Dish Cable question

[David_T]

Let me start by saying I am Dish challenged. I am trying to help my dad cable his house while it is being built, pre-drywall stage. So, my question is how many cables should I pre-wire out to where the dish(s) will be? I have read about the super dish.. so, if this changes the requirement, assuming it appears by the time the house is done this winter.

Setup - 3 rooms with receivers. Dishnetwork w/local and hopes of HDTV reception. (Aledged new receiver, 911 or something)

I tried to figure out the alphabet soup of splitters and dishes and "Birds"... but, I am left scratching my head. Do I need 6 cables out to the dish, then on the dish is a splitter that feeds 2 or 3 lnb's? or do I need 3 cables out to the dish and the splitter is inside, then 2 cables to each receiver.. better yet, can someone tell me please!!

Thanks,

DT

[HTguy]

A good bet would be to run 4 "drops" of RG-6 (swept to 22khz & at least double shielded) to a central distribution point in the attic, garage, or utility room. From there run 2 cables (or a "siamese" version to every potential receiver location.

That should leave you prepared for just about anything including backfeeds and/or 2 tuners per location.

[waydwolf]

A good bet would be to run 4 "drops" of RG-6 (swept to 22khz...

Cool. With a little higher frequency range, say another 500+Khz, they might be able to carry the lower range of AM radio on those cables.

Just having fun with you. :p

As a matter of fact, almost all RG-6 sold today short of single shield copper braid will work with DBS easily. Ignore that sweep testing nonsense. It is marketing b.s. to get you to think theirs is worth buying over someone else's. In fact, the majority of DBS installers will use existing RG-6 and RG-59 from the cable company and it will work most of the time with ease. What matters is material quality, i.e., has it degraded with age and exposure to the point of uselessness?

[David_T]

So, if I run the cables to an attick or closet, then run the drops to the dish, does this mean that the SW thingy goes in the closet? I thought they were attached to the dish.

Also, does this mean the the drops from the dish have the ground wire with them, or do they get terminated just outside the wall exit on a block?

[Nick]

David T, for your project, you need more help than you can piece together here. If you are going to the trouble of running your own comm cables, do it right the first time. What you need is some expert advice and more knowledge than you may possess at this juncture.

First, forget running RG6 alone. Get a multi-cable, sometimes referred to as a 'composite' cable which is at least 2-RG6 and 2 CAT-5 sheathed or spiral-wrapped. That gives you cable/sat, a/v, telephony, security, intercom and LAN wiring in one bundled cable, with just one install effort. You might as well prewire every room for future expansion BEFORE the wallboard goes up. Takes a little more planning, but well worth it in the long run, and not that much more expensive.

Second, do your research -- look for technical web sites that have wiring diagrams & detailed technical how-to info. Many cable mfrs have this stuff available.

Lastly, don't be intimidated by the challenge. It's the same runs, just duplicated to/from each room from a logically-located junction point (utility closet, garage, basement, attic space). If you do the basement or attic for your panel, be sure to install a 2-4" (I.D.) PVC pipe inside the wall from a basement/1st floor location to the attic. Makes it much easier to make changes or fish new cabling in the future.

This all may sound complex than you had planned for, but it is very doable. Go for it! :)

Here's a start, Belden's home-wiring "cable college" at http://bwcecom.belden.com/college/college.htm . Where else can you get a 'college' education for free? :D

Good luck, and keep us advised of your progress...

[HTguy]

As a matter of fact, almost all RG-6 sold today short of single shield copper braid will work with DBS easily. Ignore that sweep testing nonsense. It is marketing b.s. to get you to think theirs is worth buying over someone else's. In fact, the majority of DBS installers will use existing RG-6 and RG-59 from the cable company and it will work most of the time with ease. What matters is material quality, i.e., has it degraded with age and exposure to the point of uselessness?My bad. I meant 22Mhz.

This is a real requirement for DishPro eqmt & if I were prewiring a house before the walls were closed I wouldn't risk using cable that wasn't specifically rated for it to save a few pennies. I agree that any quality RG6 should be able to do it. Still, I have plenty of catalogs & fliers kicking around from wire vendors pushing cheap unrated cable that I just wouldn't trust in a prewire situation.

I have had problems trying to use existing RG59 even with legacy eqmt ( to save a wall fish, etc.) and it's a real potential problem for DishPro if it isn't a very short run. Having said that, there's a short run of RG59 going thru the wall of my showroom connecting a SW64 switch to a PVR508 & it works fine 98% of the time.

But if DT's Dad is in the pre-drywall stage why even consider it?

[Jacob S]

I would also recommend making sure you wire up your house with plenty of cables especially if you plan on having satellite or cable and/or internet access in the future. I would run some phone lines with that as well. This will prevent from having to put the lines in later on and the hassle along wth it.

I would also make sure that you make it to where you can easily add more wires or swap them out in the future making the holes big enough to expansion due to the wire ends in which would have to be cut off if you wanted to remove a wire. To swap out a wire without having to cut off the wire end all you would have to do is put a barrel connector on the end of the wire and connect another wire to it. If the hole is made big enough you will be able to pull the wire end on through both ends and that will save you from some hassle in the future. Also if the holes are big enough you could tie two wires to one on one end pulling it through to the wire you attached it to through the other end so that you can add a wire a lot easier.

Make sure all your wires go to a central place where you can add the splitters there instead of having splitters in the walls where you cannot access them in which would cause problems if you wanted to run satellite or other signals to the rooms in which would interfere with a direct connection. Nick has some good advice above for preparing for the future if extra wires are needed for many purposes.