Out of the Loop

For some unknown reason our satellite TV receiver has been causing us problems.  Fortunately, here in sunny Texas, our RV Park gives free cable television hookups. That's great but we are a little tired of shopping networks, religious networks, Foxnews (the only station that finds it necessary to state that they deliver "real" news) etc.  There are about a half dozen stations that are almost watchable but we miss our DirecTV offerings including MSNBC (Morning Joe and Hardball), Current TV (Stephanie Miller and The War Room) and Comedy Central (Jon Stewart and Colbert).  We feel like we are barely surviving, though not yet quite "waiting to die,"  by being without these must see shows.  How can we truly live without listening to Colbert covertly mock the tea party by being a more right wing obfuscating obstructionist than they are? So corrective action was necessary.  We needed to breathe even while anchored in the heart of Texas.

We have a portable satellite (Winegard) antenna that can be placed anywhere around our trailer for best reception.  We usually place the domed antenna on one of our slide outs like this:

The antenna requires a 12 volt power source.  The power cord plugs into a receptacle which looks like a car's cigarette lighter.  Unfortunately, when we packed up in Branson, the inners of the antenna's power plug (the positive point) fell out of its power cord.  The antenna plug looks like this with the positive point being the shiny metal part at the top:

The power cord itself is proprietary to Winegard so a quick and inexpensive replacement was not easy.  On our cord the parts I need screwed into the casing  with a small spring, a glass fuse, the metal pin and a collar to hold everything together.

 On a whim I went to a local RV repair facility.  The owner sent me on to Radio Shack .  There,  I searched for a part which looked like what I needed.  I thought I could assemble a solution  by taking apart some other plug.  But of course, every plug is different.  I contemplated cutting the cord and attaching a new end to it.  But that would be only a temporary solution requiring that I purchase another cord to use for the long term.  So I went on to the Rver's friend (Walmart) and found an insert which appeared to be the right size and cost only a few bucks.  When I got it home, I realized it would not work as the threads were different.  Life looked bleak.

Before breaking down and paying whatever Winegard wanted for their power cord,  I thought that maybe I was overlooking the obvious.  Perhaps the parts did not fall out onto the ground when we packed up in Branson, but perhaps the innards fell in the truck when I packed them away.  Sometimes the obvious becomes obfuscated by jumping to complicated solutions.  Perhaps the parts were there waiting for me to put them back where they belong.

I searched the truck and sure enough the spring, the collar and the metal pin were awaiting me.  No fuse!  Ah, the Walmart part had a fuse waiting to be re-purposed.  I put everything together and voila, it worked!  We were again in the loop.  Our life again looked longer than one more long day. 

But sometimes life is not always rosy.  A few days later, the satellite again did not work.  The first thought that came to mind was there was some sort of electrical problem.  The dome did seem to work as it hummed and groaned trying to find the satellite signal.  Yet no TV.  I thought perhaps the power was cutting off to the dome as it seemed not to take the normal minute or so to find the signal.  I turned the power on and off at the breaker to restart the antenna.  It went through the motions again to find and lock onto the elusive signal.  Yet no picture.  We were back to a very limited cable selection.

This was getting serious as death by shopping networks and religious programming was becoming inevitable.  The only option was to take a serious look at the problem and sleep on it.  After 2 days shying away from the issue, I awoke with a possibility.  What if the problem was not with the antenna, but with the receiver (the "box")?  If that was indeed the case either the receiver had gone bad or needed to be reset.  I hit the reset button and the box went through all sorts of time consuming contortions only to tell me that a satellite signal could not be found.  Perhaps the dome need to be moved as some mysterious invisible shield was now preventing contact with the mother ship?  I moved the dome to the picnic table--a place with a clear view of the southwest sky.  I hit reset again and again no signal.  So maybe the problem was with the cable, the power cord, the receiver, the antenna or with the Texas sky.  Back to square one.  Only one thing to do:  sleep on it.

After a restful night's sleep, the sun rose and it dawned on me that perhaps somehow our DirecTV receiver was not being recognized by the company and, therefore, no signal.  I pulled out my Dell, got on the Internet thingy, signed into the DirecTV website, and "reauthorized" our receiver by clicking on the appropriate icon on their site.  The web said that I should wait 5 minutes before all would be well.  I waited, turned on the receiver and the television, and, voila, we could now watch the home shopping network both on the satellite AND on cable feeds! 

Back in the loop again.  What joy.