Do I need second multiswitch?

[steveswamp]

I started looking at my satellite setup the other day. I had a newbie tech put it in when I upgraded to HD 18 months ago. It worked, so that was good enough. Now that I'm getting ready to realign my dish, I started looking at the setup. I've got an SL3S, which has a builtin 4 port multiswitch. So I've got 4 feeds coming into the house. The tech took one of the feeds, put a 1x4 multiswitch on it, and used that to cover the house. For receivers, I've got 2 HD and 1 SD. That's it - no DVRs. Can I eliminate the 1x4 switch?

If so, does it matter which port to the dish I use to provide SWM power?

Since I'm only using 3 ports now, if I swap out a receiver for a DVR, any issues?

How much signal loss is associated with a 1x4?


Thanks in advance,

Steve.

 

[Hutch1814]

I started looking at my satellite setup the other day. I had a newbie tech put it in when I upgraded to HD 18 months ago. It worked, so that was good enough. Now that I'm getting ready to realign my dish, I started looking at the setup. I've got an SL3S, which has a builtin 4 port multiswitch. So I've got 4 feeds coming into the house. The tech took one of the feeds, put a 1x4 multiswitch on it, and used that to cover the house. For receivers, I've got 2 HD and 1 SD. That's it - no DVRs. Can I eliminate the 1x4 switch?

If so, does it matter which port to the dish I use to provide SWM power?

Since I'm only using 3 ports now, if I swap out a receiver for a DVR, any issues?

How much signal loss is associated with a 1x4?

Thanks in advance,

Steve.

You're only using 1 feed out of the 4. You have a SWM system. You can't take the splitter out at all unless you get yourself a slimline 3 lnb. SWM is the norm now. You're losing 8 db's in that splitter, as far has signal goes, nothing is lost in the splitter.

 

[Mr Tony]

I'm confused.....you mention 4 cables coming into the house which means a non SWM setup...yet they put a splitter/switch on one of the lines?

 

[Liquidforce88]

I'm confused.....you mention 4 cables coming into the house which means a non SWM setup...yet they put a splitter/switch on one of the lines?

Upgrade had four cables run already. Tech switched to SWM and only needs one cable. Just leave other cables, never know what they may be needed for.

 

[steveswamp]

I'm confused.....you mention 4 cables coming into the house which means a non SWM setup...yet they put a splitter/switch on one of the lines?

My dish - a Slimline 3 SWM - has 4 coax cables coming out of it. I was told that it's a SWM dish with a builtin multiswitch. Or is it just a 4-port LNB? It's the large single horn LNB, not the multi-horn of the Slimline 5. When he installed it, we randomly picked one of the coax cables coming out of it to put into the 1x4 multiswitch. Glad I'm not the only one feeling confused....

Thanks,


Steve.

 

[texasbrit]

OK, your setup is very confusing but can possibly clarify. If the LNB at the dish is an SL3 SWM, three out of the four cables are not connected at the dish end because the SWM dishes only have one output, the other three cables are redundant.
The cable from your SWM dish is run to a four-way splitter, it is NOT a multiswitch. If you have 2 HD receivers and oiine SD, plus the power inserter, you aree using all four ports on the splitter. The power inserter must be connected to the red power passing port otherwise the dish won't work.
You can replace any one of the receivers with a DVR using the cable already being run to the receiver. With SWM, a DVR only needs one cable.
If you want to add any more receivers/DVRs you will need to replace the 4-way splitter with an 8-way.
Don't worry about the losses in the splitter, your system won't work without the splitter and the signals from the SWM system are strong enough to handle an 8-way split, unless you have very long cable runs (100ft or more).

 

[Mr Tony]

Upgrade had four cables run already. Tech switched to SWM and only needs one cable. Just leave other cables, never know what they may be needed for.

The way I read it is there are 4 cables coming out of the LNB....thats where I'm confused.

Hopefully the OP can clarify if there is one cable coming out of the LNB or 4?

 

[Hutch1814]

The way I read it is there are 4 cables coming out of the LNB....thats where I'm confused.

Hopefully the OP can clarify if there is one cable coming out of the LNB or 4?

He prolly has 4 lines "coming" from the dish but only 1 is used. Like said, upgrades, we go there and covert it to SWM. Leave the other 3 for if or when they'll be needed. Never know when a 16 will be needed so we leave the lines.

 

[steveswamp]

He prolly has 4 lines "coming" from the dish but only 1 is used. Like said, upgrades, we go there and covert it to SWM. Leave the other 3 for if or when they'll be needed. Never know when a 16 will be needed so we leave the lines.

I can look and see 4 wires coming out of the dish. Until I get on the roof this weekend and pull it out and look, I won't know for sure what's connected. Sounds like only one is hooked up at the LNB. I'll let everyone know the answer once I find out.

Thanks again for all the help.

 

[twizt3dsist3r]

thats probably what happened, during the upgrade your tech switched you from a legacy lnb to a swm lnb and left all 4 wires there, this makes sense, but without pulling the lnb from the feedarm you really have no way to know for sure, what exactly was your origional question however?


Edit*** ahhh now i get it.... your tech switched you over to swm and added the splitter, and your asking if you can eliminate the splitter and 'barrel' the 3 lines together. Well the short answer is no, unless you have the origional lnb your tech probably took with him, you need to leave it setup as it is, why are you realigning again? what sort of signals are you getting on 99/103. If your in the 90s or even 80s you should be good and not need to touch anything. The Power supply needs to stay exactly where it is, and the line plugged into the red port on the splitter outside needs to stay where it is, unless you move the power inserter to a different room, then you must change the lines outside to match. Its probably safest you leave everything connected where its at, or call direct to come out if you need things moved.

 

[steveswamp]

Edit*** ahhh now i get it.... your tech switched you over to swm and added the splitter, and your asking if you can eliminate the splitter and 'barrel' the 3 lines together. Well the short answer is no, unless you have the origional lnb your tech probably took with him, you need to leave it setup as it is, why are you realigning again? what sort of signals are you getting on 99/103. If your in the 90s or even 80s you should be good and not need to touch anything. The Power supply needs to stay exactly where it is, and the line plugged into the red port on the splitter outside needs to stay where it is, unless you move the power inserter to a different room, then you must change the lines outside to match. Its probably safest you leave everything connected where its at, or call direct to come out if you need things moved.

My 101 is in the 90s - most upper, but a few at 90-92. My 101/103 is no higher than 65, and as low as 38. The tech was a new guy who put it up in a rainstorm. It was slightly better when he did it 18 months ago, but it has dropped enough to cause several HD channels (TNT, USA, etc) to drop out. I originally thought this was due to a tree that had grown into the path, but I've taken that down and didn't get much signal level improvement. So I'll check it out tomorrow and let you know what the real dish setup is out there...thanks again.

 

[texasbrit]

My 101 is in the 90s - most upper, but a few at 90-92. My 101/103 is no higher than 65, and as low as 38. The tech was a new guy who put it up in a rainstorm. It was slightly better when he did it 18 months ago, but it has dropped enough to cause several HD channels (TNT, USA, etc) to drop out. I originally thought this was due to a tree that had grown into the path, but I've taken that down and didn't get much signal level improvement. So I'll check it out tomorrow and let you know what the real dish setup is out there...thanks again.

Your 99c, 103ca and 103cb signals should be in the high 80s to mid 90s. Don't worry about 99s and 103s, they carry spotbeamed HD locals and so it is normal to see low or even zero signals from those spotbeams pointed at other cities.

 

[twizt3dsist3r]

if he put it up in a rainstorm im not sure him being new had much to do with your signal issue, (you do have somewhat low signal) but if it was installed while raining, he probably couldnt get it any higher if he was a 10yr vet. Just make sure you have someone near the tv while your trying to peak it to call out numbers, if you dont have a meter or cant do it professionally you could end up making it worse.

 

[Liquidforce88]

All you have to do is loosen the two bolts that are on the outside of the elevation and the 2 bolts under the backing plate. Leave the bolt that holds the elevation adjustment bolt tight. It will probably only take a very slight change in elevation or azimuth to raise you signals.

Just have someone at one of your receivers looking at the signal screen. Turn the elevation adjustment slowly untill you get signal as high as you can. Then do the same on the azimuth adjustment. You get you signals on 103 and 99 above 90 and you should be good. Won't take much of an adjustment with the numbers you have on your 101.

 

[steveswamp]

Ok, job is done. Here is what I found:

When I pulled out the LNB, I indeed only had one coax attached to it. I guess the confusing part was that before this, I had an 18" round 2-LNB setup. I pulled four coaxes up to the roof in preparation for my move to the new dish. When the installer came out, he shoved all 4 into the LNB arm, even though he used only one.

I did find a slightly loose dish - the tech didn't do a good job of tightening everything down. From a couple heavy storms we've had in the past year, things shifted. The pole that the dish is mounted on (I have a universal chimney mount on my roof) had shifted slightly out of plumb, and the az/el lock bolts were not very tight. I have installed several dishes before, and have aligned/realigned as well. Once I got things peaked, I was good.

To give you an idea of what I had/where I'm at now:

101 was: 92-99, now: 96-100
99c was: 44-59, now: 91-95
103ca was: 27-46 (half were 0), now: 95-97
103cb was: 25-57, now: 91-97
SWM was: 92-100, now: 98-100

So quite a bit of improvement. When the tech first installed this, 99/103 was never better than about 75.

Couple questions, just out of curiousity:

1) I understand 101/99/103....what exactly is the SWM signal strength measuring?
2) on the 101, I have two odd transponders. 26 has always been 0, and 18 is a 73. I can't recall seeing anything on transponder 26 in years, but I don't remember 18 being so low. What's up with these two?

Again, thanks for all the answers.

Steve.