Winegard Trav’ler SK-1000
If you look carefully at the roofline of our coach, you will see a satellite dish antenna, roughly midway, peering out at the southern sky.
This is our Winegard Trav’ler SK-1000 automatic multi-satellite TV antenna.
This unit caused me a lot of grief. It works fine now but I will share my story in the hopes that if you have a similar problem, you can find an easier way to get it solved.
The problem was an EL Motor Home Failure. Let’s see how I got to that problem.
One of many tasks for the new motorhome was to connect the Bell Expressvu receiver to the audio visual system. That part was relatively straightforward. Connect the RG-6 coaxial cable to the rear of the receiver, connect the HDMI cable to the output of the receiver and the input of the coach’s system splitter — in my bay everything was clearly marked — and plug the unit into an available electrical outlet.
Great. Now for some satellite TV.
First, power up the Winegard unit. The power up sequence worked fine. I can hear the unit moving and automatically positioning itself to find the Bell satellites. From what I know about satellites, which is very little actually, Bell leases two of them: Nimiq 3 and Nimiq 6. Nimiq 3 is at 82 degrees west and carries the standard definition channels. Nimiq 6 is at 91.1 degrees west and carries the high definition channels.
The Winegard dish found both satellites and showed that it was locked on *82 and *91.
Success.
Or so I thought.
I turned everything on and the satellite received showed an Error 15 on the TV screen. Basically, the receiver was not seeing the satellite.
How can this be?
So I consulted the Winegard manual. With hindsight, this turned out to be a huge mistake. The manual had a significant omission, namely the type of antenna. More on that one in a moment.
Here is the page on how to configure the dish for Bell Expressvu:
Notice step 6: Press the Select button until the asterisk is next to “SM Mount,” and then press “ENTER.”
And notice step 8: Press “SELECT” until the asterisk is next to “SM ExpressVu.” Press the Enter button.
When I looked at my Winegard unit, it said “LG ExpressVu” and not “SM ExpressVu.”
Obviously the unit had not been configured for Bell TV. Or so I thought.
I followed all of the instructions and then I got to step 15: The TRAV’LER antenna will enter the search routine as part of its normal operation.
Only there was no normal operation. Instead I received a flashing EL MOTOR HOME FAILURE on my Winegard unit.
That cannot be good.
I went outside and I could see that the satellite dish was pointed straight up to the sky.
My first reaction? I must have broken the antenna. My second reaction? How do I get it stowed? After all, I cannot drive the coach with the antenna sticking straight up into the air.
Back into the coach I go. But nothing I do stows the antenna. All I get is a flashing EL MOTOR HOME FAILURE.
There is a troubleshooting section in the manual but it does not show an EL MOTOR HOME FAILURE error. It does show something close, an EL HOME FAILURE. Here is what you should do when you see that error:
Something is preventing the mount from raising as it attempted to find the HOME position. Look for obstructions if the unit has recently been manually raised or if the electronics have been replaced. The calibration may need to be reset. Contact Winegard Technical Support.
I sent them a note and a robot told me that support was closed until Monday. This was Saturday evening.
I am not a patient man. Time for more DIY damage.
I found out how to reset the antenna on the Internet. Follow these steps:
1. Press [POWER] and hold for 2 seconds to turn “ON” the TRAV’LER Interface Box. Wait until the Interface Box finishes “connecting to antenna”. The TRAV’LER may enter the “Search Routine” after 10 seconds this is normal (See NOTE Below).
2. Press [ENTER] and hold for 2 seconds or until the unit displays “Enter User Menu”. Press [SELECT] to move the asterisk to “Yes”. Press [ENTER].
3. Press [SELECT] to move the asterisk to INSTALLATION.
4. Press [ENTER]. You will be asked to provide a code to enter the Installation Menu.
5. Press [ENTER] 4 times to enter code 0000.
6. Press [SELECT] to move “ * ” to “Calibrate EL”.
7. Press [ENTER].
8. Press [SELECT] to move “ * ” to YES.
9. Press [ENTER] to start the elevation calibration procedure. The LCD should now display “Calibrate EL In Progress …”.
10. After a few moments the IDU LCD will display “On EL Hard Stop?-Yes*No”. Visually examine the antenna to verify that the antenna is against the Hard Stop. The antenna will be pointing as far up as it can go, this is the Hard Stop.
11. Press [SELECT] once to move asterisk to “Yes” if antenna is on the Hard Stop.
12. Press [ENTER] and the LCD will display “Calibrate EL Success”.
13. You may now stow the antenna.
Only these steps did not work for me. Why?
It goes back to LG ExpressVu and SM ExpressVu. It turns out that they are two different antennas. One is “Low Ground” and the other is “Surface Mount” or something like that. Through some additional research on the web, I found a dealer installation pdf and it talked about the two differences. My antenna was, in fact, an LG ExpressVu. Because I had reconfigured it to be an SM Mount, exactly as the manual directed, it was unable to stow. It remained stuck in the fully upright position, pointing straight up into the sky.
I had to go back into the installation menu to change the antenna type back to LG ExpressVu. I followed all of the steps and at step 6 I selected “LG Mount”. And to do that operation required a passcode. I used the one in the manual: “0022”.
Invalid passcode.
What?
More searching on the Internet. I finally found the passcode to change the antenna type buried deep in the web somewhere: 2112.
Passcode accepted.
Once I changed the antenna type I followed the rest of the protocol making sure I used LG ExpressVu. I was able to successfully calibrate the system and get the antenna safely stowed.
I powered it up, connected to the antenna, and the Winegard unit could see *81 and *92 again.
The Bell receiver? No joy. Why was I not getting any satellite signal to the receiver?
And then it hit me. The switch.
I had taken one of our Bell ExpressVu receivers from the house. I have an SW44 switch in the house. I remembered reading somewhere that the receivers are sensitive to the type of switch.
I went into System Setup and then the diagnostic section of the receiver’s menu system and selected “Test Switch”. After about ten minutes or so it automatically found the new switch from the Winegard unit and voila, satellite TV.
Technology really should not be this hard.
Update:
I’ve received numerous emails from people trying to switch their Winegard Trav’ler from Bell ExpressVu. I was able to make that happen and you can read my post about how I was able to switch my service from Bell to Dish by clicking here: Winegard Trav’ler Bell to Dish.
I’d kiss you but afraid you might want more!, LOL.
Your post almost brought me to tears as I too am looking at mine staring straight up into the stars and been unsuccessful in getting thru to the tech support.
When I came across you post I was so happy that you were very detailed, and I can’t wait to get back to my trailer to see if I too can fix this mess!
Cheers,
Michael
Tualatin, Oregon
Hello Michael,
Life is better with hugs and kisses 🙂
I hope you were able to resolve your issue with the Winegard Dish. I recall a huge sigh of relief when the dish reset properly. It now works like a charm.
Richard,
It was a Dream come true!
Your detailed info was just the trick I needed.
The system works like a charm, thanks to you.
The tech support did get back to me,… two days later!
With just a bit of arrogant smugness coupled with my new found fix I told them without regret,…
You’re too late, I had to go the internet for the resolve my problems. To this they neither apologized or commended me on the issue, just a monotone response okay-good by.
A Big Thanks again,
Michael
This page saved me a whale of trouble. I cannot thank you enough. Winegard should put it up front on their website.
Thank you.
Hello Thomasa,
I’m pleased to hear that it helped you out! Thanks for letting me know.
Richard
I just went through the EL Motor issue. With absolutely no help fro Winegard, poor documentation, they never answer help phone line, you must leave a message, and useless suggestions via email, thank God I found your post on the internet. I was up and running within 15 minutes of reading your post and applying your guidance, a big THANK YOU from a fellow RV’er.
Hi Leo,
I am so glad it helped you out!
Richard
How do you if you have LG or the other EsspressVU?
I think you are asking whether you have a surface mount (SM) or low ground (LG) dish from Winegard. It should be clear by looking at the unit. It would have the assembly that includes an arm to raise, rotate and position the dish as opposed to a unit that is surface mounted and probably includes a dome cover. Hope that helps.
So, heres my quest. I originally had the dish network in the US and then switched to Bell in Canada. Now back in the states and signed up with dish again. Trying to figure how to get back to Dish satellite(s). Any suggestions? Manual is not clear on how to possibly do this.
Hi Geoff,
Apologies for being a bit late in my response. Hopefully you have it figured out by now. I haven’t switched between the two so I don’t have an answer for you.
The manual contains step-by-step instructions for selecting the service provider (Dish vs Bell). I had trouble with their instructions with using just one provider hence this post.
Winegard have a fairly responsive support desk and I’d suggest dropping them a line if you haven’t done so already.
I hope you get this resolved.
I made the switch from Bell to Dish and wrote a post about it here: https://rvcastaways.com/2018/11/12/winegard-travler-bell-to-dish/
I’m also not that patient as my lovely wife tells me. It’s wonderful to see someone else go through tech nightmare. I can’t get my interface to switch from Bell to Dish. Each time I power-up the dish it says “SM Bell Expressvu” on the interface display. I’ve tried everything to get it to go back to Dish with no success.
HELP
Hi Tom,
Although I have never switched between the two services, my understanding is that the Trav’ler Satellite Antenna will automatically find the Dish satellites (110°, 119°, 129°) and the Bell satellites (82°, 91°) without needing to change the Winegard unit. Let the Winegard power-up and seek the satellites. It should identify which satellites it has found and, if you have 110/119/129 show up, it really shouldn’t matter if it says “SM Bell Expressvu”. You should be able to connect your Dish receiver and configure the Dish receiver for use. Now that is just my opinion — I have not tried this out myself so I don’t know if it will work in practice.
Bell does not cover much of the U.S. and I’m not sure how much of the Dish service is available in Canada. Sometimes the issue with satellite TV is not having satellite coverage or incorrect receiver configuration. That is what happened to me when I hooked up my Bell receiver. I did not have the correct switch setting.
Hope that helps and I would be interested in hearing if you get this resolved. I might try the Dish service when we get south and confirm the above. You could also drop Winegard support a note to see what they have to say.
Good luck!
When we went south this year, I found out how to switch from Bell to Dish. I made a post with all of the details and you can find it here: https://rvcastaways.com/2018/11/12/winegard-travler-bell-to-dish/