I've been tasked with occasionally supporting a satellite install for the owner of the company that I work for. I have an IT background so I understand the technical concepts, but I dont have any specific background with DirecTV equipment. Occassionaly he will have signal loss/no signal on his receivers, while others will work so I need a way to troubleshoot his setup to determine the issue at hand. I'll give a brief explanation of what he has and then open it up for suggestions on what I can get/do to properly troubleshoot and support it.
His install - wide "slimline" dish that is several hundred feet from the house, it has (4) very large heavy duty coax cables in conduit to the home. Here the 4 coax run into a Satellite USA WBA 425 F amplifier, next the 4 coax go into a Satellite USA WBT410, next the 3 coax go into a Zinwell MS6X16WB-Z, behind this device there are (2) Zinwell WB616. He has a lot of rooms with coax wall plates, which I assume is why so many ports on the multi-switches, but he is only using (6) receivers. Of the (6) receivers all are HD but only (1) is HD/DVR.
Like I said occasionally a receiver will stop getting signal, wont pass the signal test on the test screen and in the past techs have located that coax cable on the multi-switch and moved it to another port. This has solved the problem before (seemed as though a port on the mult-switch died), however for the current problem this didnt fix the problem. I've tried other receivers in this room and they wont work either, but I also cant get this receiver to work in other known working locations, so I may have two issues here. However, I need a way to test the coax from the AV closet to the room where the receiver is located.
First, is this install favorable or should any of the equipment be upgraded/swapped out, or reduced since only using (6) receivers? I've done some reading that SWM are now suggested over the Zinwell products.
Second, what equipment can I purchase that will allow me to test for proper satellite signal at each point in the cable run, for example: test for signal prior to the Zinwell multi-switches, as well as test for signal after the multi-switches, as well as test for signal in the respective rooms just before the cable would enter the receiver? I would also like a suggestion for a toner, in the event that I need to tone the coax to find a cable run in the AV closet.
Please let me know if I need to better explain anything or if I've left out any info that would help with this.
Thanks in advance.
-mcbride
His install - wide "slimline" dish that is several hundred feet from the house, it has (4) very large heavy duty coax cables in conduit to the home. Here the 4 coax run into a Satellite USA WBA 425 F amplifier, next the 4 coax go into a Satellite USA WBT410, next the 3 coax go into a Zinwell MS6X16WB-Z, behind this device there are (2) Zinwell WB616. He has a lot of rooms with coax wall plates, which I assume is why so many ports on the multi-switches, but he is only using (6) receivers. Of the (6) receivers all are HD but only (1) is HD/DVR.
Like I said occasionally a receiver will stop getting signal, wont pass the signal test on the test screen and in the past techs have located that coax cable on the multi-switch and moved it to another port. This has solved the problem before (seemed as though a port on the mult-switch died), however for the current problem this didnt fix the problem. I've tried other receivers in this room and they wont work either, but I also cant get this receiver to work in other known working locations, so I may have two issues here. However, I need a way to test the coax from the AV closet to the room where the receiver is located.
First, is this install favorable or should any of the equipment be upgraded/swapped out, or reduced since only using (6) receivers? I've done some reading that SWM are now suggested over the Zinwell products.
Second, what equipment can I purchase that will allow me to test for proper satellite signal at each point in the cable run, for example: test for signal prior to the Zinwell multi-switches, as well as test for signal after the multi-switches, as well as test for signal in the respective rooms just before the cable would enter the receiver? I would also like a suggestion for a toner, in the event that I need to tone the coax to find a cable run in the AV closet.
Please let me know if I need to better explain anything or if I've left out any info that would help with this.
Thanks in advance.
-mcbride
