My first order of business on Sunday was to finally get the television hooked up in the guest room. This was the first opportunity to utilize the wiring that I roughed in a couple of years ago and I was quite anxious to see the payoff. Not only that, but my father-in-law was quite anxious to be able to watch something other than the reality programs that my wife and kid and mother-in-law tend to watch. There is certainly no rush but I am looking forward to getting our bedroom television hooked up as well.
We originally had two feeds from the dish– one to the family room and one to our bedroom. The plan was to take the feed that was going to the bedroom (which is now in a different location) and connect it to a splitter in order to connect up to four receivers from a central location in the basement. With jacks in two or three different locations in each of the bedrooms, this would give us greater flexibility for the placement of televisions in those rooms.
My first problem was that I messed up the connection to the receiver in the guest room. I had connected it to the antenna jack instead of the satellite jack, an error that I didn’t discover until after I called Shaw Direct (formerly Star Choice). Prior to making that phone call, however, I did a little research on the internet and learned that it may not be possible to split a satellite signal to the receivers as I had planned.
Sure enough, when I called for technical support, I learned that my satellite dish supports four direct feeds, and that splitting a feed will not work as I intended anyway. With three receivers, we will require at least another line off of the dish regardless of how we connect things in the basement. The techie recommended a multi-switch which will allow us to connect up to eight receivers, but requires four lines coming in. The cost is less than $100 but there is a shipping charge. The advantage of ordering it through Shaw Direct is that the installation is free, though running any cables will cost extra. Since there is no way that I am going to go up on my roof, I would have to pay someone to come out and run the additional lines anyway, so I am probably not spending any more money by purchasing the multi-switch.
I did finally get the guest room television working (and it works very well, thank you very much).
While I was messing around with the television, the landscapers made a surprise visit. I wasn’t expecting them until Monday, but they came by Sunday morning and finished trenching the drainage for the sump pump and downspout. Another job accomplished!
It was late afternoon by the time I got over to Home Depot to pick up a couple sheets of drywall for the basement. It was late evening by the time I got around to hanging it. Only there was a small problem. The HVAC guys had pulled down some of the vapour barrier in order to run the plumbing, so there are now additional staple holes which will reduce the effectiveness of the barrier. The solution is simple enough– some red technical tape (Tuck Tape) will cover the holes. I bought a new roll a few weeks ago, but it is nowhere to be found. Likely what happened is that the contractors used it and it got mixed in with their supplies. Yay! Another trip to Home Depot. I’ll have to go first thing Monday morning and hope that I don’t hold up the HVAC guys too long.
