Dear Lazyweb, tell me how to make my damned satellite dish work again. What I used to have, that worked, and then suddenly stopped:

Dual LNB → 2 short coax →
uS575 Stacker → 1 short coax →
uAL DBS Line Amp → 1 very long coax run from roof →
HR PI 10-2150 MHz Power Inserter → 1 short coax →
D575D Destacker → 2 short coax →
DirecTivo

I think all that junk was ordered from here. The ones I have/had appear to be this and this. I believe that both the LNB and the stacker blew up. I got a new LNB, same model. I can make it work in single-LNB mode:

Dual LNB (new) → 1 very long coax run from roof →
DirecTivo (old)

I get strong signal on all transponders. Then I replaced the stacker. The new stacker (looks different, but possibly the same model?) came with a new power inserter, resulting in this setup:

Dual LNB → 2 short coax →
uS575 Stacker (new) → 1 very long coax run from roof →
HR FPI 2-2400 MHz Power Inserter (new) → 1 short coax →
D575D Destacker (old) → 2 short coax →
DirecTivo

I get signal on all transponders on both LNBs, but the signal on the even channels is too low (under 40%) and as a result, "guided setup" won't complete. So clearly I need amplification on that long run when the stacker is involved, like I had before. So I put the old amp back in:

Dual LNB → 2 short coax →
uS575 Stacker → 1 short coax →
uAL DBS Line Amp (old) → 1 very long coax run from roof →
HR FPI 2-2400 MHz Power Inserter (new) → 1 short coax →
D575D Destacker (old) → 2 short coax →
DirecTivo

This doesn't work. I get no signal inside. My guess is that the amp is eating the power before it gets to the stacker, and so the stacker doesn't turn on. Why the old stacker worked, I don't know.

Can someone please tell me how to make this go?

Also, explain to me how these line amps work, because the fact that the amp goes at the head end but the power gets inserted at the tail end kind of makes my head spin.