Powering (satellite signal) bedroom TV

[Stan Simpson]

When we purchased our Beaver, it had two TVs, one in the cockpit and one in the bedroom. Both were of the boat anchor variety. We quickly switched the cockpit TV to a Samsung flat screen. Then added a Winegard Trav'ler 3500 SK dish with DirecTV. We discarded the TV in the bedroom and used the cabinet to store a toaster oven from the kitchen counter while moving. All of the rat's nest of cables and connectors are still in the bedroom cabinet. However, the only cables in the cockpit are: from the Winegard Dish to the control box; from the control box to the DirecTV receiver; from the Blu Ray player to the TV; from the DTV receiver to the TV.

Now there is a plan afoot to have TV in the bedroom. Winegard has verified the our dish will send all three satellites to two different receivers, thus allowing different programs on each TV at the same time.

I'm guessing one of the cables in the bedroom is for an antenna. Either the cable one in the water bay, or one that hooked to the old dome that was original, or both. How do I find out what each of those cables is for? Will a continuity test be of help? I've seen mention of tracing cables before, but I don't understand how since I suspect they are inside the walls. Can someone help?

Thank you,

Stan

[Mike Groves]

Stan,

My coach is a little older but still the technology hadn't changed that much by 2005 (as indicated by the boat anchors you and I both had).

In my Marquis I only had one video going to the rear TV.  And it was connected up front to a switcher box which had inputs from the antenna and at least 2 other devices I think.  I only had one tuner box for the Sat and out of that tuner box was an output that I used in the switcher box to connect it to the rear TV.  Also the antenna on the roof was split between front and back tvs.  I didn't to anything with the 3rd switch.

If I had wanted to drive a second TV with HD from the satellite then, I would have run a long coax from the Sat antenna back along the roof and simply drilled another hole above the cabinet in the back where I would then have placed the 2nd receiver then just connected the second receiver to the TV via HDMI.  I would still have the video cable from upfront for using the antenna. 

I think you have rightly figured out that there is no high definition video cable from the front of your coach to the rear.  I don't think that video cable can transmit the input from the SAT antenna to the back.  I think that's a special cable.  I may be wrong.

Mike

[Joel Ashley]

Some years ago, Stan, I bought a Sperry LAN tester for help in determining which of a vipers nest of coax cables in an outside junction box went to which room in our house.  It was a little tricky getting the signal intensity right so adjoining cables didn't muff the effort, but it ultimately let me sort them out and tag each with ID for future reference.  I've used the device for other wire traces also, 12v and 110v, an it has a phone line connector also for tracing.

I don't think the one linked below is exactly my model, but it's similar.  Lowes, Home Depot, Sears, and many hardware stores carry different brands and variations, as does Amazon.  You fasten one half of the device to a cable or wire and it pulses a signal through it, that can be picked up at the other end by the probe half of the device.  You probe until you touch a wire that has a strong pulse and that's the same one you hooked to at the other end of a vehicle or a building.  The hardest part is when wires are bundled, adjoining ones can pick up the pulse just from its field, so as I noted above it can take a little tweaking.

http://www.amazon.com/Sperry-Instruments-ET4220L-Tracker-Tracer/dp/B005Z0ZBFY/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&qid=1446669767&sr=8-2&keywords=Sperry+lan+testers

One thing I like about my Sperry is that the probe fits neatly in the pulse sensor case so it stores easily in the coach, toolbox, or shop.

Joel

[Bill Randle]

You can do rudimentary cable identification with just a digital voltmeter (DVM). Disconnect both ends of the suspect cables (sounds like the bedroom end is already disconnected). At one end, fashion a jumper and short the center conductor to the barrel. At the other end, use the DVM in ohms mode and try your cables one at a time until yo find one that reads close to zero ohms. (The others will indicate a very high resistance - open.) Once you find the one that is shorted yo have the matching end. Repeat for the other cables.