DTV HR20 Signal affected by other devices on same breaker

About a year ago, I remodeled the upper level of my shop to house a dedicated game/movie room that was separate from the house. I called DirecTv and had them install the lines running from the dish to the room.

I used it for a few months, then moved the TV to the house in anticipation of the purchase of all new components specifically for this room later in the year.

I now have a Sony SXRD, Onkyo 705, PS3, Xbox 360, and a HTPC.

These components as well as the HR20 are connected to a Tripplite Home Theater UPS. with everything hooked up through filtering only and just the DVR connected through the battery output.

I also have added an In-wall A/C unit and a mini-fridge and microwave for drinks and popcorn for movie nights.


The appliances are connected to a different outlet, but i know they share the same circuit.

At this moment both tuners signal strength meters are bouncing between 70% and 79%. Now I expect the signal to be lower than the Hughes Tivo and Hughes Tivo HD receivers in the house because they are both close to the Dish, while the HR20 has a cable run of about 70 feet, but I don't know if they should be this low as well as fluctuate so much. The tuners inside the house seem to never have signal problems.

The severe problems start when:
The compressor in the A/C is on
The compressor in the Fridge is on
The microwave is on

Or if anything else that takes a large amount of power (like a vacuum) is on.
All of these appliances are at least 10 feet away.

If any of these things turn on, the signal will go down by at least 20% which will cause either a loss of signal or severe pixelation, audio loss and will not recover until the appliance is switched back off.

My attempts at troubleshooting include:

had 6 trees cut down that the Directv guy said may be or will become a problem, hoping that would help the signal.

I then thought that maybe the UPS was causing issues, so I plugged the HR20 directly into the wall socket and it had no positive effect.

Then, just to see what it would do if I isolated the HR20's Power input from the wall completely I unplugged the UPS from the wall and ran the unit off of the UPS' battery backup power, and to my surprise, It lost ALL signal.

Supposedly my UPS has a filter, this has no positive effect, and I still don't understand why when the UPS is powering the HR20 solely on battery power it has NO signal. that aggravates me further, because I bought the UPS to power the DVR in the event of a power failure, so It could continue to record TV.

I have searched well, and have not heard of any similar issues, I'm truly stumped .

Im going to try to see if its a grounding issue like suggested today, and then ill report back. thanks for the suggestions!

So I went outside to look over everything after reading the article about grounding. I have to say, that would make the most sense so far...

Everything looking fine with exception to the 2 ground wires leading to the dish from the switch, so i pulled them off, striped the ends and re attached them.



Other than that, I couldn't see anything else, and unfortunately it had no effect on performance.

I noticed that that the article suggested very strict rules for what is and isnt an acceptable ground.... The HR20 is in a SEPARATE building from where the dish is mounted and where the other receivers are. would this cause an issue?

arxaw: You ask if the entry point into the house is grounded... both the switch and dish are grounded, but they are on the house where as the HR20 is in a seperate building. all the directv guy did was run 2 lines across the lawn and drilled holes in the wall where they then go straight to the box.

Ernie: im not sure what you are referring to when you say "loop". also, what is this tester you refer too? is it something i can buy at lowes? also, both tuners lose signal equally, so i cant imagine its a faulty cable, because they both do it. I am sure its not the microwave, because anything will cause a loss.

After checking all of my receivers, they all seem to say the signal strength is about 73. isnt that a little low? Should I have my dish realigned while im at it?

OK, I went on the roof with a small tv and one of my receivers. I was able to get the signal on my tivo from 73 to 76, which inst huge, but i know it cant hurt. I also took both the ground leads off of the dish, sanded them clean and re attached them tightly.

Yeah, I know its a lot of stuff, but it is 20 amps, and im comfortably under that.

At the very least I have been eying a new conditioner.....

I know they are separate, and that has been a concern...

Could I just run a 60 foot line from the 2nd building to the point in the first building?

Yeah, seems to work fine in there.

Well, there is a house, that is 25 years old, and the second building/shop was built about 10 years ago.

When they built it, they ran a separate line from the meter (which is not attached to the house) so they are separate.

I actually have a second dish, however i live in a heavily wooded area (washington) and the only good place to put a dish is on one corner of the house, and from what i understand is that it would then need to be grounded to the house which would defeat the purpose.

Ill be moving in 2 years, so Id hate to pay for an electrician.

In case anyone is interested, the second building has no ground for some reason....

So i'll be calling an electrician.

I guess thats what you get for finding the cheapest contractor