Extending the remote antennae on the VIP 222k

[irvwb]

I recently had a VIP 222k installed and the remote control for TV2 would not work properly with the receiver when used in a room about 25 ft away from the VIP. A replacement remote control is being sent to me in the next few days. If the new remote control cannot sent a strong enough signal to the VIP, can the antennae be extended with about 50 ft of coax cable so that it is less than 10 ft from where the remote control is going to be used? The coax would be run outside of the house and the antennae would be outside on the wall opposite to where the remote control is being used. Alternatively, could a stronger antennae be used in place of the small antennae that comes with the VIP 222k? Thank you.

[Kent Taylor]

I recently had a VIP 222k installed and the remote control for TV2 would not work properly with the receiver when used in a room about 25 ft away from the VIP. A replacement remote control is being sent to me in the next few days. If the new remote control cannot sent a strong enough signal to the VIP, can the antennae be extended with about 50 ft of coax cable so that it is less than 10 ft from where the remote control is going to be used? The coax would be run outside of the house and the antennae would be outside on the wall opposite to where the remote control is being used. Alternatively, could a stronger antennae be used in place of the small antennae that comes with the VIP 222k? Thank you.

You might try this (http://tech.dishnetwork.com/departmental_content/TechPortal/content/tech/remotes/howto/TechRemo_uhf_extend.shtml).

BTW, Welcome to DBSTalk.

[irvwb]

Thank you for the quick reply. I overlooked that page on their web site. I will review those diagrams to see if any of them will work. Just in case none of them is workable, do you think that a 50 ft coax cable be used successfully to extend the small antennae that is directly connected to the back of the receiver box, without any signal loss?

[tymekeeper]

Check to be sure the tech did NOT install the attenuator that comes with the antenna. I have a six foot piece of coax on mine just to get it above 6 feet above the floor.

[CABill]

There will always be some signal loss in 50', 100' ... of coax. But there won't be any noticable effect on the operation unless moving it 50' puts it somewhere that gets blocked. A single coax extended to the "center of the house" will usually improve all locations. I send two receiver antenna connections to a splitter (combiner) that connects to a diplexer that goes out to the dish and the little antenna sits near the dish itself because that is close to the bedrooms. That's probably over 100'. If I stick with UHF A range, the antenna out by the dish had a negative effect on using a remote in the garage (farthest place from the dish), but B range does better. I stick with A range because some of my TV2 remotes are 6.0 that don't support B range and have to "point at strange angles" in the garage.

You shouldn't be concerned about length of coax on the remote antenna input - location matters more.