# Satellite (Dish Network) & Our 2010 Outback



## CalifRVers (Oct 16, 2009)

We are getting ready for an 8 day trip to Lake Tahoe and we would like to add satellite TV to our Outback. At the time we purchased our Outback the salesman told us that our Outback was satellite ready, and a call to Keystone confirmed the same information, BUT I like personal experience as a guide too!

The rep at Keystone said that all 2010-2011 Outbacks are outfitted with RG6 wiring (not sure what that means..lol), therefore we would simply plug our satellite dish into the existing coaxial outlet at the rear of our Outback, plug our receiver into our TV, find the signal and tada...

We don't want to spend all this money to find out it doesn't work, so my question is, what experience have my fellow Outback owners had with setting up their satellite TV. Is it going to be as easy as plug and play?? Could it be?









Thanks for any info!!
Julie


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## Dan Borer (Feb 6, 2009)

Yes, just that easy to wire in your satellite! Well, almost that easy. On my Sydney 29RLS there is a satellite connector on the side of the trailer adjacent to where the tv is mounted inside. Just hook your coax from the dish to that for the external connection. Behind the tv on the inside of the trailer is the other side of that connector, and sure enough there is a length of satellite compatable coax that you plug into the satelitte receiver. Add another peice of coax or A/V cable from the receiver to your tv and you are ready to aim your dish. I find the easiest way to aim your dish is to take a look around the campground to see where all of the other dishes are pointing. Keep in mind that most are DirecTv dishes so you will need to point your DISH dish a little more south to get your signal.

I found that setting the dish up once at home will help in getting proper alignment at the campground. If most of your trips are somewhat local you should never need to make any changes in the elevation of your dish at the campground. Be sure to level everything as instructed in the installation guide, find your satellite and then tighten it all down. Get your compass out, find North and mark that on your dish mount. Next tape a level on the mount. When you get to your campsite, point your mount to North, level it and look for those other dishes. Point yours in the same direction and slowly swing the dish from side to side until the signal is found and then clamp it so it can't move in the wind. This process usually takes me less than 5 minutes.

Good luck and happy viewing!


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## hottubwilly (May 3, 2008)

Julie

I have a 2010 300 BH and it was not satellite ready. The cables that are run through the trailer are capable of transmitting a satellite signal, however unless you have 2 different satellite inputs on the side of your trailer (one marked cable and one marked satellite) it most likely will not work. The reason is the antenna booster (the little black button that turns on the green light on the coax plate inside your trailer) kills the digital signal from the satellite. If you have the same setup I did, which I am pretty sure you do, then you are going to have to do a satellite rewire to get it to work. Check out this link satellite rewire

It is not hard to do, takes less than 30 minutes. I have done it on 2 trailers that I have owned, most recently my 2010 300BH. Feel free to email me if you have any questions.

Good luck!


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## CalifRVers (Oct 16, 2009)

hottubwilly said:


> The reason is the antenna booster (the little black button that turns on the green light on the coax plate inside your trailer) kills the digital signal from the satellite.


You can't just turn the antenna booster off? Like we do when we are at full hookup campgrounds..


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## hottubwilly (May 3, 2008)

I only wish it were that simple...


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## CalifRVers (Oct 16, 2009)

Oh Im just confused...I get different answers.. it works for some and not for others.


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## Dan Borer (Feb 6, 2009)

That's probably since all of our Outbacks are most likely different models with the entertainment center in different locations. My 29RLS has the tv in the rear corner of the camper, against an outside wall. The connector for the satellite cable is visible as it comes through the wall behind tv. The cable for the antenna is also routed to the entertainment center after it passes through the bedroom and booster. Other trailers have the entertainment center in the center of the camper and may have to share the cable based on the source of the signal, antenna, dish or cable. In my previous trailer I ran a dedicated line for my satellite and completely ignored the antenna connection unless I wanted to use it.


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## luverofpeanuts (Mar 9, 2010)

CalifRVers said:


> The rep at Keystone said that all 2010-2011 Outbacks are outfitted with RG6 wiring (not sure what that means..lol), therefore we would simply plug our satellite dish into the existing coaxial outlet at the rear of our Outback, plug our receiver into our TV, find the signal and tada...


I don't think it's quite that easy...but I've not used a Sat dish camping.

The way I understand it .... unless you have TWO coax connectors on your Outback (coax#1 for external cable connection, and coax#2 for and labeled "'Satellite Dish", then you aren't "Satellite ready". Now, that doesn't mean you can make it work...it just means it's not as easy as hooking your external dish to Coax #2, then connection your receiver to a corresponding plug inside. What it means is that you'll have to do some rewiring (re-arrangement of the wiring may be more accurate). And I'd guess you may have to do something about the antenna booster... not sure if just turning it off works or not.

On my 290RLS, like Dan, I have a second coax connector on the outside that is labeled "satellite dish" and another one on the inside labeled the same. If I had a dish...I'd plug the dish to the outside connector, pug my receiver in to the inside connector, then run video cables from the receiver to the TV aux input connectors. If you don't have those extra set of coax connectors, I'm thinking you're missing the extra easy satellite ready option. Again, I think you could still make it happen, just will need a little extra work.

Good topic! Good luck!


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## Fellers (Aug 16, 2007)

luverofpeanuts said:


> The rep at Keystone said that all 2010-2011 Outbacks are outfitted with RG6 wiring (not sure what that means..lol), therefore we would simply plug our satellite dish into the existing coaxial outlet at the rear of our Outback, plug our receiver into our TV, find the signal and tada...


I don't think it's quite that easy...but I've not used a Sat dish camping.

The way I understand it .... unless you have TWO coax connectors on your Outback (coax#1 for external cable connection, and coax#2 for and labeled "'Satellite Dish", then you aren't "Satellite ready". Now, that doesn't mean you can make it work...it just means it's not as easy as hooking your external dish to Coax #2, then connection your receiver to a corresponding plug inside. What it means is that you'll have to do some rewiring (re-arrangement of the wiring may be more accurate). And I'd guess you may have to do something about the antenna booster... not sure if just turning it off works or not.

On my 290RLS, like Dan, I have a second coax connector on the outside that is labeled "satellite dish" and another one on the inside labeled the same. If I had a dish...I'd plug the dish to the outside connector, pug my receiver in to the inside connector, then run video cables from the receiver to the TV aux input connectors. If you don't have those extra set of coax connectors, I'm thinking you're missing the extra easy satellite ready option. Again, I think you could still make it happen, just will need a little extra work.

Good topic! Good luck!
[/quote]

Yep that's the key thing, having two coax connections inside the TT. One of those connections utilizes the booster (little switch with little green light) which is made to amplify the off-air antenna (the one that spins up/down from the ceiling). Problem is this same booster does not permit a return voltage from the satellite receiver to set the power/polarity of the LNB on the dish itself (its required for it to work). Even if the booster is off, that whole setup blocks any return voltages going back through the connection so it cannot be used for satellite. Often the second coax connection in the trailer is just a straight connection/wire to the outside coax feed on the trailer, so nothing blocking or inbetween the satellite receiver and the actual dish. RG-6 is just a coax wire size, just a less 'lossy' cable than the standard RG-59, but both work for satellite (just more signal loss on long runs for the latter).

Our 2010 270BH listed Satllite ready as well, but only had the one coax connection in the main area. So I did a mod similar to the earlier link ...drilled a hole, added an F-81 splice connector, connected the outside feed to it, to bypass the booster all the time. The booster is really only needed for off-air antenna use so I use the modded straight through connection for cable or/and sat now.

Worst case, try the TT connections inside. Get the sat setup directly (run a wire from the sat receiver directly to the sat dish) make sure its working (a good signal level helps), then unconnect the wire and run it through the TT (outside feed, with inside connector). If it works great, if not then do like many others do.. run the wire through the window or slide and be done (or mod).

Hope that helps.


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## luverofpeanuts (Mar 9, 2010)

Fellers said:


> Our 2010 270BH listed Satllite ready as well, but only had the one coax connection in the main area. So I did a mod similar to the earlier link ...drilled a hole, added an F-81 splice connector, connected the outside feed to it, to bypass the booster all the time. The booster is really only needed for off-air antenna use so I use the modded straight through connection for cable or/and sat now.


Makes one wonder what "Satellite Ready" really means?

ON EDIT: Actually...doing some googling shows that, often, RV makers claim Satellite Ready when they use RG-6 versus RG-59 coax cable. I guess RG-59 doesn't work very well for using Satellite services. So...it appears to me, that in the *best* case, "Satellite Ready" means there is dish mount on your roof, with specific cabling so you just plug in a receiver and you're ready. Minimally, it could mean that the RV has RG-6 cable throughout, nothing more. My guess is, that if you don't have the extra coax connector on the outside and inside, then it is probably just the cable upgrade that is there. Kind of a bummer... but I guess it would be a whole lot harder if the RV used RG-59 throughout!


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## luverofpeanuts (Mar 9, 2010)

luverofpeanuts said:


> Our 2010 270BH listed Satllite ready as well, but only had the one coax connection in the main area. So I did a mod similar to the earlier link ...drilled a hole, added an F-81 splice connector, connected the outside feed to it, to bypass the booster all the time. The booster is really only needed for off-air antenna use so I use the modded straight through connection for cable or/and sat now.


Found a rewire PDF that looks interesting...perhaps applicable.


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## hottubwilly (May 3, 2008)

That's the one I have done on 2 different TT's. Easy to do, works like a charm. It will cost about $10 in parts from Radio Shack


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## CalifRVers (Oct 16, 2009)

Thanks everyone! Yeh "satellite ready" seems to be somewhat of a joke, but boy those salesmen promote it! lol We are going to do that satellite rewire, now all I have to do is order the equipment..lol going with eBay, since local dealers want way to much money!

I'll keep you updated, I plan on documenting our rewire project!








Julie


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## hottubwilly (May 3, 2008)

couple of tips on the rewire - you can get the 2 extra female coax connectors at Radio Shack for next to nothing. Here's what they look like










When drilling the two holes in the plate to add these, put a piece of blue painter's tape over the plastic plate before you drill to help keep it from cracking, and drill slowly!

Once you drill the holes and attach those two female connectors, just attach the coax lines as pictured in the rewire link and you're done.


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## CalifRVers (Oct 16, 2009)

Thank you Bill aka hottubwilly...


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## Lmbevard (Mar 18, 2006)

Couple of other ideas is to make a new connection from the outside just for the Sat. dish. Add a small box under the edge of the RV near where the Receiver will be, run a short line to a new plate to connect up with to the receiver. Another solution is a through the window flat cable. At least with that one (not sure of the price) you can see if they system works for you before you make it more permanent. Good luck and let us know how it works out. I would love to put my Dish in my camper someday.


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## BuckeyeInMI (May 28, 2008)

Is there a way to easily switch back and forth from Satellite to the antenna channels quickly?


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## Doxie-Doglover-Too (Jan 25, 2007)

Before our trailer was wired for Satellite ( by a fellow Outbacker) we used to run the satellite cable under the slide into the trailer, it was a pain.


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## Dan Borer (Feb 6, 2009)

BuckeyeInMI said:


> Is there a way to easily switch back and forth from Satellite to the antenna channels quickly?


If you have a flat panel tv you should have multiple inputs of different types on the back, such as S-video, composite, coax and possibly HDMI. If you want to have quick and easy access to both satellite and antenna signals you will connect them to different inputs on the tv. I use the coax from the antenna booster to the appropriate connector on the tv for over the air signal and use the composite (RCA plugs) connection for the satellite receiver. Now all you have to do is select the proper input on your tv remote.


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## texastraveler (Jun 7, 2010)

luverofpeanuts said:


> Our 2010 270BH listed Satllite ready as well, but only had the one coax connection in the main area. So I did a mod similar to the earlier link ...drilled a hole, added an F-81 splice connector, connected the outside feed to it, to bypass the booster all the time. The booster is really only needed for off-air antenna use so I use the modded straight through connection for cable or/and sat now.


Found a rewire PDF that looks interesting...perhaps applicable.
[/quote]

Thanks for posting this file, I just used it, completed rewire in about 20 minutes, and works perfectly, even allows me to use my duo tuner so we can watch different channels up front and in bunk area. We are loving it..


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## luverofpeanuts (Mar 9, 2010)

texastraveler said:


> Thanks for posting this file, I just used it, completed rewire in about 20 minutes, and works perfectly, even allows me to use my duo tuner so we can watch different channels up front and in bunk area. We are loving it..










excellent.


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