Advice on D* Install in New Pre-wired Home

[Nick]

My son and his family just moved into their new custom-built home in Albuquerque. At my suggestion, he had a local sat contractor pre-wire the house with multi-cable using the 'home-run' (star) config. The multi-cable consists of 2 RG-6 cables and 2 RJ-45 data/voice cables, terminated to 12 quad wall plates in 7 rooms. One of the RG-6 is designated for an OTA antenna to every room. The other, of course, is for sat. He currently has two IRDs, but will eventually have a total of four or five IRDs.

Upon move-in, the sat guy comes back to install the dish, and connect the IRDs. Afterward, son checks all antenna jacks and they are hot. When son hauls one of the IRDs and a 13" TV around the house to check the other designated sat jacks, he is surprised to find they are not hot. Son calls me and tells me all this and says he is going to call up the sat guy and complain about the unused sat jacks not being hot.

I tell son:
1) only the two sat jacks designated for initial use should be hot,
2) if correctly wired, other sat jacks will be enabled when son adds additional IRDs,
3) to add more IRDs/TVs will require a multi-switch, and
4) even if he already had a multi-switch, the unused sat jacks couldn't be hot without an IRD being connected.

Since I am not a D* sub, nor an expert on switch configs, I would like to have comments and corrections to my 'long-distance' analysis. It is 4) above that I am not quite sure of.


Nick :smoking:

[Karl Foster]

If there is a coax coming from the multi-switch to the wall jack, it should be hot. I found that out the hard way stripping a RG-6 with my teeth and got the sh** shocked out of me (don't ask).

If he has two receivers already and no multi-switch, he is maxed out. He will have to get a multi-switch to activate more than two jacks. If no multi-switch, I am assuming the termainations for the other wall jacks are probably just hanging somewhere not connected to anything.

[scooper]

I don't think it matters on #4, but your first 3 statements are correct. If this is done like you said, there should be 2 cables from the dish that currently are just barrell-connected to his 2 current IRD's. Simply take the barrell connectors out and put the dish leads into the input of the multiswitch, then all connections to the rooms go on the outputs of the multiswitch. And I'd agree with Karl otherwise.

Also, I'd suggest a powered multiswitch (especially if this is indoors as it should be).

[Karl Foster]

I'd also suggest not using his teeth to strip wire....

[Richard King]

Nick: If a multiswitch is installed, every jack attached to the switch should be "hot", meaning the satellite signal should be there and plugging in a receiver and television should result in a picture. Using a signal device (spectrum analyzer, squaker, etc) should show a signal at any connected outlet. When I do a prewire I always run 3 coax to each potential television location (black, grey and white to each). You can go here to see a typical termination box (with an SW-64 in this case): http://www.pbase.com/image/625226 The item in the upper left of the box feeds the 3 coax runs out to the rooms in the house. Both cable signals and sat signals are distributed from this point. He can switch the satellite signal to any four of nine rooms in the house from this point. With 3 lines, a common feed can be backfed from any location and redistributed through the house. The eight way splitter is for cable only. The groundblock in the upper right corner is for a Starband feed to his office (for however long Starband lasts).

[Richard King]

I found that out the hard way stripping a RG-6 with my teeth
Are your teeth spaced properly to do this correctly? :D

[Karl Foster]

Originally posted by Rking401

Are your teeth spaced properly to do this correctly? :D

They are now!:D

(I used to be an aircraft electrician. You'd think I'd have known better!)