Signal booster

[Martyn]

I've just started using the satellite receiver in the living room, which means an extra 10m of cable between it and the dish. This is causing break-up on ku-band signals so I thought I could use a signal booster.

I see many inline boosters on Ebay. At $5, the price is right and they are small too, but none of them are powered. Where does the power come from? Are they pulling some of the power from the feed for the LNB and, if so, will that end up causing more problems with the LNB?

What do people recommend?

 

[Mr Tony]

how far of a cable run do you have right now? Usually an amp is not required unless you're running over 200 feet (or even more). Shorter lengths it can actually hurt signal

If you added it with a barrel connector its possible that could be bad. A straight shot run is the best

 

[Pixl]

Yes the power is tapped off the coax. They don't draw much so won't interfere with the LNB in that way. However, these inline amps bring up the noise floor with the signal therefore not accomplishing much. An extra 10m of line is not much extra loss to worry about. If you are having breakup in your signals something else in your system is in trouble. I run over 60m of line from my dishes to the receiver with no problem.

EDIT: Umm.. yea what Iceberg said too.

 

[Martyn]

Iceberg,

I have a cable running from the dish - probably about 15-20m to one of those flat coax lengths that brings it in through the window. Then a short length to my desk.

When the receiver is on the desk, I have no problems with ku or C, so I know it's OK up to there.

When in the living room it runs through a barrel connector to a 10m run. Then the ku breaks up. The receiver shows a 90% strength and 75% quality, but the picture is full of digital break up and often is just a black screen.

Hmm, now I've typed that, I wonder if it is the connector. If the power level and quality are fine, that seems to indicate the strength of the signal is fine, right? There's just crap being added to the signal somewhere...

 

[Pixl]

The C and Ku signals are both converted to L band (aprox 950-1450mhz) by the LNBs. So any losses in the coax, connectors, etc. will be the same for C or Ku. Take a closer look at the Ku dish.

 

[cyberham]

I have 200 feet of RG-6 including one barrel, one diseqc switch, a flat cable to go through a window and a current-hungry PLL LNB. Only issues I've ever had are motor issues when using microHD. But no received signal issues using any of 3 receivers.

 

[Titanium]

Are you splitting the coax to allow use in both rooms or barreling and bypassing the first room?

Here are a few suggestions if not using a splitter. 1. Bypass the flat window cable. Quite a bit of loss can occur when those start to fail.

2. Check the barrel and connectors on the added coax.

3. Might not be related to the extra coax run. Try plugging the STB and TV into an extension cord that is plugged into the 1st room. Could have voltage on ground.

 

[Martyn]

I started trying to find a common thread between the channels that are breaking up and I might have one: So far, they are on all ku-band horizontal channels.

Vertical channels and both H and V on C-band seem to be doing fine.

 

[Martyn]

Brian,

It's a barrel connector. I've tried two pieces of coax but I'll also swap out the barrel connector or eliminate it.

Excellent idea on the extension cord.

Martyn

 

[Titanium]

Sounds like not enough voltage at the KU LNBF to switch to horizontal. What is the voltage at the LNBF when the STB is tuned to a horizontal and vertical transponder.

Using quality RG6 coax?
Bypass the C/KU switch? Maybe eating voltage.
Work if single straight run to only KU?

 

[Martyn]

I believe I have solved it ....

I had a meter of coax from the window adapter to my desk. When the receiver is on my desk, this goes straight in the back of the unit. When it's in the living room, rather than connecting the living room coax run to the window adapter, I used a barrel connector to the meter long piece. I did this to save going behind the desk each time change the connection.

I removed that meter-long piece and the barrel connector and went straight to the window adapter and, problem solved.

Thanks to everyone for their help on this. I'm going to have to properly plumb this in, perhaps with a switch so both pieces of coax can stay connected. That's a great job for the holidays.

 

[Mr Tony]

glad it was something simple

 

[Martyn]

Embarrassingly simple. I should have checked that

 

[primestar31]

Embarrassingly simple. I should have checked that

That's exactly why you didn't think of it. It's too simple, and humans like/expect things very complicated. People tend to over-think most solutions, when the simplest thing is right in front of them.

 

[RT-Cat]

It's too simple, and humans like/expect things very complicated. People tend to over-think most solutions, when the simplest thing is right in front of them.

Occam's Razor

 

[Martyn]

Well, so much for it being fixed. The problem is back this morning.

What's the standard operating temperature for a Diseqc switch? I wonder if that is introducing problems if it's too cold? I want to say it's worse in the evenings and mornings that in the afternoon, but I need to watch more closely.

This might cease to be a problem in a week or so anyway when I get the new dish-mover from Titanium. That will sit inside so they'll be two runs out the dishes, right? One from the receiver through the switch to the ku motor and one from the receiver through the switch to the ASC1 then to the C-band dish, so the switch will be inside.

 

[FaT Air]

Dunno but my switches have worked fine during the recent week of -20 to -30 temps.

 

[cyberham]

Any chance of interference from nearby...microwave ovens.. one of those ham radio ops...etc.?

 

[Martyn]

Damn radio hams with their QRM

No, it's something to do with this set up. I'm going to renew some of the coax and do a bit of rewiring when I get this new dish mover.

I hope to figure it all out then.

Thanks for your help in the meantime. If nothing works, I'll post another plea on here. It's actually been behaving itself today.