Signal Loss on a Mandatory Long Cable Run. What Can Be Done?

[GMFreak8]

Hey Guys, I'm hoping one of you can help me out with my issue here. I'm helping a guy out in the Adirondacks install a Dishnet setup for his house. Due to the location of the house, the only place that you can receive the signal is around 600 feet from his house at the lake shore. There's absolutely no way to get it any closer thanks to thick tree cover. The dish was setup at the lake sure with a Dish Pro Plus LNB and two feeds coming off of it. One of the buildings is only around 120 feet away from the dish, so the signal is around 100 for both satellites. The second feed goes to his garage, which is over 500 feet from the dish. The signal there hovers for both satellites between 50 and 60, with frequent dropouts depending on the channel tuned in and the weather. Is there anything that can be done to boost that signal. The installer who came from Dish to put this setup in initially didn't even bother to check the signal strength on the long run and seemed to be in a rush. He actually would like to run another line to his guest house for TV in there too. So I would need to get a switch. I was thinking of getting the DPP44 power inserter switch. But I can't seem to find any information on whether or not the power inserter also boosts the signal.

Basically what I want to know is if there is any signal booster that is compatible with a Dish Pro Plus setup. Does the DPP44 switch boost the signal, I would be killing two birds with one stone if that's the case considering I need a switch too. Replacing the cable is out of the question, as is moving the dish. So it seems as though my only option is a signal booster, which I can't seem to find much information on for Dish Pro equipment. Any help would be greatly appreciated. Thanks.

 

[volkodav]

DPP 44 wont power it up. but you can get this amp it does work with DPP to boost signal Sonora DBS 14 dB Gain Dual Line Amplifier (LA142) | LA142 [Sonora] | LA141 sonora SONORA DESIGN la142 Sonora DBS 14 dB Gain Dual Line Amplifier (LA142) la143

 

[GMFreak8]

Awesome, that's exactly what I was looking for. Can they be daisy-chained together to boost the signals?

DPP 44 wont power it up. but you can get this amp it does work with DPP to boost signal Sonora DBS 14 dB Gain Dual Line Amplifier (LA142) | LA142 [Sonora] | LA141 sonora SONORA DESIGN la142 Sonora DBS 14 dB Gain Dual Line Amplifier (LA142) la143

 

[Jared Twomey]

You can try the signal amp... but in my experience, they don't do much.

 

[Van]

You could try using legacy lnbf's and switches, I've had luck in the past with a 550ft+/- multi line run that used legacy parts at the dish and the receivers both had signal in the 85 - 90 range. Or you could go the route of a dual tuner in the main house that is 120ft from the dish and using the relocate the uhf remote antenna trick with two splitters, it works great and if you search on the tech discussion forum and general dish forum you can find out how to do it.

 

[GMFreak8]

You could try using legacy lnbf's and switches, I've had luck in the past with a 550ft+/- multi line run that used legacy parts at the dish and the receivers both had signal in the 85 - 90 range. Or you could go the route of a dual tuner in the main house that is 120ft from the dish and using the relocate the uhf remote antenna trick with two splitters, it works great and if you search on the tech discussion forum and general dish forum you can find out how to do it.

I've had better luck with Dish Pro equipment going farther distances.

I've ordered the signal amp and a switch. I'll go from there and see how things are. They really want to have separate boxes. I think even a slight boost in signal level will get rid of the dropouts for the most part.

 

[volkodav]

another thing if it doesn't work you can get 96" dishes i did it at commercial site to get max signal with regular dish 500 it was at 30-45 after it was 115-120. with out any amp my run was 400ft

 

[GMFreak8]

another thing if it doesn't work you can get 96" dishes i did it at commercial site to get max signal with regular dish 500 it was at 30-45 after it was 115-120. with out any amp my run was 400ft

Nice, I never thought of that. The only thing about that would be the view distraction. There's people already complaining that there are too many Dishes on his side of the lake.

 

[volkodav]

who cares maybe he is trying to communicate with aliens .
if those to big then try 24 inch dishes

 

[RandallA]

I don't think the size of the dishes will help overcome the distance unless those dishes are not aimed properly. The Sonora amps will help, I would just try the Sonora amp and see what happens. 600 ft. is pretty long.

 

[Van]

Before you go the route of a larger dish check to see if there are any community guidelines inplace, if not then go with it but I recommend either painting the dish a color matching the tree line or getting some of the camo stick on stuff like they use for trucks or other gear to mask it as much as possible.

 

[vegassatellite]

My only concern with the Sonora is that it is receiver powered and consumes about 50mA. He might not have a lot of receiver current available at that long a distance. This could lead to his receivers burning out over time. He might want to get a DPP44 at the dish or somewhere else where the two lines from the dish are still next to each other and then placing the Sonora between the DPP44 and the dish. This way, the DPP44 will get enough power from building 120' away with its power inserter and the DPP44 ought to supply enough LNB current to run the Sonora and the LNBs.

I also suggest replacing the RG6 with RG11 wherever possible in the long runs.

 

[jdward]

Hey Guys, I'm hoping one of you can help me out with my issue here. I'm helping a guy out in the Adirondacks install a Dishnet setup for his house. Due to the location of the house, the only place that you can receive the signal is around 600 feet from his house at the lake shore. There's absolutely no way to get it any closer thanks to thick tree cover. The dish was setup at the lake sure with a Dish Pro Plus LNB and two feeds coming off of it. One of the buildings is only around 120 feet away from the dish, so the signal is around 100 for both satellites. The second feed goes to his garage, which is over 500 feet from the dish. The signal there hovers for both satellites between 50 and 60, with frequent dropouts depending on the channel tuned in and the weather. Is there anything that can be done to boost that signal. The installer who came from Dish to put this setup in initially didn't even bother to check the signal strength on the long run and seemed to be in a rush. He actually would like to run another line to his guest house for TV in there too. So I would need to get a switch. I was thinking of getting the DPP44 power inserter switch. But I can't seem to find any information on whether or not the power inserter also boosts the signal.

Basically what I want to know is if there is any signal booster that is compatible with a Dish Pro Plus setup. Does the DPP44 switch boost the signal, I would be killing two birds with one stone if that's the case considering I need a switch too. Replacing the cable is out of the question, as is moving the dish. So it seems as though my only option is a signal booster, which I can't seem to find much information on for Dish Pro equipment. Any help would be greatly appreciated. Thanks.

Did you ever get this problem worked out? If so, what did you end up doing? I've got a similar situation with a cable run in the 400' range using a DP34 switch about 100' from the LNB. I'd like to move the switch closer to the two furthest receivers. Maybe that will take care of the partial channel problem that I'm experiencing out there.

 

[Pepper]

Bigger dish = more signal
Better/Thicker cable = less signal loss
Switch closer to receivers = a good idea if you can do it
Amplifier = good luck

 

[jdward]

Bigger dish = more signal
Better/Thicker cable = less signal loss
Switch closer to receivers = a good idea if you can do it
Amplifier = good luck

Do you think moving the DP34 switch within 25' of the receivers and inspecting the cables will do the trick? Right now the system is set up with two dishes with the single LNBs. The dishes are approximately ... don't know for sure but let's say it's about 100' from the first DP34. A second DP34 is also right with the first. There are 7 receivers (abused 301s) total. I might be able to move a 3rd DP34 within 25' of the furthest two receivers but still looking at somewhere near 400' total from receiver to the LNBs.

I checked the system info page today. It has a yellow block for the 119 satellite and a green block for the 110 satellite. Does the yellow mean that it's a marginal signal? The check switch looked ok. Seems like I'm not getting all of the channels, channel 102 was missing for example. Most of the other channels seem to be there and the picture quality looks good. I've got a signal tracer that I will use next week to do a visual check on the cables. It's a commercial installation with lots of cables in the ceiling. Makes for a whopper of a headache - but an interesting challenge just the same.

So you think in-line amps are a waste, not necessary, etc?

 

[TheKrell]

I think it might. I know for a fact that an unpowered DP34 will not pass the LNB signals through the passthrough ports, so there is some signal conditioning or buffering, if not amplification, going on inside.

 

[pendragon]

So you think in-line amps are a waste, not necessary, etc?

Amplifiers run anywhere from good-quality to poor-quality with few in the middle. Poor quality amplifiers are always a waste. When properly applied on a long cable run (hundreds of feet), a good-quality amplifier is the proper engineering solution and will make a day vs. night difference. Unfortunately these forums are plagued with the mistaken belief that all amplifiers = evil, probably because the proponents do not understand the basic theory or have enjoyed a cheap date with a piece of junk.

 

[SandFarmer]

Bigger dish = more signal
Better/Thicker cable = less signal loss
Switch closer to receivers = a good idea if you can do it
Amplifier = good luck

On all my long runs, and I have several, I have used RG11 (as stated Better/Thicker Cable) for main feeds and trunk lines and have had to do nothing extra. Then I run RG6 off of that. Works great.