[kiljoy]

I've been patiently building new wiring for HD. I've gotten a SWM-8 and I'm just about ready to pull the trigger, but I called up the local Bluegrass installer to see if there were Slimline-3s in their warehouse and there weren't.

I don't think I have LOS to 110 or 119 and even if I did, I'd rather not mess with them as I don't need them in my market.

I haven't called DirecTV yet, as I know their CSRs generally won't tell me anything but what I want to hear. I guess my question is, should I wait or see if there's any way they can get a Slimline-3 to my local installer? What are my options since I can't buy a Slimline-3 LNB yet?

Tony

 

[Mertzen]

i think at this point the only hing you can do is wait. Maybe get in touch with techtoolsupply and solidsignal and see when they expect to get them in stock.
SL3s really are way behind SL5s in the field.

 

[kiljoy]

I'm certainly not averse to waiting. If I were to get the LNB from SolidSignal though, would Bluegrass be able to properly align it? I'd assume if they don't have it and haven't trained on it, they would be unwilling to perform an installation using it.

Tony

 

[Mertzen]

I'd guess they could align a regular LNB and then change it out with the SL3 once that is done. The tech might need some 'convincing' though. :lol:

 

[evan_s]

I'm certainly not averse to waiting. If I were to get the LNB from SolidSignal though, would Bluegrass be able to properly align it? I'd assume if they don't have it and haven't trained on it, they would be unwilling to perform an installation using it.

Tony

The SL3 alignment should be identical to the SL5 alignment other than skipping the step of using 119 to fine tune the tilt.

 

[tkrandall]

If he has a SWM and does not use the legacy ports, then does the switch really care/know about the different stack plan coming in from either a SL3 (99/101, 103/101) or SL5 (99/101, 103/110/119)? As long as he sets up the receiver to expect a SL3 (even if he has a SL5) so that it never asks for a 110 or 119 mapped channel, then the switch should pass the right signal down the line, correct? In other words, does the SWM ever look to pass 101 data off of a 22 khz tone signal from the dish (which a SL3 would pass 101 in that case). I would doubt it.

 

[evan_s]

Tom has said that the swm, either swmlnb or swm8, always uses 101 for it's guide data so wouldn't have any issues with loss of LOS on 119. In this case the trick would be getting the tech to agree to do the install and possibly getting past the installer verification with no LOS on 119 for a slimline5.

 

[BattleZone]

In this case the trick would be getting the tech to agree to do the install and possibly getting past the installer verification with no LOS on 119 for a slimline5.

Exactly. With the standard SL5 LNB on the dish, all it takes is a supervisor to come by, snap a pic of the dish, and the installer gets a nice chargeback.

 

[techrep]

Exactly. With the standard SL5 LNB on the dish, all it takes is a supervisor to come by, snap a pic of the dish, and the installer gets a nice chargeback.

You mean, there would be a charge back without a truck roll?

 

[Mertzen]

You mean, there would be a charge back without a truck roll?

When I failed a QC [ 99% of the jobs I inspected ] the responsible tech came in for up training. Not sure if upper management did a back charge though.

 

[BattleZone]

You mean, there would be a charge back without a truck roll?

Sure. In lots of areas, the HSP has a few QC techs who go out to random jobs to QC them. If the job fails a QC (and LOS problems are an instant fail), the tech who did the job gets charged back, whether the customer complains or not. In fact, most of the QC fails are not because of a system not working or because of a customer complaint, but because of grounding issues, poor dish mounting, or poor/ugly cabling. The system can be working just fine and still fail a QC; happens every day.

In a busy area with a backload of work, techs simply aren't going to be pulled out of the field for training/retraining/uptraining. They just get charged back for the job, and sent right back out to the next customer.

 

[dkouz]

The Bluegrass Brothers in KY should not have 'chargebacks', we do not here in Illinois (not saying that it is OK to do a bad job). I have seen many of these Slimline-3 LNBs, but no workorders as of yet to install them.

 

[sd72667]

I've been patiently building new wiring for HD. I've gotten a SWM-8 and I'm just about ready to pull the trigger, but I called up the local Bluegrass installer to see if there were Slimline-3s in their warehouse and there weren't.

I don't think I have LOS to 110 or 119 and even if I did, I'd rather not mess with them as I don't need them in my market.

I haven't called DirecTV yet, as I know their CSRs generally won't tell me anything but what I want to hear. I guess my question is, should I wait or see if there's any way they can get a Slimline-3 to my local installer? What are my options since I can't buy a Slimline-3 LNB yet?

Tony

I had the same problem you are having. Here is my thread: http://www.dbstalk.com/showthread.php?t=138307 I called DirecTV and explain the LOS problem. They called Bluegrass with a work order for HD and to just receive the 99, 101, 103 sats. Bluegrass called and confirmed for Monday 9-8 for the install. I recommend you call DirecTV and hopefully you can get it worked out.

 

[kiljoy]

Well, I would've done that, but now with the new TiVo announcement I think I'll just get the wiring inside done and put off updating the dish until that box comes out. By then I'm sure the Slimline-3 will be much easier to come by since I'm likely looking at 2010 for the switch to HD.

Thanks for all the help, though.

Tony

 

[Johnnie5000]

What are my options since I can't buy a Slimline-3 LNB yet?

The date I've been hearing for when we'll be able to start using them here is Oct. 8th. YMMV

 

[dkouz]

We are using them here NOW.