Many receivers, which switches?

[mbarnes]

I've got an installation with nine receivers (so far), but not all are connected yet. IIRC, I've got two dishes on the roof, each with two LNBs. I have the office information package with the below listed channels plus the Dallas market locals. It is working right now with seven receivers hooked up. I need to connect the rest. Presently, there is a real mess of the switches and it doesn't make much sense. My plan is to bring lines down from each LNB and polarity and switch them in the distribution room. It appears that both dishes are set up for two receivers, with one cable for each receiver (two cables per dish). That cable should go to a switch in the mounting head that will switch between the two satellites and select the proper polarity. What my plan is, is to bring a line down for each polarity and satellite. I would have separate coaxes for 101R, 101L, 119R, 119L come down to the distribution room to splitters. Each line would have the appropriate voltage insertion to select the desired polarity. Then I need the appropriate switches in the distribution room so each receiver would be able to access the necessary satellite and polarity for the desired channel. My questions are:

1. What satellites are the Dallas locals on? If not on 101/119 I'll need another dish.
2. What kind of switches will I need for the receivers to select the desired LNB? Given my assumption there is a switch in the dish head, where one cable selects between two LNBs, I assume something similar may be available to do the same basic switching farther from the LNBs.
3. How does the receiver switch between satellites? I know the LNBs use 12/18 volts to switch between R/L polarity, but I don't know how they choose which LNB to use.

The "professional" Directv installers said it was impossible to have more than four receivers. If we wanted more receivers, we would have to set up separate dish systems for each group of four. To which I replied "horse hockey!"

Thanks for any comments, suggestions, questions.

OFFICE INFORMATION® Package
Bloomberg Television 353
BYU TV 374
CCTV-9 (Chinese) 455
The Church Channel 371
CNBC 355
CNBC World 357
CNN 202
Court TV 203
C-SPAN 350
C-SPAN2 351
Current TV 366
Daystar 369
Discovery Health Channel 279
EWTN 422
Fox News Channel 360
G4 videogame tv 248
GSN: the network for games 309
Headline News 204
HITN TV† 438
Link TV 375
MSNBC 356
NASA TV 376
NRB Network 378
ONCE México† 415
RFD-TV 379
TCT Network 377
Trinity Broadcasting Network (TBN) 372
Travel Channel 277
The Weather Channel 362
The Word 373
World Harvest Television (WHT) 321

 

[charper1]

Isn't everything you listed/need above, on 101, 110 and 119?

Why not go with one PhaseIII or GainMaster 3LNB dish (larger reflector/better gain) along with one of these:

Zinwell WB616
Spaun DMS51202NF
Spaun DMS51602NF
SKY5120a
SKY5160a

Wont this setup work? I ask because I am no pro installer and really not sure how you are setup now, so just "spit-balling" an idea.

 

[Mr Tony]

1. What satellites are the Dallas locals on? If not on 101/119 I'll need another dish.

Dallas is on 101

2. What kind of switches will I need for the receivers to select the desired LNB? Given my assumption there is a switch in the dish head, where one cable selects between two LNBs, I assume something similar may be available to do the same basic switching farther from the LNBs.

you would need a 4x12 or greater multiswitch. Once you get above 8 outputs, they do get expensive. You wouldn't need any splitters, just 4 lines to the switch. There is another option, and I'll get to it at the end.

3. How does the receiver switch between satellites? I know the LNBs use 12/18 volts to switch between R/L polarity, but I don't know how they choose which LNB to use.

On a multiswitch where there can be inputs for more than one satellite, there is a 22k signal that is sent to the switch from the reciever. You would hook the 101 dish to the 0K side of the switch and the 119 dish to the 22k side.

The "professional" Directv installers said it was impossible to have more than four receivers. If we wanted more receivers, we would have to set up separate dish systems for each group of four. To which I replied "horse hockey!"

that's just funny. I've seen more than that installed.

Thanks for any comments, suggestions, questions.

OFFICE INFORMATION® Package
Bloomberg Television 353
BYU TV 374
CCTV-9 (Chinese) 455
The Church Channel 371
CNBC 355
CNBC World 357
CNN 202
Court TV 203
C-SPAN 350
C-SPAN2 351
Current TV 366
Daystar 369
Discovery Health Channel 279
EWTN 422
Fox News Channel 360
G4 videogame tv 248
GSN: the network for games 309
Headline News 204
HITN TV† 438
Link TV 375
MSNBC 356
NASA TV 376
NRB Network 378
ONCE México† 415
RFD-TV 379
TCT Network 377
Trinity Broadcasting Network (TBN) 372
Travel Channel 277
The Weather Channel 362
The Word 373
World Harvest Television (WHT) 321

The items with a + are on the 119 satellite and it looks like there are only two of them. If you don't need those, then you could get by with a 2x12 or 2x16 multiswitch and just hook up the 101 dish. They are cheaper

 

[mbarnes]

Dallas is on 101

On a multiswitch where there can be inputs for more than one satellite, there is a 22k signal that is sent to the switch from the reciever. You would hook the 101 dish to the 0K side of the switch and the 119 dish to the 22k side.

OK, that makes sense for two LNBs and 2 sats. How about some of these that have 3,4, even 5 LNBs? Are there more tones? With two voltages and tone on or off, you only have four options. With three LNBs, you'd need six choices. I can see where this could get complicated real fast.