RV Install of Winguard single lnb dish, no signal?

[xp8103]

I'm at a loss.

Dish is a Wineguard, on a crank-up, rotating roof mount on my RV. Single LNB.
Rx is an old Hughes SD-HBH. Doubles as my bedroom rx, works fine there with my oval HD dish.

Go to setup, set dish type to Round. Set my zipcode. Set the elevation to 30 degrees and sweep the azimuth around 235+-.

The first time it came up with sat 101. Xponder was on 17. I managed to find a signal and it was pretty strong. I did a test and the results alternated between 90+ and 0 on every other.

Gave up. Finally went back to it. Cranked the dish back up, reset it. Now, can't find anything.

What are the Xponders - Transponders? Newbie question. Someone suggested find XPonder 1 and then find a signal. I get no signal. I can sweep the azimuth all 360 degrees and get nothing.

I must be doing something wrong. But what?

Thanks.
Nik

 

[bross]

Do you have a clear line of site?

 

[xp8103]

Yes. The coach is presently in the driveway in front on my garage on which is mounted my regular HD dish.

 

[bross]

My first step would be to check all cable connections.

 

[Joe Diamond]

My first step would be to check all cable connections.

Yup,

Cable connections..........then, because it is an RV look into each fitting....check for burned or rusted center wire. Then.....RVs have splitters hidden inside walls. Tey have to go but will produce similar problems to what you report.

Then......is the mast plumb after the RV has been parked & blocked? Those az & el numbers will be wrong if the mast is not plumb............any bite marks in the cable?
Do a volt meter test between the outside shell & the center wire. Shorts or opens will ruin things.

Report back what it turns out to be.

Joe

 

[Sadoun]

I can sweep the azimuth all 360 degrees and get nothing.
Nik

Nik,

No need to sweep 360 degrees. Just get to the true azimuth as close as possible, then sweep +/- 5 degrees from that angle. If not signal, adjust the elevation up/down 1 degree at a time and do the sweep again slowly.

Others also gave you some good suggestions about checking the cable and connectors.

Good luck and have fun RVing this summer.

 

[johnwadams]

Did it ever work perfect?
Are you sure you are turnning the antenna amp for the Batwing off while trying to use this setup. In several I have worked on the owner fails to cut off the amp and it drastically reduces the signal.

 

[HDinCincy]

Don't want to restate the obvious but are you absolutely certain the the dish is perfectly plumb. I don't know how it is on your coach, but on mine (not Winegard) I have to manually plumb the post. HTH

 

[binil]

If youare getting signal on everyother transponder it sound to me like bad connectors or you have bad cable.. can alsoe indicate a splitter int the line.. dont think thats the case on your RV but it could be possible.. I would check the cable tho

 

[smackman]

I had this problem, too - although my dish was tripod mounted on the ground, not on my camper roof. I could get signal on every other transponder. For testing purposes, I just sat in the garage with a little TV, my receiver and the dish. Tried different coax cables, and different ports on the LNB (there were 2), and I got the same result no matter what I tried. It was either the odd or even transponders would come up, but not the others. The only other thing I could figure was the LNB was no good, so I ended up getting a new LNB and it worked fine after that.

 

[kahnman35]

I have the exact same problem with my RV. Same antenna, much newer D-12 receiver (which everyone claims puts out around 15VDC, but mine puts out no DC. I've tested all 3 receivers in my house and they all put out no DC.) Anyway, when I hooked up the power inserter from my house with the D-12, I did finally receive satellite signals on the even transponders, zilch on the odd transponders. I suspect that you need a newer (dual) LNB for the Winegard to get all the transponders.

 

[bross]

It sounds to me like you have a Dish Network lnb on the dish. Dish Network uses band stacking on their Dish Pro equipment to supply signals from two satellites to their receivers. Dish Pro stacks odd numbered transponders on top of even numbered transponders and a DTV receiver wouldn't know where to look for the transponders.