How to Wire a House for Satellite

Satellite dishes can be mounted on a wall or roof to achieve the strongest signal when properly wired.

Satellite television is an increasingly popular alternative to cable television. Using a dish to receive television signals from a satellite dish in space, satellite television providers offer subscribers hundreds of channels to watch. In order to properly install a satellite television system, it is important to properly wire it; this requires running the main satellite feed to a single splitting device, then out to the televisions. If replacing an existing system, a great deal of time can be saved in wiring by using a tone generator and toner wand.

Things You'll Need

• Coaxial cables
• Splitter
• Tone generator
• Toner wand

Instructions

Wiring Basics

1. Run the wire from your satellite dish to the main hub for your satellite system. Many homes will have an exterior or interior opening in a wall that grants access to a nesting area for the cables; however, if your home does not contain such an area, select an easy-to-access location that is also out of sight, as the cables can be unsightly.

2. Connect the cable from the satellite dish to a splitter.

3. Run cables from the splitter to the various satellite boxes in the house.

Converting Wiring to Satellite

1. Change over any cables already run through the house. Move the cables from the splitter attached to the cable feed to the satellite splitter. This will save a great deal of time on wiring.

2. Unplug a cable connected to a television and connect it to a tone generator. A tone generator is a small box with a switch that allows you to turn the tone on and off, and a coax jack which a television cable can be connected to. Generators can also contain other connection ports for generating tones across other cable types; however, only the switch and coax jack are needed for satellite wiring.

3. Set the tone generator to tone.

4. Return to the hub and remove the cables from the cable splitter one by one, and touch the cable to the wand. If no noise is emitted, this cable is not the one for the room being tested. If a tone is emitted, you have located the cable and should switch it to the satellite splitter. The tuning wand features a speaker for emitting a tone and a metal tip which is connected to the wire in the coax cable to generate a tone.

5. Repeat Step 4 for all television connections in the house. This allows homes with cable Internet access to only remove the cable connections for televisions so that the Internet still works, or to switch the correct wires if only some of the televisions will be getting satellite boxes.

References

• Training Department: Using Your Tone Generator as a Retrofit Tool