Satellite hookups

[Sheet]

Good morning, I own a 2018 3120rl and I am hoping someone could explain the tv/satellite hookups inside the convenience center and how they are routed?

Thank you
Tom Sheehan

[L0veless]

we have a 3720RL , we have three jacks in our water closet.

Living room satellite. we have to run separate coax for each satellite.
Bedroom satellite.
cable.Cable feed both TVs
remember to turn off your antenna booster when using cable. the booster should be behind the bedroom tv with a green light and a button next to it to turn on and off.
we had Direct TV with the repair package they came out at N/C to test all the connections and set it all up, have switched to dish now.

[rames14]

I am not sure if you have KeyTV on yours or not, but I suspect you do. Your Satellite in port is connected to the KeyTV unit and the wire runs from the KeyTV unit to behind all of your TV’s. I am going to guess you are having issues with a tailgater, G2 or similar self aligning satellite dish. If I’m wrong, I apologize. After talking to many owners and my own issues, forget using the satellite port for a portable dish that is self aligning. What I found is that you must run your wire from the portable dish directly to the power inserter or receiver depending on satellite flavor. Our G2 is roof mounted and is now a direct cable run to the power inserter. The Winegard system has such a weak signal that I could not get mine to work even with a new line from the convenience center with a single barrel connector. Again, if that isn’t the issue you are having, I apologize.

[Montana Man]

They should be labeled. Are you having a problem?

[Sheet]

Well mostly I don’t understand the two satellite plug receptacles.
So one is labeled cable and that supplies reception you all 3 TVs? Is that correct?
Two are labeled satellite and I don’t get why there is two??? My camper had 3 TVs.
I wouldn’t say I am having any issues just don’t get the connections.

Tom

[rames14]

With the KeyTV system, the cable will go to all the TV’s and will automatically turn off the booster. On older systems, when you had the booster in the bedroom you had to manually turn the booster off when using cable and turn it back on when using over the air. Usually you have two satellites so you can tie a roof mounted system in or have an outside satellite. Wires should be run to all TV’s from KeyTV to the TV’s. On ours, there is a wire coming from the Winegard Antenna for satellite down to the convenience center. That way you can hook your roof mounted satellite to the Winegard antenna and the wire is already run. Nice in theory, but signal was too weak with the Winegard G3. Hope this helps. You can download a KeyTV wiring diagram from Keystone’s website.

[Mikendebbie]

2018 models did not have KeyTV. That started with 2019 models.
Pic below of my connections in the convenience center.
The only one I can use is the top one labeled "Coach Cable". The other two do not work for my satellite system.
I have Dish Tailgater and it is powered thru the coax from the Dish black box (Wally or ViP211z). It is my understanding that the low power signal cannot push thru the many (cheap) splitters in the OEM coax wiring.
Campground cable works well when connected to the top port.
My over the air antenna also works well. The antenna booster is behind the bedroom TV. I have to turn the antenna booster ON for Air stations, and turn it OFF to watch cable. I recently bought an over-the-air tuner for my Dish Wally. The Air stations show up on the Dish TV guide. I have not had the OTA tuner long enough to know what to do in a campground with cable.

Initially - I ran the Tailgater coax thru a window and tied it directly to the back of the black box. Several months ago I ran a 6' coax behind the TV/fireplace, down thru the slideout wiring loom - so I now connect the Tailgater to the coax pigtail hanging down under the slideout. I posted a thread to the forum with pics of how I ran the coax here...
https://www.montanaowners.com/forums...ad.php?t=82429

[Montana Man]

Mine has the same. The tv feeds all tv's. Satellite is for bedroom and one for living room. Generally, satellite cabling doesn't work well when using splitters so the two satellite connections are a more direct cabling. In our case, two of the three tv's. With that said, the installed satellite wiring is usually worthless as evidenced by the many posts on the subject.

[rames14]

Here is the KeyTV diagram.

[rames14]

Sorry for mentioning KeyTV. It’s hard to keep track over the years of all the changes. We had a 2005, 2010, 2015 and 2021 Montana, so we have seen the progression. Looks like the 2018 is similar to what our 2015 had. I will add, however, that the splitters used are not the main issue from a satellite perspective. On DirecTV, we had no issues with splitters or cabling on any of our previous units with satellite using a SWM system. However, these portable satellites won’t even handle a single connection. I think Keystone is taking a hit for something that I feel is a Winegard issue.

[Carl n Susan]

Yes, there are three cables. The "Cable/TV" feed all three TV outlets. As mentioned before, turn off the OTA amplifier (behind the bedroom TV) when using cable. One "Satellite" cable goes to the LR, the other one goes to the Bedroom. On my Montana those cables were labeled for Living Room and Bedroom. Apparently Keystone saved $ by using a generic label.


On my 2012 the third TV gets its satellite signal from a jumper. My third TV was in the passthru and the in the bedroom (mine is in the closet) there is an RF connector that feeds the sat signal. There are two RF connectors, one for the bedroom TV and the basement outlet. A jumper is installed usually connecting the sat signal to the bedroom TV. One has to move the jumper when using the passthru outlet.



Your third TV is likely outside and the connections for it are probably different. Montana used to use direct wired sat cables. Unfortunately somewhere around your era they started using diplexors which cause problems for sat systems. If you have them you can try removing them or just run new coax.

[Brian S]

Originally Posted by rames14

I am not sure if you have KeyTV on yours or not, but I suspect you do. Your Satellite in port is connected to the KeyTV unit and the wire runs from the KeyTV unit to behind all of your TV’s. I am going to guess you are having issues with a tailgater, G2 or similar self aligning satellite dish. If I’m wrong, I apologize. After talking to many owners and my own issues, forget using the satellite port for a portable dish that is self aligning. What I found is that you must run your wire from the portable dish directly to the power inserter or receiver depending on satellite flavor. Our G2 is roof mounted and is now a direct cable run to the power inserter. The Winegard system has such a weak signal that I could not get mine to work even with a new line from the convenience center with a single barrel connector. Again, if that isn’t the issue you are having, I apologize.

We have the same problem. When the satellite is plugged in through the basement we only get about 10% of the channels. Really stinks, I don’t want to feed the cable through the door (tripping hazard) or slide