Connecting a Cable Modem

[Crusty]

I want to connect my 92 Excella 1000 34 to our digital cable system (Roadrunner) here in Austin TX, but my CATV wiring doesn't appear to match the schematic in my manual and it has me a bit mystified. Maybe someone can help me understand what's going on.

I have two tv outlet plates in the trailer: a front and a rear.

The front plate has an active signal amplifier (which works) for the antenna. The rear of the plate has a circuit board mounted on it (the amplifier) with three F jacks and two of these have coax cables connected to them. I'm assuming that one cable is an input from the antenna and the second cable is an output to the rear plate. The F jack in the middle with no cable attached is a mystery.

The rear plate has a circuit board mounted on the backside of it with two F jacks and there is a coax cable attached to each one. I'm guessing that one cable is the interconnect from the front plate and the other cable connects to the Cable connector (which is located in the trailer power cord bay), and the circuit board is some sort of splitter/combiner?

If I connect the outside jack in the power cord bay (marked Cable) to the cable system to bring the signal inside the trailer, where do I connect the cable interface box (which decodes the data stream into tv signals and internet connection), the front or the rear plate? ... or the unused F jack on the rear of the front plate?

I sure would appreciate any help to accomplish what I want to do.

[Westfalia]

Before you get too deep into this mystery, make sure that your cabling inside the trailer is RG-6, NOT RG-59. Cable modems won't work over RG-59, and I hate to tell you but I highly doubt that you have the more expensive RG-6 in a 1992 vintage trailer.

Barring that, why not consider wireless? Hopefully, someone else can help you answer the mystery of the cable routing.

[SilverRanger]

Good point about the RG-6 cable. Now I'm wondering if the cable in my "satellite ready" 05 Safari is RG-6. It does work well with DirecTV.

[Westfalia]

It's been a while since I popped the covers off of my CATV system in the trailer, but I do recall them being RG-6. You need RG-6 for high bandwidth (and low loss) systems, like digital cable, digital satellite, etc.

[Crusty]

D'OH! I didn't think about the cable type issue. You're exactly correct sir.

So now, lets assume that I added a bulkhead feed through connector to bring the cable signal inside, and RG-6 from it to the cable decoder/modem. Where do I connect the output of the cable tv decoder so that both tv plates get the cable tv signal?

Do I have to run a cable from the decoder to the Cable jack in the power cord bay, or can I connect it to the mystery jack on the video amplifier circuit board?

Any ideas?

And thanks for the help, BTW.

[HowieE]

Most likely the cable wire from the outside service connections goes to the rear plate and them forward to the front plate. In this configuration external cable would be avilable at both plates and the trailer external antenna would also feed both plates through the wire connecting both plates once the amplifer was turned on.

The problem is if you hook up a cable box at either plate there is no way to feed the other plate since you only have one connection at each plate. Also once the cable is connected you will not be able to use the trailer antenna without disconnecting the feed to the cable box and connecting it to the TV.

It sounds like you want this system to work at home as opposed to on the road. If that is the case deside which location you want most and consider installing a new connection.

The pictures below show how I connect my satallite and trailer antenna. You will see the original Airstream wall plate with a short wire feeding the antenna signal to one side of a splitter. The other side of the splitter is feed from the cable box. Note the splitter is installed backwards to normal but it works fine. The white cable from the splitter feed the TV. You will see a new white plate mounted on the surface of the TV cabinet with a cable running from it, up and out of picture, to the input of the cable box. That new white plate has a cable running down through the cabinet and to a connection on the outside of the trailer for satallite, or in your case cable, input.

With this setup I have both trailer antenna and satallite only have to select channel 3 for satallite and turning on the amplifer for trailer antenna.

[Crusty]

Thanks, HowieE. That's a straight forward solution to the problem and that's how I'm going to solve mine.

If I understand correctly, you're using a splitter in reverse: i.e. as a combiner. I had no idea that this could work.

[RussRamz]

I'd like to bump this thread...

I purchased a 2017 International Serenity 27FB and planning on installing a cable modem as I will be living in it semi-permanently. Has anyone done this in a "modern" Airstream? Is it possible? I have a small BluRay player in the rear cabinet which feeds both TVs. Is there a raw RG-6 coax connection to connect a cable modem? I don't care about watching TV so much as I will plan to stream my DirecTV signal from the house over the internet.

Any guidance is appreciated.

[DKB_SATX]

Originally Posted by RussRamz

I'd like to bump this thread...

I purchased a 2017 International Serenity 27FB and planning on installing a cable modem as I will be living in it semi-permanently. Has anyone done this in a "modern" Airstream? Is it possible? I have a small BluRay player in the rear cabinet which feeds both TVs. Is there a raw RG-6 coax connection to connect a cable modem? I don't care about watching TV so much as I will plan to stream my DirecTV signal from the house over the internet.

Any guidance is appreciated.

There should be 2 cable entries under a Furrion cover, probably close to the main shore-power inlet (it's directly above the shore-power inlet on my 26U). One is labeled for satellite TV and in my 26U it ends behind the blu-ray player where you'd install a satellite receiver. You could use that for a cablemodem. The other inlet runs to a splitter somewhere and directly to back of the TVs.