same thing when I can pull myself away from Speed Channel and my Lazy Boy. I got DTV about 3 months ago and love Speed. They gave me one of their old dishes and a tripod so I could take DTV with me. The guy just said I would not have HD.

How do you go about aiming the dish? I know there is a meter; is there a way to do it without the meter?

On my reciever there is a strength meter you can watch to fine tune the dish. There is also an audible tone you can hear if the tv is turned up but it's annoying.

I use this website to get me the general direction of which way to point the dish. It will give you all the angels that the dish needs to be set at. http://www.dishpointer.com/

How do you go about aiming the dish? I know there is a meter; is there a way to do it without the meter?

Scottz
I use one of these to get my basic setting, http://www.campingworld.com/shopping/item/satellite-heading-compass/17018 and then go into the Directv setup menu and use the signal strengh page to fine tune if needed.

I did have my dish mounted on a small piece of plywood and had a hell of a time getting a signal (50/50 at best) I have since put it on a tripod and get a signal on my first try everytime so far (knock on wood) I think it had something to do with not getting things level enough, much eaiser with the tripod.

I have used the dish several times in a 150 or so mile radius from home and so far have just used my home settings and received a great signal. I know that in the setup page you can put in a zip code of where your going and it will give you the new direction settings.

Big Dave wrote:Maybe you should try to run the cable into the cat from the dish through the window and make sure that you are getting the signal to the tv through the interior wiring. ONce you have it working that way then unhook the cable to the reciever and attach it to the side of the Cat and see if it still works.

On mine I have a reciever that will control two tv's. I have the wire from the dish come to the Cat then it attaches to the back of my reciever. From the reciever I have one cable that attaches to the living room tv and another cable that attaches to the interior wiring on the Cat that goes to the second tv in the bedroom. I've also added an exterior cable tv connection outside so I can just move the bedroom tv outside and hang it on the side of the Cat and plug it in to watch tv.

When you say it comes from the dish to the Cat to the receiver. Does this mean you go directly into the receiver or do you go into the inlet on the exterior of the Cat?

I use the inlet on the exterior of the cat.

Big Dave wrote:I use the inlet on the exterior of the cat.

So you come in on the side of the Cat.

Then on the wall plate with two hook ups you come off the top Coax to the back of the receiver to the inlet? Then come back off the receiver on TV out and into the bottom coax on the wallplate?

I come into the side of the cat. Then from the top connector on the wall plate I go to the reciever. From the reciever I have one cable that goes to the living room tv, I actually make this connection with an HDMI cable, then I have another cable that goes to the bottom connector on the wall plate that feeds the bedroom tv.

One thing you have to keep in mind is I have a dish reciever but direct tv should have something similar.

cummins2500hd wrote:Has anyone been able to run 1 line form the LNB to the Cable in on the outside of the CAT and have both the tv at the concertone and tv in the bedroom work?

When I run only 1 cable I cannot get the cable outlet in the bedroom to get the satellite signal? Am I doing something wrong?

You will need to have a dual LNB dish to have two rec's work independent of each other, with that said you will need two coax cables from the dish too the camper, one for the front room tv and then one to the bedroom tv. If you don't care about watching the same channel on both TV's the run one coax to the outside of the WC from the dish and inside hook up the rec Sat in to the top outlet then run a coax from the tv out on the rec to the bottom coax jack and hook up tv in bedroom, for the one in the front room use coax , HDMI ,S-video from the back of the rec to the TV. You also might want to check out a dual rec, these you will not need two coax from the dish, just hook it up the same was a I stated before and you will be able to watch different channels. If you just want the rec in the bedroom then use the coax jumper from the top jack to the bottom jack. You will have to make sure that the Sat signal does not run through the power amp. the sat signal has to be strait to the rec. Hope this works for you works great for me on my 5er.

cummins2500hd wrote:

Big Dave wrote:I use the inlet on the exterior of the cat.

So you come in on the side of the Cat.

Then on the wall plate with two hook ups you come off the top Coax to the back of the receiver to the inlet? Then come back off the receiver on TV out and into the bottom coax on the wallplate?

Maybe I don't understand what you are trying to do. Maybe this drawing will help. I think you just need to

1. Connect your dish to the connector on the outside of your cat
2. Connect your satellite receiver to the park cable connection inside the cat (other end of cable from step 1)
3. Connect your TV to the satellite receiver.

Joe - That is an interesting looking set up. I have also been thinking about taking one of my receivers with me and setting something like this up as well.

Let me know if you get that and it works!

I have Dish network and feed the cable from the converter box to a regular splitter (from Walmart) and then from the splitter to the livingroom TV and the other to the bedroom TV. I have great pictures on both TVs. I use this on just analog TVs.