satellite

Hello, we are first time class A owners. Just purchased a 2002 Winnebago Adventurer. We are having difficulty figuring out how to operate the satellite that it came with. We hooked up a direct TV box from the house, but have no clue how to make it work lol. Any assistance would be greatly appreciated. We went through the set up menu, but the box doesn't say what the manufacturer is. Also will the stock inverter operate the satellite while we are driving? Thank you again for any assistance.

I believe in those days Winnebago was installing Winegard single LNB open-face satellite dishes. If that is the case, then you cannot operate it while driving. For good help, you will need to determine what make and model dish and controller you have.

Our original system was a Winegard model RM-9946 "electric elevation sensing satellite dish antenna". We were never able to get it to work very well, so with our Dish 500 receiver (requires twin LNB to work properly) we used a portable twin LNB dish until we eventually replaced the Winegard with a Motosat MD500. When we removed the Winegard some of the wiring connectors fell apart without being touched ...probably the problem that caused it not to work well.

If you cannot figure out what you have, call Winnebago Owner Relations at (800) 537-1885. Give them your coach s/n, and they can tell you what was installed at the factory. They may also be able to provide some documentation/operating instruction. If not, you may be able to download it from the mfg'er website if it is not an obsolete system.

Good luck!!

Agreed that more info would help but I'll make a stab.  Everything below assumes you have the stock sat antenna as supplied by Winnebago... if not, then this won't help you much.  Since you mention you have taken a receiver from your house I assume you are familiar with the Setup screens that DirecTV uses.

If you have the optional crank-up sat dish with elevation sensor you should have an LCD display somewhere (mine is in the ceiling next to the crank for the antenna.)  You push the button on the LCD display to be able to see the elevation.

You need to connect the coax from the sat dish to your receiver, and then connect the receiver to the TV.  If the wiring isn't correct, all bets are off.  And you need a clear view to the south... no big trees overhead.

You'll need to find out the proper elevation and compass settings for your location, using the zip code in the receiver setup or finding it online in various web sites.

In the setup for the receiver you would want to go into the sat setup and choose the 18" round antenna.

On the ceiling crank there should be a 'lock' lever that you release.  This allows you to use the large dial (NOT the one with the directions, that's just something you can spin to match a compass) to spin the dish horizontally.  The small handle crank is what raises the disk vertically (elevation) and as you raise the dish the elevation should show on the LCD screen.

Now, assuming your wiring is correct and all else is ok (no trees in the way!) you would crank up the sat antenna until the elevation on the LCD panel matches the elevation for your location.  Once that is done, you turn the dish horizontally to point in the required compass direction.  At that point you are close, but probably not quite there.  Then it's a matter of tiny adjustments back and forth, up and done until you get the beeping on the setup screen showing you've hit the antenna.  Once you've hit the high reading on the sat signal strength (80s or 90s) you are good to go and you turn the 'lock' lever on the antenna crank to hold things in place.

Having said that...  the single LNB crankup will give you 'standard' DirecTV but very few of the HD signals.  Hunting for the sat can be simple or very frustrating.  I find it best to start with the LCD on the elevation, swing back and forth horizontally, and if no signal then crank it up or down one degree at a time and try again swinging back and forth horizontally.

As Afchap said, you can probably download the user guide from the Wineguard web site if you don't have it already.  And as he said, this is stationary only !!  Trying to drive with the antenna up will result in severe damage, not to mention there's no way this dish would keep a lock on a sat while you are going down the road.  For that you'd need one of the in-motion dome dishes.

Hope this helps.

afchap said:

I believe in those days Winnebago was installing Winegard single LNB open-face satellite dishes. If that is the case, then you cannot operate it while driving. For good help, you will need to determine what make and model dish and controller you have.

Our original system was a Winegard model RM-9946 "electric elevation sensing satellite dish antenna". We were never able to get it to work very well, so with our Dish 500 receiver (requires twin LNB to work properly) we used a portable twin LNB dish until we eventually replaced the Winegard with a Motosat MD500. When we removed the Winegard some of the wiring connectors fell apart without being touched ...probably the problem that caused it not to work well.

If you cannot figure out what you have, call Winnebago Owner Relations at (800) 537-1885. Give them your coach s/n, and they can tell you what was installed at the factory. They may also be able to provide some documentation/operating instruction. If not, you may be able to download it from the mfg'er website if it is not an obsolete system.

Good luck!!

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I have an 02 adventurer also. I am planning on getting a portable satellite also. How do I wire it in to the coach to be able to use the video control box in the upper right hand storage compartment. Also how hard is it to position the Dish 500 antenna to get the signal properly? My mh is wired for satellite with the connectors in the same compartment.

The satellite dish does not feed the video control box. Instead, the output of the satellite received goes to the video switch and from there to the tvs. The dish connects to the satellite receiver.

How do I wire it in to the coach to be able to use the video control box in the upper right hand storage compartment. Also how hard is it to position the Dish 500 antenna to get the signal properly? My mh is wired for satellite with the connectors in the same compartment.

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My coach has a catv connector in the electrical bay (no sat connector outside). A young Dish tech helped me get the coach set up properly. With his help, I was able to set it up so we could use the video switch box to select sat, catv, ant, etc.  It has been about 7 years now so I don't recall a lot ...here is what my notes say.

- 322 Dish receiver w/Dish 500 portable dish (twin LNB)
- one coax lead from portable Dish 500 antenna into RV CATV-in-port via power pass 1 side diplexer
- power pass 1 side diplexer behind video switch to split out CATV connection and SAT connection
- sat cable from power pass 1 side diplexer behind switch across behind TV to sat receiver
- "Dish Plus Separator" (provided by Dish tech) behind Sat receiver to 2 sat inputs
- SG-4G 1000mhz splitter from 2 receiver outputs to 1 cable to Sat wall port to TV switch'
- Set up the portable dish and get a signal
- RUN TEST SWITCH AND SETUP FOR "DPP" SYSTEM  (DISH PLUS PRO) ** NEVER RUN TEST SWITCH W/O A SATELLITE SIGNAL, & NEVER SAVE BAD RESULTS **
(we are no longer using this setup although the diplexers, etc are still there ...we now have a rooftop dish with two leads to the receiver)

Aiming the portable dish isn't all that hard ...at first it would take me 20 minutes or so, but eventually I could do it in about 5 min. I normally used the tones on the Dish setup screen, sometimes relay via radio headsets ...I eventually got a sat finder which helped a little...
- Get the skew, elevation & azimuth for your zip code from Dish setup screen
- Set skew
- Rough set elevation 1-2 degrees low
- Move along azimuth until sat finder peaks and then lock down azimuth
- Ease elevation up a tad until it locks on.

We got our original portable dish from the place we got the original receiver/service. Rather than taking their very tall tripod, I bought a short one from an RV parts place. They set it up the first time, and showed me how to aim the antenna etc. I later had a service call that resulted in a bit of "additional training."  We used the portable antenna for 3 years or so fulltiming before we got the rooftop dish.

Wow, great answers. One last question, if our RV is an 01 and we are dealing with stock satellite equipment as Emiddleb mentioned, will our direct TV box from our home be compatible? How do we know if the box will work with the existing equipment? Thank you again for the step by step instructions.

Ok, we are getting somewhere. With your help we were able to go through the set up menu, but it is asking for our dish configuration settings which we ave no clue lol. We are unclear what to choose and what is azimuth?

if our RV is an 01 and we are dealing with stock satellite equipment as Emiddleb mentioned, will our direct TV box from our home be compatible?

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If your Direct TV plan requires only a single LNB dish, the oem equipment should work ...on my original Winegard system some "dip switch" settings had to be changed depending on whether you had Dish Network or Direct TV service.  If you Direct TV plan requires a multiple LNB dish, the oem equipment might work, and if it does you will NOT be able to watch channels on different satellites on multiple TV sets at the same time. You really do need to find a printed or internet copy of the manual for the oem system.

it is asking for our dish configuration settings which we ave no clue lol. We are unclear what to choose and what is azimuth?

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First the easy part ...the setup screen (Dish ...I presume DirectTV has something similar) should give you settings for elevation, skew, and azimuth after you put in the zip code for your location. Elevation of course is the angle of the dish face upward, skew is the rotation of the face of the dish from vertical, and azimuth is the compass setting.  My portable dish had markings on it to set the elevation and the skew, and the little tripod had azimuth/compass settings on it. Of course, to use the azimuth settings on the tripod I first had to ensure the "N" indicator was pointing North, which required using a compass. The tripod came with a cheap compass but I quickly learned it was poor at best, and also was affected if I was too close to the MH engine OR if I held it too close to the tripod!

Harder part ...if by "dish configuration settings" you mean something in response to something like the Dish Network "check switch" procedure, I really can't say. My portable dish LNB said on it "DishPlusPro" which = DPP in the Dish Network check switch procedure. My Motosat roof-top dish LNB says on it "DishPlus" which = DP in the check switch procedure. If the LNB is not marked in any way, you probably will have to check with the mfg'er of the dish or Dish Network/Direct TV etc.

Azimuth is the compass heading to the satellite you are trying to tune in, e.g. 210 degrees or whatever. 180 degrees is due south, 270 degrees due west, etc.

Dish configuration is usually something like round or oval, the shape of the physical dish. Yours is probably round. What menu selections are offered to you for dish configuration?  In most cases, it doesn't make a whole lot of difference anyway.

We are now able to view the direct TV guide, but no channels? WTH? Lol....I'm beginning to wonder if we really need satellite TV. We are making progress, but not white there yet. The Manuel that we have doesn't give a model numbe, simply says Winegard RV digital satellite system and doesn't give instructions on what options to choose in the initial set up. We winged it to get this far just chose some random settings. I guess we will have to see if we are able to by chance get some Chanels to come in, but hey the guide tells me we are in the right direction lol.

Yay....it's working, thanks to all of your help. This is the first forum that I have ever participated in and Iwill be back. You all are awesome. We just sold our Class C to get a larger rig that has a ton more options. It can be overwhelming learning how to operate all of this equipment. We now have a beautiful RV with satellite TV...high rollers now!

Probably a stupidvquestion, but now that we have the main TV working on the satellite, do we need to put another box in the bedroom to get satellite in there too?

I don't know about Direct tv but Dishnetwork has a box with 2 outputs so you can use 2 tvs. The one I have in my living room has 2 tuners so you can watch different programs on each tv. The one I am going to use in the motorhome allows for 2 tvs but both have to watch the same.

None of the direct tv boxes have two tuners, so if you have two tvs both see the same channel unless you install two satellite receivers. Most rooftop domes or dishes have dual feeds, so they can feed two receivers with no additional effort.

All of the DirecTV DVR receivers have 2 tuners, but only one output for the TV.  So you can watch the programming on more than one TV, but all watch the same program, whether live or recorded.

So just to make sure that I am clear, if we exchange the direct Box that we swooped oit of mysonsvroom with the DVR box from my room, that would run both TV'S but with the same Chanel? I really want to avoid adding another box if possible. My husband put the box in the compartment where the TV equipment is housed, but honestly we will probably only watch TV in the bedroom, so we may still have this wrong.

Also, I don't mind if we ave to watch the same shows on both TVs, just want o avoid adding another box.

Our old (non-DVR) DTV receivers have one tuner, but all our DTV DVRs have 2 tuners as Ned described.

If you have multiple DTV receivers they have an optional add-on for each box (additional $) that allows you to see the programming from one of the receivers in another room. I assume, but haven't verified, that this is only available for the newer DVRs (i.e. not available for the old non-DVR receivers).

[quote author=Race mom]Also, I don't mind if we ave to watch the same shows on both TVs .... [/quote]

We have only one DTV receiver in the coach and seem to manage if one of us is in bed and the other is in the living area. Our over-the-air antenna and DVD player can be switched to either of the TVs if we don't wish to watch the same channel.
Edit: Fixed typo.