Boosting RF Performance?

[ClemsonJeeper]

So I just got Dish networks from the DishPro guys off the forum. The installer came here and I noticed that upstairs (3rd) in my townhouse the RF controller was very flaky (the receiver is in the bottom floor, 1st). It would only work half the time, assumably from being so far from the receiver.

The installer said 'no no it is because the receiver is downloading and is slow'... I'm not sure why I let him leave with it in this state but he had another appointment to get to.

So anyway now that he's gone, of course it doesn't work at all until I leave my bedroom and use the controller from the top of the steps.

Any tips here? Worse come to worse, will I be able to get them to come out here and replace the receiver downstairs with a standard receiver and the one upstairs with a DVR? This is originally what I wanted but they said they didn't have the right equipment in the work order, so they gave me this dual-room DVR instead.

Any suggestions?

 

[Rlanham]

Try angling your antennae on the back of your 522 various ways & see if it makes a difference.

If it is simply an out of range problem,
You can extend the range of your antenna on your 522 see this thread:

http://www.satelliteguys.us/showthread.php?t=31945

You can build your own antenna extender:
see this thread:
http://www.satelliteguys.us/showthread.php?t=28474

Another option would be to dump your UHF remote and
swap it for an IR remote & get a pair of IR extenders that plug
into a wall outlet at both locations.
About $10 for a 522IR remote on ebay & about $30 for a pair of IR extenders.

 

[Liquidforce88]

You need to find a way to get the antenna closer to the upstairs location. The thread above is intresting, but installers do it another way.

We just run a line of coax into the antenna port on the back of the receiver. Then we put the antenna on the other end of that line. So if you can run a line of coax from the back of the receiver to the upstairs location (thru a chase for upstairs plumbing works well) then you get your antenna closer to the 2nd tv location. This will get you working.

If you can't do it get your installation company to come out and do it.

 

[Jared Twomey]

"another thing that i have done on many of jobs with dual-tuner boxes, is to combine the UHF antenna, and my TV2 signal on the same line to the other room, then in that room split them back apart...
so far it has worked every time
on one job i did... from the back of the receiver, the remote jack, and TV2 out jack into a splitter, then into a diplexer with the sat feeds, then down to the basement through the other diplexer, then out another 125 feet to the metal garage, where i used a splitter, one side to the TV, the other side with the little factory antenna on it.
total it went through about 200 feet of coax, two splitters, two diplexers, and two wall plates... and ended up in a metal building that before the remote didn't work at all unless you had the door open on the side facing the house....
now it works amazing, just as if it was in the same room, there is no delay at all"


( i copied that from a reply from one of the above mentioned threads)
and as far as dumping the UHF remotes, as far as i know, the 522 or 625 #2 side will not work with a IR remote.

i would say the best thing to try for you would be to run both the #2 video coax, and the remote jack coax into a splitter, then hook that to the wire going upstairs, then upstairs, have another splitter, one side going to the tv, and the other side with little UHF antenna on it.

 

[ClemsonJeeper]

"another thing that i have done on many of jobs with dual-tuner boxes, is to combine the UHF antenna, and my TV2 signal on the same line to the other room, then in that room split them back apart...
so far it has worked every time
on one job i did... from the back of the receiver, the remote jack, and TV2 out jack into a splitter, then into a diplexer with the sat feeds, then down to the basement through the other diplexer, then out another 125 feet to the metal garage, where i used a splitter, one side to the TV, the other side with the little factory antenna on it.
total it went through about 200 feet of coax, two splitters, two diplexers, and two wall plates... and ended up in a metal building that before the remote didn't work at all unless you had the door open on the side facing the house....
now it works amazing, just as if it was in the same room, there is no delay at all"


( i copied that from a reply from one of the above mentioned threads)
and as far as dumping the UHF remotes, as far as i know, the 522 or 625 #2 side will not work with a IR remote.

i would say the best thing to try for you would be to run both the #2 video coax, and the remote jack coax into a splitter, then hook that to the wire going upstairs, then upstairs, have another splitter, one side going to the tv, and the other side with little UHF antenna on it.

Cool, this sounds good. When you say splitter are you talking about the simple cheese 3$ splitters (one coax to two coax) that you can buy at rat shack? Or are there specific frequencies I need to look for in the splitter?

thanks again for all the help, great suggestions sofar!