Dknow said:
...splitters do not work for satellite...ever).
Splitters work fine for stacked, single LNB systems. DirecTV has been supporting this technology since about 1998 , but they don't tell residential customers about it.
Cal Amp made the first, DirecTV compatible "stacked LNBs" that took the even transponders and mixed them with a 575 Mhz oscillator to boost them above the odds transponder frequencies. Sony receiver models A/B 3, 4, 50. 55 and HD100 had hidden service screens accessed by pressing menu and down on the receiver panel at the same time, which allowed the receiver to be put into "stacked" mode. In fact, the A/B 3s allowed the frequency offset to be incrementally adjusted, because there were other companies, like Global, making stackers that shifted by a different amount. With the Sony GAEBO GAEBOA, and Hughes A/B 65, 65A,the destacker was accessed by pressing the "fav" button on the remotes when the yellow cursor was on TEST.
I think that with subsequent Hughes standard receivers, they got rid of the "fav" button but the screen was accessed the same way using the info button, and there were software upgrades that made the existence of the destacker visible in the set up, and if you ran a check switch, they eventually would discover that they were connected to a stacked LNB system and reconfigure themselves appropriately.
Hughes even made a software revision not available to the general public that used 13v/18v voltage switching between Satellites A and B, but that was only available to their largest MDU system operators.
Cal Amp stopped making them around 2001 or 2002. Holland Electronics made an inexpensive stacker but they discontinued it because of customer dissatisfaction. Sonora Design has been the largest and most reliable producer of DirecTV approved stacking hardware., Their model SAL 20-24 even has automatic gain control in it. Winegard started making a stacked LNB two or three years ago, but I don't think it is sold through their residential distribution channels. I know that Pace sells it.
I just switched a D11 into stacked mode today, and installed a Sonora "microstacker" in the cable junction box, , so that the DirecTV installer will now be able to return with the R15 and source both of the inputs with a splitter. Regrettably, in my limited experience at setting up the internal destackers in the "DirecTV brandless receivers, the receiver is pretty slow to respond to my selection of "stacked" mode. I have now done this in three receivers, and in each case, the receiver failed the signal test right after I initially selected stacked, but after pecking away for a few minutes, it smartened up and found the 1,525Mhz to 2,025 Mhz even transponders.
But I digress...