Satellite help

[Motorhead]

We have the King Dish Tailgater and so not satisfied with the use/performance. Any one out there have suggestions for better product that would give us at least 95% benefit?

[Grumpy]

What is the problems you are encountering?

[kirkelli]

i've used the Tailgater and had mixed results.. One thing i learned, if you use a generator or an inverter to power it, every time you interrupt that power source you have to go through the 10 minute set-up process, which is a pain. Once set up is complete i have very good service with the Tailgater. Now that i have Starlink for my Internet, i subscribed to FUBO TV and love it. I can stream every ch i had on Dish at half the cost. No set up hassles, just turn on your smart TV and go. And it works great on more than one TV or tablet source. I travel mostly on the Western parts of the US and have never had any issues with Starlink, other than finding a clear spot for the Starlink dish to look up to the northern sky. One important factor with the Tailgater you do need to 'somewhat' point the Tailgater in the direction of the Dish feed satellite, depending on your location. There are several phone apps available to help you do this. The RF connector on the Tailgater is the back side of the antenna, the opposite is the front and needs to be pointed in the direction of the satellite feed.

[Motorhead]

Hi Grumpy - we park S/SW and usually up in the mountains but in an area where we are clear of trees. Our Tailgater searches and searches and makes it thru the 2nd phase and then stops and says no satellites found. This time I took my GPS I use in Search and Rescue. It shows numerous satellites are available but according to the Dish Tailgater, non exist. It tells us to "view like TV" with limited channels. And, we also find that we have instances where we may actually have satellite but as soon as the sun goes down, away goes our satellite connection.

[kirkelli]

Originally Posted by Motorhead

Hi Grumpy - we park S/SW and usually up in the mountains but in an area where we are clear of trees. Our Tailgater searches and searches and makes it thru the 2nd phase and then stops and says no satellites found. This time I took my GPS I use in Search and Rescue. It shows numerous satellites are available but according to the Dish Tailgater, non exist. It tells us to "view like TV" with limited channels. And, we also find that we have instances where we may actually have satellite but as soon as the sun goes down, away goes our satellite connection.

forgot to mention in my comment above. About every 30 days, Dish cycles their receivers to ward off pirates. if they do this when your receiver is cycled off, you will get the limited channels. to Fix that problem, go to your MyDish app and reset your receiver from the App. This type of reset tells Dish you are a valid customer where the reset on the set top box does not. Hope that helps.. Good Luck.

[CAG]

Originally Posted by Motorhead

Hi Grumpy - we park S/SW and usually up in the mountains but in an area where we are clear of trees. Our Tailgater searches and searches and makes it thru the 2nd phase and then stops and says no satellites found. This time I took my GPS I use in Search and Rescue. It shows numerous satellites are available but according to the Dish Tailgater, non exist. It tells us to "view like TV" with limited channels. And, we also find that we have instances where we may actually have satellite but as soon as the sun goes down, away goes our satellite connection.

You might want to take the cover off of the Tailgator and look at the gears. If you have one of the older models the gears are nylon and can/do strip. If that is the case you can get replacement gears or replace the unit if it one of the older models. The new models have aluminum gears and better/faster operations.

The dish is finding only 110 and 119. It will work with that but without 129 you get no HD and limited SD channels.

[Motorhead]

Thank you !!! We have been watching a ton of youtube videos this afternoon of this Starlink RV service. Thinking this might be a much better option, particularly since you can use the app and search the sky with your phone to find the ideal location to place your Starlink satellite.

[AKRUEBBE]

All portable dishes that are powered by the receiver require between 15 & 19 volts to the dish. I started having problems with my Winegard Pathway 2 with intermittent dropping of satellites and having to reboot the receiver every single morning. I was running my coax to the connection in the wet bay. First of all most portable dishes HATE splitters. Second, you can bet that the quality of the coax Jayco uses is poor. The integrity of all the connections from the wet bay to the TV location can be poor, loose, etc. I completely eliminated ALL reception problems by installing a coax connection on the exterior wall where my main TV is. So now I have a direct connection from the dish to the receiver. When watching the bedroom TV we use a HDMI wireless extender to send the receiver signal to the bedroom TV. That has worked flawlessly. Here are some pics of what I did. Our kitchen pantry is right next to the TV and that's where I installed the exterior coax connection.

[us71na]

The satellites your GPS is seeing are north to south orbits around the earth. The Dish satellite is in a geosynchronous orbit over the equator. If you are in mountain areas, it is quite likely that the satellite is being blocked by those mountains.

[Parcany]

Originally Posted by AKRUEBBE

All portable dishes that are powered by the receiver require between 15 & 19 volts to the dish. I started having problems with my Winegard Pathway 2 with intermittent dropping of satellites and having to reboot the receiver every single morning. I was running my coax to the connection in the wet bay. First of all most portable dishes HATE splitters. Second, you can bet that the quality of the coax Jayco uses is poor. The integrity of all the connections from the wet bay to the TV location can be poor, loose, etc. I completely eliminated ALL reception problems by installing a coax connection on the exterior wall where my main TV is. So now I have a direct connection from the dish to the receiver. When watching the bedroom TV we use a HDMI wireless extender to send the receiver signal to the bedroom TV. That has worked flawlessly. Here are some pics of what I did. Our kitchen pantry is right next to the TV and that's where I installed the exterior coax connection.

Had to do this for all 3 of my Jaycos. After doing this never had a problem with either the tailgater or Winegard.

[AKRUEBBE]

Originally Posted by us71na

The satellites your GPS is seeing are north to south orbits around the earth. The Dish satellite is in a geosynchronous orbit over the equator. If you are in mountain areas, it is quite likely that the satellite is being blocked by those mountains.

We have traveled over 17,000 miles in the last 3+ years and have never had mountains block transmission. It's mainly been trees that we have to thread to get reception. All you need is a narrow window in the S, SW skies and you can dial the signal in.

[sgtkersh]

Originally Posted by Parcany

Had to do this for all 3 of my Jaycos. After doing this never had a problem with either the tailgater or Winegard.

I have a brand new Eagle HT and I am getting ready to break down and do this…but I don’t want to. Is there really not a direct run behind the main TV somewhere? My last RV once you dug into the entertainment center connections there was a direct, disconnected satellite run for this very purpose.

I thought I saw somewhere in these discussions at least some Jayco models had a satellite direct connect, but I think that was with the Class As and not any of the trailers.

[kirkelli]

Am i the only lucky one?? my 2019 RSTS is wired with RG-6 with decent % of braid. When i purchased i checked every connector and re-did one of them. Once i figured out the switch and connect routing my factory systems has worked flawlessly.

[JayG7800]

I have the pathway x2 set up for two receivers/tv’s and I have found that using the existing sat and aux connections in the wet bay, I MUST hook the “primary” connection on the dish to my bedroom tv (aux) and secondary to the living room tv. My guess is the run to the bedroom is shorter and therefore it is the only one where the voltage doesn’t attenuate as badly. The living room tv is just fine in this config. Both receivers are Wally’s.

[Parcany]

Sgt Kersh. Talked to a lot of cable people and they all said that the splitters that Jayco uses will not allow the voltage to get to the satellite either the tailgater or the winegard. When the cable people came out and checked the cable I had RG66 cable and they said that was good. but it is the splitters that are wrong. I also sealed up the connecter and have not had a problem whatso ever with the rain or leaking.

[JayG7800]

Originally Posted by Parcany

When the cable people came out and checked the cable I had RG66 cable and they said that was good. but it is the splitters that are wrong.

Just a point of clarification - you cannot use ANY coax / cable splitters with any satellite dish. They're incompatible technologies. In the DBS satellite world, there are devices called multiswitches that, with commands being sent from the receiver boxes, can switch to different LNB's to view different stations and/or satellites.

Most modern campers have three coax inputs in the wet bay: Cable, SAT, and Aux. Typically, SAT *should* be a straight-run of RG6 coax from this connection to a separate jack near the living room TV. No splitters should be present on this run.

Cable, on the other hand, likely feeds one of the two ports on the back of your ANT/Cable switch behind the living room TV (the infamous jack with the green light switch). This run will NOT work for satellite as it's feeding through this switch and is then likely split several ways (in my 357MDOK, it is split 5 ways - yikes).

The AUX port has always been a straight run of RG6 to the bedroom in my last two campers. Assuming it's not mislabeled and the jayco tech was not smoking something, this should support satellite to the bedroom.

One other point to make - The Pathway X2 (and I suspect all of the other dishes) state to use NO MORE than 50 foot of RG6. On a side note, I have been successful using a 50ft run of RG6 from the wet bay to the satellite - connecting to the AUX port (bedroom TV), but not the SAT port (living room TV) for the primary connection, as that run is significantly shorter in my situation.

One last tip I'd like to suggest - check your cable runs. My Satellite run was never hooked up behind the wet bay, the cable was run but was never terminated They just left it dangling there behind the storage compartment wall. I used this device to trace out all of my cable runs and then labeled everything: https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B084YZ99HL

Oh - and one other side note. After I found the 5-way splitting going on with the cable/antenna run, I redid the cabling and put everything through a 5 port antenna/cable TV amplified splitter. This significantly fixed my antenna and cable TV reception. Remember, every time you split a signal, you're essentially left with a fraction of what it was before the split. So, if you're splitting it 5 ways, you've got ~ 20% of signal strength now at every jack, unless you're using an amplified splitter.

[kcconawa]

I much prefer the Pathway X2. It gives you a choice of hitting the Eastern or Western Sats. When in trees you may can see one set and not the other set of sats. Caution the Pathway X1 only hits the Western sats. It is cheaper for a reason.

Another advantage is a larger receiver. Multiple times I have been with friends and not lost reception in a passing storm when they did using tailgater.

I also have an app called SatFinder lite that was free. It shows every satellite but I turned off all except the Dish sats and you can stand and see where the sats are located in the sky. Helps me place the Pathway where I get a good signal the first time.

[CAG]

Originally Posted by kcconawa

I much prefer the Pathway X2. It gives you a choice of hitting the Eastern or Western Sats. When in trees you may can see one set and not the other set of sats. Caution the Pathway X1 only hits the Western sats. It is cheaper for a reason.

Another advantage is a larger receiver. Multiple times I have been with friends and not lost reception in a passing storm when they did using tailgater.

I also have an app called SatFinder lite that was free. It shows every satellite but I turned off all except the Dish sats and you can stand and see where the sats are located in the sky. Helps me place the Pathway where I get a good signal the first time.

I have the Pathway 2 but was having issues finding the correct sats. Too many ponderosa. I found the app Satellite Finder which helped greatly. You can find the compass heading for the sats and then using the “obstacles” setting look up to see the Sat location in the sky and anything blocking it.

[Parcany]

Just to set the record straight. I meant to write RG6 cable not RG66. sorry .

[jetlag]

Originally Posted by JayG7800

Just a point of clarification - you cannot use ANY coax / cable splitters with any satellite dish. They're incompatible technologies. In the DBS satellite world, there are devices called multiswitches that, with commands being sent from the receiver boxes, can switch to different LNB's to view different stations and/or satellites.

Most modern campers have three coax inputs in the wet bay: Cable, SAT, and Aux. Typically, SAT *should* be a straight-run of RG6 coax from this connection to a separate jack near the living room TV. No splitters should be present on this run.

Cable, on the other hand, likely feeds one of the two ports on the back of your ANT/Cable switch behind the living room TV (the infamous jack with the green light switch). This run will NOT work for satellite as it's feeding through this switch and is then likely split several ways (in my 357MDOK, it is split 5 ways - yikes).

The AUX port has always been a straight run of RG6 to the bedroom in my last two campers. Assuming it's not mislabeled and the jayco tech was not smoking something, this should support satellite to the bedroom.

One other point to make - The Pathway X2 (and I suspect all of the other dishes) state to use NO MORE than 50 foot of RG6. On a side note, I have been successful using a 50ft run of RG6 from the wet bay to the satellite - connecting to the AUX port (bedroom TV), but not the SAT port (living room TV) for the primary connection, as that run is significantly shorter in my situation.

One last tip I'd like to suggest - check your cable runs. My Satellite run was never hooked up behind the wet bay, the cable was run but was never terminated They just left it dangling there behind the storage compartment wall. I used this device to trace out all of my cable runs and then labeled everything: https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B084YZ99HL

Oh - and one other side note. After I found the 5-way splitting going on with the cable/antenna run, I redid the cabling and put everything through a 5 port antenna/cable TV amplified splitter. This significantly fixed my antenna and cable TV reception. Remember, every time you split a signal, you're essentially left with a fraction of what it was before the split. So, if you're splitting it 5 ways, you've got ~ 20% of signal strength now at every jack, unless you're using an amplified splitter.

That is a great explanation of the system, thank you