How does your switchbox look like?

[guapoharry]

Here is my old 8X1 switch setup and the new 16X4 switch setup. Both were inspired by Anole's excellent threads.

The new one looks cluttered, but was intended to fit in a small space. It uses powered multiswitches that are under a porch roof, and powered by a single power supply inside the house. Right now it is fed by two dishes with motors and two stationary dishes with of plenty of room to upgrade... A work in progress...

 

[ACRadio]

Mine is evolving, and is about to evolve again and is not finished by any means but here is what it currently looks like...

 

[Tron]

Mine is evolving, and is about to evolve again and is not finished by any means but here is what it currently looks like...

Nice switching, ACRadio! Lots of Spaun products. Are those cylindrical devices on the ground blocks lightning arrestors? If so, do they affect the signal in any way, and will they pass the bandstacked frequency range?

 

[ACRadio]

Nice switching, ACRadio! Lots of Spaun products. Are those cylindrical devices on the ground blocks lightning arrestors? If so, do they affect the signal in any way, and will they pass the bandstacked frequency range?

Sorry Tron...been out of town. They are SurgeEnders and they pass bandstacked IF fine...I'm currently using 3 bandstacked LNB's.

 

[zamar23]

What brand and model of Surge Protectors do you use?

 

[ACRadio]

What brand and model of Surge Protectors do you use?

These are SurgeEnders...I have 2 different vintages. The newer ones were made (marketed) by JVI.

 

[ACRadio]

In an earlier post I said my switch panel was evolving. I've been working on the changes the past few days and you can compare the earlier post above to pic 1. I made my own power inserters out of cheapie bias tees and a laptop computer power supply. The supply delivers 3.1 amps at 19 volts so it's a perfect voltage for powering LNB's. Since I'm not using the Pico Macom power inserters I gained a little room so I moved the Spaun multiswitches lower and brought the DiSEqC switches above the Spauns. I will be running 9 LNB's from this supply...pic 2 is a shot of the 9 tees. These cheapie tees are DC blocked at the output to the receiver and signal blocked at the power input, and are good to 2400 Mhz. Pic 3 is a shot of the terminal strip and the volt meter used to monitor the supply voltage. Pic 4 is a closeup of a set of the tees. This set will be used to power two C band orthos (one circular and one linear - Pendragon design) being readied for the Atlantic 2.4 meter Channel Master. Only one ortho is presently operational until I get another pair of coaxes up the hill.

 

[Tron]

Great idea, ACRadio! What brand and model tees are you using? Looks ideal for a bandstacked setup!

 

[ACRadio]

I got them from Solid Signal...it is made by PDI. The actual part number is PDI-P11 but the Solid Signal part number is PDI-PI-1. They are only $1.99 each but they eat you up on shipping. I got 8 and it was $43 and change. Do a search for power inserter on their site and you will find them. They have some other models that are a bit more expensive and of course high frequency bias tees (like 6 gig or higher) are much more expensive. There are many that are made for powering cable amps and are only good to 1000 Mhz. These were the most economical that would pass satellite IF. I got 2 of them a couple of weeks ago just to test and got the other 8 last week. The Pico Macoms are clean (and for sale...see the classifieds) but I did gain about a quarter of a db c/n. This way I can add LNB's to the system by just adding a tee and not having to buy a whole supply...new Pico Macoms are starting to get a bit hard to find. And if one wanted to duplicate the functionality of the Pico Macom for H/V polarity switching just use a 12 volt wall wart or other 12 -14 volt supply for the vertical tee.