I have already looked at the switch faq, but I'm not familiar enough with the terminology to decide what I need. I have a Dish 500 dish and a dish for my locals, that were professionally installed. What switch/switches do I need to add a second receiver in the same room? I have a dual LNBF. There is already one switch out there, but I would guess that I would need another switch for the second receiver. I would go look to see what switch is out there, but it's dark and raining. I already have the cable to run from the dishes to the new receiver. Do I just put another switch like the one that's out there? I have successfully intalled a couple of earlier dishes, but they didn't have switches; so I'm not totally ignorant...just ignorant about switches. Thank you, if someone can point me in the right direction.
Trying To Hookup a Second Receiver
- Thread starter Rina Rinardo
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We need to find out what switch that you have. Sounds like you have 2 dishes pointing at 3 satellites. Let us know what switch you have.
Dish500 does not come with "a dual," it is either 2 duals or a Twin.
- 2 legacy duals, get a 2nd SW21, connect same as the 1st
- 2 DishPro duals (not likely), get a 2nd DP21, connect same as the 1st
- Twin (legacy or DP), connect to the unused output
You can go to Menu, 6, Point Dish, View Check Switch Summary (something like that, going by memory) to see how your receiver identifies your LNB/switch configuration.
- 2 legacy duals, get a 2nd SW21, connect same as the 1st
- 2 DishPro duals (not likely), get a 2nd DP21, connect same as the 1st
- Twin (legacy or DP), connect to the unused output
You can go to Menu, 6, Point Dish, View Check Switch Summary (something like that, going by memory) to see how your receiver identifies your LNB/switch configuration.
You are right; it is an SW21. So, I just need to get another SW21, and copy the first hookup. The Dish 500 has a quad mounted on it. The dish for locals has one LNB, but it is on a mount with a place to add another LNB. I can't tell if the one that's on it is a single or a double. So, I might have to add a single LNB to the mount on the dish for locals. Does this sound right? Please let me know if it doesn't. Thanks for the help.
The dish for locals which has a place to add another LNB must be a Dish500 pointed at 61.5 to receive the must carry locals and that must be the reason why you need the sw21. If that is the case then you would only need the sw21 if you wanted to receive those channels from 61.5 on that additional receiver. You could hook that receiver directly into the quad lnbf then do a check switch to receive those channels. The dish for locals, if it is pointing at 61.5, is not giving you most of your local channels and eventually you will not need that extra dish to receive them anyways.
You can NOT repeat NOT use the second mmount on the 61.5 dish - it's pointing 9 degrees away from 61.5.
If you want the second receiver to get the channels from 61.5, the LNBF on that dish has to be a DUAL output. If it's only a single, it needs to be swapped out.
I am deliberately not mentioning the many other switching possibilities, as all of them still require a DUAL on the 61.5 dish - which means the simplest answer after that is the second SW-21 already recommended.
If you want the second receiver to get the channels from 61.5, the LNBF on that dish has to be a DUAL output. If it's only a single, it needs to be swapped out.
I am deliberately not mentioning the many other switching possibilities, as all of them still require a DUAL on the 61.5 dish - which means the simplest answer after that is the second SW-21 already recommended.
Thanks. So, the easy way would be to just run a cable from the quad on the Dish to the receiver. I could do without all the local channels on the other dish. Most of them might become available on the elliptical dish anyway if they aren't already. Do I need to run the cable from the closest LNBF to the one that is already hooked up?
Wouldn't the 9 degree rule on a Dish500 pointing towards 61.5 only apply to a Dish500 that has the skew set on it? What if the skew is set at 0? I am thinking that one lnbf would be focused on a certain part of the dish (not the center but to one side) so putting an lnbf on the other side would focus in on a different part of the dish. One would have to make an adapter to where each lnbf would focus in on the center of the dish. It is easier to just get a dual lnbf. They can be had for very cheap maybe even free if you find some old dishes lying around.
I don't really understand the question. "closest LNBF"?Rina Rinardo said:
As for your locals moving to an "elliptical" dish, I assume you mean a SuperDish. Anyway, no one can comment on that because you haven't said where you are.
Dish500 skew has nothing to do with this - it's nothing more than tilt to compensate for the difference in elevation between the two azimuths.Stargazer said:
The shape of the dish can be thought of as a mirror - although a bent one - which means it has a focal length. That is, the LNBF must be a specific distance from the surface in order to get the maximum gain, which is very important to get sufficient signal to operate. For any given focal length, you can only have one feedhorn "there", and that feedhorn will be "seeing" a bird at a specific angle bounced off the pan.
With a standard Dish500, pointing at 110/119, if you put another LNBF in between, it would point at 114.5 (and have a better gain factor than the other two spots). An LNBF outside of the standard two will have less gain. This BTW, is the problem with SuperDish - the outside LNBF (110 on a 121 SD, 119 on a 105 SD) doesn't have a good focus point.
Now, that's a lot to swallow without diagrams that I don't have, but maybe it's enough.
Back to the original question - can you mount two LNBFs on a Dish500 ad have both "see" the same bird? Yes, but it's not likely they'd have anywhere near enough signal to work. They'd have to be closer to or farther from the pan than "focused". I can visualize what I'm trying to explain - it's like a camera lens. This link http://farside.ph.utexas.edu/teaching/302l/lectures/node114.html (which has nothing to do with DBS) has a decent set of diagrams that might help.
This is why you cannot get 105 and 121 on the same SuperDish, because the dish focuses in on 105 or 121. The reason why the designed the SuperDish this way is due to the fact that the FSS satellite (105/121) is harder to tune in than 110 and 119 and needs more focus on it since its a weaker satellite therefore needing that extra signal strength.
I know what your trying to say SimpleSimon, I can visualize that. The farther away the lnbf is the more of the center of the dish it can see but then it would be too far away to pick up a signal. The closer to the dish it is the more focused in it gets to that specific location its pointed at.
I know what your trying to say SimpleSimon, I can visualize that. The farther away the lnbf is the more of the center of the dish it can see but then it would be too far away to pick up a signal. The closer to the dish it is the more focused in it gets to that specific location its pointed at.
SimpleSimon said:
By elliptical, I mean it isn't round like the dish for the locals. Maybe that isn't the proper term. I have a quad on this not-round dish. Or, maybe it is round, but anyway, I get 2 satellites on it, and it has 4 places to run the cable from the LNBF to the receiver. I would guess it doesn't matter which of the 3 remaining cable connection LNBF outputs I connect the new receiver to. The quad LNBF is one unit with 4 outputs, and it has 2 round plastic lens covers (maybe they aren't lense covers, but that's what they look like to me). They are like the one on a single LNBF. I'm not sure if it is a SuperDish, I just know it gets 2 satellites.
I am in Amarillo, TX. I can do without the switch and the local dish on the new receiver, if that would make the hookup easier.
Rina - you've got a Dish500. Yes, it's slightly elliptical - vertically. SuperDish is very elliptical - horizontally.
Yes, you've got the Quad concept right - the "lens covers" are actually feedhorn covers, but serve the same purpose - keeping the dirt and bugs out. Actually, the only difference is light has a different frequency than the 12+GHz of satellite TV. It's all EMF.
Yeah, that's right, most of us have a pair of aimable radio (EMF) receivers embedded in our faces. A bit strange when you think about it. Even more strange when you think about what it would be like if your receivers were tuned to a different band.
Anyway, Amarillo locals are on the 148 bird (NOT 61.5 as previously posted). Same issue, though. Second receiver can be added with just a SW-21 - IF you aready have a Legacy Dual instead of a Single. Used Dual should be cheap to free at a local shop if you make nice.
That gives you capability for two tuners worth of locals plus nationals, and two more tuners of nationals only. For the record, if all four tuners need the 3rd bird, swap out the SW-21s for an SW64. That's a PITA, tho - better to convert to DishPro.
Yes, you've got the Quad concept right - the "lens covers" are actually feedhorn covers, but serve the same purpose - keeping the dirt and bugs out. Actually, the only difference is light has a different frequency than the 12+GHz of satellite TV. It's all EMF.
Yeah, that's right, most of us have a pair of aimable radio (EMF) receivers embedded in our faces. A bit strange when you think about it. Even more strange when you think about what it would be like if your receivers were tuned to a different band.
Anyway, Amarillo locals are on the 148 bird (NOT 61.5 as previously posted). Same issue, though. Second receiver can be added with just a SW-21 - IF you aready have a Legacy Dual instead of a Single. Used Dual should be cheap to free at a local shop if you make nice.
That gives you capability for two tuners worth of locals plus nationals, and two more tuners of nationals only. For the record, if all four tuners need the 3rd bird, swap out the SW-21s for an SW64. That's a PITA, tho - better to convert to DishPro.
