Friday June 16th 2017

Simply stated, today was a rainy day. It started raining Thursday night around 11PM and has rained off and on since. The periods of rain and calm are about equal. You just decide it’s starting to clear off when more dark clouds bring more rain. Overall it was the kind of day you want to snuggle down into the couch with a good book.

I started the day trying to get my Satellite TV to work. The first step was to cycle the power on the satellite receiver with no impact. I also verified the connections on the back of the receiver were tight. The second step was to open the access panel in the closet for the distribution splitters. The splitters distribute the HD signal from the satellite receiver and the Blu-Ray DVD to the three TVs in the RV. Once I removed all of the hanging clothes from the closet I could unscrew the access panel to the spider web of cables.

Mass of wires and two HDMI splitters in a box on the floor of the clothes cabinet.

I verified all of the connections were tight and moved on to check that power was getting to the devices. There was AC current at the outlets. One of the two AC to 5 volt DC transformers wasn’t working, but it supplied the Blu-Ray splitter not the satellite lines. When I checked the function of the Blu-Ray player sure enough it didn’t work either. I haven’t used the Blu-Ray in months so it could have been bad for a long time. I tried moving the good power to the Blu-Ray player splitter with no success. I move the Satellite HDMI cable to the other splitter also without success. It seems that I have two bad splitters and one bad power transformer. This is not a big surprise. There has been discussion on the Internet Tiffin Forum about problems with these splitters.

To verify that it wasn’t the satellite receiver itself, I connected an HDMI table directly from the receiver to the bedroom TV. I now have satellite TV in the bedroom. This will have to do until I can arrange for new splitter to be shipped from the factory. The trick to this is being in one place where I can receive packages long enough to get this accomplished. On top of all that it’s out of warranty so it will probably cost a not so pretty penny.

The entertainment electronics trouble shooting took place across most of the day. It was broken up by a 35 mile each way drive into the city of Kalispell MT. I bought an HDMI cable to connect the satellite receiver directly to the TV and a few groceries. I also got a little sightseeing in during breaks in the rain.

Hungry Horse Dam

I stopped at the Hungry Horse Dam. This is a 564 foot height dam on the South Fork of the Flathead River. It creates a reservoir, provides flood control and power generation for the area. The dam was built between 1948 and 1953. Even with all the rain in the area the view on the road to and at the dam was spectacular.

Lake behind the Hungry Horse Dam.

South Fork of the Flathead River 564 feet below the Hungry Horse Dam.

Tomorrow is going to be a better weather day. I plan to go into Glacier National Park and start visit some of the scenic areas near the entrance. The Going to the Sun Road still hasn’t been cleared of snow. It is open for 15 miles on this, the west side, and 13.5 miles from the east side.