DirecTV 5 LNB Dish Install Follies

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Happy Camper

SatelliteGuys Pro
Original poster
Jul 20, 2005
264
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Central Texas
So, we have one HR20 and four other D* receivers (including two HD TiVos) attached to a whole house TV and audio structure, which includes nine televisions and an amplified Channel Master deep fringe OTA antenna. But, we have a three LNB oval dish, so we cannot receive HD locals (don't need to get them from D*), nor will we be able to receive any of the new MPEG4 transmissions from D10. Of course, we call and ask them to come and install the new slimline 5 lnb dish. We take extra care to tell them that we have a Terk 4x8 powered multiswitch which won't work with the new dish, so be sure and bring a new MULTISWITCH!

Of course, the guys show up today at the very end of their 1-5 PM window without the multi-switch, but that's not the real problem. Help, help.

They wander around my attic and house for a half hour, make some calls to their supervisor, and then tell me that the only place they can put the new dish is on the roof of my back porch, the only 'one story' structural part of our house, with the dish facing forward, with a wire running outside my breakfast room window attached to my rear water faucet. This is tow and a half feet above our back door. This is because, they say, they can't find a ground in the attic (my current dish is on the roof by the chimney and works fine), and "can't run a ground wire over twenty feet," so they can't put the dish anywhere on the second floor of my house, or on the roof, but only on the first floor porch roof. Surely not.

Needless to say, we do not want a dish the size of a small airplane wing right over our back door with a wire attached to our water faucet, to say nothing of antgonizing our neighbors, the HOA, the city and the golf course, even tough we could waive a federal law at them and put it there if we really wanted a ridiculous eyesore right in front of our noses.

Surely someone has solved the problem of installing a second floor dish? Apparently, our three LNB dish now artfully on our roof and pointed elegantly is not now grounded and has never been. They will not put the new dish where the old one is, or anywhere near there.

We are charter D* subscribers and would like to keep the service, but we'll have the same problem again this spring when our new house is built unless someone can figure out how to ground the darn thing. FIOS here we come, or I guess a decent CEDIA installer we hire ourselves can figure it out? (at a cost, of course)

By the way, the Mastek geniuses who came out here are the same company who dug for Verizon fiber optics in our neighborhood last year and cut off our water, telephones, cable and gas at various times. They are not popular here, to say the least.

Does not give me confidence.

Is there a solution to this, oh Gurus of the Forum? I'm a little peevish, as you can tell, but I'd really like to keep the D* service and solve the problemo. The guys who came to our house today did not impress me as rocket scientists who were involved in the successful launch of D10.

Thanks. Regards,
The Camper
 
If you are not bothered by the dish not being grounded, and understand the potential consequences, and will not hold the installers, their employer, or DirecTV liable, then you should be able to sign off on it and have the slimline installed to your specifications.
 
They wander around my attic and house for a half hour, make some calls to their supervisor, and then tell me that the only place they can put the new dish is on the roof of my back porch, the only 'one story' structural part of our house, with the dish facing forward, with a wire running outside my breakfast room window attached to my rear water faucet.
There's two things at play here:

1. Many installation companies have instituted policies prohibiting working above a certain height on a ladder.

2. DIRECTV is getting hard-nosed about proper grounding (although grounding to a water faucet is not necessarily proper).

I'm guessing you're getting some run-around mixed in with the reality; expecially since they were late.
FIOS here we come, or I guess a decent CEDIA installer we hire ourselves can figure it out? (at a cost, of course)
Those are both sure ways around the installer problem. The trick for the pro installer approach is to get DIRECTV to reimburse you for some or all of the cost.

Don't stick with DIRECTV because you've been with them forever. Stick with them because they offer the programming and hardware you desire at a reasonable price. Of course the balance of your 24 month programming commitment on the HR20 will play a huge part in all of this...
 
If you are not bothered by the dish not being grounded, and understand the potential consequences, and will not hold the installers, their employer, or DirecTV liable, then you should be able to sign off on it and have the slimline installed to your specifications.

And if you can get a waiver from your local code inspector to violate the NEC. :rolleyes:

Harshness is right, D* has cracked down on improper/no grounding and is starting to charge back the HSP's if the system is not grounded to local code.

If you don't want it installed to code, the only way it will happen is if you do it yourself or find a hack installer.
 
So, does anyone have a good idea or solution for how to ground a 5 LNB dish when you want it roof mounted and the wire coming in through the attic?
 
Directv crackdown?

Hi, I just had dtv guys add a multiswitch for my 5 lnb dish. the dish is located in only good spot at the top of a pitchy 2nd story roof. The original install had two cables coming down the roof to grounding blocks and then back inside. This pass they ran 4 cables right down through roof to the attic without any ground. When I called them on it they sent someone back out and they grounded it to an electric circuit in the attic. Apparently doing properly is likely to result in a cable run over 100ft to the switch, so that's a problem.

Any thoughts on how risky it is to keep dish on top of the house that's grounded this way? If Dtv is cracking down on improper grounding I haven't seen it.
 
I have a 5lnb slimline dish installed on my 2nd story. The ground is connected to the ground down outside the house. The same one the phone, power and everything is on...well one of two..we have to grounds outside. Mastec did this install. The cables snake around about 50 feet before they get to the ground. But it is grounded properly. Had to get a senior tech to come out and fix it, because the first mastec guy did it wrong...
 
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