Getting it all connected:

In part 1, we gave you an overview of the project and a list of the components that were necessary for it.  In this part, we will get into the details of getting connected.

You will need two satellite-grade splitters for the project.  Make sure you do not use those intended for Cable TV, as they will not work.  Also, the splitters you get have to be designed to pass DC power only on one leg of the split, as seen in the picture.  Most of them are not like this.  I got mine from www.accessorywarehouse.com

This photo shows the 4x4 multiswitch that came with our ParaTodos oval DirecTV dish.  It is used to connect the Sat A (101) and Sat B (119) LNB's to the DirecTV receivers inside.

Both outputs of the Sat A (101) LNB get connected directly to the multiswitch.

Before the Sat B (119) signal gets connected to the multiswitch, it has to go through the splitters first.  It doesn't matter which of the two wires coming out of the LNB you use for 13V and 18V, but it does matter that you mark each splitter as 13V or 18V and connect the outputs to the corresponding inputs on the multiswitch and on the Dish Network switch.

The power-passing output from the 13V splitter goes to the 1A input on the Dish Network switch.  The other (DC blocking) output goes to the Sat B 13V input on the multiswitch.

For the other splitter, the power-passing output goes to the 1B input on the Dish Network switch and the other (DC blocking) output connects to Sat B 18V input on the multiswitch.

Both of the outputs of the LNB in the Sat C (110) position are connected to the 2A and 2B connectors on the Dish Networks switch.  If you have a SW 64, for use with the additional 18" dish to receive international and HDTV broadcasts at 61.5 or 148, you would connect the outputs of that LNB to 3A and 3B.

[NOTE: Some DirecTV subscribers are now being issued what is called a Sat C kit for reception of Showtime HD and possible future HDTV broadcasts at 110.  If you are one of these people, you have to make a choice between watching Dish Network's programming at 110 or the DirecTV HDTV programming (as of 08/28/02, one channel).  The special LNB in the Sat C kit is not compatible with Dish Network and cannot be shared between the two services.  It is possible to connect in the Sat C special signal combiner with the shared Sat B (119) signal.  However, we have not had very good results with that combination.]

Now that you have everything connected to your switches, all that is left is to connect everything up to your receivers indoors.  In our case, we were not able to drill any holes through the walls, so we bought some flat coax cables and ran the connections in through the sliding glass door.  Some 1/2" rubber weatherproofing did a good job of sealing the gaps and keeping out the weather and bugs.

Everything from this point on is very straightforward.  Connect your DirecTV receiver(s) to the multiswitch and connect your Dish Network receiver(s) to the Dish Network switch.  If you decided to experiment with the 4th LNB for the Canadian Bell ExpressVu programming on Nimiq 1 (91), you would connect the outputs of that LNB directly to your receiver or follow ExpressVu's instructions for multiple receivers (beyond two).

Here's what our installation looked like when we were done.  We had the 4-LNB Para Todos dish and an additional 18" Dish 300 for HDTV programming at 61.5.  You can also see the Channel Master 4-bay UHF antenna we attached to the mast for local OTA digital television broadcasts.

Useful links:

Kevin Timmerman's most excellent page of wiring diagrams
AV Science Forum is an excellent source of technical information
DBSForums is another great information source
Some of the info here is a little dated but still very useful
Good source for installation supplies

Copyright 1998-2002 Mark Oberg, All rights reserved