Not Vooming yet :(

chayse

Active SatelliteGuys Member
Original poster
Jun 8, 2004
21
0
SE PA
Not Vooming yet :(.....Vooming now though.

Well, I'm not Vooming yet. :no The installer has left. I am not able to get a good signal at the stb. Installer says that the signal is 93 at the Sat, but only 30 at the stb. He is blaming my run of cable. He said there were too many connections between the Sat and the stb. I ran brand new RG6 quad shield cable from my attic to the wall jack in each room where the stbs would be located, there are no other breaks or splitters. When the Dish was put in, the installer needed to run a cable into the attic then use an inline F-connector to connect to my cable and there is another inline connector at the wall jack. Could two F-couplers cause that much of a signal degredation? I don't think the total run of cable is more than about 75-80'
I'm going to do some trouble shooting when I get home. Wife was there during the install.
 
He's full of Shiza! I did the same thing as you, I have RG-6 Quad shield that I ran from the dish to an outside connector, ran a short splice through the wall to a wall plate, then a cable to my box and I have the same signal strength as the other box which has a straight line going to it.
 
well, now that I am home and have had time to look at the situation, here is what i see. First, he used the diplexor. kinda figured he would, but I have two straight lines to each TV location. This would indicate that the Diplexor was unnecessary. second, he reused some wiring that was in the house when i moved in. It is RG6 but looks pretty ratty. So, First I took my TV and box into the attic (PITA let me tell you) and I connected directly to the wires he ran from outside. Tried both cables, still got 32 signal. Ok, it is not my wiring causing the problem. Next, got out the BFL and went to the dish on the roof. I disconnected one lnb from the diplexor and connected straight to the wires ging into the house. Tried the box again, still got 32-33 signal. now I have pretty much eliminated all but two things, the old piece of cable he reused, and the aiming of the dish. Even though he said he got 93 at the dish, i'm betting the dish needs to be reaimed. What do you guys think?
 
I have 6 butt connections where the installer used existing cable to get the signal into the house and to both stb's. My stregnth it 90 and quality is 96. During rain it drops to 70's. I am even shooting thtough a tree. So i don't see how 2 connections can degrade the signal that much unles they are either bad quality or the goober that made them did bad work.
 
need adjusted

chayse said:
well, now that I am home and have had time to look at the situation, here is what i see. First, he used the diplexor. kinda figured he would, but I have two straight lines to each TV location. This would indicate that the Diplexor was unnecessary. second, he reused some wiring that was in the house when i moved in. It is RG6 but looks pretty ratty. So, First I took my TV and box into the attic (PITA let me tell you) and I connected directly to the wires he ran from outside. Tried both cables, still got 32 signal. Ok, it is not my wiring causing the problem. Next, got out the BFL and went to the dish on the roof. I disconnected one lnb from the diplexor and connected straight to the wires ging into the house. Tried the box again, still got 32-33 signal. now I have pretty much eliminated all but two things, the old piece of cable he reused, and the aiming of the dish. Even though he said he got 93 at the dish, i'm betting the dish needs to be reaimed. What do you guys think?


more then likely it just needs adjustment. he is just barely hitting the sat. more then likely he is on the dish satellite and not the voom sat.
 
Well, I was right. I was able to get the BFL out and tweak the dish slightly. Signal went to 94. it must have moved back a little when i tightened it, b/c it is now stable at 90-91. The guy is supposed to be back out tomorrow morning. The boxes were never activated today, they could not hit them. Oh, I can still get my OTA channels without the box being active for Sat. I can't get all of them in my PG but a couple. I can also get 999 without activation. I figure the OTA needs to be moved higher on the house. The direction of the towers is through the house from where it is currently mounted.
 
Antenna

chayse said:
Well, I was right. I was able to get the BFL out and tweak the dish slightly. Signal went to 94. it must have moved back a little when i tightened it, b/c it is now stable at 90-91. The guy is supposed to be back out tomorrow morning. The boxes were never activated today, they could not hit them. Oh, I can still get my OTA channels without the box being active for Sat. I can't get all of them in my PG but a couple. I can also get 999 without activation. I figure the OTA needs to be moved higher on the house. The direction of the towers is through the house from where it is currently mounted.

Chayse
When the installer come tomarrow if the antenna is pointing into you house request that he move it high cause you will have nothing but problems believe me i am doing so many service call for that same reason.
Tyork
 
Way to go chayse. Sounds like another documented case of Customer knows more than Installer. It makes you wonder where he pulled the original figure of 93 for signal strength from, but it sounds like he pulled it from somewhere to the rear of where you would normally hold a strength meter.
 
that's not really fair, maybe rkr doesn't know how. But he should lighten up. rkr, go smoke some weed before you log on next time, might slow the synapsis from your head to your fingers enough that we can all get along.

This setup brings up an issue to me. When we have unused plates that have been completely wired, wouldn't it be best if we put 50 ohm terminators on them when they are not in use?
 
I'm up and Vooming now....

Well, the installer came back early this morning. He was a really nice guy. I told him what I did for the signal. He said "that's great". I also asked him if he could rearrange the OTA antenna b/c I was missing a couple of channels. I also asked him to please move the diplexor from the dish into the attic. This will make it easier if I decide I don't like it to remove it. He agreed to both things. I was able to get better OTA recept. and he put new cables into the house and did not reuse the old wiring this time. All in all, it was not too terrible of an experience. I think this whole thing would have been much easier if there were two people. One to watch the signal meter and another to tweak the dish. I would have been more than happy to help him, but I could not take off work yesterday, wife was the only one home. He did try, which is more than some of the installer stories that i have read about. I'll be Vooming this evening when i get home. Can't wait. :D
 
occammd said:
that's not really fair, maybe rkr doesn't know how. But he should lighten up. rkr, go smoke some weed before you log on next time, might slow the synapsis from your head to your fingers enough that we can all get along.

This setup brings up an issue to me. When we have unused plates that have been completely wired, wouldn't it be best if we put 50 ohm terminators on them when they are not in use?
That statement is in reference to rkr posts in another thread...really I'm not trying to be a jerk, just trying to point out that sometimes a little effort on our parts is needed to get all working properly.
 
I understand, but we are technical, maybe he isn't. But he should mellow a bit, which he did.
 
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