Aiming for HD

[CowboyDren]

I've nearly talked myself into DIU. I know that my market's local HD channels are on 129 (Kansas City). I may be in a bit of a jam, though, concerning a big tree that may be in my LNB's way. With my AT200+Locals package (, I have no problems with signal quality unless it's raining or snowing very heavily.

As I stand behind my dish, looking across the LNBs, I have clear skies to the South East. I do not have clear skies to the South West. I don't know anything about dish design, so is this going to be a problem for me? I don't even care so much about the local channels; I have excellent OTA reception. The premium movies and PPV don't interest me at all, so those can be ignored in my case. What about other HD channels in the AT200/250 range?

Do you know any good ninja tree trimmers that could "take care" of that tree for me in the middle of the night without waking up the neighbor who owns it?

 

[osu1991]

If you don't mind losing your locals and your rsn, then you can put up a second dish for 61.5 which is to the southeast, and get all the national hd from there instead of 129.

 

[CowboyDren]

I just found this old post I started, which may solve a piece of my HD puzzle.

I just bought a house in the Kansas City area. It faces North, and in my back yard are two beautiful (well, actually they're crippled) 50-year-old maples. In my neighbor's yard, there's a 50-year-old elm. When I bought the house, though, I was ecstatic to find that a Dish antenna had been left on the roof, as well as a 4' VHF/UHF rig.

In that thread, I described the fact that I could spot 119 but not 110 in that dish location, due to a tree obstructing it's S/E exposure. The new location, which I've had since days after that post, has a tree obstructing it's S/W exposure. Reading that 129W really prefers having a dish of it's own, is it practical to put my old pan and LNB in the non-110 location, use an SW21 to merge the signals, and be okay? There's about a 100' cable run from my receiver to the new DP+ location, a 30-40' run to the old location, and they're in very different directions. Can I put the SW21 close to the reciever with a dedicated line per-dish?

 

[CowboyDren]

I was thinking something like this, assuming I could use a single length of coax from each dish to the switch, and a single length from the switch to the splitter hanging off the back of the box...

If I can pull it off this way, what exactly do I need to have or buy? There's nothing wrong with the Dish 300 pan or mount that the house came with, and there is a single LNB attached to the arm on the dish. I think it has a single coax connector on the bottom. Is this a "Legacy" LNB? Do I have to replace it? Will this work to combine the signals? What about the splitter at the box? Will the one that I have work, or will one come with the 722 that will work better, or will I be expected to buy one from the installer?

 

[osu1991]

You can put a second dish up for 129, that is what I do. The sw 21 is a legacy switch, if you have a separator at the back of your receiver that is separating a single coax feed into 2 separate feeds, then you have a DPP lnb, the sw21 is not compatible and you don't need it. Get a DP dual lnb aim the second dish for 129 and run the coax from the 129 dish over to the main 110/119 dish. There is a connection on the DPP lnb for you to attach the coax from 129 and then all 3 sat signals are sent down the same wire.

 

[CowboyDren]

Okay, we're closing in on a solution. I don't know what the splitter does on the back side of the receiver, only mentioning that I've seen it. IIRC, it's about half the size of pack of smokes, and is connected to Sat In 1 & 2. I'm going to go home tonight and writing down all of the part numbers I can find.

The problem with your suggestion is that there's even more distance between the location of the old dish and the new dish than between the new dish and the receiver. We're probably talking about 150' between the dishes with a 100' return from the DPP to the 625. The old dish location is due West from the receiver and the new dish location is East by South East. I may be able to put up a second pole as close as 30-50' from the new pole, and daisy chain it that way, but this is a 50 year old maple tree in the Prairie states...it's not a sapling anymore. I'm not even sure that I can do that; I've never evaluated that corner of the yard.

Do you think I could daisy chain a dish pointing at 61.5 into my main DP+ LNB? I don't think I have a DPd LNB lying around, but I'm pretty sure I have a DP+ LNB in a drawer, plus whatever LNB is on that old Dish 300 pan. Is it possible to use the DP+ LNB to do what we're talking about with some creative aiming of the 300 pan?

 

[osu1991]

You can point at 61.5 and wire it the same way. I think the internal switch in the Dp twin would interfere with the DPP lnb. It would be easier I think to get a Dp dual off ebay for 20 bucks. I don't think the cable lengths will be a problem. They are probably close to the limits off how far you would want to run though.

 

[CowboyDren]

These facts are known:

• I can spot 119 from each location.
• I can't spot 110 from the old location.
• I can't spot 129 from the current location.
• I think I can spot 129 from the old location.
• Chaining the old location to the current and back to the house is quite far.
• Chaining the current location to the old location and into the house is a lot less distance.

Is it possible/practical/advisable to put the DP+ in the old location, aim it between 119 and 129, and put a plain single LNB in the new location aiming at 110? OR could I daisy chain two DP+ LNBs together, with one in the old location peaked on 129? Through research it seems that I'd really rather have 129 on it's own single-LNB 24+" dish, but the wire length is scary.

I made a drawing with Google SketchUp to indicate my yard and house layout better, with dimensions. The current wire runs 79' to the house, 24' along the wall, and 19' to the spot under the TV; that's linear feet, not wire feet (probably 120' of wire). By going from the current dish (110°) to old dish (130'), into it's LNB and back to the TV (30'), I'm exceeding the maximum run published at tech.dishnetwork.com. And that doesn't even account for vertical runs; just walking in a straight line...

 

[CowboyDren]

Is it possible/practical/advisable to put the DP+ in the old location, aim it between 119 and 129, and put a plain single LNB in the new location aiming at 110? OR could I daisy chain two DP+ LNBs together, with one in the old location peaked on 129?

No comment on this at all?

 

[osu1991]

You should be able to. I don't know honestly.