satellite TV connections

[D and J]

Does anyone know anything about the connections for sattelite tv in the Excel rigs?? I have one of those winegard distribution boxes, but there is nothing connected to the rear inputs for satellite. I have connections at the rear of the rig that are marked "living room" and "bedroom" (I assume this is where I am supposed to connect my LMB's from the dish)

There is an "A B" switch in the bedroom and near the living romm TV. Each of the A B switches has a cable connected at each "end" input, but nothing connected to the middle output.

I just bought a dish, and two converter boxes, but I don't know jack about how the stuff connects.

I wish I had a schematic for how my rig was built and wired.

I have been running a bedroom TV off the batwing or cable when at a campground that offers cable. The A B switch in the bedroom does nothing to the signal to the TV from the batwing.

Something seems to be "missing", or I just don't get it.

Doug

[D and J]

Does anyone know anything about the connections for sattelite tv in the Excel rigs?? I have one of those winegard distribution boxes, but there is nothing connected to the rear inputs for satellite. I have connections at the rear of the rig that are marked "living room" and "bedroom" (I assume this is where I am supposed to connect my LMB's from the dish)

There is an "A B" switch in the bedroom and near the living romm TV. Each of the A B switches has a cable connected at each "end" input, but nothing connected to the middle output.

I just bought a dish, and two converter boxes, but I don't know jack about how the stuff connects.

I wish I had a schematic for how my rig was built and wired.

I have been running a bedroom TV off the batwing or cable when at a campground that offers cable. The A B switch in the bedroom does nothing to the signal to the TV from the batwing.

Something seems to be "missing", or I just don't get it.

Doug

[LindaH]

It is my understanding (at least in our rig) that the A/B switch is ONLY for satellite. The "A" position is for the satellite dish on the roof ("A"ttic) and the "B" position is for a portable dish attached to the outside hookups ("B"asement). If you don't have a roof-mounted satellite TV dish, then I don't know what the A/B switch is for in your setup (perhaps for when you DO add a roof-mounted dish?).

I haven't looked at the back of our Winegard distribution box, so I don't know how it is wired. All I know is that when we want to watch a satellite program, we push the "SAT" button for whatever TV we're watching (livingroom or bedroom) and when we want to watch a DVD or programming from the batwing, we push the appropriate buttons.

[D and J]

there are stickers on the roof for where to install a roof mounted antenna, so that makes sense about the A B switch.

Linda, do you just use one encoder?? or do you have an encoder for for each TV??

[vblarry]

If PI hasn't changed the set up, check around the rear of your unit on the driver's side. You'll see 2 CATV connections marked Lving Rm & Bedrm. Run the cable from your satalite to where you want the picture to appear. If you want reception in both places, you'll need a splitter. The AB switch near the TV is used if you have the roof mounted unit.

[M&S Norrell]

Try
http://www.winegard.com/faq/wc-784forweb.pdf

or for the manual to your unit (if it is the same as ours)

http://www.winegard.com/mobile/pdf/2451996.pdf


or if all else fails...

http://www.winegard.com/faq_answer.php?id=31

We connect our outside sat to the rv plug that says cable. On the inside we connect the cable to the sat. input on the back of the winegard. Then from our Dish receiver in LR we connect the sat.signal in to the wingard sat out . Somehow this sends sat signal to bedroom, then we connect 2nd receiver (sat in) to bedroom box (mounted in tv cabinet) and tv out (on dish receiver) to back of tv. Good luck!

[ExcelRVGuy]

Dear Doug & Jutta'

Peterson Ind pre-wires your coach to accomodate either a roof mount OR a ground base (or both if you wish) satellite antenna.

If you did not order the satellite then there would be no coax wires connected to the distribution box.

To connect a satellite receiver, you will run a coax from the OUT port of the A/B switch to the IN port of your satellite receiver. Then run another coax from the OUT port of the receiver to the SAT IN port of the distribution box. This will give you total functionality of your distribution box.

LindaH's discription of the A/B switch is correct. It is ONLY functional when there is a satellite receiver installed.

Hope this helps.

Bryan

[D and J]

Bryan, and everyone who responded,

THANKS!

I figured I was missing a few connections, and everything is clear now. I have two decoders, and now just need to decide if we want to watch dvd's in the bedroom or not. For this, I will need one more AB switch, so that the bedroom TV can still be connected to the winegard switch box in the livingroom.

For now the bedroom will be satellite only, and we (my wife) will see if this "works" or not!

Thanks again!

Doug

[LindaH]

D and J, I know you have it all figured out now, but I have to know -- WHAT is a decoder?

[D and J]

Decoder is the "box" that decodes the satelitte signal.

If you have one decoder, both tv's need to watch the same channel at the same time. Two decoders means wife watches one show, while I watch another!!

[M&S Norrell]

You shouldn't need another switch in bedroom. Your tv should have a tv/video button that toggles between the two or possibly a channel at the end of your channel capability that says AUX. We have DVD plugged into tv in bedroom and just hit the tv/video button and we get whatever we have playing in the DVD.
Sue

[LindaH]

Ahhhh, now I know what a decoder is...we've always just called it a receiver and have never heard it called a decoder.

So, to answer your question, yes, we have two receivers...one in the living room and one in the bedroom. Apparently, there are receivers that will handle more than one TV at a time, but our receivers are of the "plain vanilla" kind...they don't do any thing fancy such as recording, HDTV, or anything else.

[D and J]

OK, everything is hooked up, and working!!

Now for the fun part. . .my wife has been on the phone with Direct TV for over a half an hour trying to get service!

They (Direct TV) just don't seem to understand that we bought, and installed the stuff ourselves. They keep telling her "you don't have an account" my wife says "I know, we are trying to activate an account" . . . please hold, then she gets transfered to another person and goes through the same routine again, and again...

[D and J]

oh yeah, and of course, we can't get network channels cause we are "living" in Sioux Falls, but we are still on the east coast.

I knew I should have gotten this satellite stuff and RV waivers taken care before
we started full time travel