Slimline dish install - Bad LNB?

[gpetresp]

I've installed a Slimline dish with a WNC 5 LNB. I am not able to get any signal for sat 101 or 119 period using my HD receiver as a signal meter. The mounting mast is perfectly plumb. I set the dish to the elev, tilt and azimuth for my area. I did slow azimuth scans at several elevations and absolutely nothing. I figure I should have gotten at least some weak signal if I was in the ballpark. I have an older 2 LNB dish just a few feet away from the new dish. I connected the cable to the HD receiver and I got a 92-94 on 101 on all transponders with no problem. So it doesn't seem to the cable or the receiver.

I'm not sure if I'm missing something. Is it possible the WNC LNB is bad? If so how can I check this out? I've checked out all 4 connectors on the LNB and get the same result.

I have a clear line of sight, except for a mountain to my south up to about 25 degrees. 101 is about 35 degrees at my location. My other dish picks up 101 just fine.

Any thoughts on this would be helpful.

[K4SMX]

Go through the complete setup on the HD receiver and make you select the 5 LNB dish. Don't use a BBC until you get the 101/119 roughly aligned. It might be bad. Are you looking at the correct spot on the mount assembly's EL scale for your initial EL setting?

[gpetresp]

Go through the complete setup on the HD receiver and make you select the 5 LNB dish. Don't use a BBC until you get the 101/119 roughly aligned. It might be bad. Are you looking at the correct spot on the mount assembly's EL scale for your initial EL setting?

Thanks for your ideas. I just finished trying them out.

I tried taking the BBC off earlier and it didn't work. As far as the EL setting, I am lining up the red lines on the back assembly with the elevation markings.

I just tried the complete setup again on the receiver after power cycling it with no avail. I'm not sure if the power cycling is good enough to reset the setup details or not?

[K4SMX]

The 5 LNB dish has the same basic EL and AZ as your existing dish. Does it look right?

[gpetresp]

The 5 LNB dish has the same basic EL and AZ as your existing dish. Does it look right?

Yes. The alignment of the new dish is pretty similar to the old dish. The new dish is tilted "Up" a bit more. The azimuth settings listed by the receiver for the 5 LNB dish comes out about 10 degrees farther east then for old dish. But, I did several azimuth sweeps with no luck.

By the way, when I said "power cycling", that meant unplugging the receiver.

[K4SMX]

If the old dish is a 101 dish, they point to exactly the same spot: AZ ~150.5 magnetic and EL ~35.5. I guess you could have a totally dead LNB, but it would be the first report I have seen of that. Anybody else you know got a Slimline mounted on a pole with whom you could temporarily swap LNB's? Besides cycling the power, did you actually go through the process of "Repeat Satellite Setup" under Sat & Ant in the Setup menu?

[248 F1]

I've installed a Slimline dish with a WNC 5 LNB. I am not able to get any signal for sat 101 or 119 period using my HD receiver as a signal meter. The mounting mast is perfectly plumb. I set the dish to the elev, tilt and azimuth for my area. I did slow azimuth scans at several elevations and absolutely nothing. I figure I should have gotten at least some weak signal if I was in the ballpark. I have an older 2 LNB dish just a few feet away from the new dish. I connected the cable to the HD receiver and I got a 92-94 on 101 on all transponders with no problem. So it doesn't seem to the cable or the receiver.

I'm not sure if I'm missing something. Is it possible the WNC LNB is bad? If so how can I check this out? I've checked out all 4 connectors on the LNB and get the same result.

I have a clear line of sight, except for a mountain to my south up to about 25 degrees. 101 is about 35 degrees at my location. My other dish picks up 101 just fine.

Any thoughts on this would be helpful.

So I understand it, the cable you used to test connect the HD receiver to the 2 lnb, is that the same cable you use to connect to the 5 lnb or is it a different cable altogether?

[K4SMX]

BTW, I got a little frustrated aligning an old 3 LNB the other day with an HR20-600 for a guest room, because it kept going into sort of a screen saver w/out audio mode. So I just grabbed an old SD receiver that had the rising pitch type audio signal strength sound-off. (I was listening through the window.) The SD receivers will work fine for finding the 101 and tilting for the 119. Just set them for a 3 LNB dish. Or you can just use one to rough peak the 101. Back after while...

[gpetresp]

So I understand it, the cable you used to test connect the HD receiver to the 2 lnb, is that the same cable you use to connect to the 5 lnb or is it a different cable altogether?

Yes, it was the same cable.

[gpetresp]

BTW, I got a little frustrated aligning an old 3 LNB the other day with an HR20-600 for a guest room, because it kept going into sort of a screen saver w/out audio mode. So I just grabbed an old SD receiver that had the rising pitch type audio signal strength sound-off. (I was listening through the window.) The SD receivers will work fine for finding the 101 and tilting for the 119. Just set them for a 3 LNB dish. Or you can just use one to rough peak the 101. Back after while...

I'll give this a try with one of my old SD receivers tomorrow. It's dark and snowing now. Thanks for the tip.

[248 F1]

Yes, it was the same cable.

So much for my bad cable theory.

[gpetresp]

So much for my bad cable theory.

Actually you ended up being right! It was the cable.

Just to make sure I wasn't insane, I hooked the receiver back up to my old dish with the same cable. It worked. Then I hooked the cable back up to the new receiver and no signal once again.

So I was really thinking it might be a bad LNB. So I got a hold of another LNB and hooked it up. Still nothing!

Finally after few options, I tested the voltage in the cable. The reading was zero. The resistance between the grounding and the copper wire was 0, thus the cable was shorting. But, then how was the cable working on the old dish? To reach the old dish, I have to stretch the cable out more. When I did that it was getting a good voltage reading with no short. Then I curled the cable up a little, and bingo it was shorting again.

I went ahead and bought a new cable, hooked it up and had perfect reception on all satellites within 20 minutes.

[K4SMX]

Nothing surprises me anymore....