What is wrong with my HR10-250??? (OTA related???)

[SledgeHammer!]

Ok, I noticed something weird today...

I have a brand new HR10-250 that I'm trying to set up, it has 6.3a... I've got a channel master 4228 in the attic. Its going into a terk powered 5x8 multiswitch along with the 4 feeds from a 3 LNB 18x20 dish. 2 feeds go from the attic to my downstairs living room. One of the feeds runs into a powervision diplexer (1 side powered)... I'm taking the powered side into one of the SAT inputs and the non powered side into the antenna input.

To make a long story short, I have been futzing around with this for a week now (connecting and disconnecting sat feeds to wait while I get 6.3b)...

Weird thing is tonight EVERYTHING went out... sat & ota on all 4 tuners on both machines (a SAT-T60 and the HR10-250).. for no reason, I wasn't futzing around with it... I checked all the connections, even in the attic.. without touching anything... suddenly everything came back...

Except weird thing is, when I have the powered side of the diplexer hooked into EITHER IRD (either the SAT-T60 OR the HR10-250) the OTA meter drops 20 points?!?!?! WTF??!?!! Did I some how fry the diplexer? or is this a multiswitch problem? If I disconnect either end of the diplexer -> sat input cable, the OTA meter jumps back up 20 points. Seriously... its swinging from 60 to 80 depending on whether I have that powered side of the diplexer connected to an IRD... I can't say for sure if this was happening when I first hooked it up or just tonight... but just want to see if anyone has any ideas?!?!

Thanks.

[poppagene]

terk multiswitches are tricky wrt the diplexers you use. others on this forum have successfully fixed problems by using diplexers with a dc block built in. YOu may want to search the threads in this and the directv tivo forums for threads with more information. Personally, I have never been able to successfully use the antenna in on a terk multiswitch and have given up.

[dswallow]

The symptoms you describe sure do sound like the antenna input is getting DC Power, as if your diplexer didn't have a DC block at all. What really happens is that the power OUTPUT of the satellite INPUT that controls the multiswitch ends up shorting to the antenna INPUT when you don't use a DC Block or diplexer with that built in.

You could just get a separate DC Block device from Radio Shack to test or you could disconnect the second satellite input and hook it directly to the antenna input and see fi you now get the OTA signal in OK. If that's the case, then either get a different diplexer (maybe you just lucked out and got a mis-marked one or broken one), or add a DC Block to the one you have.

Terk's diplexers generally have no DC Block built in (but usually do come with a separate DC Block device). There's really nothing unique about a Terk Multiplexer -- it'd happen with any multiplexer sicne the problem stems from the diplexer side.

[SledgeHammer!]

Thanks for the info... after a few days of buying and trying 3 different diplexers, I called DTV advanced technical support. I was expecting them to 1) tell me to ship the HR10-250 to them or 2) for them to want to schedule a service call, or 3) for them to give me some BS answer (which they did at first: "umm... the cables in your walls must be bad, pull them out and get new ones").

When the guy gave me BS answers, I kept challenging him back...

me: "umm... no the cables are fine, they work great til I hook the OTA up or disconnect the SAT"
him: "ummm, ok, then your multiswitch must be bad, get a new 6x8 one"
me: "umm... 6x8 multiswitches are for the new KaKu dishes, and they don't support multiplexing the OTA"
him: "ummm... try a different diplexer"
me: "ummm... I've tried 3 different brands already"
him: "hmmm... ok, I'm going to transfer you to a guy that actually goes out in the field and installs these things"
me: thinking: yeah right, its probably his co-worker...
new guy: "yeah, I install those things all day... multiplexing through a multiswitch is kind of iffy"
me: umm... isn't that what its designed to do?
new guy: yeah, but it doesn't really work
me: so why do you still sell them?
new guy: beats me
me: so how do I multiplex the OTA?
new guy: well, the thing that usually 95% works for me is to by pass the multiswitch for the OTA... put an external diplexer on one of the OUTPUTS of the multiswitch so you are not using the one in the multiswitch at all...

I thought that was another BS suggestion, but I tried it and it actually worked...

Of course I'm limited to OTA on one TV though, but I only have one TV :).

[dswallow]

Thanks for the info... after a few days of buying and trying 3 different diplexers, I called DTV advanced technical support. I was expecting them to 1) tell me to ship the HR10-250 to them or 2) for them to want to schedule a service call, or 3) for them to give me some BS answer (which they did at first: "umm... the cables in your walls must be bad, pull them out and get new ones").

When the guy gave me BS answers, I kept challenging him back...

me: "umm... no the cables are fine, they work great til I hook the OTA up or disconnect the SAT"
him: "ummm, ok, then your multiswitch must be bad, get a new 6x8 one"
me: "umm... 6x8 multiswitches are for the new KaKu dishes, and they don't support multiplexing the OTA"
him: "ummm... try a different diplexer"
me: "ummm... I've tried 3 different brands already"
him: "hmmm... ok, I'm going to transfer you to a guy that actually goes out in the field and installs these things"
me: thinking: yeah right, its probably his co-worker...
new guy: "yeah, I install those things all day... multiplexing through a multiswitch is kind of iffy"
me: umm... isn't that what its designed to do?
new guy: yeah, but it doesn't really work
me: so why do you still sell them?
new guy: beats me
me: so how do I multiplex the OTA?
new guy: well, the thing that usually 95% works for me is to by pass the multiswitch for the OTA... put an external diplexer on one of the OUTPUTS of the multiswitch so you are not using the one in the multiswitch at all...

I thought that was another BS suggestion, but I tried it and it actually worked...

Of course I'm limited to OTA on one TV though, but I only have one TV :).
Obviously the built-in diplexer in your multiswitch is where the problem lies. The usual "divide and conquer" approach to diagnosing problems would've worked here... i.e., check one thing at a time, for example, run the antenna directly over a cable to ensure the receiver does really work and you have a known-good cable and your antenna is OK. Then start putting things back in one by one and see where things stop working, and there's your problem.