Brad, the antennae (antennas? i never know which to write) are mounted in the rack using a Sennheiser front mount kit, in the same rack space as the antenna distribution device. The receivers are mounted below that, 3 rack spaces total for the RF mics etc. 6 spaces beneath the RF mic gear is the DirectTV receiver. Rack drawers are in between the RF mics and the DTV receiver.
We were able to measure that when the Direct TV receiver was powered on, and tuned to a standard def channel, RF noise was created, centered at 519Mhz, but a rather wide bandwidth. The squelch on the receivers has been set at -20dB to deal with the hectic RF noise floor in the space, so only mics tuned near 519 were experiencing troubles. There was a lot of other noise in the space at the initial install, so that why these mics were put where they were. When the receiver is tuned to a HD channel, the noise goes away. The saving grace is the owner will only be tuned to one station, which is a HD station, so for the time being we are in ok shape....I'm just waiting for when someone changes the channel not knowing what could happen...
I find it hard to believe that it's normal behavior for the DTV receiver to act like this....it makes no sense to me, but i'm not familiar with how they work, so maybe i'm missing something.
We are planning on creating more physical space between the RF antennas and the DTV receiver, to at least see what will happen. I think we will mount the antennas at the top of the rack, and start with the receiver outside of the rack, and finally at the bottom of the rack if no interference is picked up. If interested, I'll follow up with any more findings.
