Dish remotes and 802.11b

[CeeJ]

I've been spending a good bit of time setting up an MP3 server for my home. I finally got it set up and placed in my "tech closet," then started the process of transferring the files from my desktop PC to the new server using the server's wireless 802.11b Wi-Fi connection.

To my dismay, I found out my Dish Network reciver, which sits in the same closet, will not recieve the signal from the remote control while I'm copying files. When I stop copying files, the remote control comes back.

Obviously the two are stepping on each other. Is there anything else I can do to allievate this problem? It normally won't be a problem, but I can see times when both devices are stepping on each other.

Is there a way to possibly extend the antenna's reach of the satellite receiver?

Thanks for any ideas.

-cj

[ericha]

This is probably due to something called "desensitization". This is when a transmitter at another frequency causes a receiver to loose sensitivity. A good receiver (such as in a base station for a cell phone system) have very stringent specs about rejection of "blocking" signals that can cause this problem.
Here are a few things to try:

-Move the antenna on the Dish receiver as far from the MP3 server as possible. This should be easy, as you can probably just use a piece of RF-59 or RG-6.

-Move the antenna on the MP3 server as far away from the Dish receiver as possible. Install an external antenna if necessary to do this.

-The frequency of the dish RF remote is 384.2 MHz (at least mine is), and 802.11b is 2.4 GHz. So you could add a filter between the antenna on the back of the dish receiver that rejects 2.4 GHz (say a 500 MHz low pass filter). If you have an external antenna on the 802.11b interface, a filter that only passes 2.4 GHz might improve things a bit as well. I'm sorry, but I don't have a source for filters like this.

Let us know if you get this to work.

[Mike123abc]

Smarthome.com sells band pass filters for UHF. One has to wonder if it is not the 802.11b but just EMI from something in the server.

[CeeJ]

Update: I took ericha's first recommendation and moved the antenna with an 8ft RF cable. It's still a tad sticky, but both items work well now. Thanks for the tip!

-cjs