Length of cable from dish to house

Hi, the key is the type of cable you are using. DIRECTV will recommend no more than 100 feet. But if you use Solid Copper cable you can do more. We have run up to 350 feet with Solid Copper and have not have any problems in image or sound quality with HD. You can get Solid Copper cable anywhere but is more expensive than regular cable.

About $78 for one thousandth foot reel

http://www.satpro.tv/rg6cablesolidcopper60braid1000ftblack.aspx

This may be more that what you need, but I just wanted to give you an example.

Thanks for the input.

What about the bonded ground wire? The cable the installer used looks like this: http://bit.ly/pYBdXU. 

Also, I found the markings on the old cable: Commscope Network Cable 5725 RG 6 MATV. Preliminary research suggests this has a copper conductor. 

is not what DTV pays for.  DTV really recommends no more than 150 ft.  however is normal for a system to work up to 200 FT easily over their recommended cable.

Thank you, peds48.

Just measured. It's 205'. Hmm, thinking about whether the next phone call should be to the installer or DTV. 

is it 205 from dish to house or from dish to further receiver?

It's 205' from the Dish Network dish to the house. That's where I'd like to put the DTV dish. From the house wall to the receiver is another 15'.

About the bonded ground wire, the dish does need to be bonded to the common house ground (from the electric meter...not a separate ground rod) per the NEC.  If the old cable did not have this, a new cable would need to be ran.  

Older cable oftentimes is also copper-clad steel, which does carry a greater dB loss than solid copper.  You can use a magnet against the old cable to check this.  It will stick to copper-clad steel.

205'+ is reeeeally pushing it.  It would probably work at that distance, but DirecTV insists on their installers doing what WILL work, and what the material is spec'd for.  That saves everyone a lot of trouble in the long run.

Well, duh on the magnet! And it does not stick to the old cable. In theory, could a separate ground wire be run from from the dish to the house ground? That's only 100'.

Cable isn't very expensive. We'll think about running new cable on a different route. If it crosses under the gravel driveway instead of going up 8', across the porch roof, around a couple of corners and back down, we can save 20'. Maybe more if we bring it into the house in a closer but less convenient location.

I certainly understand about DTV's installation specs.

I could not agree more with redneck-teck.  at those distances, RG11 cable is recommended or a MUST

Thanks to all of you. So how is an installation specced when 150' is impossible? 

customers provides and installs RG11 cable

So, if I have to go 350 feet, I won't be able to use Directv?  What about an amplifer?

This post is nearly a year old so I suggest you create your own [post. Tell us exactly what sort of equipment you are planning to use, HD or SD.  Tell us what the distances are - dish to house, house to receivers. How many receivers are you planning to use?

The farther you run your wire, the sooner you will face problems. Kind of simple logic really.