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Help. Mountain cabin installation issues. What am I missing?!

3K views 77 replies 14 participants last post by  P Smith 
#1 ·
I cannot get a satellite signal to save my life. I just bought new LNBs and now i"m wondering if it might be a bent dish or something.

Some background: I have had Directv for years. I decided to buy a second dish (3 lnb 18 x 20) and install it at my family's mountain cabin for the occasional weekend sporting event. I just drag my old school box (d12-100) up and back with me. this has worked (mostly) fine for years. Due to some maturing trees in front of my old dish location, I decided to move the dish to a slightly more open location that was also closer to the house. Brand new coax, brand new LNB cluster - zero signal. The dish itself looks undamaged, could it be warped or bent? Is there a setup setting somewhere that I am missing or unaware of? I just don't get it. Any help would be appreciated. I'm out of ideas. Thanks.
 
#2 ·
Where are you aiming it? I think I read that 18x20 dish needs to be aimed at 110, but since the 110 satellite is tilted towards Puerto Rico now it may be difficult or impossible to receive in some parts of the US. If the mast isn't perfectly plumb and you can't find 110, picking up 101 and 119 would be almost impossible.
 
#3 ·
Ok! That makes sense. Thanks so much for taking the time to reply. After a little research, it looks like I'm dealing with obsolete (or soon to be so) equipment. I guess I need to find out if a new(er) dish (say, an SL3 that will grab 99, 101 and 103?) will work with my really old school D12 box. Obviously, most of my problem here is that I barely know what I am talking about. Back to the drawing board!
 
#7 ·
Well, this all eases my mind a bit. At least the fault probably lies with my dish location/pointing skills. I was so worried that I was just missing something. I'll give it another whirl on Friday when I am back up there with an assistant. I've got a really good idea where the 101 and 110 are relative to my location thanks to the Dishpointer website.
 
#9 ·
In my notes dating back to 2009 I have the phase iii 18x20 being designed to be aligned on 110. It was the only dish designed that way. But if you think about it, peaking the 101 signal would work just as well if you were using a meter or if you were dithering. It's the signal strength that matters not the physical alignment of the dish.
 
#11 ·
There is no "dithering" with an 18x20 dish.

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#17 ·
So since the 18x20 dish has been out BEFORE the sat C kit came out we can safely assume that this dish was aimed using the 101 and throw the 110 theory out the window


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#18 ·
So since the 18x20 dish has been out BEFORE the sat C kit came out we can safely assume that this dish was aimed using the 101 and throw the 110 theory out the window

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While I dont recall which that dish pointed at, needing a sat c kit for 110 doesn't mean they couldn't have sighted it at 110. you had to set the dish on the same angles either way.
 
#20 ·
It was actually a little strange ....

You would aim the dish boresight axis at 110W whether there was a Sat. C LNB installed or not. In order to peak the levels on 101W, which are received at an angle 9° off the boresight axis.

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#29 ·
Because you normally align a dish from an LNB along its boresight axis was my only point.

Or simply put, you mostly align a dish in the direction it's pointing in.

Sorry, didn't mean to offend ....

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#30 ·
Exactly, point the dish towards the 101 peak for max, check 119 for max and done. No where does 110 comes into place.

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#32 ·
I think what folks are getting hung-up on here is the term "bore sighting."

In my experience, it was never "bore sighted." The instructions would give enough info based on one's location, (or zip code in receiver, for example) to set tilt, azimuth and elevation.

Always aligned to 101 (and one could check the 119 reading to "peak," if desired).

110 lnb was easily added afterwards with no additional adjustments necessary.

Following the directions would allow the easy finding of 101.

I suppose the proper azimuth reading (although technically pointing at 110) was already compensated for. In other words, I don't recall having to ever consciously "worry" about being "pointed at 110."

As an aside, however, I seem to remember reading about "purists" who would use multiple 18" round dishes, individually-sighted.

(I've no idea what kind of multiswitch they would have used to make that work. But in that case, one would need to know how to sight-in for 110.)
 
#38 ·
Pointed at 110 but used 101 signals for aiming. Simple.
 
#44 ·
Exactly. 110 has got zero to do with installing one of these dishes (like the one pictured in a previous post, where there isn't even a 110 knob on it)!

If it isn't roughed-in properly it simply won't get 101. When it gets 101 it's correct.

And BTW, that was my very first dish, and I had to add the 110 at a later time.
 
#45 ·
Nailed it!

Here is an idea, remembering James post on top. If you are so fancy about 110, setting (aiming) the dish to 110 without the correct tilt to get ALL sats will not get you anything. So why focus on 110? That is the billion dollar question.

It helps someone better understanding that this is a multi sat dish and as such you need the tilt settings and just as they did with the single LNB dish find out what the elevation is according to the zip code of where the dish is being installed. Once you have the correct tilt and elevation just scan the sky in the same direction the single LNB dish was pointing.

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#46 ·
I am not suggesting that one does not set up the dish correctly (skew, elevation, etc.). Only that one not make themselves ignorant by intentionally ignoring the fact that the dish is aimed at the 110 position in the sky. Especially since the dish will not be aimed in the same direction as the old 101 dish. It will be aimed at a location in the sky nine degrees away from the 101 location.
 
#47 ·
Especially since the dish will not be aimed in the same direction as the old 101 dish. It will be aimed at a location in the sky nine degrees away from the 101 location.
That argument doesn't hold any water as the dish would need to be swept for alignment. So knowing where the 110 is helps you as much as knowing where the closest Starbucks is when aiming the dish.

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#67 ·
Ah. Missing punctuation in your writing changes the sentence.
You must waste a lot of time finding the satellites. That probably explains why you average 4 installs per week.
Installs go a lot faster when the installer has an idea where to start.
Just a little to the right of where the Phase I dish was aimed is a good start for a Phase II dish.
 
#68 ·
Nope, can point a dish is under a minute bud. And that is with my eyes closed and both hands tied.

Don't know where you got four installs a week from but keep in mind that DIRECTV has more than just installs. Also I am not an installer either to complicate matters even more.

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#70 ·
The fact that the dish was boresighted on 110 was relevant for those people who replaced the round dish (bore sighted on 101) with the phase III, and used exactly the same physical alignment. When the phase III came to the market we had a number of people who had problems because they had not realized the alignment was not the same. If you are using a meter it's irrelevant.
 
#75 ·
It is at the point where I don't believe the gentleman from NY is reading his own posts correctly, let alone anyone else's.

Suffice it to say that the Phase II dish is aimed at 110 using 101 for aiming.

As noted, some people were confused by the need to turn the dish. Some people are more interested in what is actually happening when they point a dish (for example, why does a multi-orbital DBS dish need skew when a single slot dish does not). As such, this forum exists for them. My first dish was a C-Band. Over the years I have stayed interested in what the system actually does (for example, how does a receiver know where to find a channel and whether or not that channel should be displayed in the guide, hidden or shown as unsubscribed). I don't need that knowledge to turn on the receiver and watch programming ... but there is no harm in knowing.

The Phase II dish is aimed at 110 using 101 for aiming. Nobody died because that statement was made. It does no harm and examples have been given in this thread showing that having that knowledge can be useful. There is no reason to keep it a secret or label that knowledge irrelevant. Obsolete, perhaps. But knowledge is good.
 
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