Bad Dish Installation?

[yyyiiikes]

I had a new dish installed 2 weeks ago for HD reception by a D* contractor. Up until last night all was well but today I have no reception - I think it has something to do with the 45 MPH winds today.

Does this mean the dish was improperly secured? Should it be able to withstand 40ish wind speed?

I expressed concern to the installer at the time with the size of the dish and with the placement he selected for the install. He assured me the dish would be rock solid. Obviously, that is not the case.

I have been a D* subscriber for 12+ years and always performed my own installation with never a problem. Obviously the dishes back then were much smaller.

I called D* and scheduled a service call. Since it has been less than 30 days, no charge. The CSR stated that the dish has needs fine tuning and has nothing to do with the wind.... (ha ha ha). I would get up there myself but do not have a ladder to reach that high.

[litzdog911]

Of course it shouldn't move in 40mph winds. Hopefully you can get an installer back soon to fix it.

[yyyiiikes]

A tech is scheduled for tomorrow afternoon (Saturday) and I'll ne here to go up onto the roof with him.

What should l look for to make sure this is just not a quick fix? The dish was mounted onto the roof itself (shingle).

If he just repoints the dish, then I am likely to loose service after the next wind storm. Would relocating the dish to a more protected area present a problem?

[Mavrick]

Did your installer install the 2 monopoles on the main mast for the extra support of the dish.

The reason I ask is that I have seen several reports here lately where people have not gotten them because the installers state they are not needed for the slimline which is wrong.

If you could post some pics of your dish so we can see how it was installed.

[jimmyv2000]

The monpoles are very important as the above post states.Here in NH we get high winds.I have 2 monopoles and my dish hasn't budged in 85+ MPH winds.
make sure that installer TRIPLE CHECKS ALL BOLTS to make sure your dish is secure.

[spamstew]

We had similar wind conditions in the DFW. I had no issues with my dish alignment, since my dish has the (2) monopoles. If you don't have the (2) monopoles, be sure installer installs them.

[yyyiiikes]

Here are a couple of pics.... best that I could manage. The blurry one is from a tree view point. :)



12267

12268

[randyk47]

Everything, in terms of support, is there but if it moved then something isn't tightened down/locked in properly. I've heard/read that one fairly common mistake is to not tightened the adjustment bolts on the monopoles, at least not enough to keep them from sliding up and down like a piston. I'm in San Antonio and we got hammered by the same storm and high winds yesterday. My pool was full of all sorts of stuff, some of it from the neighbor's yard, but the dish handled it quite well and signals were strong and right on last night.

[RobertE]

Even properly tightened down those monopole clamps don't always get tight enough. The tolerences are a bit much in my book.

What I've been doing recently is running one or two self tapping screws through the collar of the monopole into the mast just to make sure its not going to move. Another thing is to move the monopole from inbetween the collar to the outside of the collar. That will allow it to be tightened down just a bit more.

[yyyiiikes]

Are there times when a 3rd monopole is needed?

Also, it seems the monopole would be more effective if braced uphill vs. down hill.

[PANCHITO]

Installation looks good, it looks like is mounted under living space, what do you have under that roof?
Do you have access under the dish mount and see if it's mounted on a 2x4 if not you will always have problems.

[joe diamond]

IF the bolts missed the joist / truss and just screwed into the roof deck it will move back and forth until it pulls off the building.

Joe

[randyk47]

Yyyiiikes - I'm certainly no expert but I don't think three monopoles are necessary, at least not in what I'm seeing in your previous pictures. As Joe and Panchito point out there's also a strong possibility that the original installer missed the roof trusses and your dish is moving around. My neighbor had the same problem but we were able to get to the attic area and rather than move the dish and put more holes in his roof we used some 2"x10" left over from my fascia install and made backer boards. We rebolted his dish through those and his dish is rock solid.

[yyyiiikes]

Thanks for the good advice, unfortunately, that part of the attic is not accessible.

[yyyiiikes]

The installer just left. He found that all the bolts were only hand tight - alignment and structural. He used a socket wrench to make sure everything is now tightened. I asked if the monopoles and the foot were screwed into a 2x4 and he was confident it was. Suspect that the original installer just forgot to go back over everything with a socket wrench.


Hopefully that will fix it for the long haul.

Thanks everyone.

[joe diamond]

Yyyiiikes - I'm certainly no expert but I don't think three monopoles are necessary, at least not in what I'm seeing in your previous pictures. As Joe and Panchito point out there's also a strong possibility that the original installer missed the roof trusses and your dish is moving around. My neighbor had the same problem but we were able to get to the attic area and rather than move the dish and put more holes in his roof we used some 2"x10" left over from my fascia install and made backer boards. We rebolted his dish through those and his dish is rock solid.

What you guys did really works.........I have done this several times where you can have access to the attic AND you really gotta put the dish in one exact spot.

Good one!

Joe