Cable TV Problem

[Mrfoto]

I have a 2008 Jayco Melbourne 29D that has 2 cable tv jacks at the electrical shore cord door. For the life of me, I cannot get cable reception when I am in campgroubd and hook up the wire. I turn my Westinghouse tv on and go to setup and change from "air" to cable, turn off power to roof antenna and then run scan. No results. Any suggestions? I can't check except when at campground, next time.

[bdpreece]

Not familiar with your exact rig but, most RV's will have some type of distribution box with two or more inputs ie ant, dish, cable, etc. with one output to the TV. You need to then select which one you want to use.

[DebbieMH]

We had that problem last week. We we ran scan, nothing would come up. But we took a chance, and entered a channel that was on the cable list, and it worked. We just had to change the channels by putting in the channel number. Try that.

[336muffin]

I have often wondered if you can take a old VCR and run a coax from it to the input on the MH. Toss in a tape and hit play. This would give you a signal as if it were hooked to cable or I might be wrong.

[wanderso]

Yes you can do the VCR test suggested above to confirm if you have an analog signal on channel 3. This will confirm if the wiring in the RV is working properly. Even new digital TVs still support analog signals so this is a valid test.

[Sparky1956]

On many rv's there is a power button for the antenna that MUST be in the off position for you to receive the cable signal. Refer to your owners manual for location and more info.

I only know this because I went through similar frustration on our first trip.

[Steverino]

Originally Posted by Sparky1956

On many rv's there is a power button for the antenna that MUST be in the off position for you to receive the cable signal. Refer to your owners manual for location and more info.

I only know this because I went through similar frustration on our first trip.

Funny - I just discovered this on our trip last weekend. First time we used cable... Why Jayco put the antenna power button BEHIND the TV, I cannot fathom. And of course the rig's manual doesn't even cover that stuff.

[wa8yxm]

Two cable TV jacks.. The following is "Odds" And it really helps if you are the original owner.

One of those is for SAT TV.

You very likely have a wall plate in the motor home, it will have a button or switch, a light, a 12 volt outlet and one or two antenna connections.. Alternative, two wall plates one has ONLY an antenna connetion the other one has the switch, light, 12 volt outlet and an antenna connection.

The "odd" connection is the cable for SAT tv, if you tone it out or test it with meters you will find that this cable runs from one of the cables in the bay, direct to this jack, non-stop, single length, nothing in between (WE HOPE)

Or you have a box of many buttons and a loose cable (often on the other side) in a compartment marked SAT-IN" Again that is ONE of the cbales in back.

When you figure out which this is eithe rcap it or put a old connector on it or a termination resistor (Radio shack sells those) on it, Just to make sure you know what it's for.

The other one SHOULD run to either the wall plate with the switch or the box of many buttons.

HOWEVER.. if you are NOT the original owner.......

Was in a Fleetwood last winter, The poor gal could nto get cable TV to work (park had cable, free no less) we tried and tried and I will tell you I"m good at this stuff.

Finally pulled the wall plate to see if someone had messed with teh cables on the back of it.... WHAT CABLES, we could not even find the cables, they had been ripped (partially) out it seems. The only wires back there were the 12 volt DC lines.

No wonder it did not work.

[TXiceman]

One jack is fro SAT and the other cable. You also need to be sure the TV is hooked up correctly inside.

Ken

[ike1562]

Old thread, I know, but thought I'd add something to help anyone looking for answers to similar problems.

We've never had great cable TV pictures in our 2015 Melbourne but have hardly used it and so it's never been a real problem. Usually we have simply given up, put the antenna up and we're good. We've always blamed the service at whatever campground we've been staying.

Well, about two weeks ago we were in Steamboat Springs CO, staying at the KOA. Had a very grainy picture, as usual. Made sure the antenna booster was off. It was off. Ran another scan (plenty of channels were showing up, just a really crappy picture, although sound was okay and it was watchable). We did the usual and put up antenna. Sorry, not one channel to be seen in Steamboat through the air!

My wife was down at the store getting ice and mentioned the problem to the managers (very nice and helpful, btw). In two shakes of a lamb's tail the guy was down at our post and plugging in a small tv to test the signal. It was fine. He offered to test the other end of my wire that ran from post to RV. It was fine.

Somewhere between the back end where the power and coax come in there is a problem.

Decided to test more. (if you knew me you'd just nod and think, yeah that sounds like him) I started thinking interference from 120 volt current. I mean, that's where a 30 amp cord runs into the camper, right? All of the other electrical system items are just inside there, under the master bed. Items such as the auto transfer switch, inverter, and not far away, the power control center. Should be plenty of electrical fields in that vicinity. (No, I don't believe it will harm you while you sleep) I then unplugged the RV and used on generator. Slightly improved but still not great. Then, while still unplugged, I shut down gen, turned on the inverter to power TV. There was a large improvement in the signal to the TVs now. In my opinion it's still not as good as watching with the antenna, but still better than it had been.

Conclusion: in our 2015 Melbourne 29D there must be an unshielded (cheap) coax cable, or at least it's not shielded in the proper places, that's interfering with our cable TV reception.

Add it to a list of crap I have to fix. (We still like the vehicle and have over 25,000 miles on it in this short time, but there have been plenty of things go wrong. I'm of the opinion that no matter the brand, model, or type of RV, you will need to be able to do some of this work yourself or you will be unloading tons of dough and time spent with those dudes at the repair shop. The Camping World in Longmont CO was the worst when we bought it and when we needed some things fixed in 2015 and 2016 (repair manager and most of the "mechanics" but one grizzled veteran that should have been manager but was muted with a weird hierarchy feel going on and one gal up front were great), before I swore I'd never let them work on or set foot in my vehicle again. In fact, I never did leave it. Best bet is to always wait at the dealership. That makes them absolutely deal with your vehicle that day, as they said they would. The help hired at that dealership at that time didn't know as much as you or I and likely can barely fill something with the correct fuel) They are extremely low-paid help (low skilled and not trained) and turnover at these places can be extreme.

I digress....

[puttin]

Originally Posted by ike1562

Old thread, I know, but thought I'd add something to help anyone looking for answers to similar problems.

We've never had great cable TV pictures in our 2015 Melbourne but have hardly used it and so it's never been a real problem. Usually we have simply given up, put the antenna up and we're good. We've always blamed the service at whatever campground we've been staying.

Well, about two weeks ago we were in Steamboat Springs CO, staying at the KOA. Had a very grainy picture, as usual. Made sure the antenna booster was off. It was off. Ran another scan (plenty of channels were showing up, just a really crappy picture, although sound was okay and it was watchable). We did the usual and put up antenna. Sorry, not one channel to be seen in Steamboat through the air!

My wife was down at the store getting ice and mentioned the problem to the managers (very nice and helpful, btw). In two shakes of a lamb's tail the guy was down at our post and plugging in a small tv to test the signal. It was fine. He offered to test the other end of my wire that ran from post to RV. It was fine.

Somewhere between the back end where the power and coax come in there is a problem.

Decided to test more. (if you knew me you'd just nod and think, yeah that sounds like him) I started thinking interference from 120 volt current. I mean, that's where a 30 amp cord runs into the camper, right? All of the other electrical system items are just inside there, under the master bed. Items such as the auto transfer switch, inverter, and not far away, the power control center. Should be plenty of electrical fields in that vicinity. (No, I don't believe it will harm you while you sleep) I then unplugged the RV and used on generator. Slightly improved but still not great. Then, while still unplugged, I shut down gen, turned on the inverter to power TV. There was a large improvement in the signal to the TVs now. In my opinion it's still not as good as watching with the antenna, but still better than it had been.

Conclusion: in our 2015 Melbourne 29D there must be an unshielded (cheap) coax cable, or at least it's not shielded in the proper places, that's interfering with our cable TV reception.

Add it to a list of crap I have to fix. (We still like the vehicle and have over 25,000 miles on it in this short time, but there have been plenty of things go wrong. I'm of the opinion that no matter the brand, model, or type of RV, you will need to be able to do some of this work yourself or you will be unloading tons of dough and time spent with those dudes at the repair shop. The Camping World in Longmont CO was the worst when we bought it and when we needed some things fixed in 2015 and 2016 (repair manager and most of the "mechanics" but one grizzled veteran that should have been manager but was muted with a weird hierarchy feel going on and one gal up front were great), before I swore I'd never let them work on or set foot in my vehicle again. In fact, I never did leave it. Best bet is to always wait at the dealership. That makes them absolutely deal with your vehicle that day, as they said they would. The help hired at that dealership at that time didn't know as much as you or I and likely can barely fill something with the correct fuel) They are extremely low-paid help (low skilled and not trained) and turnover at these places can be extreme.

I digress....

I can't resist. Back in my cable tv days we found 2 big culprits in interference problems. No. 1 were aquarium heaters, No.2 were bad fluorescent tube ballasts. Neither one are likely in your rig, but just saying. There's another troubleshooting technique in finding localized interference. If you have an am transistor radio you can tune between stations until it's fairly quiet reception. Turn the volume up a bit and walk around inside your rv. It helps to have the tv on as well but if it's an old crt type, keep the radio a fair distance away because you'll hear the loud buzz of the transformer in the back of the tube. Then just listen for a loud buzzing or maybe rhythmical clicking and cracking that coincides with "shot" looking sparkles in the picture or bands of interference going from top to bottom on the screen. With the arrival of digital reception most of these problems disappeared but once in a while you can still hear about them. Getting back to the o.p.'s problem- most of the other posts are good for pertaining to the issues at hand. The sat/cable jack thing is a good one.

[chs]

I ran a totally separate line for both (Inside and living area) TV's. Drilled a hole through the outside wall and installed new coax connector/cables. Installed an a/b switch to go from the outside to the inside TV's. Did this so I have a dedicated line to use for my Satellite dish. Too much interference with all the inside connections. If I use the (cable) TV I use factory installed connections.