Please help a NEWB point a dish : )

[undermind]

I install commercial satellite dishes, but am a dummy when it comes to residential satellite. I have a friend who needs their Directv dish pointed. I have a Birddog which I haven't really needed to use in commercial satellite, so I haven't even really used it, but it seems easy enough to use.

So what I'm looking for is what satellite to look for on the Birddog..

What I don't really understand though is the different satellites that have the different channels. Is the dish actually locking onto multiple satellites??
Sorry, it just doesn't make complete sense to me.. :(

I'm near Boise, ID by the way..

Thanks!

[jpitlick]

I am not an installer, but here is what I have learned:

There are 3 or 5 satellites that you need to see depending on which LNB and dish you have. The satellites are 99, 101, 103, 110, and 119 (all west longitude). You need to center on 101. If you have the slimline dish, the 5 LNB dish needs to see all 5 satellites and the 3 LNB needs to see 99, 101, and 103. 101 carries the core programming and 99 and 103 provide most local and all national HD programming. 110 and 119 carry international programming and (I believe) some local SD programming.

[bobnielsen]

With a Slimline dish used for HD, it is necessary to perform a "dither" adjustment to center the beam on the 101 satellite. The installation instructions (http://manuals.solidsignal.com/Slimline_Dish_Installation_Manual.pdf) which come with the dish are pretty explicit on the alignment steps. There are also some videos (http://www.solidsignal.com/p/?p=2699&d=directv-ka-ku-dish-installation-videos) demonstrating the process.

[cartrivision]

Don't any of the professional meters have readouts for the 99 and 103 KU signal strengths? It seems that it's better to fine tune for the highest readouts on 99 and 103 than to dither on the 101 signal strength as all the installation tutorials seem to say to do.

[BattleZone]

The AccuTrak III ($200) can read the Ka-band signals, but can't ID satellites.

The Birdog ($450) can ID satellites, but can't read Ka-band signals.

The Super Sat Buddy ($700) can read the Ka-band signals and ID the sats.

With the dithering procedure (which takes 5 minutes or less when done right), it isn't necessary to directly read the Ka-band signals, and if you DO read the Ka-band signals directly to peak the dish, you still have to balance the signals between 99 and 103 manually, so it really doesn't save a lot of time.

[RobertE]

Don't any of the professional meters have readouts for the 99 and 103 KU signal strengths? It seems that it's better to fine tune for the highest readouts on 99 and 103 than to dither on the 101 signal strength as all the installation tutorials seem to say to do.

Per one of the DirecTv training videos, the "peak" on 99/103 is such, that no economical meter can display it to enough precision to achieve a true peak. Thus they have the off-peak dither method.

[cartrivision]

Per one of the DirecTv training videos, the "peak" on 99/103 is such, that no economical meter can display it to enough precision to achieve a true peak. Thus they have the off-peak dither method.

If that's the case than it seems that the best adjustment method would be to dither on the 99 or 103, not the 101.

[RobertE]

If that's the case than it seems that the best adjustment method would be to dither on the 99 or 103, not the 101.

The falloff is too steep to do so. Plus they would either have to supply every tech with a Ka meter or techs would have to get one. Both options are very expensive, neither is going to happen any time soon.

[joe diamond]

Hit the published coordinates for the 101 (Ku) and give a little poosh west (almost 3 degrees west) and the 103(Ka) will be there.

DTV has 5 sats.....101 110 & 119 west longitude........around the 101 are the 99 & 103. The 110 & 119 are not used everywhere. If you have 99, 101 & 103 you have most of it.

Joe

[dracozny]

Per one of the DirecTv training videos, the "peak" on 99/103 is such, that no economical meter can display it to enough precision to achieve a true peak. Thus they have the off-peak dither method.

my office actually blew that myth to pieces fyi, it can be done, and it can even be done with just the tone on the aspen eagle, however its not recommended to do so as most newbie techs mess it up.
While I was a supervisor our local FOM kept pushing this idea that we all had to buy bird dogs. myself and one of my senior techs both were doing these with aspen eagles, so I told him if he wants to convince the rest of my office to give up tuning with an aspen eagle he will need to challege my senior tech in a tune off of sorts. after both dishes were tuned signal readings were taken, and then my senior tech retuned the FOM's dish to bring it up to spec. :D the videos on the directv satelite training site actually reflect the tuning process with an aspen eagle on swm and nonswm dishes.

you can do this on a swm settup although its rather funky as you need to use an ASL filter and the tone tends to pulsate.
Since directv bought up the HSP's they bought everyone birddogs as well as other essential tools.