Your Own In House Cable System By Gary Bourgois, The Birdwatcher If you have a satellite system (Why would you be reading this if you didn't), you probably like viewing it in other rooms in your house. Many of us have found ways to do this, usually by running an RF cable and splitting it off from the back of the IRD and using the built in RF modulator. This is all fine, but how do you combine it with the other video sources you might want to watch, like CABLE TV, ANTENNA, VCR, ETC.? A number of approaches work, and some are more expensive than others, and each has it's pros and cons. You can just use an A/B switch, of course to flip between DISH and the rest of it, but you will need such a switch for each TV in your home. If you are a normal person this is no big deal, but some of us are weird. I have 32 monitors/TV's in my house (I guess I should join TV's Annonymous), and a wealth of video sources. Over the years I have tried all kinds of methods of distribution. I used cable head end modulators, but never had a perfect system, as there was always some kind of mixing and balancing the levels was a real trick. I looked at the CHANNEL PLUS modulators, but they are pretty expensive, and I wanted to add several channels, which would put me at $2,000 in no time. Hey with that kind of money I could buy a DIGICIPHER and retire! After installing my 4th satellite dish, and realizing that this was not going to be the last one of those, I found myself with 5 channels of satellite feeds, and a room that looked like a bowl of black spagetti. There HAS to be a way to get all this stuff feeding in a logical method, and get it around the house. I NEED to have NASA SELECT in the bathroom. I want to watch three simultaneous newsfeed channels while making breakfast... That's just the kinda guy I am.... I discussed this dilema with Mike Kohl of Global Communications, and he told me about what Terry Kissinger in Knoxville was doing... UHF distribution. UHF? What's that? This is Marquette, Michigan... The land that time forgot. The closest UHF TV station is somewhere below the bridge, and I have never seen it. Nothing could be received on UHF up here besides my old TV genie, which was hooked to a computer display. Besides, isn't this sort of thing expensive to do. It was then that I learned of the coolest tiny little black box ever made: The TRUESPEC PICO USM-8. This is a tuneable UHF modulator that will put a signal on any UHF channel from 14 to 30 (I can get it up to 32 by turning the adjustment screw all the way to the end). At first I expected to pay a bundle for these things, but Mike told me he had them in stock for $34.95 each. Well HEY, that's my kind of price, so I said, "Mail me a couple to play with". To my surprise, they are nice sturdy little units with rubber feet, audio and video level controls, analogue frequency adjustment RCA inputs for audio and video, and a built in AC power supply. At a price LESS than I paid for the dinky TV GENIE (no longer made) here was a really decent looking and compact piece of RF gear. BUT How does it PERFORM? When I hooked the satellite receiver to the input and ran the output to a 25 inch TV set tuned to channel 14, I had it up and running in no time. It did need a bit of tweeking, as the video level was too hot, and the audio was too low, but there was my Drake 1824 playing out on UHF just as sharp and clean as could be. In fact it was hard to believe I was looking at RF, as the sharpness rivals that which comes from a video monitor. Hey this could really work. First thing I did was call mike and order more of them. One for each of my primary sources of video, 5 for satellite receivers (my four dishes feed 5 receivers, since the dedicated T1 dish feeds TWO receivers) I have one for the main video display from my MX-1 Video Mixer (Review Available Separately) And one is connected to my WINDOWS computer (You CAN watch your PC anywhere in the house). I staggered the channels every 3 channels from 14 to 32. There is no interaction between modulators, which surprised me. They all have the same output, so you don't need a level control. They put out about +10 DB or so on their own, so if you are going to do what I did, and mix them all together as your own "Cable Head End", you will need to buy a splitter/combiner and an RF Distribution Amplifier. Fortunately, Mike from Global had these also, so I had those shipped as well. He has a couple different Amplifiers available. I got one with adjustable gain, so I could set the level to match exactly what I needed for a massive RF split. I then went to town and wired up my house for UHF, using RG6, and good splitters. After a few days work, I got the system together. I mounted all the modulators together in a block type arrangement, securing them with electrical tape (having them as separate units makes a mess because they don't like to stay put) I routed and wrapped all the power cables, and ran them to a power block, rounted and wrapped all the audio and video cables, ran the inputs to an 8 way splitter (hey I have one more channel I can add!) and the output of that splitter (which is now a combiner) into the RF amplifier, and that to the distribution system. The result is an in house system where any TV in the joint can watch ANY of the 7 channels. I can't tell you how handy this is. For me, this was just what I wanted. Here is how it is wired: __________ __________ ______ _______ _________ ________ ___ |Drake 1524| |Drake 1824| |Uniden| |Horizon| |Pansat KU| |Computer| |MX1| ~~~~|~~~~~ ~~~~|~~~~~ ~~|~~~ ~~~|~~~ ~~~~|~~~~ ~~~|~~~~ ~|~ | | | | | | | | | | | | | | __|__ __|__ __|__ __|__ __|__ __|__ __|__ |CH 14| |CH 17| |Ch 20| |CH 23| |CH 26| |CH 29| |CH 32| ~~|~~ ~~|~~ ~~|~~ ~~|~~ ~~|~~ ~~|~~ ~~|~~ | | | | | | | | | | | | | | ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ | 8 WAY SPLITTER HOOKED UP IN REVERSE | ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~|~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ | | _____|_____ |DISTRIB AMP| ~~~~~|~~~~~ | | | V To house distribution Network RG6 and lots of splitters The system works very well, and provides nice clean viewing through out a two story house. There are extended runs so we can watch on the porch/veranda, and one run to the pickup camper. Another run can go out to the dish service platform, and came in handy when a polarotor had to be replaced a few weeks ago. When watching NASA select (on THREE channels, write for the article about how to turn the multiplexed S2/05 into TWO SEPARATE video feeds) or special news events with multiple feeds, this system really comes into its own. Multiple TV sets allow you to watch ALL your receivers, or one TV can be switched to whichever receiver you want. You could put one channel up from a VCR (I do this with the MX-1 Video Mixer) to play a movie for a family member in another room on one channel, while you watch your favorite satellite channel on another. Tim in Kansas got just ONE of the modulators, and wired the system up to his existing over the air antenna system, so he has his satellite receiver as a UHF channel in any room of the home. You MUST be careful how you do this, because if you accidently hooked the output of the distribution amplifer to the ANTENNA, you would be BROADCASTING your satellite system out over the air to ALL your neighbors. I imagine such a mistake in connections would send the signal a block or two if you were not careful. The proper way to do it is: <<<<<<<<|<<<<<<< Tv Antenna | | | | ____|______ |DISTRIB AMP| ~~~~|~~~~~~ | ____________ _____ ______|_______ |SAT RECEIVER|-----|USM-8|----|2 way splitter| ~~~~~~~~~~~~ ~~~~~ ~~~~~~|~~~~~~~ | | V To House Distribution System In this arrangement the distribution amp acts not only as a way to amplify the TV antenna signal, but it also effectively isolates the USM-8 UHF Modulator from the antenna, so you will not radiate your UHF signal out over the air and confuse your neighbors. DO NOT HOOK the amplifier up the wrong way. The antenna goes to the INPUT and not the OUTPUT and the USM-8 goes to the OUTPUT and not the INPUT. There are also ways to combine the USM-8 with CABLE TV and there are some cable ready TV's that tune actual UHF channels (I believe those above 99) so do some experimenting if you want to add your USM-8 to the CABLE system, it CAN be done and this way you have the satellite dish as a cable channel. The USM-8, Amplifiers, UHF antennas, all the cables you will need, and Satellite Equipment as well can be had from: Global Communications 608 546 2523 P.O.B. 747 Spring Green WI 53588 Mike Kohl is very knowledgable about this stuff, since he has built cable systems, and large distribution systems as well as installed satellite systems around the world, so if you have an idea for a novel distribution network, he most likely has all the parts you need and can help you design it if you aren't sure how it should go (though this article should have everything you need to get your own in home cable system off the ground, using your BUD as the centerpiece for family viewing. Now isn't it time you considered that second and third satellite system? -- / Gary Bourgois, WB8EOH, The Birdwatcher: Marquette Michigan USA \ ([-o Keeper of The r.v.s.t. FAQ, Wildfeeds List, and Radio Guides o-]) \ flash@lopez.marquette.mi.us BIRDWATCHER@genie.geis.com tvro@orn.com / Friday Night Live T2/21 5.8 8PM-Midnight ET FAX: (906) 228-7477