Which slimline is the bad (recalled) one?

[fo71]

Hi there... making plans to get a slimline. However, I've read that there was or is a "lot" or brand of slimline lnb assembly that gave very low signal readings and had to be replaced for good ones. As far as I have been able to research there are several manufacturers such as wnc, eagle aspen, calamp, etc.

So.. which are the good ones and which are the ones to stay away from?

Thanks in advance !

[rnwjr]

Is there a way to tell without going on the roof? Also is this an actual recall or replacement if one has problems?

[RobertE]

IMHO opinion its all Urban Legand.

[JeffBowser]

+1 urban legend. I have one of the so-called low-quality LNB assemblies on an old AT9, my signal strengths are mostly in the 90's across the board. Of course, that doesn't say there aren't some faulty assemblies out there, but I know of no recalls, nor any really widespread issues.

[Stuart Sweet]

Of course there are good and bad but I've heard no official word on a recall.

[boba]

Ditto no recalls but many poor installs.

[carl6]

There was some discussion with regard to the original AT9 5-LNB dish, commonly referred to as the "Sidecar" dish, but those are no longer generally available.

The solution for a bad AT9 was to replace it with an AU9 Slimline dish.

Carl

[pdawg17]

Well a few of us in the Bay Area have found out that Calamps are 8-10 points worse on 103b than the others but there's definitely no recall and our research was not at all controlled and was not a double-blind study :D

[TMullenJr]

I had one of the outputs go bad on my AT-9, and I couldn't get a replacement LNB, so I replaced the whole dish with the slimline. The slimline is a much better dish in my opinion.

[cygnusloop]

The problem with the CalAmp Slimline seems to be throughout the west. For me, the 103b signals are more like 10-20 points lower than the rest of the of the satellites. I am very confident that my alignment is good (mid-high 90's on all other sats (including 103a, ~70-80 on 103b). Others have replaced the CalAmp LNB with a WNC LNB, and seen significant improvement. Here's some discussion on this very issue.

http://www.dbstalk.com/showthread.php?t=106894

To my knowledge, there has been no recall (perhaps there should be?), but if you are obtaining a Slimline from a source other than DIRECTV, I would stay away from the CalAmp version.

[joe diamond]

There is a question! How far back do you replace the parts. Clearly the LNB for AT 9 (sidecar) is not interchangeable with the Au 9 (slimline). Is the arm to be changed out? How about the dish..will the AU 9 dish mount on the AT 9 adjustment mechanism?
The mast is the same I guess.

?
Joe

[RobertE]

There is a question! How far back do you replace the parts. Clearly the LNB for AT 9 (sidecar) is not interchangeable with the Au 9 (slimline). Is the arm to be changed out? How about the dish..will the AU 9 dish mount on the AT 9 adjustment mechanism?
The mast is the same I guess.

?
Joe

The mast is the same and you can re-use the back assembly. Everything else goes to the scrap yard or to the curb for the crack heads to pick up. :grin:

[Matt9876]

Slimline failure rate (1st 90 days) is about 1 in 200.

Not bad but could be better.

(Numbers based on slimlines ordered vs LNBs returned)

Matt

[K4SMX]

IIRC, there was an issue with the Wistron NeWeb (WNC) LNB's and the WB68 or lack thereof, which was corrected with Rev. 1. All current production available will be Rev. 1x, but it's not impossible you'd come across a pre-Rev. 1 Slimline WNC LNB/ dish on eBay....