Hopper creating constant buzz?

[tjboston5676]

That's definitely improper grounding. The green ground wire should be attached to the orange hub, not the red splitter. Then the cable from dish should have a grounding wire (called a messenger wire that's part of the cable) with one end attached at dish mount and one end also attached to orange hub. And then the other end of green wire should be somehow tied into the same ground as the house electrical panel.
Usually I'd tell you if it's an improper ground to disconnect it because no ground is more safe than an improper ground. But you said the buzz gets louder with it off. I'd at minimum move it to the orange hub and see if anything changes.
You can also try leaving it disconnected then inside on the power cable for hopper temporarily lift the ground using an adapter.

 

[RickMo]

Whoa! Good info, thank you. So, the lack of a messenger wire with the coax connecting the dish to the splitters would indicate a compromised install? Is that correct?

Currently, there's absolutely no buzz from the speakers, but I moved the ground wire from the current splitter to the orange one.

I'm thinking I should contact the local Dish installers and have them re-do the install? Would that be a valid request?

Thanks again for the useful info.

 

[navychop]

I’ve never had a messenger on any of my Dish installs. Of course, none of them were grounded.

I’d say if you can stop the hum, call it a day.

 

[RickMo]

I agree...if it works don't fix it. I'll let it cook and see what happens.

 

[HipKat]

Couple of pictures attached. The first picture shows the ground cable attached to thew splitter. It disappears into the wall, and probably snakes under the house. On the 2nd picture, the large cable to the bottom left comes from the dish itself. I don't see any "second black wire" attached to the incoming cable nor do I see any type of grounding cable at the satellite dish. Thanks for your input.

That wire isnt there. Kinda wish you'd panned back a little on that pic soi we could see what's connected to what in there. The orange one is ours. Not sure about the other two.

 

[HipKat]

Whoa! Good info, thank you. So, the lack of a messenger wire with the coax connecting the dish to the splitters would indicate a compromised install? Is that correct?

Currently, there's absolutely no buzz from the speakers, but I moved the ground wire from the current splitter to the orange one.

I'm thinking I should contact the local Dish installers and have them re-do the install? Would that be a valid request?

Thanks again for the useful info.

The messenger wire bonds the dish to the ground. It's supposed to be there but too many techs are getting lazy and not carrying the cable with the messenger wire on it anymore - which is aggravating, but it's not going to have any effect on the system's performance. I'd be surprised if 30% of installs are even grounded anymore.

 

[RickMo]

Here's a grander scale pix, though I can't follow the connections.

 

[HipKat]

There is so much wrong there. Do you have four Joeys because if you do, there should be a separate to a splitter on each of those client ports that one cable going to a four-way splitter. They did not change the connectors to disconnect and use the ones that were there. The one with the yellow band is old. Should’ve been replaced. I’m not saying these are things that are causing your issue, but this is a QA fail.

If you’re not using four Joeys, that means that there are cables connected to the system that are open in rooms where you don’t have TVs, which is a real problem with picking up exterior interference through ingress.

 

[tjboston5676]

There is so much wrong there. Do you have four Joeys because if you do, there should be a separate to a splitter on each of those client ports that one cable going to a four-way splitter. They did not change the connectors to disconnect and use the ones that were there. The one with the yellow band is old. Should’ve been replaced. I’m not saying these are things that are causing your issue, but this is a QA fail.

If you’re not using four Joeys, that means that there are cables connected to the system that are open in rooms where you don’t have TVs, which is a real problem with picking up exterior interference through ingress.

Unfortunately most techs don't understand db loss. Like why would you want -7db loss when you can reduce it to -3.5. Makes no sense.

 

[navychop]

If it makes no actual difference in the end, ….

 

[tjboston5676]

If it makes no actual difference in the end, ….

Usually it wont, but in big houses with long cable runs it absolutely does. The better the install the longer it will go issue free. (Besides software bugs)

 

[RickMo]

You're right, tjboston, I have 4 Joeys connected and a live connection in a room I don't usually use. The idea being I could move a Joey into that room.

So far, no reappearance of the buzzing...