Satellite Realignment-Dish Network

[kmatthews2]

I am having some problems with my satellite system after I returned from vacation. A tropical storm came through and ever since, I can not get a good test on Satellite 119. Can someone tell me how to realign the satellite so that I can fix this problem without spending the 70.00 for the satellite repair man to come out and do it?

[chaddux]

I am having some problems with my satellite system after I returned from vacation. A tropical storm came through and ever since, I can not get a good test on Satellite 119. Can someone tell me how to realign the satellite so that I can fix this problem without spending the 70.00 for the satellite repair man to come out and do it?

FYI: A satellite is a multi-million dollar piece of space equipment orbiting 22,500 miles from Earth. The item attached to your roof that you need to re-align is a dish, not a satellite.

You'll need to tell us what kind of dish you have (DISH500, SuperDISH, DISH1000)?

[Jolard]

It sounds like you are getting a test signal on 119, but it is simply not good enough.

You could do the following at your own risk.

Get up on your roof, and look at your dish. You will see bolts you can loosen, and then a number of calibrated indicators that show things like direction and elevation. Write down or note exactly where the dish is currently.

Then you will want to loosen one set of bolts while slowly (very slowly and slightly ) moving the dish around. You should have someone watching the signals to tell you when you have peaked the signal as good as you can. Then tighten the bolts. It is really pretty simple, but you can get yoruself totally off track and have a hard time finding the satellite again, which is why you need to note the current settings before moving the dish.

Now all that said, please be aware I am FAR less technically proficient than anyone else on this board, but this is what I did. I had a poor 129 reception, and I did the above and boosted the reception by 10 points. I was happy, but YMMV.

Somebody else may post with a far more technically accurate description of what you should do.

[foghorn2]

:lol: :sure: ;) I am having some problems with my satellite system after I returned from vacation. A tropical storm came through and ever since, I can not get a good test on Satellite 119. Can someone tell me how to realign the satellite so that I can fix this problem without spending the 70.00 for the satellite repair man to come out and do it?

It is easier to move your dish on your premises than to move the satellite in the sky to be in alignment. Millions of other subs would have to realign if we moved the satellite.

But if you insist, you may have to wait for the next storm from the other direction or ask God to lend her land. No air to surface missles could reach that far either.

:hurah: :hurah: :D :lol: :D :hurah: :grin: :rolleyes: :hurah: :lol:

[oldave]

It is really pretty simple, but you can get yoruself totally off track and have a hard time finding the satellite again, which is why you need to note the current settings before moving the dish. A tip... I find that taking a Sharpie and making a line on the dish mount and the pole help in finding the original location again if you get way out of line.

A wind storm will generally cause the dish to move side to side (azimuth), less likely up/down (elevation) or "around" (skew), so it could be as simple as loosening the bolts and moving the dish from side to side could get the signal strength back up.

Additional note - if you're getting any signal at all, it will only take a VERY small adjustment to get it back where it needs to be.

[Richard King]

My first suspect in this kind of situation is the mounting pole. Make sure the pole is still perfectly plumb as the first adjustment. If it isn't and you restore it to plumb you should have signal back.

[Nick]

My first suspect in this kind of situation is the mounting pole. Make sure the pole is still perfectly plumb as the first adjustment. If it isn't and you restore it to plumb you should have signal back.Pole misalignment was my first thought. If your pole is not plumb, none of your other
adjustments will matter, particularly with a multi-sat dish like the Dish 500 or 1000.
.
.

[DoyleS]

If you are getting a test signal I wouldn't start with loosening any of the nuts or bolts. When you go to the Dish alignment screen, you will hear a tone. The higher the pitch on the tone, the more aligned you are. Initially you need to be able to hear that tone while you are on the roof. Sometimes it helps to connect a smaller TV to your receiver so that you can actually have that TV on the roof with you or near a window where you can hear the tone. Once you have that you can just slightly press on either the left or right side of the dish antenna. It will move slightly even though the bolts are tightened. If the tone goes up in pitch you know that you are going in the right direction. If it goes down in pitch you are going the wrong way. You can try this in both the horizontal and vertical directions to get an idea of which way it needs to move and about how far. Once you know this you can carefully loosen the bolts and make that very small adjustment. As some of the others have mentioned, the first time you do this it is easy to get lost by moving the dish too far and then not getting back to your starting position. Since you currently have some signal, you will only need to tap the dish into positon. Think in terms of moving it an eighth to a quarter of an inch at a time.

..Doyle