DISH Setup No Signal Acquired

PauLinda C

New Member
Original poster
Sep 7, 2020
3
1
Shrewsbury, MA
2008 Allegro Bus motorhome, bought used in 2019. Trying to install a Dish system, for the main TV only right now. Winegard Trav'ler antenna, DPH42 switch & power inserter, Hopper3 receiver. When the Hopper is installed in the coach, it will NOT acquire the satellites, even though the Trav'ler control panel shows locked in to all 3 satellites (110W, 119W, 129W) and using an external coax directly from the DPH42 switch to the power inserter (bypassing all the coach wiring). Last week, I brought all the hardware into my house and hooked it up to an inside TV and presto! everything worked perfectly and we had all DISH programming. Breaking the fewest # of coax connections as possible (2) and reconnecting them inside the coach ... no signal acquired. Today, trying to backtrack & check, even that setup didn't work. Can't find any local techs to visit. Starting to think that I've got a bum Hopper3. Thanks in advance for any thoughts.
 
2008 Allegro Bus motorhome, bought used in 2019. Trying to install a Dish system, for the main TV only right now. Winegard Trav'ler antenna, DPH42 switch & power inserter, Hopper3 receiver. When the Hopper is installed in the coach, it will NOT acquire the satellites, even though the Trav'ler control panel shows locked in to all 3 satellites (110W, 119W, 129W) and using an external coax directly from the DPH42 switch to the power inserter (bypassing all the coach wiring). Last week, I brought all the hardware into my house and hooked it up to an inside TV and presto! everything worked perfectly and we had all DISH programming. Breaking the fewest # of coax connections as possible (2) and reconnecting them inside the coach ... no signal acquired. Today, trying to backtrack & check, even that setup didn't work. Can't find any local techs to visit. Starting to think that I've got a bum Hopper3. Thanks in advance for any thoughts.

do you have another receiver you can try? The controller could be identifying the wrong satellite. If you got a satellite meter you could take a reading. I would find out if the controller works off a list in the controller or detects the voltage from the receiver. I would lean to a bad lnb if the box works inside your house. Try contacting the dish manufacturer and see if they went through any updates first.
 
There could be a splitter in the walls of the coach somewhere, which will kill the signal to the Hopper. If you can run coax from the Winegard directly to the Hopper, like through a window, just to test it, I'd do that and see what happens
 
There could be a splitter in the walls of the coach somewhere, which will kill the signal to the Hopper. If you can run coax from the Winegard directly to the Hopper, like through a window, just to test it, I'd do that and see what happens
It kind of sounds like the OP already tried that:
...and using an external coax directly from the DPH42 switch to the power inserter (bypassing all the coach wiring). ...

It could be a problem with the "skinny coax" that runs from the LNB to the base turret of the Travler. There was a recent thread here from someone who had that problem. No Tuner 3
Replacing that cable allowed all three ports of the Travler to start working again.
 
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It kind of sounds like the OP already tried that:


It could be a problem with the "skinny coax" that runs from the LNB to the base turret of the Travler. There was a recent thread here from someone who had that problem. No Tuner 3
Replacing that cable allowed all three ports of the Travler to start working again.

I hadn't mentioned that, but Winegard already sent me a replacement LNB cable which didn't fix the problem.
 
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The Winegard Controller uses LNB cable C to read the satellite signals. So if the Controller is seeing all three satellites we can assume the LNB multiswitch and the Cable C in the arm or is good. The DPH-42 Switch needs all three coax cables from the base of the Trav'ler need to be connected to the Switch.
When you say you took every think inside and it worked, exactly what did you take inside? Are you using the same Hopper 3 both places or do you have two Hopper 3s?
What does the Switch Check (System Test) report the Switch to be?
MORE DATA NEEDED.
 
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The Winegard Controller uses LNB cable C to read the satellite signals. So if the Controller is seeing all three satellites we can assume the LNB multiswitch and the Cable C in the arm or is good. The DPH-42 Switch needs all three coax cables from the base of the Trav'ler need to be connected to the Switch.
When you say you took every think inside and it worked, exactly what did you take inside? Are you using the same Hopper 3 both places or do you have two Hopper 3s?
What does the Switch Check (System Test) report the Switch to be?
MORE DATA NEEDED.
Thanks; by 'everything inside' I mean that EVERYTHING except the antenna & DPH42 switch is inside the house and I'm using a 50-ft coax cable from the DPH42 outlet "1" port to the Switch Input port of the power inserter. The Diagnostics home page isn't seeing the DPH42 switch (it previously did see the switch).
The Switch Status table on the Diagnostics/ Dish (3) page is absent (formerly 16 X 3 green checks). The Test Installation routine brings up a Switch Status check which stalls at about 5% on the progress bar, then aborts after a minute or so.
I'm awaiting a return call from Winegard, but I'm coming to the conclusion that my Hopper3 is a lemon.
 

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