Question about low SWM signal readings...

[Tron]

Hi, question about possible reasons for getting a low signal reading only on the 103 sat. My setup: Eagle Aspen SL3 SWM (I got that becuase of the cold issues with WNC). HR23--both tuners always have shown the same readings during all my testing.
My readings after peaking the 101 with a Acutrac Pro (and the ASL-1):

101: All mid 90s and 100s
99s: All 90s with a 40 (probably a spotbeam I'm not supposed to get?)
99c: All mid 80s
103s: 1-8 100 0 0 0 100 0 NA NA
9-16 NA NA NA NA NA NA 46 0
17-24 0 74 0 0 0 0 33 56

103c: All mid to low 60s with maybe 1 70.
SWM 1-8 99 99 99 0 95 95 95 95
9-16 95 NA

First, does the zero reading on trans4 of the SWM mean anything bad?

I really thought I had the 101 peaked. Also, I thought maybe the cable run in the house wasn't good so I setup a 10ft length of cable--5ft from SL3 to Power Inserter, another 5ft from Poweinserter to IRD. I got the exact same readings...so I don't think wiring is the issue...most of the existing wiring is RG6 2200mhz... Again, 120ft vs 10ft made no difference in signal levels.
I tried another new IRD, and same readings... so not a bad IRD. I think my only options are I didn't peak it right OR the SL3 LNB I got is bad.
Just for fun, I tried to peak only the 103c transponder#1 and sacfrice all other sats. So I set tilt to 90deg. And just fine tuned and the best I could get was 73. (I should be getting 90s) There are no LOS issues. I'm really thinking a bad LNB, but I'm going to go out and just repeak from scratch one more time. Also, slight tilt adjustments made no difference. Even pushing, pulling gently on the dish (on a pole) only makes it worse, so I do think I had it peaked.
Thanks for any thoughts on this!

[JosephB]

You must have a minimum of 15' of cable between the SWM and the PI.

[veryoldschool]

SWM 1-8 99 99 99 0 95 95 95 95
9-16 95 NA

First, does the zero reading on trans4 of the SWM mean anything bad?
"Bad"?, no. It just shows there is another tuner on the SWM.
With my SWM, if I put each receiver in the setup SAT screen, I have no zeros, but has I exit out of this screen and the receiver goes back to active, I pickup a zero for each tuner.

[Grentz]

Your readings look decent to me. 103c could use a bit of work, but should work fine.

Just start enjoying some TV goodness ;)

[Tron]

Ok thanks everyone for your input. I setup everything back to normal. Now there is about 25 ft from SWM to PI. And another 75-100ft to the IRD. No splitter yet, as I need to get this fixed first. Anyway, I started from scratch and really really peaked the 101 with my Acutrac and got low 60s vs. low 50s before. (acutrac readings that is) Of course, there is prefect clear sky now. I really really fine tuned everything to get every last extra stregth level.
Ok, back to the pointing screen and virtually the same readings as before. 103c is still in the 60s and the recevier will not let me activate without having 80s (big X in the grid). I'm 99% sure it's a bad LNB now. It must be the ka part of that isn't strong enough. I compared readings to someone else in my area and they get mid80s-mid90s on 103c. Strange that I get 100 on the 103s, but 60s on the 103c. Also, 99c was 90s for this other person and I'm getting low 80s high70s.
I have already ordered a WNC swmlnb and will change that out... I'm pretty sure that will fix things... I only got the eagle aspen becuase of the cold issues. Anyway, probably a defective LNB..reminds me of a new Dish SW64 that had 2 outputs only giving 50% signal strength.

One last thought: If trying to peak transponder #1 of 103c barely gets me 70, (literally not caring about any other sats. just as a test), then I would think the LNB is faulty?

[Tron]

Well, this is strange... if I put my hand in front of the dish on the left side, the signal jumped 10 points! I know the left side of the lnb is for 103... so I guess there must be some alignment issue... but I can't believe that 'blocking' part of the dish with my hand made it better!

[Grentz]

Are you sure you didnt lean on it just a bit while doing that? With just light pressure on the edges of the dish I can drastically change my 99/103 signals.

[wallfishman]

you could have the 101 peaked perfect, sounds like your good with all between 95 and 100. what you could try is putting the signal strentgh screen on the 103 c screen that you are getting 60s on and get a cellphone with someone watching the signal screen for you. eaving the az and elevation and just try slightly adjusting the tilt. your in the middle of 101 and you need to tilt dish to get in middle of 103 and 99 better.

theres a good video that shows a demonstration of the sattelites drawn on a wall where they are at, and an azel with lasers on it representing the dish pointing at the sattelite. anyway the purpose of the demonstration was to show how you could be peaked on 101, and barely hitting 103 and 99.