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best guess - will my dish work after roof repair?

10486 Views 15 Replies 14 Participants Last post by  chriscpmtmp
I need ot have the rook repaired where my main dish is located - I think its a 1000 of some variety - 110, 118, and 119 if I remember. The 129 is a sep. dish.

So the roof guy need to take it off, then put a new rubber layer under, then replace the dish. He said he'd use the same holes.

I doubt if it will wok after that, right? If that is the case, should I schedule a tech to align it now, or wait and see?

The schedule is sometime tomorrow that area will be done. Should I just call now for an alignment. I'd rather not loose service for Thursday nigh, with the NCAA going on and all.

Then is this covered under the $6 protection plan?
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It may, but there are too many other things to take in account.
chriscpmtmp said:
I need ot have the rook repaired where my main dish is located - I think its a 1000 of some variety - 110, 118, and 119 if I remember. The 129 is a sep. dish.

So the roof guy need to take it off, then put a new rubber layer under, then replace the dish. He said he'd use the same holes.

I doubt if it will wok after that, right? If that is the case, should I schedule a tech to align it now, or wait and see?

The schedule is sometime tomorrow that area will be done. Should I just call now for an alignment. I'd rather not loose service for Thursday nigh, with the NCAA going on and all.

Then is this covered under the $6 protection plan?
DirecTV posts the terms and conditions for their Protection Plan on their website. DISH most likely does the same.
Mine didn't. It'll be close though. Use family radios, or cell phones or such. Take a wrench set up with you. Have someone inside look at the signal meter on the TV. Call to the person on the TV as you move it and ask for feedback. Pull a little on the top and wait 5-10 seconds. If the signal goes up, loosen and tighten a little higher. If the signal goes down, push on the top and test again. 0nce you get up and down aligned, do the same left to right. Slowly working it 1/4-1/2 an inch at a time until you peak the signal. Saves you $95 for a tech call.

Skew should remain correct. Don't change it unless you are sure it's not right.
Up and down will be effected by the thicknesses of the new shingles/rubber being different from before. Left and right will be slop in the mounting holes or if they miss the original mount point.
Best thing to do at this point is call Dish and ask them your options. Shouldn't be a big deal.
Call NOW and get on the schedule. Your looking at multiple satellites 22,300 miles out from the equator with a DISH 500+ a slight change under the base is a major change out 22,300 miles.
When we had our roof redone I took a photograph of the Dish with four tape measures showing the exact location of the lag bolts. I removed and reinstalled the Dish myself. It is a 500 needing only to be realigned for two satellites. But it still took me about 15 minutes to tweak it after I remounted it.

I'm older now, maybe too old to be crawling around on our roof, so I would arrange with Dish to send a tech out.
More than likely, it won't work. You can schedule a tech now for when the roof replacement is completed or wait to see if your TV works after it is remounted. If you schedule now, you can always cancel the appointment if it does work. You will only need to pay the $15 technician visit cost for having the Protection Plan. Please let me know. Thanks.

chriscpmtmp said:
I need ot have the rook repaired where my main dish is located - I think its a 1000 of some variety - 110, 118, and 119 if I remember. The 129 is a sep. dish.

So the roof guy need to take it off, then put a new rubber layer under, then replace the dish. He said he'd use the same holes.

I doubt if it will wok after that, right? If that is the case, should I schedule a tech to align it now, or wait and see?

The schedule is sometime tomorrow that area will be done. Should I just call now for an alignment. I'd rather not loose service for Thursday nigh, with the NCAA going on and all.

Then is this covered under the $6 protection plan?
Use family radios, or cell phones or such.
I used a cellphone, but be advised that a cellphone, being digital, has latency. That means by the time you hear the high pitch tone of a strong satellite signal you are already past the point that gave you the good signal.

Another good tool to use is a torpedo bubble level. Your mast needs to be perfectly level. You need to level the mast in 2 points 90 degrees apart (it's possible to be level at one point only to not be level all the way around). Checking the level at 2 points will result in the best place for the mast. After confirming that the mast is level then you move the dish slowly until you get peak signal. Be sure to check every orbital location's signal using both an even and an odd transponder.

You best bet is to check your signal strengths before the dish is removed. Find several transponders on each orbital location that have a strong signal and record the numbers. Do not try and tweak on weak transponders! You may be looking at a spot beam for another area. In fact avoid the spot beams (these carry your locals). The spot beam that carry your locals should be the strongest signal since the beam is "concentrated" (of course you may live on the edge of your local area so YMMV). If the "CONUS" beams are strong the spot beam will take care of itself.
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Yeah, while technically possible to carefully remove and then re-install in the same place after the roof repair... it is highly unlikely that the replacement will be exact or that some other slight nudge might not happen to change the alignment.

Best to plan ahead and see if you can have an appointment with Dish to double-check after the roofing work has been completed. Scheduling in advance will reduce your downtime.
Would a pole mount work for you? [ in ground]

I had one put in and never looked back.

No holes in the roof, can brush it off in winter. From the looks of your location, snow may be an issue for you. [ well maybe not at the moment]
The roofers told me they would put it back exactly as it was before. When they were done they told me to try it. No signal. I went up on the roof and the mast was leaning.
They had bolted the mast pointing south and twisted the dish to point north. I told them what the %$^%.

Luckly the didnt move the azmuth and it didnt take long to get it working.
I had my roof replaced and the wood also along the edge where the mast was bolted. They said they put back exactly as they measured. I could visually see it was not the same. They insisted. I had no signal. Called Dish and started the protection plan and had a tech come out and re aline.
satcrazy said:
Would a pole mount work for you? [ in ground]

I had one put in and never looked back.

No holes in the roof, can brush it off in winter. From the looks of your location, snow may be an issue for you. [ well maybe not at the moment]
Thanks for the tips everyone. i wish a pole mount would suffice, but with old trees, its really luck anything works. I had to run the 129 dish on the ground in the very back of the yard to clear the trees.

I guess the original install of this one was causing even another leak. The roofer is going to do a leak free install on the dish over the new shingles, then Dish is set to be out to align it tomorrow. The new giant dish is far more complicated to install and calibrate. The old one with just 110 and 119 fit nicely on the side of the chimney. This one won't twist right in that spot - bummer.
tymekeeper said:
I had my roof replaced and the wood also along the edge where the mast was bolted. They said they put back exactly as they measured. I could visually see it was not the same. They insisted. I had no signal. Called Dish and started the protection plan and had a tech come out and re aline.
Why do roofers even pretend they can put it back exactly as it was and you will still have a signal? Maybe some can, but I would bet that 99% of the time you will have to get it realigned.

Another reason I prefer the pole mount.
jsk said:
Why do roofers even pretend they can put it back exactly as it was and you will still have a signal? Maybe some can, but I would bet that 99% of the time you will have to get it realigned.

Another reason I prefer the pole mount.
Funny you added this. I was just going to let this one go, but I guess I'll finish it off.

The dish worked fine after the remount, even though he didn't find the same holes. Then the Dish tech that was scheduled decided to start messing around with stuff. After 4 hours of getting in the way he had an all new dish and LNB installed that seems to work about the same as the first one did. Go figure.

So in the big picture, I originally had a nice dish 500 installed myself on the chimney for 110 and 119, with a 300 for 61.5. That worked for 7 years with few problems. Then I was talked into this 1000 on the roof to add 118 and 129 when they put FSN HD on 129 and not 61.5 - maybe in the 2007-2008 range. There is no programming on 118 that I use, and 129 doesn't work on the 1000, so I needed a separate 500 mounted on the ground for 129 - a big pain. Then the 1000 damaged my roof, and has needed two full replacements since it was installed. Go figure.

I miss when these things were easy enough to self install!
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