TV Problems

steve & darlene · 10-10-2015, 05:53 PM

We recently took our new SQ38HRL out for the first time. When I hooked the cable tv to the rig, we did not recieve any where near the 38 channels the park offered. I turned the attenna booster on and off several times and it did not help.
I then talked to the park management and he brought a tv to my site and hooked it straight to the post connector and it worked just fine, then he used my cable to see if it was defective, and it worked fine as well.
At this point he said that everything from the post to the rig is working, so it has to be in the trailer itself.
I followed the cable as far as I could from the rig connector into the rig toward the tv and found no obvious problem. It was the same on both tv's ( living room & bedroom)
We ended up watching approx 12 stations of the 38 that was offered (and proven to work) and 4 of those were the same station.
Does anybody have any advise for us? I have done all I am comfortable doing without removing walls or cabinets. I wuld rather not take it back to the dealer, I have already had a bad experience with them concerning my brakes not working.
If there is anybody having had this experience, that can help me to solve the problem, would sure be appreciated.

Thank You

atom ant · 10-10-2015, 06:00 PM

From a scratch position (meaning I don't know enough about it to be that useful), I would check all the coax connectors. They aren't always installed very well and some may actually pull apart. All of the connectors should be accesible - no cabinets need torn out. Light fixtures maybe, but not cabinets.

There also has to be a way to measure signal strength through the coax which might help you locate a problem, but I don't what would be used to do that. My coax sounder is pretty much just a go-no go type device.

mhs4771 · 10-10-2015, 06:19 PM

If you happen to know someone that works for a Cable Company, could have them use their meter to check the loss through your system. The cost of a good RF meter is pretty much out of the reach of the normal consumer.
The cable wiring in RVs is crazy, and all seems to depend on the Installer who was working that day, making two identical units wired differently.

RWJSIM2003 · 10-10-2015, 06:52 PM

You may need Cable Boxes from the Cable Company to make your TV's work. We have had this issue at some campgrounds.

travelin' texans · 10-10-2015, 07:28 PM

You will have a splitter or 2 some where & I'd bet you dollar that 1 or both a hooked up wrong. On mine the cable "in" on both were hooked to the "out", changed & viola perfect picture. On your particular unit I don't have any idea where the splitters might be, on mine one was in a light fixture next to bedroom tv. If your not comfortable doing that let some one else help or do it for you.

NW Snowbirds · 10-10-2015, 07:42 PM

We had a similar problem and it was the cable connection to the antenna amplifier outlet in the bedroom. The cables were stressed and when I removed the screws holding the outlet to the wall the connection was better and the reception improved. When I reattach the outlet plate to the wall the reception on cable disintegrates. I suppose I may need a new outlet switch assembly but everything works okay when I let the outlet hang from the cabling. There are three cables bent thru tight angles behind the wall making the connection.

BobH · 10-12-2015, 04:04 AM

Did anyone find any of the cable or satellite splitters that are shown on the Redwood Satellite/Cable wiring diagram?.
I have a 2014 Redwood 36RL . In my tracing out cables I've not come across any

travelin' texans · 10-12-2015, 04:23 AM

One of them on mine was in the ceiling above the light socket to the right of the bedroom tv, had to fish around in there & found the cable & satellite splitter.

BobH · 10-12-2015, 07:19 AM

What about for the outside TV or is it fed from the splitters you found in bedroom. I got issues with TV operating on satellite but on cable /Ant it's fine. If I run a cable from living rm TV it works fine , but that means I need to string anther cable to feed satellite But if I can find where this tv is fed from then I can re use cable already there

atom ant · 10-12-2015, 03:24 PM

Ya, I found all mine. One behind the wall of LR big TV, and the other 2 in the bedroom are above the ceiling accessible through the light fixtures. One of those feeds the bedroom TV which I intercepted to provide satellite to the basement TV. That was the one marked "SAT Jumper Between TVs"

Kaidocl · 10-13-2015, 01:07 AM

We had same problem in ours pluged direct tv on satellite input outside but inside the rw no signal till I started switching it to different ports like cable or sat 2 or the 5.1 sound system needed to be re wired cause all the speakers where hooked backwards and there was no voice coming out. One of the speakers wasn't even hooked up.

Campers · 10-15-2015, 09:26 PM

I had a sumular problem this year, the living room tv was poor picture. I talked to the campground owner and he brought a small tv and some cable and we started at the post and went through the rig. I turned out that the connector behind the tv in the living room, the one behind the plate was made wrong, the center was not long enough to make connection. after he put a new plug on it works great. I had to appologize to my dealer as I had put a new tv antenna on and it didn't work that well. After the new plug, it works great.

mhs4771 · 10-16-2015, 03:54 AM

As someone mentioned before: Remember the Amish are not Electricians nor much of anything Electronic.
Still no excuse in not having someone experienced in Cable TV Cable wiring doing that job on the RWs.

RomanyLife · 03-26-2017, 03:30 AM

Talk about bad timing... Todd is upset

For no known reason, our TV signal has disappeared completely on BOTH LR and BR tvs. Can't attach anything we did to it, it just stopped working.

Can't detect any loose connections anywhere. They always worked fine up until now (although LR tv never got quite as good reception as BR for some reason)

Any thoughts? Todd is pulling the lights out of the ceiling. Is there a "Y" connector from the antenna?? Thanks... March madness has been delayed until we fix this just so you know.

xtasee · 03-26-2017, 09:24 AM

You probably already check this but it almost sounds like the 12V power antenna switch may have been bumped or turned on. Make sure it is off for cable/satellite or turned on for Broadcast. Mine will not let the cable/satellite signal through unless it is off.

spindrift · 03-26-2017, 02:43 PM

Good point. I always forget about that little bugger.

RomanyLife · 03-26-2017, 03:07 PM

Yes, thanks we checked. We don't even have satellite or cable, ONLY broadcast. Last night was fun... had every light down in bedroom ceiling, out in the rain on the roof.... must be the booster/splitter gone bad. Only thing that makes sense. FRUSTRATING

travelin' texans · 03-26-2017, 04:39 PM

My splitters for cable & antenna were in the light above & to the right of the bedroom tv, but had to fish around to reach them, they were about a foot in from the opening. When located it was connected wrong, incoming line was in an out spot. The antenna booster may have gone bad also, for both tv's to quit I would suspect that's the problem.

**hoosierguy** · 03-26-2017, 08:06 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by RomanyLife

Talk about bad timing... Todd is upset

For no known reason, our TV signal has disappeared completely on BOTH LR and BR tvs. Can't attach anything we did to it, it just stopped working.

Can't detect any loose connections anywhere. They always worked fine up until now (although LR tv never got quite as good reception as BR for some reason)

Any thoughts? Todd is pulling the lights out of the ceiling. Is there a "Y" connector from the antenna?? Thanks... March madness has been delayed until we fix this just so you know.

Are you able to receive any channels at all? If not and even though the power light is showing it is on, it's possible that the booster amplifier has failed. You might want to try bypassing the amplifier. To do so may require a cable barrel connector join the cable together.

Of course, it is always possible that a cable connector has become disconnected from a splitter.

RomanyLife · 03-29-2017, 05:08 AM

thanks everyone, good suggestions.

Todd went on the roof and took apart the batwing and found that there was a circuit board out there too. We didn't know that. Upon inspecting it, he could see there was some blackening in there, indicating something fried itself. I don't know if it was water intrusion or what... we replaced the batwing off the shelf from Camping World for about $50 and it works better than it did before. SO... just know that there is a circuit board outside as well if you have a problem! On to the next thing, because of course, there is ALWAYS a next thing in an RV!

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