Specifications

Installation Guidelines

Direcway, Federal Communications Commission, and National Electric Code dictate the

guidelines used for the installation of a Direcway system. Many of the same guidelines

are effective for the entire satellite installation industry inclusive of DirecTV. But, many

installers perform a lot of cost cutting measures that install systems below code. Since the

Direcway system is a two way system – we are broadcasting to a shared resource satellite

– it is imperative that all guidelines be followed. The same satellite that handles a

Direcway transponder could also have a transponder used by emergency services or

another broadcast company. It is in the best interests of all that any transmissions sent to

a satellite are properly done.

The FCC requires that an installing technician be certified for the installation. This

certification is a combination of Direcway specific information and an industry sponsored

training organization, SBCA. I have included some of the installation guideline pages for

the readers information at the end of this guide.

Grounding the Direcway system to NEC and federal guidelines is a constant topic among

installers on several bulletin boards. For Direcway systems there are two grounds that are

being effected. One for static and electrical discharge and one for routing spurious radio

frequency signals to the ground and away from the DW6000. Grounding is not

understood by many in the industry and some will argue one method to avoid “ground

loops” and another to send electrical discharges (lightning) into the earth.

At present we install a ground from the transmitter to the shortest ground run possible.

This will be a “signal ground” and not an electrical ground. In this isolated ground we are

trying to shunt any signals picked up by the connectors, cable cross over interference, or

the RF environment, and the positive charges built through transmitting. For non-metal

pole installations we run a copper wire to the coax grounding rod. For metal pole

installations we install a ground strap on the metal pole and connect the transmitter to the

pole as a partial ground and then continue the ground run to the coax ground rod.

Next we ground the coax at the grounding block prior to entry into the home. This ground

shunts any RF signal bleeding from the twin coax cables. This grounding run needs to

connect to a 5/8” x 8’ copper ground rod that is bonded to the house utility ground.. If

this ground run is longer than 20 feet then a separate ground rod must be installed close

to (under 20 feet) the coax ground block and further connected to the house ground with a

bare copper dissipative run. This ground is important to provide a short run path to

ground for the indoor unit. We do not want any spikes to travel through the coax and

across the indoor unit into the house ground wire of the 110 volt plug. Bonding to the

house ground zeros all potential differences between the 110 volt plug ground and the

outdoor unit ground. This bonding step is very important and should be done if at all

possible.

Last we ground the dish metal hardware in a separate ground circuit. If the dish is

mounted on a metal pole then the pole serves as a static discharge ground. This ground