Neighbors install, wow!

[keithtd]

Talking with my neighbor last night over a beer, who I sold D* onto from E*, when he brought up adding the Filipino Channel for his wife. Said the installer basically mounted the dish and terminated the cables and my neighbor ran them since the installer seemed clueless.

I asked how the channel was and he said it did not work and took all day to install the additional dish. The reason, the installer aimed and tuned it to the wrong SAT and inorder to get the right one the dish now has to be moved because the house is in the way. Now anoother install session has to take place to fix it. Clueless is being kind in my view! :bang

[carl6]

Not intended as an excuse, but the 95 satellite and international programming is the most difficult to install. It is a different type of LNB assembly, a larger dish, and requires using a multiswitch to combine the dishes.

I doubt the "average" installer even has a clue (sad to say).

Carl

[MrCastle]

Keith I would pay good money to watch you try and sight in an international dish. Even veteran installers sometimes have a lot of trouble with it. Once you find the signal, you start tightening your azimuth bolts, and sometimes by the time you're done tightening them, your signal is back down to 0 and you have to start the process all over again. Some installers spend hours on an international installation, especially if they are ignorant of the auto-config step

[joe diamond]

I understand the international is going to fade into the past. I read elsewhere the 72 sat lease is being allowed to lapse and the locals are being shifted tp the new D-11 in a better slot.

Joe

[MrCastle]

:D I understand the international is going to fade into the past. I read elsewhere the 72 sat lease is being allowed to lapse and the locals are being shifted tp the new D-11 in a better slot.

Joe
That would be great.

[RobertE]

I hate, and I do mean HATE that World Direct dish with a passion. A monkey could have designed a better dish. Let me list a few of the issues I have with it.

1) It has the smallest base plate of any of the D* dishes with only three bolt holes, yet prior to the KA/KU Dishes it was the largest dish.

2) Given the stupidly small base plate, there is only a single bolt that goes through it into the mast. There is no "twisting" adjustment to get the mast plumb. So if you don't have that plate just perfect, your mast will be out of plumb.

3) Support arms. Completely non-adjustable. They go where they go and thats it. Pray you hit something solid under the shingles for them to grab onto as the tiny base plate isn't going to do much. There is however a collar that comes with the long monopoles for the KA/KU that fits the WD dish that will allow you to use those monopoles. Highly recommended that they use them instead. But, now your short two monopoles for a KA/KU dish.

4) The mast is 1.75 od. Why couldn't it be 1 5/8s or 2" like the basic or KA/KU? Who knows, so it is incompatable with everything. Stupid.

5) All the nuts & bolts are supposed to be 1/2". In reality it depends. Some days they are 1/2", some 13mm, others inbetween.

6) It comes in about 1000 pieces.

7) No elevation or azimuth fine tuning like the KA/KU. Granted, you have more wiggle room with the KU band, but that is a big dish not to have some sort of fine elevation adjustment.

8) LNB connections are exposed to the world. Nice failure point.

9) A mulitswitch is always required.

10) Some boxes (D11's) require that you run the auto detect to pick up the 95 sat. Problem is you can only do one box at a time, it takes 8-12 minutes per box. Best part is, you may have to run it mulitple times for the box to see the 95 sat. A workaround is to use a WB68 or WB616 even if no H series boxes are present. The HSPs don't like us to use them, but when it comes down to adding a extra hour or two to the install over a stupid switch, guess what will get put in. The D12s have been better in regards to the autodetect and the fact you can tell it to look for the 95, but its still not perfect.

I'll stop at 10 for now.

Whoever designed that dish needs to be given 50 lashes and then stuffed in a fire ant hill. :mad: :mad: :mad:

[harsh]

I understand the international is going to fade into the past. I read elsewhere the 72 sat lease is being allowed to lapse and the locals are being shifted tp the new D-11 in a better slot.What does this have to do with international channels that come from 95W??? Are they bailing on them or are they also being moved to 99W?

[RobertE]

What does this have to do with international channels that come from 95W???

My understaning is that long term plans are for everything to be on 99/101/103/110/119.

They can then go down to one dish for everything.

[Mike500]

My understaning is that long term plans are for everything to be on 99/101/103/110/119.

They can then go down to one dish for everything.

Even further down the road, DirecTV would ideally abandon all MPeg2 to free up band width, and go back to the older Phase III three lnb dish.

[keithtd]

I stand educated to the difficulty tuning this SAT. I just thought it funny looking at the dish aimed at his house.

[RobertE]

I stand educated to the difficulty tuning this SAT. I just thought it funny looking at the dish aimed at his house.

Also keep in mind that depending where you are located on the East coast the 95 sat can be anywhere from 30 to 45 degrees elevation. It comes in a lot steeper than one would think.

If he can hit the 101 from the location, the 95 shouldn't be an issue. But without being there, it's hard to say.

One other factor that comes into play is how often does the individual installer put them up? I can go a month without doing one, then several in one week. One can get a bit of mental rust if your not doing it regularly.

[harsh]

Even further down the road, DirecTV would ideally abandon all MPeg2 to free up band width, and go back to the older Phase III three lnb dish.If the goal was to go back to a standard dish, they wouldn't have invested billions in Ka satellites. The behemoth dish is here to stay.

[Dave]

Just another case of a unqualified or uneducated installer doing work over there mental capacity. I have a dish installed for the internationals. I installed it my self. I am not a DirectV installer. Just a customer. If I can figure out where the 95 Sat is, so should a qualified installer be able to. If they don't want to do the job correctly, then have D send out a qualified installer and do it right. Then get the free credits that everyone seemsd to want.

[glennb]

I hate, and I do mean HATE that World Direct dish with a passion. A monkey could have designed a better dish. Let me list a few of the issues I have with it.

1) It has the smallest base plate of any of the D* dishes with only three bolt holes, yet prior to the KA/KU Dishes it was the largest dish.

2) Given the stupidly small base plate, there is only a single bolt that goes through it into the mast. There is no "twisting" adjustment to get the mast plumb. So if you don't have that plate just perfect, your mast will be out of plumb.

3) Support arms. Completely non-adjustable. They go where they go and thats it. Pray you hit something solid under the shingles for them to grab onto as the tiny base plate isn't going to do much. There is however a collar that comes with the long monopoles for the KA/KU that fits the WD dish that will allow you to use those monopoles. Highly recommended that they use them instead. But, now your short two monopoles for a KA/KU dish.

4) The mast is 1.75 od. Why couldn't it be 1 5/8s or 2" like the basic or KA/KU? Who knows, so it is incompatable with everything. Stupid.

5) All the nuts & bolts are supposed to be 1/2". In reality it depends. Some days they are 1/2", some 13mm, others inbetween.

6) It comes in about 1000 pieces.

7) No elevation or azimuth fine tuning like the KA/KU. Granted, you have more wiggle room with the KU band, but that is a big dish not to have some sort of fine elevation adjustment.

8) LNB connections are exposed to the world. Nice failure point.

9) A mulitswitch is always required.

10) Some boxes (D11's) require that you run the auto detect to pick up the 95 sat. Problem is you can only do one box at a time, it takes 8-12 minutes per box. Best part is, you may have to run it mulitple times for the box to see the 95 sat. A workaround is to use a WB68 or WB616 even if no H series boxes are present. The HSPs don't like us to use them, but when it comes down to adding a extra hour or two to the install over a stupid switch, guess what will get put in. The D12s have been better in regards to the autodetect and the fact you can tell it to look for the 95, but its still not perfect.

I'll stop at 10 for now.

Whoever designed that dish needs to be given 50 lashes and then stuffed in a fire ant hill. :mad: :mad: :mad:

Sure is a lot of drama over a satellite dish design.
:rolleyes:

[dinotheo]

FWIW, my 95 dish went up in about 15 mins by a DTV installer.

[BattleZone]

The World Direct dish is no problem at all to point. It is HORRIBLE to mount, though, as the tripod-style mast is so poorly designed. But assuming you can find a location on the house where the 2.5' inverted triangle "footprint" of the mount can be mounted and still have line-of-site, then pointing the dish is a piece of cake.

Because of the mount issues, the HSP techs around here like to use basic dish masts instead. This makes them easy to install, at least initially, but is almost a guarenteed failure down the road.

A basic dish mast is far too lightly constructed for a huge 36" dish, and I've seen several masts buckle in strong winds. I've also seen the 1/4" carriage bolts that attach the mast to the foot broken. Then there's the issue that the basic dish pole is 1 5/8", while the WD pole is 1 3/4". Installers use whatever is available to shim the pole to fit, with poor to disasterous results.

Finally, many of these dishes are installed on fascia boards that have no support behind them, causing the board to sag and warp, requiring constant re-points of the dish and damage to the board.

All to get *1* stupid transponder. But every single Filipino house around here has one, because they all want TFC, and only DirecTV has it.

IMO, DirecTV needs to shut off the MPEG2 HD channels ASAP and move the internationals to 119. That way, anyone with a Ka/Ku or triple-sat dish can get it without the stupid World Direct FSS dish.

[Mike500]

The actual diameter of the mast is 2-3/8 inches, which is the same as the Channel Master Primestar dishes, the DirecPC, DirecWay. HughesNet, and Type II Dish Network SuperDishes. This is the actual outside diameter of nominal 2 inch pipe.

We've installed these with the original pole, but not without two braces. The original braces for DirecWay, DirecPC or SuperDish Type II work perfectly. The big problem with the current mount is that a lot of installers do not take the time to anchor the small foot with screws into the rafters.

Hughnet mounts work great, especially the galvanized ones with the two braces already attached.

The cheap SuperDish mount and brace kit works well.

[Mike500]

If the goal was to go back to a standard dish, they wouldn't have invested billions in Ka satellites. The behemoth dish is here to stay.

As a matter of logistics, SD MPeg 2 programming will be replaced with MPeg4 at 101, 110 and 119 KU. This won't happen for quite a few years due to the large installed base of SD receivers.

The KA sats will be relegated for specialty and niche programming, as HD is now compared to SD.

Those who had the SuperDish thought the same thing.

[RobertE]

The actual diameter of the mast is 2-3/8 inches, which is the same as the Channel Master Primestar dishes, the DirecPC, DirecWay. HughesNet, and Type II Dish Network SuperDishes. This is the actual outside diameter of nominal 2 inch pipe.

We've installed these with the original pole, but not without two braces. The original braces for DirecWay, DirecPC or SuperDish Type II work perfectly. The big problem with the current mount is that a lot of installers do not take the time to anchor the small foot with screws into the rafters.

Hughnet mounts work great, especially the galvanized ones with the two braces already attached.

The cheap SuperDish mount and brace kit works well.


You might want to measure again. The WorldDirect masts are 1 3/4 od.

[TheRatPatrol]

My understaning is that long term plans are for everything to be on 99/101/103/110/119.

They can then go down to one dish for everything.
Is there a way to get 95 by adding another LNB to the Slimeline? It looks like it has room to add one more LNB.

[Michael D'Angelo]

Is there a way to get 95 by adding another LNB to the Slimeline? It looks like it has room to add one more LNB.

No, you would need to add a single LNB dish to receive 95.

[CJTE]

No, you would need to add a single LNB dish to receive 95.

You've never seen the 3ft wide World Direct dish that handles that 95 & the 101?

[MIMOTech]

Go to Metals depot and you can get almost any size steel tube. P/N T2134250 would be perfect and will NEVER break or bend. I use this at 2" OD for my 5 LNB installation and it don't move.

[RobertE]

Is there a way to get 95 by adding another LNB to the Slimeline? It looks like it has room to add one more LNB.

Once the weather gets nice enough, I'm going to try and frankstein a 95 LNB on my 2nd slimline to see if it works just for kicks. The dish geometry looks very similar between the two, so I think it would work.