Satellight Ready

[Montana_4458]

My 2004 Mountaineer 328 RLS fifth wheeel came from the factory with a satellite ready connection plate inside the unit. It is right next to the cable/antenna amplifier plate. The satellite plate has two places you can hook to and the factory had put a short cable looping these two connection points. I have purchased a dish and receiver and am ready to hook it up. I have heard that you can't hook the satellite cable on the out side of the unit where you normally hook up for rv park cable be cause the cable wire from factory is'nt the right size (not big enough) and that it can't work because of the splitter and amplifier. Can anyone help me on this problem so I can do it right from the start?

[Roman4]

Wrestler--
I don't know anything about the Mountaineer, but I can relate our experience in hopes that it might be of some use to you. I will preface my experience by freely admitting that I don't understand the cabling configuration in our unit, and I am sure that there is a way to accomplish things in a more-elegant fashion that I have discovered so far. I hope that someone more knowledgeable than I will chime in with a better plan.

Our Montana 3475RL has one cable connector on the outside of the unit. It accepts a standard cable connector and can be used for either satellite or cable (but obviously not both at the same time) input.

Inside the unit's entertainment cabinet are three cable connectors in separate wall plates. One of those had a cable going to a splitter and then to the television set. I'm not sure where the other leg of the splitter ends up, but I presume that it goes to the bedroom TV.

The other two connectors had an 8" or so cable jumper connecting the two. The two adjacent connectors have a placard marked either "Satellite/Cable" or "Cable/Satellite" (I forget which, and our unit is not nearby as I type).

When I want to connect to a park's cable system, I leave the cables in the entertainment center in their original configuration and simply attach a cable between the outside connector and the park's cable connection.

When I want to hook up the satellite dish, I hook it up to the outside connector with a cable, then go inside and remove the 8" jumper from one of the entertainment center connectors. I then attach a short cable from that connector (marked "Satellite") to the satellite receiver box. I understand that you cannot have a splitter between the satellite dish and the satellite receiver box, although you may be able to have one between the receiver box and the TV (if you want two televisions sets to be able to watch the same show). We don't use a splitter when hooked to satellite.

From the satellite receiver box I use an S-Video cable and two audio cables to go to the TV's "Video 2" input.

As I say, I'm certain that there is a better way to do things, but with my limited experience I am using what seems to work so far.

[Charlie]

I also was confused about the way the connections were configured. My best guess is that when hooked to cable if the 8" loop is in place it will allow cable reception on the bed room TV.

Not being concerned with a cable hook up, I set my dish up and ran the wire through the door straight to the receiver and locked onto the satellite. Knowing I had signal then I connected to the outside and removed the loop and attached a jumper to the receiver to the upper connection inside the trailer and there was no signal. I removed it and placed it on the lower connection and now that is where the jumper stays connected.

The coax from the bat wing is a seperate wire so I hook it to the back of my receiver at "Antenna In" and I can use my Dish remote to toggle back and forth between satellite and local stations from the trailer's antenna.

There is no satellite stations on the bedroom TV, only locals.

[Parrothead]

Charlie, you are right about the bedroom connection. We had always had a DirecTV hooked up until we came down south in June. We were surprised the same outside connection did the cable at the campground and worked for the bedroom also. We have a second receiver we use in the bedroom when on DirecTV and we run the wire through the window with those flat connectors you can get a CW.
Happy trails...............

[dersequim]

My Monty has a Satallite connection above the Black tank flusher connection. There are Satallite connections in both the desk area and bedroom, besides the cable/antenna connections.

[sreigle]

Maybe Keystone could put a decal next to those connections explaining what wires should go where for cable and for satellite.

[Jeff Heiser]

There are several threads on this topic. You should do a search of the forum. You will be surprised at how much this topic has been discussed.

God Bless America
Jeff Heiser
Merritt Island Florida

[Bill and Ann]

Our unit has a cable connection and a sat. connection on the outside. I installed a separate connecter in the propane compartment for a sat. connection in the bedroom. I drilled up into the bedroom in the dresser and fed the line into the tv. compartment.