SWM Install - Got My List, Checking it Twice!

[BobGeeX]

All of my parts should be here by Friday for my conversion to a SWM - promised the wife and kids dual tuners for Christmas (only have one coax running to the MBR and FR). So, here's what I purchased - SWM8 & PI, Sonora AD14 Active Diplexer to marry in OTA antenna, SWS-4 for distribution, and SWS-2 for diplexing at the recievers. Please see the attached - plan to wire it with the SWM, PI, Sonora, and SWS-4 in a media distribution closet. A couple of Questions:

Do you need the 15 ft of coax in this type of configuration? If so where does it go - between the PI and the AD14 or between the AD14 and the SWM8?

Is there any reason you can't use SWM ouput port 2 to feed a 5th receiver?

Thanks in advance for all the valuable information on this site. bob

[carl6]

I believe the 15 foot spec is for the output of the SWM (between the AD14 and SWM8).

You can also use SWM port 2 to feed tuners. Any mix/combination up to a total of 8 tuners. The only thing that must be connected to SWM port 1 is the PI.

[randyk47]

My SWM installation went SWM'ingly. :D USPS delivered the SWM-8, PI, and 4-way yesterday afternoon but we had a get together with friends at a local restaurant so no time last night. Just my wife and I so I waited until we were done with opening Christmas gifts and she'd settled into Christmas dinner prep. It probably took me 15 minutes to install the SWM-8, PI, and 4-way as I'd already prepped a mounting board where I wanted to put the SWM-8 and 4-way. The longest part of the process was resetting our 3 receivers. Had no problems except with one and that was "operator head space error" as I forgot to reset one of the HR20's to dual tuner after running it on just single since it was installed which, of course, was the whole reason I went to SWM. Initially couldn't figure out why I was getting signal strength on only tuner 1. After a few "duh" moments I found my mistake, reset the receiver for dual tuners, and we were off and running. Merry Christmas!!!!

[BobGeeX]

Thanks for the response. I think I got it right as per the attached drawing ? ?

The only other question I have (right now) has to do with the Receiver end - In the "old days" of diplexing, you needed to make sure the power pass was used to connect to SAT IN and the non-power pass was used for ANTENNA. What are the requirements for the SWM feed? I plan on using a SWS-2 at each of my HR20's.

Bob

[dettxw]

Thanks for the response. I think I got it right as per the attached drawing ? ?

The only other question I have (right now) has to do with the Receiver end - In the "old days" of diplexing, you needed to make sure the power pass was used to connect to SAT IN and the non-power pass was used for ANTENNA. What are the requirements for the SWM feed? I plan on using a SWS-2 at each of my HR20's.

BobI guess I never would have thought of diplexing before the PI, but then I've got mine plugged in behind the living room TV where it can be on a UPS. Maybe you've got yours plugged in near the SWM. Not sure if diplexing before the PI is a problem or not, but seems like it would be prudent to do it after, keep one more possible problem out of the equation. But then if you use the SWM diplexing port there isn't any difference is there? I didn't use the SWM diplexing port as it reduced signal strengths significantly.
Let us know how that works out.

[dave29]

All of my parts should be here by Friday for my conversion to a SWM - promised the wife and kids dual tuners for Christmas (only have one coax running to the MBR and FR). So, here's what I purchased - SWM8 & PI, Sonora AD14 Active Diplexer to marry in OTA antenna, SWS-4 for distribution, and SWS-2 for diplexing at the recievers. Please see the attached - plan to wire it with the SWM, PI, Sonora, and SWS-4 in a media distribution closet. A couple of Questions:

Do you need the 15 ft of coax in this type of configuration? If so where does it go - between the PI and the AD14 or between the AD14 and the SWM8?

Is there any reason you can't use SWM ouput port 2 to feed a 5th receiver?

Thanks in advance for all the valuable information on this site. bob

i see that you have 4 sat lines coming into the swm8, but i do not see the ota line coming in. i do see an ota line being diplexed out before the PI????
this is how i would do it........
4 sat lines into swm8
1 ota line into the swm8
swm1 out to PI (15' minimum)
output of PI to input of sws4 splitter
sws4 ouputs to channel master(or equivilent) diplexors
sat side of diplexor to sat1 in on receiver
ota side of diplexor to ota in on receiver

im not sure what you are trying to achieve with the sonora device.
hope this helps

[David MacLeod]

I experimented with OTA going straight into swm8, diplexing prior to PI, and diplexing after PI before splitter. I had best results with diplexing after PI right before sws4 splitter.
YMMV of course

[BobGeeX]

Well, thanks to all who responded to my original post as well as those who regularly provide such great information on this site my SWM installation was completed successfully yeaterday. The "head end" components in the media closet are shown in the attachment. The Sonora AD14 performed as planned and provided the extra gain I had hoped for for my old attic mouted VHF/UHF antenna. I have two HR20's, two HR21's and one H20 hooked up to the outputs. The two HR21's came up right away. The HR20's and the H20 were a little problematic. The biggest problem with the HR20's was finding a Diplexer that would work to split out the Sat and OTA signals at the reciever. I had planned to use the SWS-2 from DIRECTV and had repeated problems with "no satellite signal." After removing the diplexer, the problem went away. Several iterations later, I tried an old 5-2150 MHz diplexer from my "parts drawer" and the HR20 came up just like it should, supporting both satellite and OTA. So, I am happy to report that my SWM install has been a success. Thanks again to all. Bob