5LNB Install ... need advice (kind of urgent)

[JoeKerr]

This is a long saga -- going to spare the details.. but D* contractor came out to install the slimline dish. My previous round dish, I had issues with a tree that impacted signal when windy. Luckily today is a little windy so I can see its effect on the dish.

He put up the new dish, but had to leave, and is going to come back to finish the install. So I've been looking at the signal strength screen. What I need to know is which transponders are essential in getting what I want. Most important to me would be ESPN and ESPN2 HD, local channels, and the Sunday Ticket super fan HD stuff. I live in L.A.

Here's the matrix

86 83 80 10 82 90 72 88
82 85 78 10 85 92 80 93
77 99 80 0 83 93 83 91
84 0 81 98 83 90 80 82

The installer told me the first two are the most imporant.. they have fluctuated between 75 and 90 for the first one and 69 and 85 for the second one depending on wind.

[veryoldschool]

This is a long saga -- going to spare the details.. but D* contractor came out to install the slimline dish. My previous round dish, I had issues with a tree that impacted signal when windy. Luckily today is a little windy so I can see its effect on the dish.

He put up the new dish, but had to leave, and is going to come back to finish the install. So I've been looking at the signal strength screen. What I need to know is which transponders are essential in getting what I want. Most important to me would be ESPN and ESPN2 HD, local channels, and the Sunday Ticket super fan HD stuff. I live in L.A.

Here's the matrix

86 83 80 10 82 90 72 88
82 85 78 10 85 92 80 93
77 99 80 0 83 93 83 91
84 0 81 98 83 90 80 82

The installer told me the first two are the most imporant.. they have fluctuated between 75 and 90 for the first one and 69 and 85 for the second one depending on wind.
Need more info:

What are the other SATs?
What SAT was that?
Have you downloaded the new software?

[JoeKerr]

Need more info:

What are the other SATs?
What SAT was that?
Have you downloaded the new software?

It says this SAT is at 101 degrees

When I tried to click the + to get to another SAT it wont let me

fyi, I'm still hooked into the R15 if that makes any difference. He hasn't put in the new receiver yet.

[veryoldschool]

It says this SAT is at 101 degrees
When I tried to click the + to get to another SAT it wont let me
fyi, I'm still hooked into the R15 if that makes any difference. He hasn't put in the new receiver yet.
For me it does as I don't have the R15 nor do I know anything about it.
When you get the new receiver, then I could be of some use to you.
You will really want to look at the 99 or 103 SATs as if they're good then everything else will be too.

[JoeKerr]

OK - well thanks for your input. The guy says he'll be back around 330pm PDT.. I'll have him put in the receiver first thing, and then report back to the board with details on the other SATs.

[veryoldschool]

OK - well thanks for your input. The guy says he'll be back around 330pm PDT.. I'll have him put in the receiver first thing, and then report back to the board with details on the other SATs.
H or HR-20?

[Tom Robertson]

For a well tuned 5lnb dish in Northern UT, at satellite location 101°, all the transponders I get are 94 and above except 3 of the odd channels that are 86 up. The rest are 0's as they are spotbeams not aimed for our area.

ESPN-HD and ESPN2-HD are on 110° and 119°, and mine are running high 80s for all those transponders.

And make sure you have at least one transponder on 99° or 103° that is at least mid 90s. That will be your HD locals, and the ones more susceptible to rainfade if not aimed dead on.

Cheers,
Tom

[veryoldschool]

And make sure you have at least one transponder on 99° or 103° that is at least mid 90s. That will be your HD locals, and the ones more susceptible to rainfade if not aimed dead on.
Cheers,
Tom
Which may not be seen in the setup menu if it's a H20.

[bobnielsen]

It says this SAT is at 101 degrees

When I tried to click the + to get to another SAT it wont let me

fyi, I'm still hooked into the R15 if that makes any difference. He hasn't put in the new receiver yet.

You will need to redo the R15 setup for a 3 LNB dish (it doesn't support the other two, so this will work). I remembering having to reset my R15 to enable doing this.

[JoeKerr]

For a well tuned 5lnb dish in Northern UT, at satellite location 101°, all the transponders I get are 94 and above except 3 of the odd channels that are 86 up. The rest are 0's as they are spotbeams not aimed for our area.

ESPN-HD and ESPN2-HD are on 110° and 119°, and mine are running high 80s for all those transponders.

And make sure you have at least one transponder on 99° or 103° that is at least mid 90s. That will be your HD locals, and the ones more susceptible to rainfade if not aimed dead on.

Cheers,
Tom

Tom, Thanks for that detailed info..

All, here are my numbers for each sat. I cut a limb off the tree and it helped a lot (except the 99 deg SAT looks weak). No wind right now, so these are probably the best numbers I'm going to get:

99 deg(b)
15 85 37 83 47 0

103 deg(a)
95 100 0 0 95 76

101 deg
95 95 91 26 94 98 89 97
93 95 92 0 95 98 91 98
91 99 91 0 95 95 93 98
94 0 89 99 91 97 88 98

110 deg
x x x x x x x 91
x 91 x 92

119 deg
x x x x x x x x
x x x x x x x x
x x x x x 83 82 83
76 86 89 86 0 86 86 89

I'm pretty excited to finally have HD.. interesting thing I noticed: the feed from the UCLA vs. Pittsburgh game was awful -- pixelated and looked like my kids XBOX hoops game.. but when they cut over to Tenn vs. OSU, it was very high quality -- same station.

I lost a bunch of local channels that I used to have.. the one that hurts is 56 in LA which covers some hockey games.. not sure why they don't give me the SD feed for that.

The caption button from my TV remote used to work as expected.. now it gives me a "not available" message... when I went in to the TV setup menu, the caption thing was greyed out. This is puzzling to me.

[jhillestad]

99 looks fine. Not every transponder will come in because of spot beaming.

[veryoldschool]

If the question is: is my dish pointed well? Yes those numbers look good.
Don't worry about the 99 power as they all [103 too] are spot beams that don't "go everywhere". You do have a 100% which should be what your local HD channels come in on.

[Tom Robertson]

Those numbers all look very good. Transponder 4 on 101° is a spotbeam and must not be aimed for you, so don't worry about the 26. You should have lots of fun HD, and then when the new sats. and chans go up!

Cheers,
Tom