Hopper Remotes

Seadoo

SatelliteGuys Guru
Original poster
Jan 26, 2004
129
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Will be getting hopper soon. I have several 21.1 remotes. Will they work with hoppers/joeys?
 
I have tons of 20.0s, 21.0s, 21.1s and of course 40.0s and other than IR vs UHF 2G they're all virtually identical.

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Well mine are IR/UHF 21.1 so .will they work UHF or only IR? Even in same room I have dvr behind a door so need UHF plus of course need uhf for remote tvs. Will the 40 remotes for Joeys be IR/UHF or only IR?
 
21.0 and older will only work in IR mode. All 40.0 remotes for Hopper/Joey are UHF. The 32.0 922 remote will also work in UHF mode with Hopper/Joey.

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All 40.0 remotes for Hopper/Joey are UHF.
I've been having sluggish remote issues recently (could very well be software related again) and one thing I noticed was that we have to point the remote at the receiver for it to work, as if it's in IR mode. I didn't look too closely, but I did see that the remote isn't like the older Dish remotes where you can pull out the colored tab and swap it to change modes.

Since it's UHF, does it use the small, thin antenna on the back for reception ? Or, does the Hopper even have that ? I can't remember anymore.... I know mine was broken, so it hung down, but it wasn't an issue -- pffft, that could be on the 722k we had previously though.
 
I've been having sluggish remote issues recently (could very well be software related again) and one thing I noticed was that we have to point the remote at the receiver for it to work, as if it's in IR mode. I didn't look too closely, but I did see that the remote isn't like the older Dish remotes where you can pull out the colored tab and swap it to change modes.

Since it's UHF, does it use the small, thin antenna on the back for reception ? Or, does the Hopper even have that ? I can't remember anymore.... I know mine was broken, so it hung down, but it wasn't an issue -- pffft, that could be on the 722k we had previously though.

Yes, 40.0 remote needs the thin antenna on the back of your Hopper. If it is broken and hung down low that is probably the reason your remotes are sluggish and have to point them at your Hopper.
 
I'll have to double-check if it's broken on the Hopper or if it was on a previous receiver. I think I saved a few too, from receivers that died and I had to return.... Can I use a piece of coaxial cable in it's place ? I know people did that on older, dual-tuner receivers so that the remote for TV2 got picked up better.
 
I'll have to double-check if it's broken on the Hopper or if it was on a previous receiver. I think I saved a few too, from receivers that died and I had to return.... Can I use a piece of coaxial cable in it's place ? I know people did that on older, dual-tuner receivers so that the remote for TV2 got picked up better.

The older Dish UHF antennas will not fit on your Hopper unless it is a 922 antenna. Have a DIRT member see if they can get you a replacement. You can use coaxial cable if it has the correct connector for the Hopper. There is a UHF antenna extension coax cable that you can order from Dish that will fit your Hopper. I have one on one of my Hoppers and it helps a little bit.
 
Doesn't seem like anything special about the connector. I just dug out an old indoor TV antenna like this one, antenna-indoor-vhf-uhf.jpg, and it's noticeably better !

The Hopper's normal little antenna was broken too....
 
The Hopper antenna works two ways. It both sends and receives to and from the remote.... That's how the automatic back-ups occur...
 
Doesn't seem like anything special about the connector. I just dug out an old indoor TV antenna like this one, View attachment 97059, and it's noticeably better !

The Hopper's normal little antenna was broken too....

Glad you got it working better. You have given me an idea. I used an antenna something like that when I had the 722s. It is a Radio Shack powered rabbit ear. I think I will try it out on one of my Hoppers. The Hopper that has the UHF extension antenna is still a little weak for one of my remote TV location. How did you connect the rabbit ears? Did you use a slip on connector?
 
I double-checked after you posted that - it barely threads on. The diameter is close but the thread must be different. It stays on though I'm not forcing it on more. All I know is, it's on enough. The improvement is almost night and day.

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I double-checked after you posted that - it barely threads on. The diameter is close but the thread must be different. It stays on though I'm not forcing it on more. All I know is, it's on enough. The improvement is almost night and day.

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WOW, that's great it is working much better for you. I am going to get out my Radio Shack powered rabbit ears and install one of them there slip on connectors to the coax and then attach it to the Hopper and see how she works.
 
The Hopper remote antenna uses an M10 connector. There are M10 extension kits but I haven't found anything that converts the standard F-connector to M10 yet. The UHF 2G uses 2.4GHz ZigBee technology. So the ideal antenna length would be 1.23 inches, 2.46 inches, 3.07 inches or 4.92 inches. Longer is better, but they need to be those exact lengths for optimal performance. You could buy Dish's extender (P/N 169178, ~$10 I believe,) cut off the other end and attach a standard F-connector. Then you can extend the antenna in the same manner as the 722.

Extending the Joey's antenna would take some soldering and warranty voiding, as its remote antenna is internal.
 
The Hopper remote antenna uses an M10 connector. There are M10 extension kits but I haven't found anything that converts the standard F-connector to M10 yet. The UHF 2G uses 2.4GHz ZigBee technology. So the ideal antenna length would be 1.23 inches, 2.46 inches, 3.07 inches or 4.92 inches. Longer is better, but they need to be those exact lengths for optimal performance. You could buy Dish's extender (P/N 169178, ~$10 I believe,) cut off the other end and attach a standard F-connector. Then you can extend the antenna in the same manner as the 722.

Extending the Joey's antenna would take some soldering and warranty voiding, as its remote antenna is internal.

I am going to try out powered rabbit ears with a slip on F-connector like in the pic. The connector is a little hard to press on the Hopper M10 male treads but I was able to get it on, fits nice and tight. When tired a-- kid gets up sometime today I will get my rabbit ears from his Hopper and try it out. When I had powered rabbit ears on my VIP722, it worked great. I could control the DVR way outside in the yard. I need better remote control coverage for a remote TV in my man cage (garage) to my Hopper in Great Room that has RF modulator. I have to find sweet spots in man cave to get it to work to the Great Room Hopper that already has an attached UHF extension antenna. The part number for the UHF antenna extension kit that I have is 169178. Still have two new ones in the bag that I didn't use. The extended antenna just improved things a little better. I am hoping that the rabbit ears like Hall installed provides better results. Will post back how goes it, hopefully today.

UHF Slip On Connector.jpg
 
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