Ghosts in RG6 TV cable

[TexasTwoStep]

2021 VanLeigh Beacon This problem has been going on for a long time. I have a Dish Wally and a Dish Playmaker with OEM RG6 coax cable inside my fifth wheel. I use 50’ of RG6 outside. If I use the sat. or cable connections in my wet bay after a couple of days or so the Playmaker will start grinding, looking for a signal, and I have to restart the Wally. If I run the outside cable thru a window, bypassing the inside wiring, directly to the Wally it does fine. Your thoughts?

[OldBaldFat]

50 feet is getting close to the limit for a quality signal and quality power for the antenna.

Also, every connection from the Wally to the antenna degrades the signal and the power supplied to the antenna.

When I'm in a situation where I need to use that long a cable to get a clear signal, I also bypass the standard RV connections, and go directly from the Wally to the Antenna, though I usually snake mine out through the slide edge. Closer to the Wally than a window.

I can go up to a 100 ft cable and it works well that way.

Note, two 50 ft cables will not work. The cable run that far needs to be just one section of cable.

[bentjm]

You never know about the internal cable. It may be crimped or have a splice or a splitter.

I guess you could ohm it out to try to get some sort of idea.

Or, just run a new internal cable.

[92LandYacht]

Originally Posted by bentjm

You never know about the internal cable. It may be crimped or have a splice or a splitter.

I guess you could ohm it out to try to get some sort of idea.

Or, just run a new internal cable.

I'd love to know how to do that since most MH cables are not run in any conduit. Right now, I have to use an external cable since all of the internal cable in my MH is RG56.

[beerdude]

Originally Posted by TexasTwoStep

2021 VanLeigh Beacon This problem has been going on for a long time. I have a Dish Wally and a Dish Playmaker with OEM RG6 coax cable inside my fifth wheel. I use 50’ of RG6 outside. If I use the sat. or cable connections in my wet bay after a couple of days or so the Playmaker will start grinding, looking for a signal, and I have to restart the Wally. If I run the outside cable thru a window, bypassing the inside wiring, directly to the Wally it does fine. Your thoughts?

Your RV's wiring should be similar if not identical to mine. You may already be aware, but just in case, all of your RG6 cables are home-run behind the fireplace. I'd pull the fireplace and ensure all the cable connections are snug on the various couplers as a quick first step in troubleshooting.

The connection on the back side of the coupler in the wet bay may also be loose. You'll need to pull a panel in the under storage bay to reach and check that connection, but it is a relatively painless troubleshooting step as well.

[TexasTwoStep]

I’ve tried all the stuff you mentioned and am thinking maybe some of the 120v stuff might be causing interference. My next step is to run a 6’ or so coax from back of Wally behind fireplace and out the entrance hole with the wire bundle coming out at bottom of slide and use that as my connection rather than the wet bay.

[beerdude]

I started out with a Dish Wally and the Pathway antenna back a few years ago. I had a 50' cable just in case but almost always used my 25' cable when possible. That may also be the issue as noted above in an earlier post.

FWIW, I dumped the Dish setup and went with Starlink and stream via Sling TV now. Much more stress-free setup in my experience. My Wally always seemed problematic when setting up at a new campsite, and we change campsites frequently when covering miles while out on an RV adventure.

[zrock2010]

Originally Posted by OldBaldFat

50 feet is getting close to the limit for a quality signal and quality power for the antenna.

Also, every connection from the Wally to the antenna degrades the signal and the power supplied to the antenna.

When I'm in a situation where I need to use that long a cable to get a clear signal, I also bypass the standard RV connections, and go directly from the Wally to the Antenna, though I usually snake mine out through the slide edge. Closer to the Wally than a window.

I can go up to a 100 ft cable and it works well that way.

Note, two 50 ft cables will not work. The cable run that far needs to be just one section of cable.

Bingo... Every connection and splitter in the system degrades the signal. One way to help this is every splitter in you unit replace it with a good quality one, i usually go to my local cable company and they give them to me since im a customer. THey do go bad over time i seem to have to change mine out every 5 years or i start loosing my internet. Same with your cabling do not go cheap and get it from your local walmart purchase a good quality, im almost betting the original in that unit is the lowest quality they manufacturer could find. If it was me i would run a new line from your splitter behind your TV to your storage compartment and leave it coiled up in their until you need it.

I got lucky the last time the cable company was at my house they rewired all the way from the road to my house with a much better cable than normal just so i would not have issues and they said the cable that i had run in my house was a much higher quality than they normally see and that i will never have issues.. The only reason i have issues is i added 2 more tvs in the house and cheaped out on the cable and its robbing signal strength from the rest.. But soom im going all wireless so it will not mater.

[TexasTwoStep]

Thanks for the replies.

[traveldawg]

I doubt there is a splitter in the run from the outside cable port (in the wet bay) to the sat cable connector where the Wally plugs in. There maybe, but usually isn't; at least not when there is a dedicated input port in the bay.

beerdude's suggestion of checking the connections on the backside of the cable ports is a good idea.

oldbaldfat's suggestion of too much cable is most likely the issue. And if it is, or ever was, kinked - throw it out. Get 2 25' sections. 25' is usually more than enough for me.

When all else fails, the idea you had about dropping a short cable through the floor is not a bad idea. I may have to resort to that in my camper as I too have re-start issues too often (even with just 25' into the provided SAT port in the wet bay).

Let us know how things work out.

[TexasTwoStep]

I’ve completely eliminated the inside wiring and have a pig tail stubbed out below the tv in the slide bundle access hole and have had no problems for 3 days, which is a record.
I’m assuming the problem is interference with the coax/120v bundling, although on my Rv forum no one else is experiencing this.

[traveldawg]

Originally Posted by TexasTwoStep

I’ve completely eliminated the inside wiring and have a pig tail stubbed out below the tv in the slide bundle access hole and have had no problems for 3 days, which is a record.
I’m assuming the problem is interference with the coax/120v bundling, although on my Rv forum no one else is experiencing this.

2 things come to mind....

First - I doubt it is 120v 60 Hz interference. No one else has ever reported this.

Second - by routing directly into the pigtail you installed you have eliminated probably 20 or 30 feet of coax cable within the RV, thus shortening you cable length significantly given that you already use a 50' cable.

Glad to hear things are working for you.

[OldBaldFat]

Back in my USN CPO days in the 80s, I headed a small unit that worked with shipboard TV systems.

My guys had formulas for signal loss over distance, splitters, drops, and connectors. We had to know where to install signal amplifiers. Took me a while to find some of that stuff.

A Knox Class Frigate - one of the smallest ships in the Navy at the time, needed about 600 feet of CAC-11 coax and 1200 feet of RG-59.

For the rehab of the USS Midway TV cable during an overhaul, I ordered 2,500 feet of CAC-11 and 39,600 ft of RG-59 (7.5 miles).

That wasn't quite enough, but we had some additional available.

My rough calculations of a RG-6 cable run of 65 ft' including one two-way splitter, two F-F connectors, like to go through a wall is a signal loss of 12 db

That's 15 ft of cabling inside the RV and one 50' cable.

A straight 50' cable is 2.3 db of loss

Two 25' cables with 1 connector to get a 50 length is 2.8 db of loss.

My very limited experience at looking at the internal wiring inside an rv, indicates to me that some have 20 to 25 db of signal loss before the run gets to the external connection.

Now, I have no idea what the signal requirements are for the portable dish to supply to the connector on the back of the Wally, or VP211 receiver.

I will say that my old (2012) dish which had an external 12V power supply, would supply a usable signal up to 250 feet from the cable box.

Of course, the power supply needed to be located within 20 feet of the dish, so that required a long extension cord.

[TexasTwoStep]

Thanks for the replies guys.