TV Hookup

John, When I had my BT at BTi recently I was able to upgrade to a sat connector install through the wall. I had my normal tv antenna connector in the area behind the spare tyre on the left hand side. It is a normal push in co-ax connector mount and is made of plastic. This was original at build time and the plastic was cracked from day one ... the screws being overtightened when installed. It was replaced no charge when the sat inlet was installed. It was BTi installed not SIM (in Nov 2001). If you are using a BTi installed antenna (wingard etc) most likely it would just have an outlet to tv inside. There would be no outside connection for a co-ax if the antenna is a permanent mount. My tv antenna is portable so needs a connection for the co-ax on the outside. The connector for the sat co-ax I had placed in the same area but on the right hand side. It is a flat metal plate with an "F" connector in the middle and is sikaflexed and screwed to the outer sheet of the BT. A lovely bit of fabrication by SIM ! The connectors terminate just where my tv and decoder is mounted in the BT and only requires a small patch lead now to connect them to the appliances. To protect the connectors from water ingress (they are fairly waterproof in themselves but just in case) I've used a connector that normally gets crimped onto a cable and then connected to the socket .... and just placed a wipe/plug of silicone in the back where the cable goes .... voila ...instant cap to screw on !! I like that position near the spares for the sat cable inlet because it allows me to lock the sat dish to the a-frame with a cable and lock as mine is a free standing unit on the ground. Regards Anthony Explore this Great Land ...Do it Easy ...Tow a Bushtracker

I have connectors installed front and rear for TV and 'F' connector for sat TV. Consequently I have two sets of plugs inside, one for the front and one for the rear. I also have a mounting front and rear for my TV aerial pole as so often moving it from front to back is the difference between getting a signal or not.

Many thanks Anthony, We plan to have SIM install a Winegard antenna as well as a separate external regular TV coaxial socket for those times when we might be on a park site with plug in facilities and good local reception. The "F" socket is of course for a portable sat dish hookup. If suitable sockets are available we would like to put both on a stainless steel plate, suitably insulated, sealed and fastened to the outer skin with the cables run back to a Jaton Box. I sense we share a similar trait and much pleasure from doing things well and for that reason I wonder how to interpret your comment "A lovely bit of fabrication by SIM !" - do I read this, that someone truly made a nice job, or that the mounting plate was made-up by someone with marginal hand skills. The other query I have is in regard to the radio - you indicated in an earlier thread that you intended installing an Alpine head unit and I wondered what model you might have settled on. The 2002 Alpine catalogue I have may be somewhat out of date but in either case I'm having some difficulty in deciding where to draw the line between a head unit which has meaningful features we might find useful as opposed to something a teenager or aficionado would delight in fiddling with.
John Geezer David - thanks for your comments also

John the Wineguard is a great antena but a little work over will prevent it destroying itself on the corrugations.
Hop up on the roof with some 25 x 16 mm self adhesive neoprene foam. Get it from Clark Rubber.

Everywhere the antena locates on the roof put down some foam.
Bend the flat aluminium plates downwards a little and put foam on the roof where the ends contact. This will ensure that they rest on the foam when retracted.

Takes away all vibration and antena will not shake to bits as has happened to some.

Regards
Turist

John, Sorry about the ambiguity with the "A lovely bit of fabrication by SIM " .... text is hard to convey emotion huh ! [smile] I have no problem with Daniel from SIM who did my BT. The plate he made in stainless steel with the "f" connector in is done very well. It had to have a funny angle in mine to miss some timber reinforcing near a cupboard ... quad shield is harder to flex also .... I've added a pic of the plate. You have to look hard as it is on the horizontal surface under the front. The blank connector is screwed on ....I could not fault their install work. The model I eventually went for was a single load CD model not a stacker. Its my opinion they dont like corrugations and I like the iPod for carrying cds not 6 or 12 loaded in a box .... I want 300 in an iPod !!! I added a set of av inputs to the wall that connects to the aux of the Alpine ...tv sound and iPod connection to run through Alpine system. I dont have a Jaton so it might be different in your case ? I looked hard at the Alpine gear and website and decided on the AlpineCDA9827 with single CD loader on unit ...with remote ..to turn off from bedside. Have a look on their website for it ? I also went for the better speaker option using "Infinity" supplied by SIM. These are more suited to less area behind speaker as in the BT roof install ... not much room for a big box behind speaker as in a car install. Pic below ... Regards Anthony Explore this Great Land ...Do it Easy ...Tow a Bushtracker

Anthony, your comments and the pic are very helpful - many thanks. Your installation is much as I imagined it to be and pretty much as I would like SIM to install our connectors. Yep! sometimes a punctuation mark or lack of it can certainly put a different spin on something and it was the exclamation mark at the end of "A lovely bit of fabrication by SIM !" that left me wondering whether the words were to be taken literally or otherwise. I remember as a young graduate being sent by my employer to a course on communication skills and a little story that was told to illustrate how the same words, with and without punctuation, could mean totally different things. The story went something like this - a race horse breeder sent his representative to an auction on the other side of the globe. A well known horse was up for auction for which the representative gleaned it probably would go for a great deal more than he was authorised to bid so he sent a telegram (gives you some idea of my vintage) to his boss stating "big horse looks great but common opinion indicates it will go for ten million or more, do I proceed." to which his boss replied "no price too high" which on the face it meant the representative was authorised to bid whatever was necessary to procure the horse whereas his boss in fact meant exactly the opposite. Your comments on your Alpine head are very helpful as we also intend to use an iPod for the storage of our music preferences instead of a CD Changer. Again, thanks a lot for your willingness to share knowledge and experiences in such a generous way. Regards John
Bob, I also appreciate your comments on the Winegard antenna - I had some reservation initially about how the unit would survive the rough stuff in the stowed position until I read a posting Brian made some time back which in effect is very similar to your advice.

Just reporting that our Wingard is still operating correctly after 3 years and 77,000km including just having travelled Gibb River Road, and Pilbara area on some extremely rough roads. We have had screws come loose and the Wingard has come through without any problems. Brian

John Our experience with SIM was second class to say the least. We asked for two inputs, one standard TV & the other with F connnectors for a satellite connection. On the recommendation of SIM we purchased a GME Omni directional arial which was set up on an expandable pole. When we went to collect the van BT had completed the job but SIM had not. The job finally handed to us was something else! From memory: The pole was set up so that it was pretty well impossible to bring the arial down without cutting through the cable. Modification required. The internal TV cable from the wall socket was so badly made that the male pin was not active. Not discovered until we were home with the van & had time to study the problem. The 12V power for the arial was set up with reverse polarity. The TV connection was so poor that we have to use the F connectors for the TV, for more than two years we thought the GME ariel was at fault but when we purchased a satellite system a few months ago I tried the sat cable hooked to the GME though the F connector system & the picture, for the first time, was fine! The cable used for the connctions both internal & external was the cheap white low quality type. Needless to say it took us some some to work out what was wrong. We never bothered to approach BT on the issue as our contract for this work was with SIM. We are been pretty bleep off by this as there is no way to replace the TV connection which is in the van wall & we have no come back as BT did not contract to fit this cable. My advice is to fit two sets of F connectors & have the HD high quality black cable connection used & insist that the connections are tested befor the walls are sealed. I would ask for a written guarantee. Andy

RG6 cable should be the only cable used within walls. The other issue, is they need to use PROPER right angle connectors on the fittings where they come into the van. The RG6 cable under no circumstances should be subjected to a radius of less than 10 times diameter of the cable. RG6 is the minimum requirement under the latest Australian Standard for digital television and is essential for sat TV. Anthony EIGHT screws and a stainless steel plate like that with no protection and not even a waterproof F connector. You could have used one of those little Hella Marine housings which are ideal, neat, corrosion resistant, screw on cap with chain, or one of those polyethylene flanged screw plumbing fittings. I think the guy looks more like an amateur with not much idea of what is available in the market place. If you get chance to test the el-cheapo Dick Smith Caravan Omni at $69.95 next to the GME AE2000 at $245.00 there is no visible difference. Wingard antennas are useless where the signal is vertical polarisation, which is about 50% of the terrestrial TV transmitter. I would never have another Winegard aerial installed they are so poor. The only place a Winegard is any good is when you are virtually right on top of the TV transmitter.

This is a great informative PDF file on television antenna cabling. I could not find it when I made the previous post. It also shows the construction of RG6 cable and everything you want to know.

GD, Sound In Motion discussed with me the design and method of install of the plate ... which was perfectly acceptable to me. Fair enough I wouldnt put it on one of my showcars but it was fine in a almost hidden place on my caravan. The plate and screws are certainly waterproof and so is the female F connector that is screwed onto the male connector in the plate. The only area left is the thread which would sustain water ingress via capillary action. It would be more susceptible to this on a vertical surface on the front of the van, at speed, because of the increased pressure at the thread. This plate is on a horizontal underside surface in a low pressure area similar to the lower area of a cars windscreen and therefore makes water ingress very unlikely ... read virtually impossible in this situation.... it might even be under vacuum. There is no bend at all just inside the plate ...that is why the F connector is at an angle in the plate ... a slot was machined in a timber support to keep the cable straight. Where it turns to exit in the internal wall it has a 90 deg union. Fair enough you could find something different albeit better looking but it was fine for me ... you cant even see the plate it is on an undersurface. Regards Anthony Explore this Great Land ...Do it Easy ...Tow a Bushtracker

I will definitely take the time to register my positive vote for the professional work and service done by SIM. Daniel and "Bushtracker" Ian (there are two Ians at SIM) are top notch! We went with all of their recommendations and supplied our own flat screen. Daniel is a tireless worker/techie and also a bulldog with a problem. He will not stop working at a problem until it is solved. From the process I learned that when you mix AC and DC components there is going to be some feedback and depending upon the situation, there might be a lot of feedback. Also when you run AC and DC cables next to each other the DC cables will pickup noise. For example, when we first used our X-Box (yes, we are a couple of kids), and when we first used our Strong satellite decoder (supplied with the Abrolga) - both AC components - through our Pioneer (DVHP5050MP)head unit (DC) there was terrible feedback. There was also some minimal feedback when running our Winegard through the Pioneer rather than using the Sharp flat screen speakers. Daniel attacked the problem and returned to our BT several times at Forest Glen and at Cotton Tree. Ultimately he installed a very small amplifier to boost the signal of everything going into the Pioneer. Now no more noise. However, that wasn't sufficient for Daniel as there was still a "hum". So, he installed a "loop" (whatever that means) onto the flat screen cables and now all is beautiful and quiet. BTW, the Pioneer head unit with the Kappa Infinity speakers and an Alpine subwoofer produce an incredible sound. We love our music! Cheers, and looking forward to meeting all of you at Copeton. tgintl/jay