Winegard SensarPro wall plate problem

[joebedford]

I have the SensarPro TV Signal Strength Meter (RFL-342) which has worked fine for a few years. Rushing back to Canada from Florida, we used it in a few places. Now that we're home in mandatory 14-day quarantine, it's not working.

I'm sure we've received channels here before but the plate just displays dashes no matter what is selected. The volume setting is the only thing that responds.

Is this DOA behavior or something else?

[wa8yxm]

Glad you got it working... I dang near forgot that roof connector and the problems it caused me.. I've got one other problem I need to trace some day but .... PITA it is to trace it. and on the 10 scale of problems where 10 is major it's less than a one (park cable line is not working. When I started in on it I found out that instead of running ONE cable they ran a whole bunch of bits and pieces.. I may just fix it properly since it's not hard to do)

[chuckbear]

Good to hear. I had the same issue and eliminated the connection where the coax goes through the roof. I used the old coax to pull a new single coax from the wall plate to the antenna head. What a difference it made. This will only work if there is nothing wrapped around the coax to secure it to other wiring. Chuck

[joebedford]

I replaced the cable on the antenna and the connector on the RV end. With the Jensen wall plate in, I got 10 channels on one TV and none on the other. With the Winegard back in place, I get 14 on both TVs. That's about as good as it gets around here so I guess I've licked the problem.

Now if I could only decide how to hook up the radio.

[joebedford]

I got up on the roof and pulled the dicor off the join in the coax. I could see that the dicor had shrunk and there was a very small gap that could let in water. It was a challenge,, but I managed to disconnect both cables from the female cable joiner. There were no center conductors in either cable. The female was rusty at both ends. I guess when I twisted off the cables, the center conductor stayed rusted in the joiner.

My next step is to install new weatherproof coax ends and a new female joiner. I love doing fiddly stuff like that lying on the RV roof, not 😞

Incidentally, the coax connectors (one from Windgard and one originally from the RV manufacturer) were not weatherproof.

[joebedford]

I put the original Jensen wall plate in to see if it worked any better and that's what was there when I took the voltage readings. When I took the 12.6V reading at the plate, I used a 2 foot coax jumper I had lying around.

I could put the Sensar Pro plate back in and I probably will but I'm really thinking I need to get up there and check the connectors in the coax.

[Bill_Satellite]

Are you taking that voltage measurement with the Sensar Pro GAIN setting set to 10? I'm actually not sure how that effects voltage but the 10 setting is no gain and no attenuation.

[wa8yxm]

I will say again I doubt there is 0.9 volt loss in the coax.. HOWEVER... And this is a big HOWEVER.

2x a year I mop the roof on this rig.. Well one time after mopping all TV was lost.> So I dug into it (Literally) near the antenna was a half clamshell where the coax enters the roof and then on into the RV I opened it up and inside was a dobule female connector joining the ends of Two lengths of coax. one from the antenna to the roof. one from the roof to the Sensar Pro.

Rusted and the wires pulled out

This kind of thing can cause enough resistance that even teh meter load will show a lower voltage.

I trimed the wries back a bit, put new ends on. new connector GREAT TV. Re-sealed with a better sealant.

[joebedford]

I should have said that I measured the 11.6V with the antenna head coax disconnected. So there is .9V loss in that coax - no load.

I guess the coax is bad or more likely, one or more of the connectors in that line.

[wa8yxm]

11.6 is plenty. in addition to the coax loss you have between 0.1 and likely 1/2 volt loss in the switch. possibly more but I'm guessing 1/2 THIS IS A GUESS.

Now if the coax is not waterlogged there should be ZERO voltage loss in the coax when testing with a meter if there is any noticable difference between the jack on the Sensar Pro and the antenna end of the coax you have bad coax.

Why is this? VOltage loss is caused by resistance.. Since there is no load, (other than the very high impedance/resistance meter) there is effectively NO LOAD. and thus no current so if you were to take say a 10K ohm Resistor and hook one end to your 12.9 Volt source. You would measure 12.9 on the other end too. but if you added a small load you'd get next to nothing.

[joebedford]

Finally drug out the ladder. At the antenna head, there was 11.6V on the coax. It was 12.5 at the output of the wall plate (12.9V at the wall plate input).

11.6 is pretty lossy over maybe 15 feet of coax. When I installed the crank-up, I used the cable from the (useless) omni with a 6' extension. Maybe the connector between cables got corroded.

Still I would have thought that 11.6V is enough to make the head amp run.

Hmmm.

[joebedford]

Well, I found and tried the original wall plate with the same nil result. I guess I'll have to look at the coax and antenna head next.

[joebedford]

All good suggestions. Somewhere around here I have the original wall plate. If that works, it eliminates the antenna head and coax. Now where did I put it...

[wa8yxm]

Interesting reading I put a Sensar Pro in back on 2011-2012.. Still working.

[chuckbear]

I have had to replace 2 of these that went bad. The third is working so far for the past year. Chuck