TAKING YOUR DIRECTV RECIEVER ON THE ROAD

*THIS ARTICLE AFFECTS DIRECTV SUBSCRIBERS WHO TAKE A PROGRAMMED RECEIVER FROM THEIR HOUSE TO USE IN THEIR RV.

*IT DOES NOT APPLY TO DIRECTV RECEIVERS THAT ARE DEDICATED FOR USE IN AN RV AND NEVER USED ANYWHERE ELSE OTHER THEN THE RV. DOES NOT APPLY TO DISH NETWORK RECIEVERS AT THIS TIME.

Problem: If you are a DirecTV household subscriber and attempt to use one of your receivers in your RV with either a stand-alone satellite dish or a satellite dome antenna, your receiver may not operate the antenna as required.

Background: Your satellite antenna (dish or dome) requires a voltage signal from your satellite receiver (either 13 or 18 volts depending on the transponder). The LNB or feed horn on the antenna requires this power in order to operate. The power is transmitted down the RG6 coaxial cable from the receiver to the antenna. The coaxial wire in addition to that voltage also carries digital information and signal.

The problem arises when your residential account has 2 or more receivers in the system. Generally, the main unit will be a HD or HD/DVR receiver. DirecTV will designate the main receiver as the antenna controller and the other receivers as “slave” units. This prevents confusion by the satellite antenna receiving multiple information from all the receivers, just the main receiver will power the antenna and the other receivers just send digital information as to when they need to change LNB’s or transponders.

So if a “slave” unit is taken from the home system to be used in the RV, it has no voltage output to power up the antenna’s LNB(s). All dome style antennas are single LNB configuration, although 2 receivers can use the same LNB. Stand-alone dishes may be of single or multiple LNB (like the SlimLine 3 or 5 LNB) configurations. Normally your home installation will be either the SlimLine 3 or 5 antenna.

When your home receiver is moved to your RV, the first thing you will have to do is change the satellite antenna configuration on it to “Single LNB – 18” Round” antenna for domes or single LNB stand- alone antennas (or the configuration for a multiple LNB antenna if you have one).

On most slave receivers, the option for the single LNB dish will be grayed out and cannot be selected. This is test #1, if you cannot select the single LNB – 18” round dish option it will not power up an antenna. Test #2 involves using an in-line signal finder (“the squealer”). Attach the signal finder to the receiver using a short piece of coax. Be sure to hook it to the “TO RECEIVER” connection. It is not necessary to hook up the antenna at this time. If the signal finder lights up, turn the gain to maximum and see if the needle goes over to the high signal side of the scale and it starts squealing. If nothing happens when you hook up the signal finder, then there is no voltage to control the antenna coming from your receiver.

If either test fails, you will have to contact DirecTV to obtain another receiver for use in your RV. However, it may be possible to use your main receiver in the RV providing you pair it with an identical antenna to what is on your residential installation. But be aware that without the main receiver, the other receivers in the house will not work, and can cause issues when connected back up at home that require the other receivers to be reconfigured by DirecTV.