Using Satellite Box From Home In The Camper

[greygoose]

Good morning guys and gals,

I am having an issue getting my satellite TV to work in our camper. We have our camper in a private campgroud (it doesn't move) and our neighbor has a dish mounted in the woods that he said I could hook up to. All I would need is a satellite box from home. (we have direct tv at home and the dish in the woods is direct tv as well) Well, I know his dish is pointed in the right direction because his TV works fine, but for some reason all I get on my TV is acquiring signal and unable to establish connection. Am I doing something wrong? I've taken the box back home and re-connected it to the TV it came off of originally and it works fine. This really has me stumped.

Any help would be much appreciated.

Greygoose

[dickandlois]

GrayGoose, Welcome to FMCA !

First start with the model of you friends box and yours.

Then get the feed horn number off you friends dish and yours.

Then compare there operating information. Is there a difference that you can see ?

Post all the above information for the group and then someone can look into the more technical information and see if we can fine the problem.

Rich.

[greygoose]

GrayGoose, Welcome to FMCA !

First start with the model of you friends box and yours.

Then get the feed horn number off you friends dish and yours.

Then compare there operating information. Is there a difference that you can see ?

Post all the above information for the group and then someone can look into the more technical information and see if we can fine the problem.

Rich.

Rich,

Thank you for your prompt reply!

I will look tonight when I get home and see what model the box is. The dish info will be hard to get since its 300 miles away. I do know that the dish is only a few years old, its oval, and it has (3) coax cable connections.

EDIT: I should mention that the dish looks the same as the one I have on my roof at home.

[desertdeals69]

Have you tried your receiver at his location? There may be a cable problem.

[greygoose]

Have you tried your receiver at his location? There may be a cable problem.

I have not, but all my cables are brand new.

Could it have anything to do with the zip code stored in the box?

[hermanmullins]

Is you receiver HD or just digital. If his is just digital and yours is HD his dish may not accept your model of receiver.

Herman

[srfridley]

I use my direct tv receiver from home in my MH and 5th wheel trailer routinely. Check to make sure that your box is aligned to the dish, my MH has a selector box. Check your satellite set up using the feature on the direct tv menu, if possible, check your neighbors set up and match the settings (dish type, connection type.)

Since you are sharing a dish, you may need a signal booster for the satellite signal, my home has one.

Note that if you are far from home you will not be able to receive local broadcasts

Good luck

[desertdeals69]

I have not, but all my cables are brand new.

Could it have anything to do with the zip code stored in the box?

How long is the cable run? Is the receiver the same model? You might try your cable on his receiver. I have seen defective new cables before.

[greygoose]

How long is the cable run? Is the receiver the same model? You might try your cable on his receiver. I have seen defective new cables before.

The cable run is 100 feet or less.

To answer another posters question, I have HD and just digital boxes at home, the box I took to the camper was a digital box, so I'm assuming it will work fine on his dish? Also, I looked online and was able to find the box that is up there. Its a direct tv D12 box.

Link with picture here - http://www.satelliterepair.info/shop.html

The dish under the box looks like what I have at home and what is in the campground

[tbutler]

DirecTV has gone to powering the LNB(s) in the dish with a separate power supply. I encountered this at home recently when I made some modifications to the incoming line. A call to DirecTV customer service helped me identify the problem. I had mixed up the cables on the splitter and the cable powering the LNBs was on the wrong outlet, power wasn't getting through to the LNBs. If that is the case, you would need the power supply from home as well as your receiver. Our power supply is a separate power pack that is located in the entertainment center where our primary receiver is located. I didn't even know I had it until I called DirecTV.

[dickandlois]

Have you run the system test?

Chapter 5 -

Help & Troubleshooting

The System Test allows you to run a basic diagnostics check on your DIRECTV Receiver. If you are experiencing any trouble with your

receiver, run the system test. It will also allow you to get your access card and receiver ID numbers or to initiate diagnostic procedures on

your digital satellite receiver.

First make sure that:

1. All connections -- jacks, cables, etc. -- are in place correctly. See Chapter 4, “Connections for TV and Auxiliary Equipment” for more

information.

2. There are batteries in the remote control, and they are working correctly.

3. The access card is inserted in the DIRECTV Receiver.

Follow these steps to run the diagnostics system test on your DIRECTV Receiver:

1. Turn on your TV and the DIRECTV Receiver.

2. Slide the mode switch to the DIRECTV position to put the remote control in satellite receiver-controlling mode, then press MENU.

3. Select “Parental, Fav’s & Setup.”

4. Select “System Setup,” then “Info & Test.”

5. Select “Run System Test”. For Standard-Definition receivers, press GREEN on your remote, then select “Run Test”.

6. If your system does not pass the System Test, check any of these potential trouble areas: cabling, pointing the satellite dish, phone

connection and access card.

7. If you continue to have problems, call DIRECTV Customer Service at 1-800-531-5000.

8. You should run a system test several times before concluding that there is a problem. Occasional fluctuations in the phone line or

satellite signal can give temporary false reading

Rich.

[cebuffett]

The key to solving this problem is to match the settings in the receiver to the dish and lnb you are using. When you hooked up to your neighbors dish your home dish/lnb was different from his current dish/lnb. You needed to put into your receiver the dish and lnb type of your neighbor. (18" round, slimline 3, etc.and multiswitch or swm) I bring one of my receivers from home when we travel. If I use the roof dish I have to change the receiver settings and again if I set up an external Slimline dish. And of course it has to be changed back when I get home again.

[carlpeterson]

I have been using my DirecTV receiver for years in my motorhome, beach house in Louisianna, farm in MN. with no major problems. When I encounter a problem, I call DirectTV, and ask for technical support and they have always been able to help me fix the problem, great support.

[greygoose]

The key to solving this problem is to match the settings in the receiver to the dish and lnb you are using. When you hooked up to your neighbors dish your home dish/lnb was different from his current dish/lnb. You needed to put into your receiver the dish and lnb type of your neighbor. (18" round, slimline 3, etc.and multiswitch or swm) I bring one of my receivers from home when we travel. If I use the roof dish I have to change the receiver settings and again if I set up an external Slimline dish. And of course it has to be changed back when I get home again.

Where are these settings located?

EDIT: last weekend I received diagnostic code 49-483: Primary tuner connection problem.

[john_harris]

Not to repeat anything from above but one of my DirecTV receivers from home has worked fine for several years in MH. Only issue is when the receiver has not been used for a month or two, it looses its "authorization" and I must call DirecTV for it to be authorized (ext 722) takes about 30 seconds.

[dickandlois]

Sounds Like a software issue, registration problem something is not present, like a code from Direct TV.

Rich.

[debbiej00]

I had similar problem when we put receivers in our coach. Our problem was our Direct TV installer. He insisted on putting it on swim, it has to be on multi-switch. The manufacture of our dome said always remember RV's don't swim. As soon as we changed it we had TV.

Good luck! It's frustrating.

[greygoose]

I had similar problem when we put receivers in our coach. Our problem was our Direct TV installer. He insisted on putting it on swim, it has to be on multi-switch. The manufacture of our dome said always remember RV's don't swim. As soon as we changed it we had TV.

Good luck! It's frustrating.

How do I change that?

[greygoose]

Well, thank you for all of your help. I was up north this past holiday weekend and I was able to get it working. I had to set the box to multi-switch, turn it to 18" round dish, and disconnect the cable from the outside "cable" hookup. Now it works perfectly. Does anyone have an idea why it wouldn't work with the outside cable connection?

[ClayL]

Maybe because it's going through a splitter.

There are several ways to connect it. Winegard recommends the diagram below.

Making the connections the way Winegard recommends does not require adding any coax connectors to the wallplate.

Note that this assumes your front TV is connected to the coax connector on the front of the wall plate. If yours isn't, there should be a splitter in the line labeled "To second TV" that will send the signal to both the front and rear TVs (if you have two TVs).

What Winegard calls a "power supply" below is the wall plate with the antenna booster switch and LED showing when the amplifier is on.

If you still want to be able to use the external cable in for both cable TV and the external dish just add an A/B switch to switch the incoming coax from the sat receiver "sat input" to the sat receiver "TV input".

If your receiver doesn't have a coax output (and many new ones don't) and you still want to use the batwing antenna you will need to use an A/B switch to switch the signal between the receiver and the antenna out connection on the wall plate.

One thing not shown in the diagram is using the RCA type connections or the better quality "component" type output or the HDMI (best) output between the sat receiver and the TV.

That will yield a much better picture with no interference from any local channels. You have to select a "video in" with your TV menu instead of using channel 3 (for example).

Some newer satellite receivers don't have a coax output so you may have to use HDMI or component connections.

If you have a video distribution box that will have to be taken into account.

[cauffield]

I have a roof mounted wineguard in motion receiver. There so many connections in the electronic cabinet that I cannot under stand.

I have gone to the Internet and searched, for connection diagrams. I was supposed to use my Dish receiver

from the house ===in the motorhome.

This is a 2009 Gulf Stream so I am sure it is SD dish.

Any information is accepted.