What am I doing wrong?

[llmrealestat]

We are newbies and on our maiden voyage as full-timers. We have a 2007 Winnie Tour 40 TD with a King Dome satellite system, a Winegaard switching box and Direct TV. We also have cable and satellite hookups in the electrical bay in the basement. Here's the problem. We are assuming the reason we are not getting satellite (Direct TV) is because we are surrounded by trees, which are beautiful, but not great for satellite reception. Conveniently, our park offers cable television. We are hooked from the park's cable line into the cable receptacle in the electrical bay and our Winegard box is switched to cable. When we program either for antenna or cable (it doesn't seem to make a difference), we are only getting 13 channels. The cable guide from the park says they offer 50. We would like to get the other 37. Any help would be greatly appreciated. I'm sure it must be a simple fix, I just haven't learned it yet.

[jfran304]

Quote:

Originally Posted by llmrealestat We are newbies and on our maiden voyage as full-timers. We have a 2007 Winnie Tour 40 TD with a King Dome satellite system, a Winegaard switching box and Direct TV. We also have cable and satellite hookups in the electrical bay in the basement. Here's the problem. We are assuming the reason we are not getting satellite (Direct TV) is because we are surrounded by trees, which are beautiful, but not great for satellite reception. Conveniently, our park offers cable television. We are hooked from the park's cable line into the cable receptacle in the electrical bay and our Winegard box is switched to cable. When we program either for antenna or cable (it doesn't seem to make a difference), we are only getting 13 channels. The cable guide from the park says they offer 50. We would like to get the other 37. Any help would be greatly appreciated. I'm sure it must be a simple fix, I just haven't learned it yet.

When hooked up to cable you need to turn off the power booster for the antennae at the winegard switching box. Make sure all the switches on the switching box are set to cable. Then set the TV to cable and let it do an automatic programming for the channels.

Hope this helps,
Jon

[okgc]

Without seeing your setup, something you should check is when using the cable connection make sure the booster for your antenna is turned off.

[RinkersRanch]

You might need to run 'cable channel setup' on you TV's to recognize the other channels. If you have already done this you are already past my understanding of satellite systems.

[llmrealestat]

Thanks for the info folks, but where do I find the button for the antenna power booster? I turned off the button on the Winegard that says antenna power on/off and then ran the channel manager and still just got "air" channels.

[sniggles]

Quote:

Originally Posted by llmrealestat Thanks for the info folks, but where do I find the button for the antenna power booster? I turned off the button on the Winegard that says antenna power on/off and then ran the channel manager and still just got "air" channels.

Campground cable may be antenna and with also cable.
That is the booster button everyone was talking about.
Now make sure your cable from the outside of the caoch is actual hooked to the switcher box.
I found none of our cables actual hooked to the switcher box. Someone had unhooked everything. Just ran the cable lead from the atenna to a splitter for front and rear tv.

You will need to switch your TV to off air/cable then do an auto channel search. It should work.

[llmrealestat]

Thanks, I'll give it a try. Watching TV shouldn't be this hard. Lol.

[MegaRoadie]

jfran had a great idea but even better... do you have grandkids??? Let em at it for 5 minutes and it will work, maybe even get 75 channels or more ! They seem to be genetically pre-dispositioned for the technological wizardry required !

Talk to your neighbors, have em over for dinner and drinks and ask questions about park cable ! Or borrow someone elses kids or grandkidz for a lil while...

Best of luck !

Be safe, enjoy the Open Roads, Thank a Vet for our freedoms !

[llmrealestat]

Thanks MegaRoadie. The grandkids are a great idea (I have 8). Unfortunately, they are all scattered across the country, so if I still can't figure it out by the time we visit them, I'll definitely turn them loose on it. In the meantime, I will talk to the neighbors -- they all seem quite friendly -- and see if they can fill us in. It sucks being new sometimes.

[Dmlane]

There is another thing you might look into. I believe that some satellite receivers can accommodate an input from an air antenna. You might want to check to see if the cable input coax is connected there by mistake while also checking, as some suggested, if the cable coax is connected to your distribution box. In general, you should check all these connections. If the cables aren't labeled, it would be a good idea to put a label on them once you have confirmed which are which. If for some reason the cable connection was going through the sat box, it may be that the sat box only passes through basic channels equivalent to the over air channels and cuts off the higher channels.

I will add that I never heard that you should turn off the amplifier on the distribution box when using cable programing. I never have and haven't noticed any problems using cable. That doesn't make sense to me since you might want to watch over air programing on one TV and cable or satellite programing on another TV at the same time. I suppose it is possible that the amp only amplifies the over air signal and not the cable or satellite signal.

[dogpatch]

It might just be easier to watch TV at your neighbours. They might get a bit testy when you reach for the remote though! LOL

[HD4Mark]

Not sure about your dome but ours has DIP switches that needed to be changed (on the roof) because the previous owner had Dish and we use DirecTV. If the receiver was already in your rig that should not be an issue. Next I would go to the setup menu on the DTV receiver, use the signal strenght meter and see if you are getting anything. Does the dome have a switch to turn it on? Ours makes lots of noise to let you know it is looking for the satellite so after turning it on you may hear it working.

There is also a aiming tool you can use with the local zip code. You don't need to aim it of course with a dome but it will give the angle and azimuth so you can use a compass to see if you are blocked by trees.

I agree with Dmlane on the booster. AFAIK it is only for the off air antenna. There will be a button and red light on the switch box.

[deandec]

If you can, try running the cable from the park connection through a window to the back of a TV.

Then do your station search to see if the cable stations show up.

If they do not, then it is either the search function on your TV not being instructed correctly by you. Or, your park connection does not have a signal.

If the stations do appear now, then the problem is likely with the wiring in your Coach. You will need to look at the back of your video switcher to see if the cable entrance is connected appropriately.

If it is, connect that cable instead directly to the TV (use another piece of coax with a splicer for a jumper) and see if you can get cable stations. If no cable stations, that wire is not connected to the rear coax connection that your are using for the park cable signal entrance. Is there another coax connection at the rear of the rig that is not in your electrical compartment?

It is possible that your previous owner did not use the park cable connection and dedicated that hookup to a portable satellite antenna and routing that cable to a Sat receiver via an A/B switch.
You would suspect this when looking at the cable connection on the back of your video switch box and finding no cable connected.

Hope you find a solution easily.