RV and DirectTV question

[rvroamer]

I have a triple oval-3 LNB with HD service at home. I have one HD receiver and 2 non-HD receivers. I recently purchased a single round DirectTV dish. I've taken the Samsung SIR-S300W receiver out to the RV. I setup the dish's correct azimuth and elevation and made sure the SIR-S300W had the correct zip code. I changed the dish type to round in the SIR-S300W. I hooked up a signal strenth meter (the screamer) to LNB and receiver. I switched the SIR-S300W to signal strenth and no matter what I do it just reads zero. The screamer seems to be screaming at me and I tweaked elevation a bit as well as azimuth to get the max on the meter. Of course I also found that if I just point the dish directly at the RV the screamer will scream at me as well.

Anyway, I can't get a signal to read in the receiver. I've swept the sky slowly using 1/8" at most movements seeing if I could get anything, but I can't.

My question is, what am I doing wrong? If my home has a triple does that matter? Do I also have to have a triple for the RV? I took the SIR-S300W back in the house and set the dish type to oval-3 and everything came up just fine.

I've checked my cables. In fact I took a working RG-6 cable from my portable RV Hughesnet Internet system which I have zero problems setting up and getting on-line when I go RV'ing.

I just can't figure out what the problem is. I'm hoping someone can help me.

Thanks,
John

[wmschultz]

You can use the receiver you are using with the single LNB dish. The only thing
you need to ensure is that you are hitting the correct 101 SAT. You could be
hitting DISH's SAT with your sat finder, I'm not familiar with the one you are using.

We do the same thing with one of our receivers that you are doing with yours.

[mike_augie]

are you using the cable that was already in the r.v. if so try running a seperate cable right off the dish..(you might already know this if so sorry) most of the r.v. cables wont and dont support sat signals....just a thought..hope this helps

[rvroamer]

Yes I'm pointing to the right SAT 101 as far as I know. Of course I don't have a BirdDog so I can't say I'm 100% sure. At least that's the settings I used when pointing. I've swept the sky and just can't get anything. I've even swept the sky with different elvations too. Let me tell you, this is a million times harder than setting up a Hughesnet Interenet connection using a tri-pod. I can set that thing up in 5 minutes from box to a working connection.

And yes, I have a straight cable directly from the LNB to the receiver. I thought I would try it that way before I tried connecting to the RV's plug since I know the signal booster may interfere with the SAT. I'm really confused as to why I'm having so much freaking trouble.

I wonder if I have a bad LNB in the new dish I purchased. It's a fresh DirectTV brand dish right out of the box. I wouldn't know how to test it to make sure though.

[rvroamer]

Well I found the problem. It wasn't me or the screamer. The problem was with the software I'm using to locate the SAT via GPS coordinates. I camp in remote locations and I have no idea what the zip code is. Anyway, the software I "was" using is:

al-soft.com/saa/satinfo.shtml

which gave me the SAT coordinates off by 20 degrees azimuth. I used my SUUNTO compass (awesom) to point the dish so I knew I was right on. I had a strong signal right from the start using the screamer. But no matter what I did I couldn't get a signal on the receiver. I swept the sky (obviously not long enough) and still couldn't get a signal.

So the conclusion is that this software is terrible. Does anyone here know of some way I can enter my GPS coordinates and get pointing information that is accurate? I would really appreciate the info.

Thanks again!

[carl6]

Use the correct datum?

Carl

[Whodo]

rvroamer
Go to the datastorm users site and download this program datastormusers.com/lookangle.cfm
You might already have it being you are using Hughes net. Sat.

I have been using it to set up Hughes net Sat dish as well as Directv sat dish and have found it to be more than accurate enough for set up.

[harsh]

I used my SUUNTO compass (awesom) to point the dish so I knew I was right on. I had a strong signal right from the start using the screamer. But no matter what I did I couldn't get a signal on the receiver. I swept the sky (obviously not long enough) and still couldn't get a signal.The secret to success is doing your own magnetic declination calculations. I much prefer the calculators that give the true North azimuth as magnetic North is moving pretty fast in some parts of the country.

[rvroamer]

I've been using the DSSATTOOL from datastorm for Hughesnet which works fantastic:

datastormusers.com/dssattool.cfm

Right now their site seems to be down so I can't check out this other tool you refer to.

Harsh is exactly right. If you use magnetic declination calculations when aligning the dish you are dead on. I found this simple map for making the calculations:

spacecom.com/customer_tools/html/dish_alignment.htm

I fired up the software I have and subtracted from the azimuth as stated in the map and it came out dead on. Why in the world this software I have doesn't do that I can't figure out. They allow you to put in your time-zone, but it didn't change the azimuth readings. That would be a very simple calculation I would think. Thanks Harsh for giving us some insight on the "real" way to calculate your azimuth!

[rvroamer]

Silly me... The DSSATTOOL from datastormusers.com can be used to give you exactly what you need. All I did was add the 101 sat to the drop down list, entered my location and it spit out the true azimuth (which is all the other program would spit out) and the magnetic azimuth (which is what you need to point the dish). So all I really need is this one simple tool.

I want to thank all of you for helping me with this problem. It's simple to do once you have the right tools and information. You've all been a great help!

Thanks again.