[Paul E Fox II]

Hi there,

I have a new HR21-200 connected to the new (I guess) Slimline dish.

I also have an older 3-LNB dish mounted to my house connected to a DirecTiVo unit in the Living Room and two older Hughes receivers in the Master Bedroom and Kids Bedroom.

I'd like to get the new KA Multiswitch and combine ALL the receivers to the new Slimline dish but that's gonna be a couple fairly long RG6 runs up into the attic for the upstairs receivers.

Do any of you have any suggestions as to how I can properly accomplish this? What are the max run lengths for the RG6 and if they are exceeded, is there some sort of signal amplification that can be placed in-line that will allow me to proceed?

Suggest away...

 

[houskamp]

Hi there,

I have a new HR21-200 connected to the new (I guess) Slimline dish.

I also have an older 3-LNB dish mounted to my house connected to a DirecTiVo unit in the Living Room and two older Hughes receivers in the Master Bedroom and Kids Bedroom.

I'd like to get the new KA Multiswitch and combine ALL the receivers to the new Slimline dish but that's gonna be a couple fairly long RG6 runs up into the attic for the upstairs receivers.

Do any of you have any suggestions as to how I can properly accomplish this? What are the max run lengths for the RG6 and if they are exceeded, is there some sort of signal amplification that can be placed in-line that will allow me to proceed?

Suggest away...

Belive your best bet is either a wb616 (powered switch) or a "signal locker" inbetween dish and wb68..
How long are your runs?

 

[Paul E Fox II]

I'm thinking at LEAST 40 to 50 feet from where the multi-switch would be installed...maybe a bit longer.

What is a "signal locker"?

 

[harsh]

With six tuners, a WB68 will likely do the trick (assuming you've calculated your wire runs correctly).

 

[EricJRW]

Distances of cable runs discussed here:

http://www.dbstalk.com/showthread.php?t=129296

No personal experience, but I remembered this thread.

It's significantly greater than 40 or 50 feet.

 

[houskamp]

This is a signal locker (powers the dish instead of your recievers)
But, at 50' you shouldn't need one at all.. should work fine with a standard wb68..

 

[Draconis]

Another thing to remember is that you need to use copper-core RG6 cables. It's more expensive but it's worth it.

I was dealing with a 170' cable run where the HR20-700 was getting freeze-frame and the issue was resolved by simply replacing the RG11 steel-core cables with copper-core RG6.

 

[Paul E Fox II]

All my RG6 is copper core...guess I got lucky on that front.

Ultimately, I would want to add on additional single tuner receiver for my other kids room. We should NEVER need more than that.

That would leave us with:
DirecTiVo Series 2 DVR in Living Room
HR21-200 HD DVR in my Theater
Three (3) total single tuner receivers in the bedrooms (one in each of the three).

I'm intrigued about the signal locker thing...do I just search Solid Signal for that term?

 

[houskamp]

All my RG6 is copper core...guess I got lucky on that front.

Ultimately, I would want to add on additional single tuner receiver for my other kids room. We should NEVER need more than that.

That would leave us with:
DirecTiVo Series 2 DVR in Living Room
HR21-200 HD DVR in my Theater
Three (3) total single tuner receivers in the bedrooms (one in each of the three).

I'm intrigued about the signal locker thing...do I just search Solid Signal for that term?

On solidsignal.com, search for "sonora", it will be the last item listed (on page 2)

 

[Paul E Fox II]

On solidsignal.com, search for "sonora", it will be the last item listed (on page 2)

Is that the $29.99 item?

 

[houskamp]

HRPID1422 is the part #
looks like $44.95
guess the search doesn't always come up the same..

 

[Paul E Fox II]

Ok...I found that device and that looks do-able.

However, I still have a question...how much lee-way will putting the signal locker give me in the cable run length?

As it stands now, I would have to run up to three single-line RG6 cables from that up into my attic to cover the receivers in our bedroom, the kids room and the possible new one to separate both kids rooms giving them the ability to watch different channels in each room...right now they both share on receiver.

At the moment, the Zinwell 6x8 switch will suffice as the two DVRs in the house will probably be the ONLY DVRs we ever have...I don't foresee getting a DVR for the Master Bedroom. This would currently fill 7 of the available 8 outputs on the switch.

 

[houskamp]

looks like they rate it for upto 250' total run dish to reciever.

 

[west99999]

you should not need the signal locker at those distances

 

[Paul E Fox II]

looks like they rate it for upto 250' total run dish to reciever.

So it acts as a signal amplifier too? While I'm not afraid to get my hands dirty, I'm not an engineer and I get dizzy looking at some of that stuff. 250 feet should be JUST fine...Thanks for the help!

you should not need the signal locker at those distances

Two story house with the dish mounted on one corner. If I'm reading the specs right, I have to calculate the TOTAL distance of RG6...not just one run (I'm guessing but that seems to be what I'm reading).

From the location of the dish, I'll need at least 20 feet for each run to get to the attic access, then at least 20 straight up into the attic, then probably 10 feet or so for each individual receiver. That's 150 feet total right there.

Question is...am I correct that I have to calculate the total or do I just need to worry about each line not exceeding 100 feet?

 

[houskamp]

each run.. dish>reciever