3 Sats with Legacy

[mattcoz]

Hi guys, new to post but enjoy the site. I currently have aq 6ft for 119 and a 4ft for 110 and will be adding a third for 61.5 or 129. I currently have legacy LNB's. What can I use for a multiswitch? I have seen a 6x8 for DTV, am not sure. My neighbors and I share the system, so I do need 8 outputs. Thanks

 

[KKlare]

The official/standard 3-satellite Legacy Dish solution was to use the SW64 switch. This requires 2 feeds from each of the 3 and thus the 6. It outputs to 4 receivers. I had one but forget if it had trunking ports. Trunking passes the inputs on to another switch. If not there are probably ways to split each feed and parallel a second one with a lot of cables. It is much simpler with Dish Pro.
-Ken

 

[Haysoos]

Ya with the 64, you have to cascade them using splitters and feed-thru loads. No trunking. It's a PITA. You're better off just getting ahold of some Dish Pro/Dish Pro Plus equipment.

 

[Stargazer]

I have not had any luck getting legacy switches to work for the past year or two and replacing them with DishPro solves the problem. I thought I read someone else having the same issue.

 

[mattcoz]

I have been told where I live South of the Border that the signal loss of Dish pro or pro plus would force me to upgrade to an 8ft antennae, not inexpensive.

 

[AudioFox]

You know, I was just thinking about posting a similar question. Here's the deal, I currently have a 36" antenna with a dual output directed at EchoStar 14, it's connected to a common FTA/DirecTV style multiswitch with 2 inputs (H+V) and 4 outputs, the kind that uses 16/18V to switch between its two inputs.

I'd like to add another dual output for EchoStar 11 (I couldn't care less about the local channels on EchoStar 10, or whatever's on the Ku half of Galaxy 23). Switching to DishPro stuff isn't really an option, since I don't have a dish their silly proprietary LNBF mounts will fit, and I am not giving up my lovely Invacom/Andrew combo. What I need is something that will take 4 inputs (2xH+2xV) and has four outputs. I've done some reading and found that the "SW44" switch seems to be that, but the ones I've found so far are expensive as hell. Is there a cheapie (sub-$40) generic version somewhere that would be compatible with my DP311 receiver?

 

[KKlare]

You do know that Dish use left- and right-handed circular polarization and not H- and V-linear, at least on all the DSS satellites. A multi-switch may work even so, but this is another complication. This allows Dish to not have a problem when the dish is skewed.
-Ken