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My across-the-road neighbor had an HD upgrade scheduled for this AM, so I wandered over to make sure everything was going to turn out OK. This is a very large house, biggest in the neighborhood, and and has a separate guest house, with a three big NEC 720p plasmas and three smaller SD-connected flat screens, which were not to be upgraded.
We're Rolling Right Along
The installer arrived about 10 AM with three H23's, shortly after I finished scoping out the possibilities for a separate dish for the guest house because of the distance from the dish (200'), which were nil without some work because of the exterior construction materials. He advised he was already running late because of required time in the office and that this was the first of six installs scheduled for the day. No doubt it's the NFL DirecTV last minute rush.
We quickly got the SL5 installed in the same location as the existing Phase III on the side of the house. There was also a dual LNB round dish for two of the SD receivers, so he ran all six dish lines to a WB68. He was dubious about the LOS, because of overhanging branches, but pointing to the Phase III, now on the ground, I convinced him to proceed. His method of aligning for the Ka's consisted simply of peaking the 101 on his Bird Dog without the use of the fine adjustment bolts. I'm just observing and helping at this point. The 119's required a tilt adjustment, which he did reluctantly, because he'd been told by his supervisor that he didn't need to worry about the 119 LOS for the SL5 anymore. I let that slide for the time being. Then the "fun" began.
The Plot Thickens
After firing up the receivers, they all showed pretty good 101/110/119 sig's, even the one 200' away, but nothing on 99(a) or 103(b) except sig's in the 20's on 103(b) tp's 10 and 12. He wasn't real sure what was actually on 99(a) and 103(b) and was pretty much ready to activate the receivers and hit the road. After convincing him we had a problem (the 771's on the HD channels convinced him), we tried peaking the dish by cellphone relay. He was at the dish, and I could tell he wasn't using the fine adjustment bolts, but was moving the dish by hand on the mount while watching the 101 on his Bird Dog plugged into an extra port on the WB68.
So we swapped positions, and the most I could get with the fine adjustments was 40's on those two 103(b) tp's; everything else HD was zero. Obviously there was an additional problem. About this time his phone started ringing re: his other two AM appointments.
He was sure it was that tree branch blocking the 99's and 103's, but not the 101's. I talked him into bypassing the WB68, without much improvement. Then I talked him into replacing the WNC with another LNB. The new (?) Eagle Aspen showed absolutely zero on ALL satellites. About this time he started talking to himself on the way to and from the truck, in between more phone calls as his rapidly evaporating day started pressing him.
From Bad to Worse
He put the original WNC back on, and now we were missing all the 101 evens as well as the 99's and 103's. He starting to get a little nuts now.....more muttering. So he decides to run four new cables about 75' to the new ground block at the service entrance. That fixed the 101 even's problem, so we were back to where we started. Now it's about 1:30 PM. More phone calls.....
So he decides to activate the three H23's, which had already downloaded the latest software, just to make sure there wasn't some weird software/activation issue preventing reception of the HD satellites. That ate up most of another hour, since two of them wouldn't activate right away, requiring lots of time on the phone, which was now also getting call waiting calls about his PM installs. I was meanwhile observing that the activated receiver still had no HD sig's.
......and Worse
Being convinced that that tree branch was the problem all along, he now decides to do a pole mount further down the hill, although now we're getting into possible LOS problems with more distant trees. It's gonna be close there. Pole comes out of the truck, and he makes a point out of the end by mashing it flat. Then he drives it into the ground in the new spot. I'm not saying doodly squat about concrete at this late point. I just want to see what's gonna happen with the sig's, but lo if he didn't install an 1 1/2" pole! Back to the truck, more self discussion. More phone calls.
I talked him into yet another LNB, which he accidentally dropped in the driveway, and I installed it on the new, slightly wobbly pole mount (same hole in the dirt) while he connected all the barrels, necessary since the 75' of new cable missed reaching to the new pole mount location by < 5'. More muttering. He's worried about the distant trees.
Light at the End of the Tunnel Leads to Solution
(no oncoming trains)
Back to the receivers, and we've got exactly the same signals. He knows it's those trees, but I convinced him that was impossible, they're different trees, and talked him into making me up a straight run to the nearest receiver, a good 100' away through a window.
Voila! High 80's to mid-90's on 99(a) and 103(b). Now we know it's the cables, not the trees. Finally! Tracing our six cables back from the WB68, we find that two of them are chopped off in the bushes and don't connect to anything. Hmmmm. Six receivers, four remaining cables. So I propose that we now go on a treasure hunt to find what I believe to be a non-compliant multi-switch somewhere under this giant house, since all three receivers are doing the exact same thing. We locate multiple crawl space openings, so we start to trace the wires and I find they first enter a small basement room full of water heaters hidden on the low side of the house. Way back in the corner is a small distribution box with a bunch of telephone wires and RG6 going into it. Inside the box: a Terk BMS58 multi-switch!!!
Swapped the WB68 into place and everything works. Elapsed time: 6.5 hrs. I'll be moving the dish back to the original location sometime next week. My brain is tired, and I don't really want to go help any more neighbors any time soon. She was a mighty fine looking gal, though......
We're Rolling Right Along
The installer arrived about 10 AM with three H23's, shortly after I finished scoping out the possibilities for a separate dish for the guest house because of the distance from the dish (200'), which were nil without some work because of the exterior construction materials. He advised he was already running late because of required time in the office and that this was the first of six installs scheduled for the day. No doubt it's the NFL DirecTV last minute rush.
We quickly got the SL5 installed in the same location as the existing Phase III on the side of the house. There was also a dual LNB round dish for two of the SD receivers, so he ran all six dish lines to a WB68. He was dubious about the LOS, because of overhanging branches, but pointing to the Phase III, now on the ground, I convinced him to proceed. His method of aligning for the Ka's consisted simply of peaking the 101 on his Bird Dog without the use of the fine adjustment bolts. I'm just observing and helping at this point. The 119's required a tilt adjustment, which he did reluctantly, because he'd been told by his supervisor that he didn't need to worry about the 119 LOS for the SL5 anymore. I let that slide for the time being. Then the "fun" began.
The Plot Thickens
After firing up the receivers, they all showed pretty good 101/110/119 sig's, even the one 200' away, but nothing on 99(a) or 103(b) except sig's in the 20's on 103(b) tp's 10 and 12. He wasn't real sure what was actually on 99(a) and 103(b) and was pretty much ready to activate the receivers and hit the road. After convincing him we had a problem (the 771's on the HD channels convinced him), we tried peaking the dish by cellphone relay. He was at the dish, and I could tell he wasn't using the fine adjustment bolts, but was moving the dish by hand on the mount while watching the 101 on his Bird Dog plugged into an extra port on the WB68.
So we swapped positions, and the most I could get with the fine adjustments was 40's on those two 103(b) tp's; everything else HD was zero. Obviously there was an additional problem. About this time his phone started ringing re: his other two AM appointments.
He was sure it was that tree branch blocking the 99's and 103's, but not the 101's. I talked him into bypassing the WB68, without much improvement. Then I talked him into replacing the WNC with another LNB. The new (?) Eagle Aspen showed absolutely zero on ALL satellites. About this time he started talking to himself on the way to and from the truck, in between more phone calls as his rapidly evaporating day started pressing him.
From Bad to Worse
He put the original WNC back on, and now we were missing all the 101 evens as well as the 99's and 103's. He starting to get a little nuts now.....more muttering. So he decides to run four new cables about 75' to the new ground block at the service entrance. That fixed the 101 even's problem, so we were back to where we started. Now it's about 1:30 PM. More phone calls.....
So he decides to activate the three H23's, which had already downloaded the latest software, just to make sure there wasn't some weird software/activation issue preventing reception of the HD satellites. That ate up most of another hour, since two of them wouldn't activate right away, requiring lots of time on the phone, which was now also getting call waiting calls about his PM installs. I was meanwhile observing that the activated receiver still had no HD sig's.
......and Worse
Being convinced that that tree branch was the problem all along, he now decides to do a pole mount further down the hill, although now we're getting into possible LOS problems with more distant trees. It's gonna be close there. Pole comes out of the truck, and he makes a point out of the end by mashing it flat. Then he drives it into the ground in the new spot. I'm not saying doodly squat about concrete at this late point. I just want to see what's gonna happen with the sig's, but lo if he didn't install an 1 1/2" pole! Back to the truck, more self discussion. More phone calls.
I talked him into yet another LNB, which he accidentally dropped in the driveway, and I installed it on the new, slightly wobbly pole mount (same hole in the dirt) while he connected all the barrels, necessary since the 75' of new cable missed reaching to the new pole mount location by < 5'. More muttering. He's worried about the distant trees.
Light at the End of the Tunnel Leads to Solution
(no oncoming trains)
Back to the receivers, and we've got exactly the same signals. He knows it's those trees, but I convinced him that was impossible, they're different trees, and talked him into making me up a straight run to the nearest receiver, a good 100' away through a window.
Voila! High 80's to mid-90's on 99(a) and 103(b). Now we know it's the cables, not the trees. Finally! Tracing our six cables back from the WB68, we find that two of them are chopped off in the bushes and don't connect to anything. Hmmmm. Six receivers, four remaining cables. So I propose that we now go on a treasure hunt to find what I believe to be a non-compliant multi-switch somewhere under this giant house, since all three receivers are doing the exact same thing. We locate multiple crawl space openings, so we start to trace the wires and I find they first enter a small basement room full of water heaters hidden on the low side of the house. Way back in the corner is a small distribution box with a bunch of telephone wires and RG6 going into it. Inside the box: a Terk BMS58 multi-switch!!!
Swapped the WB68 into place and everything works. Elapsed time: 6.5 hrs. I'll be moving the dish back to the original location sometime next week. My brain is tired, and I don't really want to go help any more neighbors any time soon. She was a mighty fine looking gal, though......
