Hopper in Motorhome

[dsurette]

This forum has been a lot of help for me and I appreciate every bit of it.
Now I find myself needing more help. We just recently got a hopper with three joeys. The installer moved us from the western arc to the eastern arc. I am planning on taking the hopper and one of the joeys with us in a motorhome. So far I have invested in a solo node, 75 feet of dual RG6 with ground wire, an ES190141 tap and 75 ohm terminators. Also a 1000.4 dish setup. I have been setting up a Dish 500 on a tripod so I am familiar with the procedure, but this setup is different.
I don’t know what to do about grounding the node. I can’t see myself driving a six foot copper rod into the ground every time I set up. How necessary is the ground and if it is, what can I ground it to?
Aiming the dish is another question. I have an Align A Site that I will be moving to the 1K4 dish. I also have a cheap satellite finder meter that has served me well in the past. My question is which connections on the LNB do connect the dual coax to and which one of them do I use for my satellite finder?
I plan on doing a dry run at home before setting out on a trip.
Thanks in advance for any help.

 

[Ziptied]

Mount the solo node at the dish. Run coax from outputs 1 and 2 of the LNBF to the node. Include a short jumper cable from output 3 on the LNBF for your meter. Run a single coax from the Solo Node to the tap at the Hopper location. From the tap, run coax to the Hopper and the Joey. That should cover the cabling for your setup.

For tuning the dish, place your meter between the jumper from the LNBF and the cable from the tap. once you've peaked the dish, re-connect the cable from the tap to the Solo Node.

A ground is not absolutely necessary in your situation.

Also a good idea to terminate any unused ports in your system.

 

[dsurette]

Thank you, Ziptied, for the quick response. Hopefully it goes as easy as it sounds.

 

[Ziptied]

Good luck and Happy Camping!

 

[dsurette]

Wish I had posted this question before buying 75 ft. of dual RG6. Looks like about 5 ft. would have been plenty.

 

[Brussam]

There are times when you never have enough cable when the trees are really dense.

 

[Ziptied]

Yep. On the bright side, invest in an HF barrel connector, split the dual cable, and you now have about a 150' range to set up your dish.

 

[TechWriter]

Aiming the dish is another question. I have an Align A Site that I will be moving to the 1K4 dish. I also have a cheap satellite finder meter that has served me well in the past.

Just in case your Align A Site falls short, I suggest getting an Accutrac III meter -- http://www.ebay.com/itm/Acutrac-III...1379?pt=US_Signal_Finders&hash=item46116c0063

It can display the signal strength of all 3 sats simultaneously -- very handy.

 

[dsurette]

Looks like just about everyone is sold out of the Accutrac III except for one dealer that has it for $189.00. Just a little steep for me.

 

[Brussam]

For that much you can get a First Strike FS1 that identifies satellites fro their IDs.

With a Align-A-Site, I did quite well with an Accutac 22 Pro dual display for 6 years until the battery wore out. I bought the FS1 instead of a new battery.

I only used one meter display. The biggest feature of the 22 Pro was the ability to set the 22 KHz tone which forced the cable the meter was connected to the satellite 119 LNBF to insure I was aiming with the correct LNBF.

 

[Claude Greiner]

Thats too much work even for me as an installer.

Just get a 211 and a tailgater for your motorhome. If you need DVR, add an external hard drive.

 

[dsurette]

I have a 211Z but that limits us to the same shows in the BR. Wife and I never agree on what to watch.

 

[Brussam]

Just get a 211 and a tailgater for your motorhome.

Classic answer from a non-RVer who doesn't understand.