Community Forums

JLS · 04-11-2008, 04:51 PM

I'm getting ready to purchase a dish and tripod for our 26TRW. We will be taking our Dishnet 311 receiver from home with us on trips. We have a Westinghouse 27" flat screen and DVD/tuner that came with the trailer. Inside the entertainment center there is a three way splitter with a cable hooked to the IN side, obviously coming from outside cable connection. There are two cables hooked to the OUT side of the splitter. One I assume goes to the TV the other is about a foot long and is not connected to anything. How do I hook up the receiver with only one cable connection available? The receiver has a satillite input and a TV output jack. Called PI but the person that I talked to could not answer my question but said that I should not have to add any new cable. He told me to call back on Monday and ask for Ed. Any info would be appreciated.

JLS · 04-11-2008, 04:51 PM

I'm getting ready to purchase a dish and tripod for our 26TRW. We will be taking our Dishnet 311 receiver from home with us on trips. We have a Westinghouse 27" flat screen and DVD/tuner that came with the trailer. Inside the entertainment center there is a three way splitter with a cable hooked to the IN side, obviously coming from outside cable connection. There are two cables hooked to the OUT side of the splitter. One I assume goes to the TV the other is about a foot long and is not connected to anything. How do I hook up the receiver with only one cable connection available? The receiver has a satillite input and a TV output jack. Called PI but the person that I talked to could not answer my question but said that I should not have to add any new cable. He told me to call back on Monday and ask for Ed. Any info would be appreciated.

UFO Pilot · 04-11-2008, 06:58 PM

If you are going to hook your satellite dish to the existing outside cable connection, then all you have to do is disconnect the TV from the splitter, run a new coax from the splitter to the satellite receiver and then connect the TV coax to the satellite receiver output.

Curtis Brown · 04-12-2008, 07:30 AM

First check the outside of your trailer and see if you have a connection (or two) for a satellite dish. I believe most Excels are pre-wired for a tripod mounted satellite dish with the connection(s) in the same location as the cable and phone connections. If you do have connections for a satellite dish then you may also have an A/B switch in the entertainment center and perhaps the bedroom as well. If you do, then just connect a coax from the output from the A/B switch to the satellite input on the receiver. Do not confuse the A/B switch for satellite with the Video Distribution Switch. They have different functions.

If you do not have outside connections for a satellite dish and do not need to connect to cable then you can use the cable connection by disconnecting the cable that comes from the outside connector to the three way splitter. Simply disconnect the cable from the input side of the three way splitter and connect it to the satellite input on the receiver. You can then connect the a cable from the TV output on the receiver to the input side of the three way splitter.

ChiefJohn · 04-12-2008, 07:42 AM

Ditto Curt's comments. Our Excels are prewired for satellite or cable hookups. You should also have an A/B switch where your entertainment center components are located and one in the bedroom for that TV. An easy way to remember the switch position is to associate the 'A' position the TV antenna of the roof; and the 'B' refers to a base (ground/satellite) receiver.