WestCDA,

Thanks for the information. Hopefully I'm not the first person to use an SW44A in this configuration. Guess I'll find out soon.

You mentioned that the switches should be grounded. I had an electrician in replacing our electrical panel near where the the two switches will be located. I noticed he attached a new heavy guage ground wire from the panel out to the water pipes. I assume this would make a sufficient ground for the switches as well?

-Mike

There are lots of people out there using the SW44A with the SW44 to get more than four receiver outputs - I doubt you'll have any problems.

That electrical ground to your water pipes is exactly what you want - just ground your switches to it and you'll be all set. :D

I purchased the 9200 the other day and installed as per the diagrams. Couldn't get a signal at all. Did the switch test. Error message said that is wasn't connected property and it showed a table that indicated no satelite feeds to the SW44 switch. I have the power inserter switched on but suspect that the switch is not working properly.

Should I troubleshoot by bypassing the switch and get the satelite working first? Other ideas?

From what you describe it sounds like a problem with the switch. I would first connect the sat feeds directly to the receiver, point the dish and make sure your dish is oriented and LNBs are working properly. Then connect the switch and see if you still get a fault. Make sure that the dish 1 connectors are connected to one LNB, and the dish 2 inputs to the other.

No one mentioned wether the power inserter is a requirement on a SW-44 if you only have a 9200 connected, or you only have to insert the power when the forth receiver is attached. On my 9200+SW44, it just didn't work without the inserter and I didn't have a 3rd wire to for the power inserter, so I bought 2 SW22 instead. The 1 page manual from Bell didn't indicate anything either, but I saw another modle of SW44 somewhere when required the power inserter at all time. Anyone?

You need the power inserter connected on the SW44. I'm curious why you purchased the two SW21 switches, instead of a short length of coax to hook up the power inserter?

I've installed a single 9200 with SW44. I get excellent signal strength on 91' satellite (up to 100%), and very good signal strength on 82' satellite (80-90%)

The problem I have is that some transponders of 82' read as zero signal strength. It is not restricted to odd or even transponders. All transponders have either a good signal (>80%) or they are absolute zero. There are 7 such transponders that read as 0.

What would cause this? I assume that the good signal strength on the majority of the transponders means that the dish is aimed properly. I have swapped out the LNBF for the 82' satellite with no effect. I have tested with both tuners of the 9200 with the same results. I have swapped the 91' and 82' satellite inputs at the SW44, no effect...

Very confusing. I asked EVV tech support if any transponders on 82' were expected to read as zero signal strength (e.g. they are focused on other regions of the country or something) they claim that I should get a signal on all transponders.

The transponders that read as 0 are: 7,8,11,12,24,29,31
every other transponder has a signal strength between 83 and 91%
(transponder 4 cannot be selected from the 9200's signal strength test screen)

Any suggestions?

I'm very surprised that the person you spoke to at Bell gave you that answer. They lost several transponders on that satellite due to an onboard electrical problem after launch. They are dead, and unrecoverable - nobody gets a signal on those.

Really??? Amazing! I spoke to 3 people at Bell, one appeared to be the manager of another. When I first attempted to activate the person I spoke to claimed that I *HAD* to get a good signal on transponder 24 and 31 or they could not activate me.

I had to argue at length with that fool because he kept telling me to do stupid things to fix the problem that defied logic. He then passed me on to his superior that also didn't have a clue and blamed things on the fact that at the time I only have one tuner connected.

Then I called the next day after hooking up the second tuner (no change in reception of course). The person I spoke to then agreed to activate the box but claimed I would not be able to get some channels.. I knew that the 3100 I was using before was only watching the 91' sat and so my current programming would be unaffected anyway.. plus there was the one year warranty on the equipment so he said if the problem persists I still had options there. I explicitly asked him "Are there any transponders that are expected to not have a signal?" and he told me quite clearly that there were not. That I should get a good signal on ALL transponders. That person seemed to have a clue. I asked him about some of the things the first guy asked me to do and he agreed that that dude was full of crap, so I thought I could trust his answers to be reasonable.

It wasn't making any sense to me, since the nature of the problem seemed to point to the transponders not being functional.

I should call them again and try to speak to someone with a clue.

Is there anywhere that I can officially confirm which transponders should be working?

Thanks!

It took a little fishing around, but I found the following documents on Telesat's site. The problem was with one of the solar arrays, so I think they are using all the transponders that they can support with the power available.

On the last link below, click on the Nimiq 2 channel assignment to see the active and disabled transponders as of that document date. They seem to have juggled the assignments around, as the list differs from the current inactive transponders - but the power shortage problem remains.

http://www.telesat.ca/news/2003/03-04.htm

http://www.telesat.ca/news/2003/03-07.htm

http://www.telesat.ca/satellites/charts/index.htm

Hmm.. that chart shows different transponders than what I have listed above. For example I get a signal on #5, yet they list it as "Not Available". Same with #6, #10, #22.
I also don't get a signal on some that are listed as in use by ExpressVu: #7, #8, #11, #12, #24, #31

Am I to assume that the power has been shuffled around to the other transponders and all is well?

It's really frustrating that the ExpressVu techs are totally clueless about this issue. Not that I should be surprised, I asked them several questions via email and in person at Bell World stores and it was clear that none of them have a clue what they are talking about. I got conflicting answers on all fronts and ultimately things they assured me were one way turned out of course to be not the case. Such as when I asked if the 9200 up-converted standard definition or just passed standard definition signals through so my TV could deal with it (the mode I would prefer, since the TV has a much better stretch mode). ExpressVu tech support claimed that standard definition signals were passed through so the TV could deal with them and of course that is not the case. They also claimed that an HDMI connection was *required* (I asked because their web site is so bad it only lists HDMI as a connection.. why don't they just give full specs???).. of course that was also not true, analog component outputs are present... Basically Bell is 100% unreliable as a source of information about their products.

Sorry.. getting off-topic.

Yes, I edited my original post when I noticed the channel assignments had changed. Looks like they're still running at limited power, though.

I understand your frustration at getting meaningful information; I found their web site pretty well useless. The research I did before purchasing the 6100 and 9200 was mostly in forums like this one, and from reviewing Dish's documents on the receivers.

Having said that, I'm pretty happy with the equipment and what it will do. Hope yours meets your expectations as well.

Can anyone tell me if the following will work. I used to have 2 lines coming in from my sat into a switch then out to 4 3100. I upgraded at the weekend and ran two more lines from the sat and replaced my exisiting switch with a SW44. I have a 9200 and two 3100 connected to the sw44 and everything works great. I am now trying to figure out how to use another 3100. Bell recomend that i purchase an extra sw44 and 4 splitters. Then cross over the cables to connect 4 receivers on each SW44. As i already have a 2X4 switch (not sure what model as i purchased from bell a while ago) can i take the original two feeds coming from my sat and split the signal between the sw44 and original 2X4 switch. This should give me another 4 outputs to attach additional non HD receivers shoudl it not? If it does work do i need to add the power to the SW44 and 2X4 switch?

My question concerns the wires. I currently have a 6000 receiver and a 3100.
My house is 20 years old pre-wired. When I got the 6000 I was told the wires would have to be changed bc it wouldn't work. Well it worked. Now since all the wires are in the wall, I don't have any easy way of running a second line to the 9200. If I use the DPP lnbf and separator with my existing wires that worked fine with my 6000 install, will it work with the new hardware? I don't want to order that stuff for nothing.:confused:

I'm trying to install my friends 9200 with the SW44. We ran four lines inside from the dish (2 x 91, 2 x 82). Connected the 91's to 1a & 1b. Connected the 82's to 2a & 2b.

Then ran two lines from Port 1 & 2 to Sat 1 and Sat 2 on the 9200 (no power inserter connected).

When we are on the point dish screen, 91 is locked in at 94%, but when we run Check Switch we get a connection error:

Sat 1 is good showing 91 & 82 connected to the SW44
Sat 2 is bad showing a red X under 91, 82 does not show and it does not show the switch.

Under details it reports that Port 1a has an error on 91 odd... something like that.

When we remove the Sat 2 connection (Port 2) and run Check Switch we no longer get Sat 1 reporting as good. All Sat inputs have an error and there is no signal indicated for 91.

I've gone back and confirmed all connections are good.

Could anyone help me with a method of figuring out the problem?

The switch requires a power inserter - why do you not have it connected?

Because I am an idiot! I'll try that in the morning. Cheers.

;) That should take care of the problem - it sounds like you've got everything else ready to go. I'm sure that he'll enjoy the 9200 - I've been very pleased with it.

I should add that ultimately I am happy with the 9200, just dissatisfied with the quality of customer service from Bell.. but that has been my experience with most telecommunication companies :) (It's one of the reasons I don't, and won't ever, have cable.)

It also seems that the 9200 is very popular.. you can't get any for miles around here (Markham, ON) and nobody, including Bell tech folks, seems to know when more will be available. A friend of mine is looking for one for his home theater and he simply can't get one. He's called 10+ stores and some number at Bell that the Bell store "wasn't supposed to give to customers".

Hopefully that means the 9200 is just so good everyone wants one, and not because it is being discontinued or something :)

Hi, I am using the setup in option #3. with 2 Dual LNB and the SW44 switch. I have one 9200 hooked up to the SW44 for both tuners. I want to hook up another 9200 (yes, I found one today), but I have only 1 cable running to that room.
The terms used in some of the posts are confusing and refer to the Dish 500 setup.
Can I still use a DPP seperator to split the cable for both tuners?
Does Bell sell this splitter? Is ther another solution?
Thanks.