LONG distance to Dish - will this work?

[ym2k]

Hi - I hope this isn't a FAQ.

The leaves have come in where I live and I have NO signal - nada. I have had the equipment checked and there is nothing wrong. Three trees are lined up perfectly to block Dish's satellites. Direct TV is not appealing to me and Dish has offered to credit me a fair amount against my bill to assist in this installation.

My only option is to place the dish 453 feet from the DP34 in my basement. The receivers are less than 20 feet downstream from the DP34.

My equipment:
PVR 501
PVR 508
Dish 1000, 3 LNBs
DP34

I was thinking of getting a Sonora LA-143 amplifier to boost the signal. Has anyone seen a distant install like this work ? I know that the amp with RG-6 is supposed to do 350 feet.

I was thinking of getting enough RG-6 for one run and the amplifier to test this out before investing in the rest of the cable and a trencher but I was hoping someone could give me some indication of whether this would work. The dish, once I relocate it, should have a clear shot at all satellites.

Thanks in advance for any advice,

Jim

 

[GVG]

I dont know about the amp, but for that distance I would run RG11 instead of RG6. Right from the start that will help your signal level. Plus for burial RG11 is a much more substantial cable.

 

[J. Allen Head]

I agree on the RG11 - Bigger coax and a lot less loss than RG6 - especially on long runs

 

[boba]

Good luck at that distance you will probably have too much voltage loss for the system to operate correctly. You only starting with a nominal 18volts dc.

 

[byseven]

I talked with the sonora folks, they said that 450 should be ok, and also they recoment RG11 , the only problem with the RG11 is the price.

Please Let us know what works for you.

 

[ym2k]

Thanks folks. The amp is ordered and I am awaiting a 500' section of RG-11. If this yields enough signal I'll finish up the install. Either way, I'll post the results.

Thanks again.

 

[vegassatellite]

Also make sure you get cable that is solid copper center conductor and not copper clad. Less voltage drop on solid copper than on copper clad steel.

 

[topcat0399]

dish says you need a min of 10.5 Volts from the receiver at the lnb, so if you dont get that, its iffy, regardless of the cable type.

 

[ym2k]

Hey folks,

Just wanted to update this. I ran 1 length of RG11 to the dish today and I have an average signal strength of about 75 across the 119 transponders. This is WITHOUT the amplifier. I have an average of about 54 on 110. I have ZERO on 129. I will try 129 again. BTW, the voltage level ( I have two receivers, FWIW) was 19 volts at the end of the run.

I'll get the exact footage onto the thread and perhaps post the results with the amp as well. Not sure what is going on with 129 - I would've expected something other than zero...

Thanks to all who helped.

Jim

 

[TheKrell]

Where did you put the DP34?

Edit 1: never mind. I just reread your first post. The 508's and 501's can only demodulate QPSK. Most transponders on 129 are 8PSK. I see TP 5 is QPSK...

Edit 2: 459ft w/o amplifier? Very impressive.

 

[J. Allen Head]

you might be pulling 110 on 119 lnb and 119 on 129 lnb - might need to bump the elevation a tad then tweak azimuth again - (test) cover the 129 lnb with foil and see if anything changes if you lose 119 then that is your problem

 

[Stargazer]

I did a voltage test on 1000 foot of RG-6 coax. I input 18 volts and at the end of 1000 feet it was still at 18 volts. I might have lost a faction of a volt like 0.2 volts if that. I thought there would be a higher voltage loss than this. I was looking at running voltage at 1000-2500 feet and end up with 12 volts total (for a different project - running wireless internet radios) but do not know if the RG-6 coax is a large enough guage to pass this. I have a lot of RG-6 in 1000 foot spools so that is why I am wanting to do this with the RG-6.

 

[TheKrell]

I did a voltage test on 1000 foot of RG-6 coax. I input 18 volts and at the end of 1000 feet it was still at 18 volts.

That is surprising. Did you put an appropriate load at the end before testing?

 

[ym2k]

Checking back in - the distance is 435 feet. I could not get a 3rd run of RG11 on Saturday so I used RG6U (from Lowes). So that's two RG11 and one RG6U in the ground. I put the RG6 on the 110 LNB. Surprisingly, the signal strength is not much worse than with the RG11. I did not check voltage on the RG6U run but I will try to.

I understand why people would recommend RG11 as a safer bet for a long run but I have to say that a 500ft spool of RG6U seems to be doing the job for the 110 sat. I have not yet put the LA143 amplifier in-line yet but will update the thread when I do. I need to make some nice patch cables from all that RG11 I have left over to go from LNBs to the amp which I'll mount on the pole.

Oh - and BTW, the poster who reminded me that 129 not delivered the same way as 110 and 119 was correct. My testing bypassed the DP34.

The only other thing I have to add is that there is a surprising amount of variability between transponders on all of the satellites which I was hoping someone could explain.

Jim

 

[byseven]

any news on this project ?