Satellite Signal Tester

[gamefanatic]

I'm having some problems with my Dish Setup. Seems that intermittenly my 110 will go out on one of my SW64's. The other SW64 still works however. I have tried moving cables around back and forth. Best I seem to do is make the problem worse even loosing 119. However I never seem to loose 61.4. I did at one time get all 3 signal feeds at once and finally got some sleep... However the problem has crept back...

I'm thinking I might need a signal tester to verify that I am indeed receiving signal past my Splitters into my SW64 and into my receivers. Does anyone have some suggestions? I really don't want to spend a whole ton of money to track this problem down

 

[SimpleSimon]

I don't think a meter would help you in this situation.

Swapping things around - and keeping track of where the problem goes! - is your best bet.

Not just cables - maybe move the splitter on the affected feed to a different one.

And of course, triple-check your connectors for corrosion, looseness, etc.

 

[gamefanatic]

Yes.... I have done all that... Many... Many times. That is why I was loosing so much sleep. This system is only at most 4 months old, the cabling is all brand new. I purchased all of it from DishStore.net. The cabling all works fine, but once I start plugging the 110 & 119 into the Splitters and into the SW64's is when I start to have problems. I'm not sure if maybe it's the new Quad LNB that I got that might be causing the problems or maybe the SW64.

I have tried replacing some of the Splitters with the ones from the original installation with limited to no success.. And I agree that it could very well be a connection problem. Though seriously don't want to wait the nearly 2 minutes waiting for the test to complete every time I make a tiny adjustment just to find out that it didn't work (or it did then I lose it before I'm done getting all the other Receivers tested)... I just want to be able test the signal to know that there is indeed feed going into and out of the SW64's as expected. Maybe it's it's not being amplified enough? Maybe the power amplifiers aren't working correctly?

I was doing some searching through google and I kept running into this Test-Um CS300 and I was wondering if it might ease my diagnosis of the system

Please help! My Mom doesn't have the Hallmark Channel!

 

[SimpleSimon]

Ah! A Quad. Looking at the LNBF connectors, with leftmost being #1, I believe that the following might be required:
#1=1a=119 Odd
#2=1b=119 Even
#3=2a=110 Odd
#4=2b=110 Even
And of course, both SW64's MUST be wired the same.

I don't know what you mean by power amplifiers.

Other notes: The splitters must be DC-Blocking on one side, and that side needs to always go to SW64 #2. I also remember something about a feed-through load being needed on the "B" ports of the #2 SW64.

Hopefully someone else can chime in here.

 

[ajohnson]

I'm a firm believer in pictures for clarity. Please check the diagram at http://www.dishnetwork.com/downloads/pdf/technology/installation/install-5.pdf as it shows the splitters with dc pass/block, feed-through loads, and the lnbfs with 119 on 1a&b, 110 on 2a&b, and 61.5 on 3a&b (just like Simon says )

Theres no power amp. Maybe you meant the feed-throughs or your power inserter (which goes on the receiver side of the switch)

 

[gamefanatic]

Hope this is clear on how my setup looks...

Basically the cabling is setup identical to the link you provided as that was my original guide...

The 1A refer's to the port numbering shown on my Quad LNBF.

Like I said I don't change a thing, then everything breaks.. Now something I have noticed is that SW64-1 seems to gets all the signals however SW64-2 seems to be the one which typically has problems... However it can happen to either, I have replaced the Splitters. As you can see the Block side is the top of each of the splitters.

 

[ckgrick]

I'm far, far from an expert here, but since the system works and then doesn't, it sure sounds like it could be a continuity issue. If you rolled your own cable, I'd be more positive but that still doesn't mean you can't have a defective connection. Using a fairly inexpensive digital multimeter I was able to locate all the sloppy cable rolls I had made and fix them when I was building my system.

 

[gamefanatic]

How did you use the multimeter to test your cabling? Did you just check for continuity through the cable or did you check the cable also through your devices (ie. splitters)?

One of the things I was thinking is maybe I dind't cut the copper wire back far enough on the cable as it seems that on the 110 that if I screw it all the way on it stops working..? Anyone have some tips for this? I am using compression connectors which make cabling a snap and have a good contact with the ground.

 

[ckgrick]

I just checked the various cables that I'd run through the house (the walls had been closed up before I discovered my work wasn't too good). Since I was able to find all my problems that way, I didn't need to check the various devices. I personally doubt the problem is the copper wire being too long. Being too short could be an issue. My problem was not making sure the cable cutter was getting a clean cut back. All it took to short out the signal was to have just one sheath wire contacting the copper. The symptoms were similar to your headache, work OK, then weakly, then no signal, and then back and forth.

 

[gamefanatic]

Well I checked the cables that are in the 110-1A loop (the one having the problem) and they don't have any stray wiring. Though I expected this because of the way I did the wiring I didn't really reveal much of the shielding as the connector would just slip on in between the outer plastic and the metal shielding.

I'm starting to point towards the SW64 maybe having the problem. I'm gonna test this out by swapping the cables around maybe Sunday or Monday when I have time..

BTW Thank You for all the help guys! I needed some moral support

 

[ajohnson]

How well is everything grounded? Bad grounds can cause intermittent problems like this, not to mention burned out switches, lnbfs, etc...

I'd be tempted to run a single copper ground to the mounting screws on everything you got in those pics, just to be sure.