Where are the Satellites?!?!

We finally have satellite at the campground after what seemed to be months of the same DVDs and Blu-Ray. Among the most repetitive were Hercules and Tom & Jerry. There were a few lessons learned in setting it up.

We had all the equipment from the house but needed a stand for the dish. So we went to Camping World on a trip to visit family to grab a few things. We went with the Winegard Tripod Mount & Carry Bag (Item # 26276).

Upon our return, I purchased a 50’ length of rf cable and went to work. The first thing that was very helpful was the lack of information in the owner’s manual for the Cyclone. You’ll probably start to see that phrase used a lot. After running the cable and speculating which of the two satellite connections I should use, I turned the system on. Nothing magical and no signal either. I placed most of the blame on the lack of quality in the compass with the satellite stand. I also thought that the problem could be that I was connected to the wrong spot. Drenched in sweat due to the rediculous mid-south heat that seems to be here to stay, it was time to wait until the next day.

Fortunately, Heartland must have recognized that there was a large demand for more information than they provide in their owner’s manuals and posted the diagram for the cable/satellite system on their forum. So, I had originally guessed correctly and was now concerned that the connections may not have been made simliar to the water heater issue that I'll write about some day. There was still a possibility that my ‘eyeballing’ the other satellites in the park to align mine may not be the best method. There was also a tree line that could be causing the problem.

So, I tried three separate dishes with no luck. The problem couldn’t be with the dish. I even bought a little satellite signal detector which I thought would help, but it didn’t do much.

I randomly found a signal and decided to try to better tune it. The speakers in the garage and the set outdoors helped a lot in this. I was able to hone in on a signal from quite a distance while defeaning Katie with constant pinging for a signal. No matter where I went, I just couldn’t get more than 8 transponders out of 32 and that wasn’t cutting it. I tried positioning the dish everywhere that the 50' of cable would allow, even on top of the camper. That one got a funny look from a few campers across the road. I'm always glad to provide a laugh for someone. I bet they thought I was going to set my dish up there and leave it.

Just when I was about to give up, I tried one more time directly connecting the dish to the receiver. With the pinging piercing through Katie's head, I searched in the direction where I knew there were no satellites. BOOM! How is this possible? I had great signal and I’m the only one in the park pointing that direction. It didn’t matter, it worked. I moved the dish and set it up out of the way.

So, now we have officially supplemented our daily dose of Hercules and Tom & Jerry with a little bit of SpongeBob and Wonder Pets. It’s nice to occasionally sneak in some Discovery Channel and perhaps an episode of True Blood.

-Steve