Questions before I give an adverse report on technicnan

[bobvick]

I had my 3rd 922 installed today. The technician that came out was a real smart ass and know it all. First of all, he told me that the reason that the 922 would not work right is because that it was plugged into a surge suppressor, that was causing the "home plug" not to work and thus it was not sending enough power to the LNB. Then, my cabling that is 2 years old (it was installed by DirecTV, and it is in conduit for about 50 feet) is "split" too many times, the signal reading is 33db at the dish and 45db in my home, the only splits are a barrel connector under my floor, a RG6 Belden quad shielded cable runs from this to the Dish signal separator and then to the receiver. Also the "DirecTV cable will not work correctly with Dish Network."I kept telling him that I knew that it was the receiver because I had moved my 722 from my office to my den and moved the 922 from the den to the office, the 722 worked fine, no problem but the 922 would not work at all. He informed me that the 922 was "much more sensitive" than the 722 and thus had to have a higher signal reading. I am very frustrated with the whole situation and I am thinking about calling and canceling my account and taking DirecTV up on their offer that they have sent me.

 

[Laddyboy]

So why didn't the tech lay new cable if he thought the old was bad or had too many splits?

 

[hawker152]

Had to have been a lazy sub. I will always drop new cable just to check if it is in fact the cable.

 

[bobvick]

It was a subcontractor, I forget the name.

 

[dishcomm]

I had my 3rd 922 installed today. The technician that came out was a real smart ass and know it all. First of all, he told me that the reason that the 922 would not work right is because that it was plugged into a surge suppressor, that was causing the "home plug" not to work and thus it was not sending enough power to the LNB. Then, my cabling that is 2 years old (it was installed by DirecTV, and it is in conduit for about 50 feet) is "split" too many times, the signal reading is 33db at the dish and 45db in my home, the only splits are a barrel connector under my floor, a RG6 Belden quad shielded cable runs from this to the Dish signal separator and then to the receiver. Also the "DirecTV cable will not work correctly with Dish Network."I kept telling him that I knew that it was the receiver because I had moved my 722 from my office to my den and moved the 922 from the den to the office, the 722 worked fine, no problem but the 922 would not work at all. He informed me that the 922 was "much more sensitive" than the 722 and thus had to have a higher signal reading. I am very frustrated with the whole situation and I am thinking about calling and canceling my account and taking DirecTV up on their offer that they have sent me.

It's up to you as a consumer to lodge a complaint where you thought you received poor customer service.
If you feel strongly about it, report the tech.
As a former tech, based on your post, I would have never said these things to a customer. I would simply have done my work and moved on. It is not in the province of the tech to make judgements and express opinions such as this to a customer.
The data on the cable is inaccurate. One, rg-6 3000mhz sweep tested cable is the same across the board. There are two types. Solid copper conductor and copper clad steel conductor. On the shielding, most commonly, there is dual and quad shield. A barrel connector causes 5 db loss. That's usually not nearly enough to cause signal loss at the reciever. To my knowledge 922's are not "more sensitive"..
IN my experience, some receiver models reacted negatively to being connected to surge suppressors. You may want to bypass the suppressor to see what happens. Just remember to unplug the receiver in anticipation of severe weather or if the power is interrupted. Many times, when power is restored homes can be effected by voltage spikes that can and do damage electronic equipment.

 

[samijubal]

I've heard that surge protector blame many times before, I've yet to see it actually be true. Maybe if it's a cheapo and not functioning properly.

 

[bookworm370]

Dishcomm,

Are you sure about the 5db statement for a barrel (blue dielectric) connector. A normal splitter will cause a 3db loss / leg so I skeptical about 6db on a straight barrel.

A barrel connector causes 5 db loss. That's usually not nearly enough to cause signal loss at the receiver.

 

[yosemitesam]

I had my 3rd 922 installed today. The technician that came out was a real smart ass and know it all. First of all, he told me that the reason that the 922 would not work right is because that it was plugged into a surge suppressor, that was causing the "home plug" not to work and thus it was not sending enough power to the LNB. Then, my cabling that is 2 years old (it was installed by DirecTV, and it is in conduit for about 50 feet) is "split" too many times, the signal reading is 33db at the dish and 45db in my home, the only splits are a barrel connector under my floor, a RG6 Belden quad shielded cable runs from this to the Dish signal separator and then to the receiver. Also the "DirecTV cable will not work correctly with Dish Network."I kept telling him that I knew that it was the receiver because I had moved my 722 from my office to my den and moved the 922 from the den to the office, the 722 worked fine, no problem but the 922 would not work at all. He informed me that the 922 was "much more sensitive" than the 722 and thus had to have a higher signal reading. Finally I got tired and just came to my office, I let my wife deal with the installer after he finally agreed to leave a new 922. I am very frustrated with the whole situation and I am thinking about calling and canceling my account and taking DirecTV up on their offer that they have sent me.

Most good surge suppressors have 1 or 2 home ports for that kind of hook up - get one that has that if yours does not ! He is mistaken about it not providing enough power,

It is that the surge unit will filter out the home information if it does not have a receptacle that the needed info can get through.. double shielded is a crock for most any home installation, any good coax that is rated for satellite use does work > 3 gig hz or so. Direct TV cable not working is B S also !!! If a good inline splice [high freq] was used that's BS also.. I am not the smartest person but have made 10k systems work...By the way the mill. spec. for actual RG6 is about 1/2 " dia. not the 5/16 dia. cable people call RG6 that really is RG56. O K off my bandstand.

 

[Dr.Pepper]

Had to have been a lazy sub. I will always drop new cable just to check if it is in fact the cable.

Don't even open that can of worms. We've been thru this enough in the Installer Zone.

There's good and bad techs both inhouse and subs.

 

[dishnet_tech]

I had my 3rd 922 installed today. The technician that came out was a real smart ass and know it all. First of all, he told me that the reason that the 922 would not work right is because that it was plugged into a surge suppressor, that was causing the "home plug" not to work and thus it was not sending enough power to the LNB. Then, my cabling that is 2 years old (it was installed by DirecTV, and it is in conduit for about 50 feet) is "split" too many times, the signal reading is 33db at the dish and 45db in my home, the only splits are a barrel connector under my floor, a RG6 Belden quad shielded cable runs from this to the Dish signal separator and then to the receiver. Also the "DirecTV cable will not work correctly with Dish Network."I kept telling him that I knew that it was the receiver because I had moved my 722 from my office to my den and moved the 922 from the den to the office, the 722 worked fine, no problem but the 922 would not work at all. He informed me that the 922 was "much more sensitive" than the 722 and thus had to have a higher signal reading. Finally I got tired and just came to my office, I let my wife deal with the installer after he finally agreed to leave a new 922. I am very frustrated with the whole situation and I am thinking about calling and canceling my account and taking DirecTV up on their offer that they have sent me.

Well if he left a new 922, did it ever get connected and is it working?

 

[bobvick]

Well if he left a new 922, did it ever get connected and is it working?

Yes the new one works fine. Although he never said it I guess he figured out it was the receiver.

 

[dishcomm]

Dishcomm,

Are you sure about the 5db statement for a barrel (blue dielectric) connector. A normal splitter will cause a 3db loss / leg so I skeptical about 6db on a straight barrel.

A barrel connector causes 5 db loss. That's usually not nearly enough to cause signal loss at the receiver.

here I did a search..
Typical 3 ghz female barrel splice....
Electrical
Insertion loss: <0.06dB 0~1GHz
<0.07dB 1~2GHz
<0.1dB 2~3 GHz
Return loss: >30dB 1~3GH
I must have been thinking of another component. Thanks for the heads up

 

[bobvick]

I think that either he was trying to waste time, I guess they get paid by the hour, I don't know, or he was trying to absolve the 922 of having problems. He kept implying that I was doing something wrong since this is my 3rd 922. The first one that I had, worked for 2 days then the HDD died in it, Dish just sent another out for me to replace (I wish they had did that this time) this one though, it seems as if it had tuner problems. Anyway, he did not like the fact that I have a pole mount dish (for what reason I do not know) then my cabling was bad, because it was DirecTV (it is solid copper, in a conduit from the pole mount to my house) the cable that he had was steel core copper plated. That cable hooks with a 3ghz barrell connector to Belden solid copper for about 15 feet then it intersects with Dish's signal seperator, I cant see what the problem would have been there.

 

[dishcomm]

I think that either he was trying to waste time, I guess they get paid by the hour, I don't know, or he was trying to absolve the 922 of having problems. He kept implying that I was doing something wrong since this is my 3rd 922. The first one that I had, worked for 2 days then the HDD died in it, Dish just sent another out for me to replace (I wish they had did that this time) this one though, it seems as if it had tuner problems. Anyway, he did not like the fact that I have a pole mount dish (for what reason I do not know) then my cabling was bad, because it was DirecTV (it is solid copper, in a conduit from the pole mount to my house) the cable that he had was steel core copper plated. That cable hooks with a 3ghz barrell connector to Belden solid copper for about 15 feet then it intersects with Dish's signal seperator, I cant see what the problem would have been there.

SOlid copper conductor is better than coper clad steel. Esecially in long runs.
If this tech was trying to convince you that CCS cable is better, he's uneducated about that meterial.
I see no reason why he'd criticize your dish setup.
Why should he care whether the receivers fail or not.
His interest , his sole interest should be insuring your satellite system works properly. That's all.

 

[RandallA]

Dishcomm,

Are you sure about the 5db statement for a barrel (blue dielectric) connector. A normal splitter will cause a 3db loss / leg so I skeptical about 6db on a straight barrel.



here I did a search..
Typical 3 ghz female barrel splice....
Electrical
Insertion loss: <0.06dB 0~1GHz
<0.07dB 1~2GHz
<0.1dB 2~3 GHz
Return loss: >30dB 1~3GH
I must have been thinking of another component. Thanks for the heads up

You were close, on average 0.5 db loss for barrel connectors. Just missed the decimal point. Not enough loss to create any kind of problems.