skyviewman,
What follows is how I installed the MD500 satellite dish on the roof of our 3400RL.
First, a couple of thoughts on the install. I chose to go with Dish, but wanted to make sure that I could use DirecTV in the future. Also, I wanted a completely automated system, so I chose the Nomad II controller that directs the satellite dish to lock on to the appropriate satellite(s). I also wanted the dish to be able to "see" 2 or 3 satellites at the same time by using "skew" along with azimuth and elevation; in this manner, all channels that I subscribe to, whether they are on, in my case, 110, 119 or for HDTV, 61.5 degrees, the dish doesn't need to move.
Having said this, I went with the two-satellite MD500 but intend to upgrade to the MD1000 or the MHDTV DirecTV in the future.
For reference points, there are three 12 volt ceiling lights in our bedroom. The first is between the A/C and the mirrored closet doors. The second is immediately to the rear of the A/C and the third is furthest from the A/C and adjacent to the shower.
So...The first step was to determine the physical location for the satellite dish. I chose the area between the second ceiling light and the the A/C in the bedroom. Yes, it is on a bit of a slope, but this doesn't matter because you can manually (or with the Nomad II, automatically) adjust for this slope by adjusting the elevation.
I drilled a hole in the roof (about 1 inch for the cables). I then removed the second light in the bedroom. I could easily see (and reach) the hole that I had drilled. I then removed the ceiling light closest to the shower (the third ceiling light) and also the ceiling fan (I was installing another automatic fan, anyway).
The cable that I used was RG6 that is dual and has a ground wire in it. You can see it here:
http://www.satellitemart.net/product_p/1020003.htm The reason I used dual RG6 with the ground is two fold. One, I wanted to have a total of 4 runs from above the entertainment cabinet above the TV in the living room. Second, I wanted the ground wire to provide additional strength when the entertainment slide was extended and retracted.
I ran one run of this dual cable, along with the control wires for the Nomad controller from the hole that I drilled to the 2nd ceiling light to the 3rd ceiling light to the fan opening and then to the area behind the converter in the bathroom (the cavity between the ceiling in our front closet and the roof).
The corner trim for the right side (front door side) of the hall wall was removed allowing access to behind this wall where the control panel for the slideout switch and other switches is. The corner trim was easily removed and putty was used when the trim was put back up. As an alternative, you could just come down inside the corner of the front closet.
I drilled a hole in the floor, allowing me access to the underbelly area. I dropped the under belly and then added another run of dual RG6 to the first. Both of these runs were shoved thru the underbelly to the entertainment slide wiring loom. I attached both runs of cable to this wire loom and then to the iron square tube supporting the exterior wall of the entertainment slide. I measured to where I thought the rear of the fireplace is and drilled a hole between the exterior wall and the interior wall, a space about 5 inches in depth and hollow. I fished both runs of cable up this hollow void to the cabinet above the TV.
So, now I have two runs of cable and the control wires in the cabinet above the TV.
Remember the second run of dual cable that I mentioned? The other end of this dual run goes to the propane compartment on the passenger side. I drilled a hole in the front basement wall and installed a cable plate. The remainder of this dual cable (now just a single piece) was routed up from the propane compartment to just into the bathroom cabinet. Then this single piece of cable was routed through the carpeted end of the square iron tube that supports the rear of the dresser drawer. Pushing the cable to the end of this square iron tube toward the drawers below the bedroom TV, it felt like it stopped just short of the stacked drawers. I cut the carpet about 3 inches to the rear of the stacked drawers and drilled a hole through the plywood and the top of the square iron tube. With a pair of pliers, I grabbed the cable and pulled it up.
I chamfered the plywood (by drilling it out) towards the stacked drawers. After pulling out the bottom drawer, I continued to drill horizontally until I came through behind the stacked drawer trim next to the passenger wall. Then, it was a simple matter of pulling the cable up and drilling a hole in the TV cabinet.
You might ask why I went to the trouble of running this last piece of cable. This was so that I could use a DirecTV receiver in the bedroom if I ever wanted to. The Dish receiver that I have is a dual tuner one that requires two runs of cable from the satellite dish to the receiver (actually, one piece of cable goes to the Nomad and then to the receiver, while the second cable goes directly to the receiver). By running the cables the way I did, I can have a dual tuner receiver in the living room cabinet, or by installing an inline connector, I can route the dish signal to the front bedroom TV cabinet. I also have a dedicated run to the basement where I have another LCD TV that we can watch when the weather is nice.
While it does sound like quite a bit of work, in reality it wasn't. It took about six hours, and most of this time was spent deep in thought as to how to run the cable. Once the decisions were made, it was just a matter of implementing the plan.
I hope this helps your installation project.
BTW, this is the satellite dish and controller that I went with:
http://www.motosat.com/products/tv_md500/ and
http://www.motosat.com/products/tv_nomad2/
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