Multiple Dishes?

[sawmill]

I'm switching from Dish to DirecTV soon.

My existing config. includes three 1-meter dishes, going into a multiswitch, plus a 4th, currently unused, 1-meter.

Is it possible to reuse my existing dishes in a similar way?

DirecTV ("corporate") tells me I'm scheduled for an install with a dish that has 5 LNBs on it.

If possible, I'd like to disconnect all but 1 of those LNBs, and feed in the 1-meter dishes' signals instead.

 

[raoul5788]

You won't need anything but the Slimline with the 5 lnb setup.

 

[Jimbo]

I'm switching from Dish to DirecTV soon.

My existing config. includes three 1-meter dishes, going into a multiswitch, plus a 4th, currently unused, 1-meter.

Is it possible to reuse my existing dishes in a similar way?

DirecTV ("corporate") tells me I'm scheduled for an install with a dish that has 5 LNBs on it.

If possible, I'd like to disconnect all but 1 of those LNBs, and feed in the 1-meter dishes' signals instead.

Doubtful without a LOT of changes and recalculations.
Focal length is different from one dish to another for starters.

 

[Hutch1814]

I'm switching from Dish to DirecTV soon.

My existing config. includes three 1-meter dishes, going into a multiswitch, plus a 4th, currently unused, 1-meter.

Is it possible to reuse my existing dishes in a similar way?

DirecTV ("corporate") tells me I'm scheduled for an install with a dish that has 5 LNBs on it.

If possible, I'd like to disconnect all but 1 of those LNBs, and feed in the 1-meter dishes' signals instead.

Just curious, why would you want several dishes when you can have just 1 slimline?

 

[sawmill]

I understand that the Slimline would work on its own, but the reason for the individual 1-meter dishes is to maximize signal strength by pointing each one to its own satellite. (I did this with Dish, just wondering if the Slimline allows access to its signal combiner or if a separate multiswitch is needed.)

 

[Jimbo]

I tried that years ago, then decide it wasn't any better than the one they were using to do everything all together at the time.

 

[raoul5788]

I understand that the Slimline would work on its own, but the reason for the individual 1-meter dishes is to maximize signal strength by pointing each one to its own satellite. (I did this with Dish, just wondering if the Slimline allows access to its signal combiner or if a separate multiswitch is needed.)

That may give a theoretically better result, but no real world benefit. You MIGHT get reduced rain fade.

 

[jcrandall]

I think some have done what you are after using the Alaska/Hawaii dish LNB.

That said, a well-aimed Slimline can pull in 90-95% signal strength on 99 and 103 satellites. I don't know know how much better a 39" wide dish would be than the 33" wide slimline.

Personally, I'd tip the installer $20 to give it some extra time and get a perfect aim on a slimline, or tweak it yourself after the install to max it out.

 

[PMKS]

I think some have done what you are after using the Alaska/Hawaii dish LNB.

Ditto, If you have to have a bigger dish:
Alaska - Hawaii Dish : The Satellite Shop, Satellite Dish Equipment - TV Programming

Before I was upgraded to a slimline Dish years ago, I used seperate dishes for DirecTV sats 101/110/119 using a 4x4 multi-switch and a Sat "C" combiner with the special Sat "C" LNB.
However, until someone makes separate KA/KU LNB's and the associated combiners for DirecTV, I'm stuck with the slimline. I miss my 36" primestar dish I had rigged up for the 101 sat, hardly any rainouts.

 

[jcrandall]

Of course if you go that way, you'll want to consider if you even need 110 and 119, very little content there except internationals and SD locals in some markets.

Anyhow, you should be able to use the Alaska LNB on your big dish if you desire.