OTA Diplexer question

[teb2500]

I have an OTA in my attic and all of my cable distribution through the house is in the basement. I was able to bring the OTA cable into a vacant second floor bedroom that had an outlet that ran to the basement and was able to distribute to dish boxes from there. My issue is now that bedroom is going to be used and I would like to use the cable outlet in that bedroom for a second tuner from a dual receiver.

At the risk of sounding stupid, is there any way to run the OTA cable from that bedroom to the basement and a cable feed from a receiver in the basement back up to that bedroom using one cable? Via a diplexer or something else? I'm trying to see if I can avoid poking any more holes through the house for a another cable line. Any assistance is greatly appreciated. Thanks!

 

[Bobby]

You can do it with 2 diplexers as long as you don't have a Hopper system.

 

[harshness]

A better solution might be to use the existing cable to pull two new cables.

 

[teb2500]

You can do it with 2 diplexers as long as you don't have a Hopper system.

Hi Bobby - I just got around to trying this and I'm not sure of the setup - I seem to come out short one input somewhere. Let me see if I can explain how I tried to connect it and you can let me know where I am going wrong. As a reminder, I have an OTA in the attic and a TV2 in an upstairs bedroom with one cable running from the bedroom through the house to the basement where all of my connections are. I have that diplexer configured as follows: OTA into VHF/UHF, TV2 into SAT and cable running to basement in the IN/OUT. In the basement, I have a cable from the diplexer VHF/UHF port go into a splitter to distribute the OTA signal to other receivers, the other end of the cable from the bedroom going into the IN/OUT port and a cable running to the 222 receiver into the SAT port. It seems I'm missing somewhere to attach the cable to the outside dish (which I assume would ordinarily go into the SAT port on the diplexer.

I'm confused. It doesn't seem like there are enough ports on a diplexer to connect all of these. In the upstairs bedroom, I need to connect an OTA, a TV2 and a line to the basement. In the basement, I need to connect (1) that line coming to the basement, (2) an OTA distribution cable, (3) a cable to the receiver and (4) the cable to the outside dish. Do I need a third diplexer or something else? Any help is greatly appreciated.

 

[harshness]

You can't easily diplex OTA where there's a TV2 involved as OTA and TV2 are in the same frequency band. It requires special equipment and substantial forethought to do correctly.

The issue with teb2500's setup is that the TV2 signal is NOT in the SAT frequency band so the diplexer at the DISH receiver end is stopping the TV2 signal from getting out.

Replacing both diplexers with splitters may work but it may also cause some unwanted signal to get out through the OTA antenna and one needs to pick the channel very carefully to avoid clobbering any OTA channels (the RF frequency, not the DTV channel number).

As painful as the thought of installing additional cable may seem, cobbling up something different each time the technology changes is probably more expensive and frustrating in the long run.

 

[jarvantgroup]

You can't easily diplex OTA where there's a TV2 involved as OTA and TV2 are in the same frequency band. It requires special equipment and substantial forethought to do correctly.

The issue with teb2500's setup is that the TV2 signal is NOT in the SAT frequency band so the diplexer at the DISH receiver end is stopping the TV2 signal from getting out.

Replacing both diplexers with splitters may work but it may also cause some unwanted signal to get out through the OTA antenna and one needs to pick the channel very carefully to avoid clobbering any OTA channels (the RF frequency, not the DTV channel number).

As painful as the thought of installing additional cable may seem, cobbling up something different each time the technology changes is probably more expensive and frustrating in the long run.

Run your OTA and TV2 signal into the out ports of a two way splitter, not a diplexer. Neither of those two signals will run through the sat port of a diplexer. In the bedroom, place the cable directly to the TV. Most OTA channels will be in the lower channel range. The trick is to select a TV2 channel number high enough so that there is enough separation between the OTA channel line-up and the TV2 channel that you decide. In the past, I would start the TV2 channel in the upper 80's. You may notice some snow on the TV2 channel. Just keep increasing the TV2 channel # until the picture is clear. I tried it years ago and it worked. One of those tricks you just learn on the fly.

Ultimately, you may need to try putting in an additional cable. If not between the basement and the upstairs BR, put one between the OTA in the attic to the upstairs BR. Too many signals running on the same cable will only degrade those signals. BTW, if you're trying to run the satellite signal in to the 222k rcvr, OTA, and the TV2 signal back from the 222k all on the same cable, that won't work.
If you are running a sat signal and OTA in to a rcvr on a single cable, that's fine.

You might also want to let everyone know where the 222k rcvr is in relation to the upstairs BR, basement, as well as how the dish is wired into the house. You weren't clear as to whether the dish was wired from the roof, attic down to the basement, or in some other manner.

 

[teb2500]

Thanks harshness and jarvantgroup for your replies! The 222k is in the basement and the dish cable comes in the house in the basement as well. I do have the cable for OTA in the attic running to the upstairs BR. I'm beginning to think this is a bit above my pay grade and probably just adding more problems than just trying to run the OTA cable straight to the basement on its own. I was hoping there was a quick and easy fix. Thanks again - you guys are what makes these forums great!