I had my install done on Sunday with one Hopper and no Joeys. I mentioned to the installer that I knew my RG6 cable was not rated for 3 Ghz, but only 2.25 Ghz, however, he didn't know of any cabling requirements. (He was not very knowledgeable and very unprofessional.) Anyway, we put the Solo Node about 30-40 feet from the Dish and another 30-40 feet from the Hopper as that is where I had a grounding bar in-between two sets of cables. The only things that he replaced were the ends of the cables (after he accidentally cut the wrong cables too) and the Solo Node took the place of the Grounding bar. Everything works fine, so maybe with no Joeys, the cable speed doesn't have to be 3 Ghz?
RG6 Cabling Requirements for Hopper vs DPP
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Just because a cable is rated 2.25 Ghz does not mean it will not pass 3 Ghz. It will. The only question is how much loss in signal strength will occur (i.e., attenuation). If is good quality cable, that should not be a problem unless it is very long distances.
No, the Hoppers are the only place where the higher rating is needed. You had relatively short runs and quality cable. Just because it wasn't rated at 3Ghz doesn't mean it wasn't capabable of 3Ghz. For shorter to mid length runs I doubt most 2.2 rated cable of decent quality would be an issue.
Today I did the 2-Hoppers and 4-Joeys install without replacing any of my 22-year old RG6. I had a brief issue with the first Hopper not wanting to boot up, but leaving it in standby for about 45 minutes caused it to spring to life. Overall, my approach of installing the Duo Node at the patch panel in the center of the house worked very well. No issues at all with signal strengths. Clearly the old RG6 passes the full 3ghz signals. One thing about older quality cable, it is more likely to have been solid copper conductor instead of today's copper coated steel. Wife and I are really impressed with the system. Picture quality is certainly even better than our previous VIP receivers.
nice!
i may move around one of my hoppers at some point, so that's a good sign that the older RG6 is working fine as expected. I didn't want to gamble so i let them install it the way they wanted. Of course the fact that i was getting a new dish, new wiring to the node, and proper grounding was a nice incentive to let them run with it a little. heh
Can't wait until OTA is ready. My antenna plan looks like it might be good to go.
i may move around one of my hoppers at some point, so that's a good sign that the older RG6 is working fine as expected. I didn't want to gamble so i let them install it the way they wanted. Of course the fact that i was getting a new dish, new wiring to the node, and proper grounding was a nice incentive to let them run with it a little. heh
Can't wait until OTA is ready. My antenna plan looks like it might be good to go.
I had a Hopper and Joey set up yesterday. They ran new cable on the outside of my house. This was OK, as we were able to enter the house with the air conditioner piping hole and everything was hidden well. But to get to my upstairs rooms, where I may want to add some joeys, I would have to have cables draped around my home. That isn't going to happen.
Currently I have some old RG6 cable that spiders from my attic to the various rooms in my upstairs. Would it be possible to run a line of new cable from the dish to my attic, and then connect to the old cable where it drops into the room below, so that there is just 5 or 6 feet of the old stuff? Or would it be better for me to learn to run my own line down inside the wall? From other locations in my house, it seems that the builders tacked the cables to the struts, so I don't think I can simply use the old lines to pull new ones through.
Currently I have some old RG6 cable that spiders from my attic to the various rooms in my upstairs. Would it be possible to run a line of new cable from the dish to my attic, and then connect to the old cable where it drops into the room below, so that there is just 5 or 6 feet of the old stuff? Or would it be better for me to learn to run my own line down inside the wall? From other locations in my house, it seems that the builders tacked the cables to the struts, so I don't think I can simply use the old lines to pull new ones through.
check out the wiring diagrams... http://www.satelliteguys.us/hopper-zone/279755-hopper-joey-wiring-diagrams.html
It really depends on where everything is relation to the node. With taps and splitters, you can do all sorts of interesting things with minimal wire.
Thanks. That info is helpful (or will be once I take a closer look at what nodes I have and where). But what I am most curious about is whether having 6 feet of RG6 (or maybe even rg59?) connected to whatever it is the installers are using will work. All of the cable is easy to replace except for the line that runs from the attic, down through the wall, to the wall plate.
Joeys can definitely use RG59 as long as you don't have two taps. Rdinkel experimented and used 20+ year old RG6 for his hopper host lines and it's worked fine so far.
IMO, it's a bad idea to use RG59 on hopper host lines. I think it's just asking for trouble in the long run (if it even works at all).
Of course, all of that only works as long as you are within the distance limitations noted in the wiring diagrams i linked above. Rdinkel mentioned that keeping the old RG6 to as short a distance as possible is for the the best.
For the purposes of our discussion in this thread, old RG6 from 20 years ago still has the same gauge center conductor as one now. More than likely that old RG6 is even solid copper while the new stuff is only copper clad steel center conductors. The only difference between the two is that the new stuff has been tested and approved for passing the 3Ghz signals that is required between the hopper and node. The old stuff just doesn't have that certification even though in most cases it may work fine as long as the coax is still in good condition.
The Dish techs have been saying here that Dish wants at least the hopper host lines to be 3Ghz rated RG6 cable. Probably as insurance so that they don't have to send a tech twice because of old coax in questionable condition that's probably unmarked.
As long as you don't call Dish to fix/troubleshoot your experimenting, then there's no real issue.
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Six foot runs of old RG6 will not present a technical problem. Just be sure to use 3ghz barrel connectors.
Shipmate, Do not sweat it. Unless you have very long runs from the Node to the Hopper your "old" RG6 will be fine. Just be sure to use quality barrel connectors and 3ghz patch cables everywhere, including from the wall plates to the Hoppers. I got excellent picture quality with my 22 year old RG6.
Man all this talk had me worried so I double checked my wiring. Most is 3Ghz but there are some runs of 2.3Ghz RG6. No way it can be re-ran as it is inside 2x4 walls in a second story. Hopefully it won't be an issue as a couple of the runs will be 90+ feet from the node. The odd thing is that the 2.3Ghz cable seems to be better made and more beefy than the 3Ghz stuff. Anyway to test the cable?
Your 2.3ghz cable may be better than your 3ghz cable. Those numbers only mean the highest frequencies the cables were tested to. It says nothing about the test results! After lots of research on the Internet, I found detailed test results for my 22-year-old RG6 when it was new. Even though there is no frequency number printed on the cable, the manufacture's attenuation (signal loss per frequency over distance) test results beat the specifications of modern-day Belden cable "rated" for 3ghz--for every frequency through the highest frequency tested back in 1990 (2.2ghz). Since my old cable had solid copper core, it can be expected to handle the higher frequencies also better than today's copper coated steel cores. In my case, I used the old RG6 throughout the house (even for the MOCA to the Joeys). I was careful with the placement of the Duo Node to have it as close to the Hoppers as was practical, but that was probably overkill on my part. Bottom line: My install gave us great results with no performance issues. This summer I plan to upgrade the RG6 that connects my DPP33 to the house entry ground block, because those cables have been exposed to the weather for about 10 years--and they were not of the same high quality as used throughout the walls inside the house.
I know my 2.3Ghz cable may be better than the 3Ghz but I have no way to know. I guess I'll just have to install a Hopper on one of the runs and see if it works. Other than that, is there any inexpensive way to test out signal loss, attenuation, etc. on cables?
Hookup a Hopper and see how it looks?? hehe
rdinkel: I think you and I are the only guys in Woodland Park with DISH
I swear, 9/10 dishes on homes up here are D*!
rdinkel: I think you and I are the only guys in Woodland Park with DISH
I swear, 9/10 dishes on homes up here are D*!
I'll bet that's the case in a lot of places.Hookup a Hopper and see how it looks?? hehe
rdinkel: I think you and I are the only guys in Woodland Park with DISH
The cost of the equipment to do such a test runs into the thousands of dollars so I'm afraid there is no "inxpensive" way to test unless you know some who already has the equipment.
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