Picture of my DTV dish set up and Question

[paulyme]

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Hi all, attached is a pix ( I hope this pix attachment works ) of my DTV dish. I was wondering, as I look at other installations around the town, I don't see as many wires and the blue rectangular objects attached to the dish on any other installations. What are they? My system is 2 standard receivers, 1 tivo and 1 HD receiver.

I'm trying to learn about all this stuff and everyday I notice something new!

Paulyme

[Darin]

Kind of a sloppy install. You setup requires 5 outputs, so a 4x8 (or 5x8, kind of hard to tell by that pic) multiswitch was required to be cascaded off of the four outputs of the built-in multiswitch of the dish. Ideally, the four outputs of the dish would have been neatly routed to some place indoors, or at least sheltered, then your individual outputs wired from there. Some multiswitches are weatherproof, some are not. But regardless, they ALL have a better chance of surviving the elements if they are sheltered or removed from them. Whether or not having it (and the associated wiring) in plain sight like that is objectionable, is up to you.

[ckudrna]

This is the issue I have with "professional" installers. You can tell that the installer would have rather jerry rig everything on the roof rather than do it nicely.

Paulyme- The blue box is a switch that takes the 4 outputs from the satellite dish and "splits" them into more outputs. Your switch is a 5x8, which means you have 5 inputs, 4 from the satellite and 1 from an antenna (looks like you only have 4 inputs from the dish into the switch, no antenna into the switch.) The side of the switch closer to the dish is your outputs, looks like you have 5 cables coming off of that?
Those 5 cables go to the various recievers in your home. Your HD reciever only requires 1 input. I do not use Tivos but i think they require more?

The way i think this should have been done would be to have the dish installed with the 4 cables from the dish into the house with the switch in the house. From the switch your cables would run to your various recievers in the house.

For one, it certainly does not look like your equipment is grounded. It looks like the "professional" that put this in just connected the dish right to the switch without grounding it, which is required by law. The grounding is very important for something like this, especially for a dish on the roof. If that gets hit by lightening, certianly say goodbye to all your equipment. Grounding is not really to protect equipment, but it is to protect you and your family.

It looks as if this was installed recently? I would most certainly call directv and let them know that this installer did a shoddy job and you want it totally re-done with the wires in the house and it certainly grounded. If they are not willing to install things to code than they certainly should not have a license to be doing this to peoples homes and putting your family in danger.

Does that switch require power? I cannot see any power input on it. I thought all 5x8's needed power?

[PSB]

Certainly the worst install of the week, no offence to Dishnetwork installers but this "Installer" has used the "Dish" method of installation (switch at dish) and its a total mess, a blight on your home, too many people say " IT works so I am saying nothing" I would take it all the way, ask for a licensed person to check it out or tell them to take it away, its that bad! Sorry.

[paulyme]

How can I tell if it is truly grounded. Is this a potential fire hazard? I will be calling Dtv Asap. Also are the blue switches wheter proof?
Thanks,
Paulyme

[ckudrna]

I am not sure as to the brand or weatherproofness of your switch. I would hope that the installer would have enough sense to put in a weatherproof unit.

You can check if the dish is grounded by looking at the 4 wires that come out of the arm of the dish (from the end LNB unit). If they are not grounded they will go right into the switch. If they are grounded they will be connected into a grounding block (which is just like a double sided female Coax connector with a mechanism to tie the block into a grounding wire. The grounding block would have to be either affixed to a groundig mechanism such as a grounding stake or waterpipe (i am sure someone else here knows a little more about what is OK to ground to than me).

I can tell by looking at the image that it does not look grounded. You can see the 4-wire COAX that comes out behind the box out of the arm on the dish, and goes around to the dish-side of the switch and connects to the switch. It looks like it is going right form the LNB on the dish into the switch without any grounding.


<correction> I think that group of wires i was looking at is the cable into your home not from the dish. You will have to look at the wires coming out of the arm of the dish and where they go. </correction>

[dulzen]

do u c any green wire? if there is green wire running, your system is grounded. It's not a fire hazard. Just have the guy come back out and ground it. Was your house prewired? If not, there is no point putting switch on the side of house. If it is grounded and your system is working. Don't worry about it. Don't waste your time on small stuff. If it works, just leave it.

[ckudrna]

I am not sure about that last post.

First off, not every grounding method uses "green wire". All grounding I have ever done I have used uninsulated copper.

Not having a large piece of metal on your roof most certainly is a fire hazzard. About 10 years ago our large antenna in our attic was struck by lightening. It was not grounded. It traveled through all the Coax in the house, burning up most of it, blowing out two televisions and starting three fires in the house. They were quickly dealt with by the wonderful fire department, but what if no one was home to see what was going on. What if it was in the middle of the night and everyone was sleeping?

What would have happened if the system was properly grounded? Who knows, but it probubly would have made the situation a little better.

Unless you want to replace that switch on your roof in a short period of time, I would suggest getting it inside the house or at the least under some protection from the elements. Weatherproof units in the elements does not mean it will last as long as the same unit under some protection out of the way of the elements.

Even if your house is pre-wired, you most likley have a central area with all the COAX from each room comes together. That would be a perfect spot to put a switch.

Please let us know how your conversation with Directv went.

[paulyme]

Originally Posted by ckudrna

I am not sure about that last post.

First off, not every grounding method uses "green wire". All grounding I have ever done I have used uninsulated copper.

Not having a large piece of metal on your roof most certainly is a fire hazzard. About 10 years ago our large antenna in our attic was struck by lightening. It was not grounded. It traveled through all the Coax in the house, burning up most of it, blowing out two televisions and starting three fires in the house. They were quickly dealt with by the wonderful fire department, but what if no one was home to see what was going on. What if it was in the middle of the night and everyone was sleeping?

What would have happened if the system was properly grounded? Who knows, but it probubly would have made the situation a little better.

Unless you want to replace that switch on your roof in a short period of time, I would suggest getting it inside the house or at the least under some protection from the elements. Weatherproof units in the elements does not mean it will last as long as the same unit under some protection out of the way of the elements.

Even if your house is pre-wired, you most likley have a central area with all the COAX from each room comes together. That would be a perfect spot to put a switch.

Please let us know how your conversation with Directv went.

I did check today and the wires are grounded. The wires leading from the roof, part way down the side edge of my house have a green wire that is then run to our electric meter which is grounded.
I still plan on calling Dtv to have appearance cleaned up
Pauly

[ckudrna]

Good news that it is grounded.

I do think it is in your best interest to hide some of the wires and get the switch out of the elements. No need to have to buy a new switch in a year because of a cold snowy winter.

Good Luck.