DiSEqC switch won't switch?

[mikey]

I’m a total newbie, so please forgive me if I’m asking what might seem like a kindergarten-level question to all you satellite wizards out there.

I wanted to add a second dish to my existing system (Fortec Star Lifetime Ultra receiver) so I ordered another dish and one of those Sadoun 4-way DiSEqC switches (I didn’t really need four inputs, but I got the 4-way switch in case I might want to add a third dish someday).

I installed the new dish and the switch, and then I brought the receiver and a monitor out to the dishes to set everything up. And everything worked great! Once I told the receiver to look for ports 1 and 2 on the switch, it automatically switched between satellites as I flipped through channels. Cool.

So, I brought the receiver back into the living room, hooked it up . . . and one of the dishes showed up dead. The other dish worked fine, though, so I figured that something must have come loose out at the dish. But, when I dragged the receiver and monitor back out to the front yard and connected it directly to the switch, everything worked fine again (?).

The only difference I can figure: it switches when it’s connected with a short (6’) length of coax from switch to receiver, but doesn’t switch when it’s connected with a long (maybe 30’) length of coax from the switch to the living room. Seems like, when using the longer length of coax, the switch locks itself into the lowest port and won’t switch (I can manually switch satellites by swapping the cables going into the switch inputs, but who wants to do that on a cold, rainy night)?

Could there be something related to cable length that’s causing this difficulty, or am I chasing the wrong dog? Could it be a defective 4-way switch? Would the 2-way switch Sadoun offers maybe work better for me? (it’s only $19, and I don’t really need the 4-way capacity I’ve got now, but I obviously don’t want to buy another switch if I’m going to end up with the very same problem).

Any advice would be greatly appreciated!

[bobkat]

Hey Mikey:

Thirty feet is not a long length of coax in my opinion. I would suggest trying a different DiSEqC switch. Or try putting the switch near the receiver (inside) rather than out at the dish site. Sometimes those switches can be finicky -- although I've never had a problem so far (touch wood) and I always mount the switch at the dish site.

kat

[mikey]

Thank You, Bobkat. I really appreicate your taking the time to offer a newbie some advice. I'll order up another switch today and give it a go.

Thanks again - Mikey