Hmm, I've done a handful of 18" dishes but no hd yet. It's either done when I get there or there's a special deal that I'm not interested in matching.

Now I'm prewiring and the client may upgrade from standard to HD DirecTV later on.

I know all the LNBs generally feed a switch on the dish/mount and I've usually seen just two wires coming into the house, but...

If one HD dish feeds 6 locations, do those two leads go to a typical multiswitch to be fanned out throughout the house, or do I bring 5 RG6 from the dish into the house?

I need to plan ahead, since the location may be moved from a balcony (customer install) to out in the yard on a post.

Thanks as always for your time and input.
=Tom

AT A MINIMUM 4 FEEDS. I think 6 is now common. Sattelite isn't very common in my area anymore. 3 LNBs I think for all the HD programming. Correct me if I'm wrong somebody.

3 LNB's 2 Dual and one Single, but the Single is generally combined at the Dish now. So only 4 are required. 5th would be for Antenna, but that could be Diplexed.

We are running 6 leads now which allows for some of our rual customers to get starband or direcway. NO LESS than 4 leads to the distribution pannel.

I am truly a control freak.

I run two wires from LNB A, that looks at the 101 satellite.

I run two wires from the LNB B, that looks at 119.

I run one wire from LNB B, that looks at 110.

Inside the attic, the closet, the basement, wherever, I put in the splitter that mixes LNB B and C signals for a resulting four satellite cables: 13 volts, 18 volts, 13 volts plus 22 kHz, and 18 volts plus 22 kHz.

Oh, yeah, I also usually run a sixth wire so that I can put up a terrestrial antenna if/when needed.

Anyway, those four satellite leads go into a multiswitch. I use a 5 in, 4 out for up to four receivers, and a 5 in, 8 out for up to eight receivers -- be sure to count dual-tuner DVRs as two receiver needing two separate cables.

Why 5 in when I only have four satellite cables? So I can mix either cable or antenna in on the same cables going to each location.
As for results, I put up a Channel Master 4228 in urban Los Angeles the other day, diplexed it in with a Channel Master IFD 4002 near the entry into the roof (only had four wires on that one), diplexed it out in the basement (20 feet of cable later), put it into the VHF/UHF input of an Eagle/Aspen 5x8, and got 18 digital stations at the two HD boxes in the house. That is without external amplification.

I run a minimum of 6, plus a cat-5, and 18/2 for a heater.

HOWEVER...

for all of you who have that customer who HAS to have HD, and you know the retro is inpossible, it CAN be done on TWO cables.

Run a minimum of three inside. You can use two to go to a traditional multiswitch and one directly to a HD box. Many multiswitches will not pass HD signals.

We usually run five or six leads in.

Minimum of six.... Dish Network has one bird flying SE that requires a 2nd dish even. Make sure you know where it is so your cable locations are correct. It's used for foriegn programming. Don't forget a ground wire.

Note: You cannot get away with diplexing the antenna if you have not already preamped the antenna (assuming you need to). The voltage from the amp freakes out hte LNB's. Anyone experience anything different?

I thought we (collectively as longtime RC'ers) had pretty much determined that TWO cables was almost impossible to get HD...because of the 22Khz tone that has to be generated by the HD receivers

this subject has been broached in many other treads here on RC...and there has been no consistent, workable answer

If there is, Fish, can you please advise how you're doing it...some of DO need to have this solution in our arsenal!

stacked lnb's, multiple diplexers, what?

thanks

avdude

Hey AV dude,

I came across this a few months ago. The project never came to fruition, (cost prohibitive) but I was assured from the manufacturer that it would work (they make a product specifically for this).

www.hollandelectronics.com 800.628.4511 X191

They make a product called the TSAT242. It's a 24", 3 LNB dish, with 2 diplexers, and 2 stackers.

Then you need a DSAT4D3S to destack.

It stacks the 3 LNB's sends them down on 2 coax, then destacks them at the head.

This all came about when a customer of mine had a HD dish, and only one coax running to his dual tuner Tivo, and we were trying to figure out how to get two DSS feeds out of one coax.

This stuff isn't cheap, but so far is the only way I could find, and fits the niche for the customer who wants it.

They also make a multiswitch product specifically to get more outputs from those horrible 20" 3LNB dishes that have the 4 out multiswitch built in. They seem to be a very foreward thinking compnay, and really geared to finding solutions that we (CI's) face. I don't do much satellite, but the next time I need a multiswitch, I'm going to go with these guys instead of S****.

Check out their catalog, they make some pretty cool stuff.

I have been fortunate enough to be using Holland brand diplexors for the past year or so and I would agree that their stuff is really trick! Used to do stacked LNB with the standard dual LNB but am REALLY glad to hear about the triple. There is one other solution but I think that they are all the same except maybe price. There is a place that I have gotten stuff from in the past called SEG (satellite engineering group). Their techs are pretty smart about getting around "impossible" problems.