Satellite hookup not working

[mitchlakind]

We are about to take our 2015 Montana 3402RL out on its first voyage. I had it home over the weekend going through the systems and trying to get our new Dish Tailgater to work. I had previously activated it at home and verified all is working.

On the Montana there are 3 connections in the convenience center; 1 coax, 1 satellite main, and 1 satellite bedroom.

Behind the main TV there are 2 coax jacks. One I verified goes to the antenna, the other I successfully toned to the satellite main in the convenience center.

In the bedroom there are 3 coax jacks. 1 of them is tied to the amp and antenna, and I have turned it on and off, with no luck getting satellite signal. The other 2 coax jacks are in their own plate.

The main room coax cables are different colors too. The one that is tied to the roof antenna is white, while the bottom one is red.

In the bedroom the same colors match the dual coax plate.

The Dish receiver is the 211z and during boot up it requires me to tell it what state I am in (Arizona), then it begins the scan. It fails during the scan.

I am thinking there are too many splitters or I am not running the cables correctly despite using a coax toner and knowing which goes where. Anyone else been able to solve this?

[DQDick]

I'll let the tailgater folks come along and explain how they hook up, but the amp you turned on is to boost the signal from the antenna and will interfere with the signal from the satellite.

[WeBeFulltime]

quote:Originally posted by DQDick

I'll let the tailgater folks come along and explain how they hook up, but the amp you turned on is to boost the signal from the antenna and will interfere with the signal from the satellite.

I have heard this or read it many times but on our Montana it makes no difference with our satellite reception. I leave the booster on all the time.

[Virginia Young]

When we first got our Big Sky, I couldn't get a strong enough cable signal to watch television. I pulled all the connector plates off the walls and the connections to the backs of every one of them were loose. Tightened them all and tried hooking it up again. It was still too weak. I hooked the cable up via the satellite connections and it worked fine. We had them fix the cable wiring while at the factory service center. When we got it back, the cable was okay (still a little weak), but the satellite connections wouldn't send a strong enough signal. We took it to our dealer and they found and replaced a bad connector and it tested fine. Worked for a little while, but the last try, I never could get the tailgater to pick up the signals. Finally gave up and ran the cable thru the window and hooked it straight to the box. It worked fine. See if that works for you. If it does - like us and many others - you are a victim to crappy wiring in your Montana. I know people who have drilled holes in the side of their campers and installed connectors that go straight to the entertainment centers and just bypassed the convenience center hookups. Cable/satellite wiring is so simple, I don't understand how the factory can make it so complicated. They put connectors in the walls and ceiling where you can't see them and can't tell you where they are.

[mitchlakind]

Steve/Gina - I am beginning to think the same thing. I already did the test running the original cable through the door and it worked perfectly. I was really hoping to use the convenience center so I could eventually have 2 receivers. Thanks for the responses.

[Hawkpat]

I've had the same problem intermittently. Suggestion above to go thru window and direct connect to receiver to isolate the problem. I also found that using a 25 ft. Cord instead of a fifty ft. Cord would work thru convenience center. Stronger signal I guess.

[Starmaster]

I have the same problem on our 2015 3160. The bottom line is Keystone uses the wrong coax to wire the Montana for the satellite to work reliably. It's just good enough for the Tailgater to almost work. They should have used cable rated a 3000MHz, but they used cable rated at 1000MHz, too much signal loss for the Tailgater. Sometimes the Tailgater will work in the bedroom, but not very often. For best results you should also use the 3000MHz rated cable outside to connect the Tailgater to the Montana.

I ran a short feeder from the entertainment center slide out the existing hole for the other cables and hook my satellite feed directly to that, problem solved. I use the Keystone installed satellite cable to back feed a video RF modulator signal to the bedroom so we can see the satellite channel in there as well as the in the living room.

During the rally, I mentioned thief using the wrong cable to the service advisors and his response was a lukewarm "yeah, ok"

Dave

[jcurtis934]

It should be possible to drop the bottom and run new quad shield rg6 to fix the issue at least that's the way it looks like on my unit. I don't have sat yet, but at least the forum has prepared me for fixing the issue before I mess with it. Thanks moc. John

[mitchlakind]

I might try and tackle just that John before my trip. MOC thanks for all the input.

[Bama Camper]

Mitch,
Before you give up on the convenience center connections, check the female connectors on the back of the plate in the bedroom and on the back of the plate behind the convenience center. Most of the time the connectors will be the problem. Keystone uses a screw on "F" connector. It's a bad design, but they will work if properly installed. You'll have to remove the plate in the bedroom and the connector mount in the convenience center to get to the back side. Give 'em a twist to re-seat the connector on the cable, then make sure the cable is screwed completely into the thru connector (barrel) on the plates.

BTW - the two connectors on the bedroom plate - one goes directly to the convenience center, the other goes to your basement connector plate. Since you have the ability to tone out the lines - find the one that runs to the convenience center. This one does not go through the preamp. The cable that Keystone uses is not the best in the world, but it will work.

They do a horrible job of installing these connectors during the original construction. I had 4 bad connectors out of 3 cables (6 connectors) originally. Three of these were caused by the center pin being cut too short.

[richfaa]

We just drilled holes through the Slide the Entertainment center is in a ran the cable direct. Drilled a hole up through the propane compartment to get the cable to the bedroom box. We hade checked or replaced every connector we could see and nothing got us a clear picture.