On Sun, 15 Dec 2013 10:43:39 -0700, Ray Carlsen wrote:

...snip....
I don't want HD. My question concerns what type of splitter will work to
allow me to use my sons HD DTV dish for my own non-HD receivers. I just
want to be able to run my non-HD DVRs from my sons HD system dish
temporarily while my old DTV hardware is off the roof.

Ray thought it would be easy to explain, but apparently not

We've got DirecTV here, and have two receivers - one is HardDrive with
memory and the other is a standard receiver.

You HAVE a standard, non-memory/recording receiver, but NOT the antennas,
so you want to share antennas with your son who has the HardDrive
Receiver, Right?

Our house is wired with coax going everywhere. In one room is the
HardDrive receiver that connects to the antennas (we have two antennas,
one is regular and the other is international) through a powered unit
inside the Access Control Box [where telephone, coax, and burglar alarms
wiring all come together]

To use BOTH receivers I merely plug in to any coax outlet with the
standard receiver. No splitter involved. Unused outlet coax's are NOT
terminated. Doesn't seem right somehow, so need to check the Access
Control Box again. Might have a splitter inside the Box.

I know that from the Access Control Box out to the antennas REQUIRES a DC
path to run the LNA's mounted on the antennas, and there are two separate
cables for that. However, I'll have to check regarding splitters FROM that
controller performing distribution out to all the coax outlets in the
house. There's probably about six at least, maybe eight. I vaguely
remember seeing a 1 to 6 splitter going from the powered unit inside the
Access Control Box out to each coax outlet. I purposely don't power all
the coax outlets in our home, so [from memory] some of the splitter
outlets are terminated with 50 ohm caps.

So, my conclusion, without going to the Box and opening it to find out, is
that *if* you go to your son's control box and tap into an unused coax
outlet, you'll be up and running with YOUR receiver. If there is no
'extra' port, try inserting a DC coupled 1-2 splitter to replace one line.
Again from memory, the installing technician said that may work for us in
order to expand our coax outlets.

* * * WARNING ** * *
And one caveat Be VERY careful if your houses are any distance apart, they
will have different AC grounding points. You could end up with some
distructive ground loops that can weld your cables. I say can, because if
you're next door, probably not that bad. However, during any lightning
storm all bets are off as to what may happen. If it were me, I'd put an AC
current meter between your two house grounds and measure the current,
hopefully VERY low. And, *IF* a storm appears physically disconnect your
cable until storm passes, else you could lose PC's, appliances, even
telephones inside house(s).