Need Help - 4 LNB lines, 1 OTA, and 1 RR, but only 5 available runs.

[nlrobert]

Okay,

I have 5 runs of coax coming into my home and I do not have the capability to run another line.

I currently have 4 LNB lines coming in from my two dishes (2nd dish is for 61.5) and the 5th is being used for my cable modem service.

I have a nice OTA antenna that I want to run into the house as well, but I'm not quite sure how to make it work.

The OTA antenna requires amplification to work, so I don't think I could combine it with either the Sat or Cable modem line and backfeed the amplification without messing something up.

Can I do the following....

1. Take 2 of the LNB lines outside and connect them to a stacker.
2. The stacker would then use a single cable coming into my control panel inside the house.
3. I would then destack the two LNB signals and connect them to my DP switch.

This would free up an extra cable run and I could use it for my OTA.

If I can stack two or more of the LNB feeds, then what product do I need to buy to do the stacking and destacking?

Thanks in advance!!

 

[Pepper]

About the only thing I can think of is putting the amplifier's power inserter outside in a protective case, then diplex into one of the sat lines.

The DishPro LNBFs are already stacked so that will limit your ability to stack further. You'd need ~5GHz rated cable.

 

[Agonizing Fury]

There is no device that I know of that will let you stack the satellite signals, and you are correct that if your antenna has a pre-amp in it, it generally will not work to stack the antenna signal together with a satellite feed (the only way it will work is if you can put the power inserter for the antenna outside). However, if you have a nice strong signal from your cable provider, and the cable provider stays below 860MHz for the cable modem, you can stack the cable modem signal with a satellite feed using standard diplexers. I have found diplexers from 3 of the Proud SatelliteGuys Gold sponsers:
The Dish Store - Powered by Metro25
S-UV30 Combiner / Diplexer
2GHz TV-Satellite Mini-Diplexer
Keep in mind that for most diplexers you will loose 2-3 dB of signal strength per diplexer, so if your signal to/from your cable modem and the cable company is already low, you may loose some speed, or the entire connection. Also, if your cable company uses frequencies above 860MHz for the cable modem (I am not, nor have I ever been a cable installer so I have no clue if any do), those frequencies will be completely cutoff by the diplexer so that may result in additional/complete speed loss for your cable modem. My office does not recommend diplexing cable modems due to these issues, however I have tried it before with varying results. Good luck.

Also note that although the diplexers above may work fine in your installation, the only diplexer that I know of that is DNS approved is the Holland DPD2, which I have not found from any of the gold sponsors, but you can find with a simple google search.

 

[Pepper]

Duh! You're right, diplex the cable modem into one of the sat feeds, that frees up a line for the OTA amplified antenna.

 

[ericha]

How many receivers are there? Perhaps you could put a DPP44 switch outside, and only use the number of cable runs as there are receivers. Of course a DPP44 would be a lot more expensive than a couple of diplexers.

 

[nlrobert]

I have a couple diplexers and tried to diplex one of the Sat lines and the RR line together, but my modem would not sync. The Satellite worked fine, but the modem would not get a signal.

I also tried to use the diplexer with the cable modem line and the OTA, but I hooked the OTA to the DC pass side of each diplexer. I thought that would allow the amplifier to feed back to the OTA antenna. The cable modem worked fine and the amp status light indicated everything was fine, but the TV could not pick up any OTA signals. So, that didn't seem to work either.

I thought about putting the amp outside, but I would have to get power to that area somehow. My only real option would be to punch through the wall and into the garage, which I do not want to do.

In regards to the number of receivers, I have 2 VIP 622 receivers inside the house.

 

[whatchel1]

Don't understand

I have a couple diplexers and tried to diplex one of the Sat lines and the RR line together, but my modem would not sync. The Satellite worked fine, but the modem would not get a signal.

I also tried to use the diplexer with the cable modem line and the OTA, but I hooked the OTA to the DC pass side of each diplexer. I thought that would allow the amplifier to feed back to the OTA antenna. The cable modem worked fine and the amp status light indicated everything was fine, but the TV could not pick up any OTA signals. So, that didn't seem to work either.

I thought about putting the amp outside, but I would have to get power to that area somehow. My only real option would be to punch through the wall and into the garage, which I do not want to do.

In regards to the number of receivers, I have 2 VIP 622 receivers inside the house.

With a DPP44 switch you only need to lines coming into house for sat to the VIP622's. So if you have 2 for those then you could have 1 for OTA & 1 for cable modem. That is a total of 4 lines w/o diplexing the OTA signal. You will need a power inserter for 1 of the 2 lines to power the DPP44.

 

[Agonizing Fury]

What exactly are the 4 Sat lines for? Seems to me if you had a 1000.2 (or a 1000.4) you would only need 2 sat lines? I need more info, but I'm sure we can come up with a good solution for you if you only have 2 622s. Please post what satellites you are looking at and what kind of dish, switches, and LNBs you have in your system. You can get most of this info from the check switch screen (Menu 6-1-1 then select the check switch option)

 

[nlrobert]

I have two dishes. One is used to get the 61.5 bird and the other dish pulls in 110, 118, and 119. I initially had problems getting a good signal on all 4 birds with the large single dish, so they added a second dish to pull in 61.5.

When I run a check switch, I get the following device results:

Satellite: 110, 118, 119, 61.5
Device: DPP44, Singl(1), Dbnd(2), Sngl(1), Sngls(1)

There are 4 coax lines coming from the 2 dishes and they connect to a ground block on the outside of the house. The 4 lines then run from the grounding block into my contol panel int he house. The 4 lines connect into a DPP44 switch in my control panel and use ports 1, 2, 3, and 4 on the DPP44. There's a power inserter on the 1st "to receiver" port. All 4 "to Receiver ports" are used and two lines run to one 622 and the other two lines run to the other 622.

 

[boba]

What make and model TV antenna do you plan on connecting? You may be able to move the DPP44 switch to the outside to free up at least 1 line for your antenna. I would suggest calling DISH to do the moving unless you are really experienced with distribuyion systems.

 

[nlrobert]

Wouldn't I have to get a power source outside to use the power inserter on the DPP44?

 

[nlrobert]

The antenna is a Wineguard external. It was the antenna that Voom provided when I subscribed to their service a few years back. I got to keep the antenna when their service was cancelled and I moved over to Dish.

If I get a new OTA antenna that does not require amplification, could I combine the signal with the cable modem line or one of the SAT lines and go that route?

 

[Agonizing Fury]

Why they are running two lines to DPP compatible receivers with a DPP switch is beyond me, but as long as you have the sperators that came with your receivers, you only need one line to each receiver (DPP technology allows stacking between the switch and the receiver, but not between the dish and the switch). Then you can move the DPP44 outside, with the power inserter still inside connected to whichever line is going to port one on the DPP44. This will allow you to still use seperate lines for your OTA antenna, as well as having a spare from outside now! Also this will free up one line going to each receiver for your OTA signal so it doesn't even have to be diplexed. Here is an example of what it will look like, then just add in the OTA antenna on the newly freed up lines. http://tech.dishnetwork.com/departm...tal/images/pdf/tech/DistributionExample12.pdf

Note: While you're changing everything around, Put 119 on port 1; 110 on port 2; 61.5 on port 3; and 118 on port 4. Don't know why it's supposed to be that way, but dish says that's they way it's supposed to go.

 

[nlrobert]

I will give it a try.

Thanks

 

[boba]

Do you have the power supply for the Sensar II? Many Voom installs used the Voom receiver for a power supply for the antenna and didn't provide the power supply.

 

[nlrobert]

Yes...I have the antenna power supply. I will position it inside at my control panel.