Satellite Signal Amplifier

[Rsc373]

So we purchased a Dish Wally and Playmaker dual and of course it doesn’t work running it through our 2016 3911fb satellite connection, but if I run it directly dish to receiver through the window works perfectly. Wife is totally against running it through the window. The Monty appears to have direct coax runs from the convenience center. So I’m guessing the runs are too long between the dish and the receiver. Wally recommendations are 50ft max. I need at least 35ft of external coax running to the dish, trees. So my question is can you simply add a bidirectional amplifier? Bidirectional because the playmaker gets its power from the receiver, boost the power to the dish, boost the signal to the receiver?

[bou0146]

I had an issue in my 2018 Montana 3810. When using the satellite hook up in the convenience center half the transponders did not work. Found a slitter/switch mounted on the ceiling behind the convenience center, took it out of the coax running to my receiver and problem solved.

[AZ Traveler]

A direct line is best, I ran a cable from my living room TV outside to the outside TV and can hook my antenna up there.

[MARK A]

The problem is usually a combination of low quality coax, barely and incorrectly assembled connectors and splitters.. I abandoned the existing cable and ran ONE coax from the convenience center to the entertainment center in the slide. No more problems.



Mark

[BB_TX]

I don't think the extra length inside the trailer is the problem. Some have corrected the problem by reworking that inside wiring to eliminate splitters and/or better connections and cables.

If accessible, I would just run a new coax from the that external connection directly to the sat box. I added a new external connector and a new coax directly to the sat box. But for my configuration, that was very easy.

[darmock667]

When I took delivery of my 2019 3950 the OTH stuff worked great however neither the satellite or the CATV (cable) worked worth a D**N. This model has 4 tv's and the outside one had difficulty getting the OTA signal. I pulled apart stuff and found a variety of things wrong from the factory.
- Cheap dual shield coax cable (should be quad shield RG6)
- Cheap RF connectors two of them were the screw on kind! (must have been a bad day at the factory)
- Cheap splitters. Ones from Walmart clearance bin had better specs.
- Found a staple through one of the cables.
- The cable that feeds the living room slide out had two 90 degree bends in them that looked like someone had put them into a vise and hammered them.
- just plain shoddy workmanship. I guess I should have insisted they pull apart the basement when I did my delivery inspection..... lesson learned. I won't even start on the mess of low/high voltage wires running willy nilly..... (a retirement project)

If I was the worker who spliced this mess together I would be embarrassed! I digress


My solution was to buy premium RG6U quad shield cable with low loss characteristics as well as premium crimp connectors, several multi port CATV distribution splitters/crimp tool.

I literally ripped out all of the old stuff and using a home run methodology ran multiple cables to each TV. No splitters between the distribution splitter and the final termination. Added some extra wall ports and labeled them. The TV in the living room has 3 cable ports ... OTA/CATV/Satellite. The spare room has three OTA/Satellite/Cable Modem The bedroom has two ports OTA/Satellite, The outside TV has two ports OTA/Satellite

The convenience area came with three inputs CATV, Satellite 1, Satellite 2

The CATV port is used to hook up to a pedestal in an RV park. Because more and more cable systems are going encrypted I decided that I would only watch CATV on the living room TV with a cable box. The CATV connector goes to a bidi cable distribution splitter which then feeds the living room TV and the spare room Cable modem (if available) all spare output ports on the Bidi splitter are capped

Satellite 1 input Port goes to satellite certified Bidi splitter with 2 ports out. this feeds the living room and the spare room.

Satellite 2 input Port goes to satellite certified Bidi splitter with 2 ports out. this feeds the bedroom and the outside tv.

For the satellite ports you will still need a receiver for each TV but the signal strength should be good.

The OTA antenna runs into a 4 port Bidi distribution panel for all 4 TV's


I still have not mounted a dish on the roof so I use a tripod as needed. I use RG11 quad shield coax to connect the output from the dish to the convenience input for Satellite 1 or 2. I currently am running 50 feet between the dish and the receiver with no signal degradation.

I know this all sounds like Macgyver's nightmare but it works great! I found my picture clarity when using the OTA improved greatly after replacing the cheap coax.

Took me a couple of days and a couple hundred dollars in parts but should last the life of the trailer.

One last tip I replaced all of the cables that ran from the wall port to the TV with stuff I made myself.... Could not track down a gremlin in one tv and this is what it turned out to be as it had a screw on rf connector and it was a dual shield cable..

Tom

[glendodom]

I have the 3721RL and had the same issues. How did you get the new cable run to the front bedroom? My TV is on the passenger side in BR. The best I can figure out the cable must be running up into the roof area. I can't find a cable in the belly area going in that direction?

[darmock667]

Yep it runs from the OTA into the bedroom where there is a power injector. After the power injector there is coax that I fished out and attempted to use to pull new coax through however that did not end well! I used some fish tape and magnets to run new coax down into the convenience center. Did drill a new hole however to make things easier. The cable from the OTA to the power injector I left in place as I did not want to dismount it etc. I suspect i would have had even better results if I had replaced that short piece. This part was the biggest PITA. Pays to have an inspection camera to look in tight spaces!

Tom