TV cable connections etc

[Wrinklemeist]

I have an '05 40' FDTS. Previous owners must have done something with the wiring for antenna and cable. The cable "in" on one side of the coach apparently does not go through to the cable "out" on the other side of the coach. The antenna seems to not be hooked up. There is a box near the diesel and electric heat switches above the driver's seat that has choices for source selection but that seems to have no effect on anything. TV in bedroom gets no signals from anything except an inserted DVD. The front tv will work off the satelite King Dome and dvd. What kind of shop or tech should I track down to try to unravel this mess or start from scratch? An ordinary mobile RV repair companyh is expensive by the hour and this is not his strong point. Shoud I kidnap an installer from Best Buy or something? Any help in pointing me in the right direction greatly appreciated.
Thanks,
Mike

[srydve]

It's not that hard but you should have a couple of tools. A toner and tone finder would be good, you could improvise something else. You want to make sure everything is off and tv's, recievers etc are not connected. It's a matter of putting a tone or signal on one end and then checking all the remaining ends untill you find, identify, and tag it. Repeat the process untill you have them all tagged. If you don't want to attempt it I would look for a telephone or cable installer, I don't think it would take them very long to sort it out.

[Jim A]

Mike,

Assuming the previous owner didn't rewire, the cables installed by WRV should be color coded. They used white coax cables. There is a color band on the ends of the main coax leads. Maybe you will get lucky and find them. Otherwise you will need to follow the previous advice.

Portable satellite - Purple
Roof satellite - Green
Antenna - White
Cable - Red
To outside TV - Black
To bedroom TV - Blue

Once you identify these coax cables, you need to connect them BSM (By Some Means). A friend's coach was wired with a whole bunch of splitters, which degraded the signal to the point that they got a very weak and unusable.antenna signal. I would suggest a switch box such as the following:

Discount Mobile Video and Rear Observation Systems

(I just picked this website because it has a picture of it and the part number. Do you own search if you decide to buy one.)

This switch will take the incoming coax leads and switch them to the front TV, the bedroom TV, and the outdoor TV. It makes it petty simple. If your satellite receiver has a coax output, you can connect it to the switch AUX input and get the satellite signal to the bedroom and outside TV's as well as the cable and antenna.

If you go the other route and kidnap the Best Buy geek, be aware that he might not understand RV entertainment center wiring. It may be a little more complicated than home theater connections he is used to. But he should figure it out.

I would definitely not pay the RV tech a high price if he doesn't know what he is doing. Too often they will screw up worse than it is to start with. I have seen some of their work on friend's coaches!!!

Good luck!

[Wrinklemeist]

Thanks for all the info everyone. Jim A, I will check it out today. I am totally ignorant when it comes to electronics, wiring, etc. but can follow directions.
Thanks a lot,
Mike