Distance you can run cable for Sat tv

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pezley69

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Original poster
Aug 22, 2007
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Hello,

I have been reading over the forums and went back several pages and did not see an answer to the question I am wondering. What is the realistic limit to how much cable I can run to the actual dish? I am in a situation where my lot is heavily wooded towards the southern sky. If I can mount a dish near the back of my lot I can easily get signal but I will end up needing about 200 feet (or possibly a bit more) to get signal to my house.

I am interested in getting the top 250 along with the HD DVR packages if that matters (I currently have HD cable)

Please advise what you think might be some possible options. I had one Sat company out about 3 years back and at that time he said he would not get signal (he tried from the roof and all over the yard) but he said you could not go as far as I suggested.

Any help/advise is appreciated.
 
With current equipment, i.e. DishPro, it's rated for 200'. Will it work at 250' ?? Maybe... Will an installer guarantee anything ?? Not likely... Worse, if it initially works then you get problems later, they'll blame it on the distance everytime. :mad:
 
Sounds to me like most likely a no then.....

Oh well, guess I am stuck with the cable tv....

Thanks for the input!
 
I wouldn't say that. Your area might call for a 1000.2 dish, no external switch needed. I have sucessfully made runs over 200' with no ill effects. I used high quality pure copper burial coax.

The problem your going to run into is the installer is going to laugh at you, just tell him that you'll take care of the cable run, burying it.
 
200-250 feet should work fine. The Dish 1000.2 has a built in switch (it is DishPro Plus technology) - DishPro and DishPro Plus allows longer wire runs than the legacy dishes.
 
Andrewwski said:
It should work, and you can always add an in-line amplifier if necessary.
Click to expand...



Hi,

can u suggest some amplifiers that can be used btween dish and receiver?As far as i know amplifiers are available for use from receiver to tv s,not between dish and receiver.
 
There's some made just for satellite...I think Radio Shack even has them, and they're rated up to 2150 mhz.
 
Those have less db loss over a long distance than RG6, but an amplifier will add more strength than saved by using the RG7 or RG11.
 
Wouldn't you need to use some sort of DP (DISHPRO) / DPP (DISHPRO PLUS) approved amplifier?

Yes, RG-11 would increase the length of cable that can be used, but it is a bit more pricy. I know that the amps have to be placed every so often in the cable.
 
Andrewwski said:
It should work, and you can always add an in-line amplifier if necessary.
Click to expand...

those inline amps suck, I have never seen a significant gain by using them, and I use to try all the time. There was one job where we put in 4 of them.. on at the dish, one before the switch, one after the switch, and one at the reciever, and still no go... and that was only on about 250' run.


If you are serious about getting satellite, it will cost ya.
But you could totally use RG11 to get those kinds of distances with no problem
 
birddoggy said:
those inline amps suck, I have never seen a significant gain by using them, and I use to try all the time. There was one job where we put in 4 of them.. on at the dish, one before the switch, one after the switch, and one at the reciever, and still no go... and that was only on about 250' run.


If you are serious about getting satellite, it will cost ya.
But you could totally use RG11 to get those kinds of distances with no problem
Click to expand...


So how much is RG11 and where do you buy it?
 
birddoggy said:
those inline amps suck, I have never seen a significant gain by using them, and I use to try all the time. There was one job where we put in 4 of them.. on at the dish, one before the switch, one after the switch, and one at the reciever, and still no go... and that was only on about 250' run.
Click to expand...

I have installed a couple hundred inline amps and have never had any trouble with any of them. Not even the $6 ones. But I know where and when to install them.

The signal strength % numbers displayed by the receiver in test mode are not indicators of signal strength. They are a measure of signal quality derived largely from the amount of bit error correction taking place. If the signal is within the input window of the receiver and it is then amplified, the signal strength will increase but the receiver's signal strength % number will not go up and sometimes it will go down.

You should never put an inexpensive inline amp at the LNB because it will almost always be overloaded. Surely, the cascade that birddoggy described developed excessive intermodulation distortion and made the signals qualitatively worse. If you face the situation of not being able to insert an inline amplifier in, say, a buried or encased coax of 300 feet, you might consider putting a low gain, high input inline amp at the LNB. Spaun makes a 10dB gain inline amp that can handle the power developed when it is installed at the LNB, but it sells for about $70.

Here is the simple arithmetic. An LNB puts pout a signal level of around -30dBm. The receiver's optimally receive input signals of -30dBm to -60dBm. RG-6 loses no more than 10 dB per hundred feet through RG-6, so you don;t approach the input floor of the receiver until the signal has gone through at least 300 feet of RG-6. I tested some at nearly 400 feet with DISHPro singles and 301/311 receivers and they worked without inline amplification.

The original poster should just install the system without the inline amps and see how it works. If he is then dissatisfied with its performance and eliminates all other possible sources of signal degradation, he can install a cheap inline signal amp AT THE RECEIVER end of the coax. That is the opposite of what you'd do to sustain analog RF TV signals. You can do this with digital signals because they don't need as high of a signal to noise ratio as analog signals. Only if that fails should he consider putting an expensive, high input inline amp at the LNB.
 
Last edited:
Interesting topic, as I'm facing the same situation at our new home. I have old legacy equipment using an SW64 switch. The best place for my dish is about 175' away from my structured wiring panel. I'd prefer to install the SW64 switch inside the panel vs on the dish. I was planning on doing 4 runs of RG11 from the dish to the switch 175' away, then the switch would feed recievers in the house over RG6. Anyone ever tried this? Or know how far away from the LNBs the old switches can be?
 
The SW64 comes with a small instruction manual that says that the length limit factors in the distance from the LNB to the switch and the distance from the switch to the receiver. I'm sure that others here can furnish those numbers, but I discarded my SW64 instructions several years ago.

I do remember that the recommendation was to keep the LNB to SW64 leads very short, like 30-50 feet. I never installed one any further away than that, but in light of the fact that the SW64 has its own power inserter, I find it hard to imagine that it wouldn't work with the runs of RG-11 that you propose, though if I were you, I'd upgrade to DISHPro at this time. It is more reliable and will allow you the benefits of DISHPro, like using more than three satellites and supporting a two tuner receiver with just one coax.
 

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