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garyvont · 02-21-2016, 05:50 PM

Just purchased a Tail Gator portable satellite dish. I've been told that running a coax from the dish to the "cable TV" inlet port on the Dolphin will not work. Anyone have any experience with this topic? Many Thanks!
Your "Electronically Challenged Friend on the Road"
Gary

Selah · 02-21-2016, 06:28 PM

That is correct. The cable tv coax usually goes to a splitter and each of those "splits" go to a TV. A satellite dish coax must go directly to a satellite receiver. That receiver then connects to the TV. Many RVs have a second coax connector labeled Satellite in the same area as the cable connector. This is just a jumper cable with one end on the outside and the other end going to where you would put the receiver.

HR2004 · 02-21-2016, 06:30 PM

What Selah said... no splitters allowed with dish network

Theberrys · 02-21-2016, 07:19 PM

Even if you can get it before the splitter the coach probably has RG59 or RG 58 Coax. Satellite TV works best with RG 6 due to the high frequencies. Your run through the coach is pretty short so you may get away with partially using the existing Coax just use the RG6 on the outside of the coach. The reason No splitters is because the dish needs power to select the polarity of the different Sats. This enables more than one LNB to expand the band pass. There are splitters made for Sat TV and aren't real hard to find.

Good luck. If the existing cable run works for you it sure makes hooking up a lot less Rednecky.
Dick

garyvont · 02-22-2016, 10:42 AM

Many, many thanks, Friends!! I would never have known about the RG 6 type cable. I may not understanding, but what is "LNB" and "band pass"?
PS: I've become pretty good at cleverly disguising "Red Neck". ;-)
Gary

kennersonf · 02-22-2016, 12:31 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Theberrys

Even if you can get it before the splitter the coach probably has RG59 or RG 58 Coax.
Dick

All of the coax in my coach is RG 6. The only coax that was RG 59 was the lead-in from the batwing OTA antenna. I have since replaced that with RG 6.

96 Wideglide · 02-22-2016, 12:36 PM

Dont know what year Dolphin you have, but it worked just fine in my 2000' model.

vsheetz · 02-22-2016, 12:52 PM

Try it. May or may not work. If it does not, likely because of splitter or amp.

jimnkee · 02-22-2016, 08:09 PM

My 1997 Tropical works just fine hooked up to the outside coax connector.

garyvont · 02-23-2016, 08:45 AM

Mine is an '07. It doesn't work on my friends '06, but I think I'll try it before I string more cable. Thanks much folks for your input!

Rick 2005 Dolphin 5376 · 02-23-2016, 12:24 PM

Mine works fine as well. I used the stock coax, circa 2005, from the outside hookup up to the receiver. I have a hopper up front
and a wired Joey in the back. The Joey uses the stock coax as well. So far no issues.

wa8yxm · 02-23-2016, 02:22 PM

Ok, most RV's (not all) have lowest bidder RG-59 Not good for sat.. Some however do come with RG-6 for all major cables (this is good)

The park-in cable on MOST Rv's goes to a wall plate, this plate has a light, switch, 12 volt accessory port (Which is next to useless) and antenna jack. You must DISCONNECT the cable from this device.

on the rest of them it goes to a matrix switch, (Box of Many Buttons or BOMB) and again you must disconnect it from this device..

In both cases run it DIRECTLY to the Sat receiver (you may use an extension cable) run the Coax OUT from the sat receiver back to where you just unhooked from on the wall plate.. The BOMB has a SAT IN jack.

Rick 2005 Dolphin 5376 · 02-23-2016, 03:35 PM

I should of mentioned that I do not use the old switches, splitters or the old winegard box. Just coax so I wouldn't of had to pull new coax.

Gerryl · 02-24-2016, 01:32 PM

My Tailgater works using the "Tv cable" in port---- almost all the time.
From what you guys are saying, I'll have to try running RG6 cable directly from the back of the satellite receiver to the Tailgater, the next time I have a problem getting a strong signal.

Man I love this forum-- so much information here.