Hooking up attic TV antenna and using it a my Hopper 3 UHF remote antenna

[gislands]

Hi all,
So my issue is that I cannot get the Hopper 3 UHF remote antenna to reach into my garage. I am using that little antenna that came with it that reminds me of what is on a wifi router but uses a standard coaxial thread on the back like the satellite coax uses. My question is has anyone tried to use a splitter from let's say a roof or attic uhf/vhf tv antenna and used that as the UHF Hopper 3 remote antenna? I am not home right now but I think I am going to try it and will let you know if it works better.
In theory I think it should work better as that antenna is about 100 times as a guess larger than that little antenna on back of the hopper 3 and plus it is in an attic and not against a wall under a cabinet as the Hopper 3 is.

 

[gislands]

Oh but I also forgot the remote is 2ghz

 

[SamH@DISH]

I have not heard of anyone trying that. I can't guarantee that would work on our receiver.

 

[Bobby]

That little antenna on the back is a 'two way' antenna. It talks to your remote control (backs up timers,etc.). I'm guessing you have your H3 receiver in the garage and you want to control it from a room in the house. You can extend that antenna with a push on coax (the threads on the H3 are not the same as regular coax) to your attic to get it closer to where it will work in the house.

 

[kwindrem]

Hi all,
So my issue is that I cannot get the Hopper 3 UHF remote antenna to reach into my garage. I am using that little antenna that came with it that reminds me of what is on a wifi router but uses a standard coaxial thread on the back like the satellite coax uses. My question is has anyone tried to use a splitter from let's say a roof or attic uhf/vhf tv antenna and used that as the UHF Hopper 3 remote antenna? I am not home right now but I think I am going to try it and will let you know if it works better.
In theory I think it should work better as that antenna is about 100 times as a guess larger than that little antenna on back of the hopper 3 and plus it is in an attic and not against a wall under a cabinet as the Hopper 3 is.

The other option would be to use an Dish 20 or 21 remote that can be configured to use IR, then install an IR repeater between the garage and the Hopper.

 

[SandFarmer]

I had my ViP's hooked up to my Hot Water Heat pipes and my old RG59 cable system with the antennas that are on the back the 722's scattered around the house and it was great. Without it wouldn't work at all with all my boxes in the equipment room in the basement. Now with the H Series and the 2GHz Zigbee set up I asked many times how I could do the same. Just couldn't get the same connector. I hit eBay and Amazon, too bad our RadioShack.com brick and mortar store is gone, they'd have it. Just could not get matching connectors. Even had a couple of DIRT's ask for me, but we never came up with anything. From what I saw it is a bastard sized or "proprietary" (I doubt it) connector.

BUT since the change to the 2GHz format I really haven't needed it, compared to the old UHF RF. But would be interested in what could be found out now.

 

[gislands]

Yeah, I am a very novice hobbyist in the world of software defined radios and those little usb dongles (rtlsdr) use SMA male connectors which I believe are the same that are used on wifi routers. For the software defined radio I was able to buy a connector off of amazon that converted SMA to a female coax end so then you could plug any type of antenna on it.
While that was kind of off subject, I didn't have a chance to look at the back of the H3 but my suspicion is it probably has an SMA connection since wifi routers have them and both live in the same 2.4ghz spectrum. Figure the antennas are already produced in mass quantities for wifi routers. You can also buy gigantic (and allegedly higher gain) SMA wifi antennas on amazon that if H3 is SMA in theory should work. But who knows how the results would be.

 

[bspei]

http://www.satelliteguys.us/xen/threads/tv2-remote-antenna-boost-on-922.257130/

At one time dish had an extender for sale, but I couldn't find it.

 

[WiCkeDuDe]

Interested to see how this works. If only there was a way to extend a Joey antenna

 

[SandFarmer]

As I have mentioned, I have gone on this quest before and have yet to find the proper piece for a HwS. And I trust that they are using the same antenna. If they did go with an SMA, as you suggest, then the diameter of the connector will be small. I have many +18dB extended WiFi antennas on my sprinkler controllers. The HwS, which I trust if the same antenna, is too big. It's actually the same size as a standard RGx connector, but with a larger/wider thread pattern. I even called an old buddy at Amphenol who said he knew nothing of it. Also saying that it was probably a special connector, after I mentioned that it might be a SM10. WHICH I bet you can now get from a Chinese hardware distributor. It you can find the correct "style" designator. I also spoke with Matt G. when I was looking to do this and it led nowhere.

I just tried to put the HwS antenna on my sprinkler controller, it wouldn't fit. Tried to put the extended antenna on the HwS and it didn't fit. I am not surprised at all that it is, as I have said, a "special" size because you know how DISH likes us doing our own things?

 

[jhavird454]

The 10ft extension kit from the VIP922 works fine on the Hopper3. You can order it by chatting with a regular Dish rep. It's part # 169178. If it's on back order, try again in a week.

 

[SandFarmer]

The 10ft extension kit from the VIP922 works fine on the Hopper3. You can order it by chatting with a regular Dish rep. It's part # 169178. If it's on back order, try again in a week.

Did a search for the part number listed and got a bunch of threads of me talking about what I did to extend my ViP series boxes and this in with it:
https://www.mydish.com/support/insert-uhf-antenna-extender

 

[jhavird454]

That part # is specific for the 2G remotes (32.0 , 40.0 , 50.0 , & 52.0). Prior to the ViP922, the remote antenna connector was a one-way UHF that took a standard type "F" which is a 3/8-32 UNEF fine thread (32 threads per inch). Since the ViP922 was the first to have the 2G UHF (two way) with the 32.0 remote, it and the succeeding Hoppers take a 3/8-16 UNC coarse thread (only 16 threads per inch).

You won't find that part # on the website, but a DISH CSR will have it in their system. I ordered one recently for my ViP922 and can confirm its fitment on my Hopper3.