Satellite & Tech Hardware Maintenence & Installation

[Chief6722]

I thought I would share some knowledge and pictures from some maintenence I did yesterday on my 2010 Tiffin Phaeton’s Travler satellite after having some signal strength issues and noticing the condition of the cables during a roof inspection.

The cables that were in place were the stock cables from 2012 when the original owner had the system installed. Often these stock cables are not meant for anything more than “In-Wall/Interior” use and especially can’t handle the harsh environment of an RV roof and the constant exposure to the Sun and Pollution or SeaSpray. These cables were probably in bad enough shape after 3-4 years but they were still in place and were all dry-rotted, stiff and full of corrosion. Also notice how one of the cables center conductor wire is way too long and was bent because it bottomed out in the connector.

After looking locally for some decent cables and not finding anything I went to good ole Amazon and found the quality I needed. The new cables are Exterior & Buriable rated, but also have the proper compression-fit connections with environmental boots(covers) for the final connection protection. I’ve attached a few pictures of what I bought for $13.88 each and what the old cables looked like. Normally I make my own cables but I was out of connectors and could get the finished cable in faster.

Before connecting the new cables, I unplugged the system and then used “Detox-It” to clean the terminals on the Travler base to remove they corrosion and also the old dielectric grease that was full of debris. Once I finished, the signal improved significantly in the unobstructed areas and I moved to an area that used to be blocked(or I thought) and it was at the level that the system was originally in the unobstructed area. While I was up there I ran a couple lengths of CAT6(buriable) for some future projects that I have planned.

Hope it helps someone with issues or someone that is looking to change their cables especially if the cables are more than 5 years old…