Two Dish Antennas into Receiver

[azfrankp]

I have a 211 Dish receiver on my RV connected to either my Rooftop "Traveler" or portable "Tailgater" Antenna which I use when there are trees directly overhead. For the past couple of years I have been unplugging and plugging in cables from my distribution center to accomplish the switch over but this has been a real pain because of the tight area to access. I started what I thought was a simple project of installing a manual A/B switch so I wouldn't have to go through that anymore. After trying a few, none seem to work because they are not "Power passing" which is required for the Tailgater to work. I tried searching for "Power Passing" coax switches but none of them state that in the description so it's up to trial and error. Thus, I bought 3 already that don't work.

My question is does anyone know of a model that does work? If not, my second question is does anyone know if the receiver will work with a power passing splitter (which there are many available) but would keep both jacks connected simultaneously. I'm not a fan of this idea because when the roof antenna is in use there would be nothing plugged into the external jack for the Tailgater and most RF devices don't like open circuits. This is made even more difficult because my external cover won't close with a terminator installed.

A real bonus would be to find an "F" jack video distribution center, similar to the Winegard VS-0503 that's currently installed in the coach, but with power passing capability. After hours of searching and phone calls, I've pretty much given up on that idea. The external jack I'm using for the Tailgater is also used for Cable TV so I would still have to switch wires in the very few times I use Cable TV.

Help!

 

[Brussam]

I have been using push button switches between the ground tripod and the roof dish for years. A mechanical switch should pass the voltage. I know mine does as my meters use the voltage on the coax cables for power. My switches are Aspen Eagle but I am not sure where to get them now. I originally got them from Solid Signal. I believe the Aspen Eagle slide switch should work as well.

I use a switch between my Hybrid modified Winegard Trav'ler and my Hybrid DPP1000.2 ground tripod.

I have always run separate coax cables for satellite input. The Park Cable is run through the antenna amplifier and that is an electronic switch.

 

[azfrankp]

Thanks for the input. I tried using regular toggle switches when I 1st got the Tailgater. They didn't work to well. Most of the time it would only lock onto one satellite. Sometimes none. Maybe slide switches would work better but a dish technician told me the "Tailgater" dish is very small and therefore can't overcome db loss due to the impedance mismatch and connection losses. Tripod dishes are larger and could probably overcome this by delivering a higher signal. I guess that would be an option but would hate to throw away the investment I already have knowing that db losses may still cause problems especially if there is a less expensive product out there that matches impedance and minimizes loss. I'm pretty sure that impedances have to match to attain a good enough signal especially with HD.

I do have a separate cables but still need a way to switch them in an out of the single jack on the receiver.

Thanks for your thoughts.

 

[rvvaquero]

I have found that degrading the Tailgater signal in any way will affect it's performance.