Sorry harshness, I tried to set it up this morning at my tailgate location, but I took it down because I had to run home to get my family I can see how the elevation, if set improperly, would cause major problems. I set the elevation and skew and knew that my azimuth needed to be at about 173. So I started at about 150 and slowly worked to the west. The signal finder needle was in the middle of the display and as I worked west I would come to a spot where the needle would increase along with the sound emitted. If I kept working west the needle would drop and the sound would stop. If I went back to the east, the needle would go up and sound would increase BUT if I kept working to the west, I'd find another satellite and the needle/sound would increase (presumably satellites 110 & 119). Eventually I'd find the highest signal I could find by adjusting the azimuth, then I'd adjust the elevation to increase the signal on the signal finder. All the while, absolutely no results on the onscreen signal meter!
1000.2 Aiming Problem
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Harshness - I had a few minutes to kill so here is a picture of the elevation. I read this as 35
Am I reading it correctly?
Great, that's all I need is one more variable.....haha! Just kidding, thanks for all of your help. I'll give it a try.
I won't run anymore check switch tests anymore and I'm pretty sure that I shouldn't hit it with a sledge hammer either (but it might make me happy)!
You may have found A satellite but not necessarily 119 and not necessarily one of Dish's.
You may also not have enough signal for the Dish receiver to lock on to it. Once you have a peak by moving the dish horizontally, lock that down and loosen the vertical adjustment and see if you can get more signal that way. A degree or two makes a huge difference. Don't worry about skew when pointing 119. Skew won't make any difference until you try to target the other two satellites. When you have achieved max signal by adjusting both horizontal and vertical dish angles, see if the receiver now shows a signal and recognizes a satellite. This can take some time as it's constantly running through all combinations of LNBs and polarities until it finds the satellite it's looking for. The in-line meter will respond to any frequency the LNB puts out, however the signal meter on the receiver will only respond to the transponder it's tuned to so it must be on a transponder that's active on the satellite you have found which may not be 119 at this point. Try other transponders
Once you have peaked the signal on whatever satellite you have found, sight through the dish with a compass (a few feet away to avoid errors due to dish metal). Or use a dish pointer app on a smart phone and tablet. This should tell you which satellite you've found and which way you need to move the dish to locate 119.
Yes, you are reading the elevation correctly.
If the needle is only getting to half scale, you're probably not doing it right.
If you see one Ku satellite at 119W, you're seeing them all.
While the satellites that are all in the same "slot" are many miles apart, they all appear to be in effectively the same spot when viewed from 22,000 miles away. The feed horn can't really discern a difference of less than 2 degrees and the satellites are less than 0.2 degrees apart.
As mentioned, if the pole the dish is sitting on isn't plumb, that elevation indicator won't be accurate. Try sweeping at 33, and 37 too. Even if the pole is plumb, that elevation scale isn't 100% accurate. What kind of meter are you using? For a DIYer, I recommend one like this:
NOT this -
NOT this -
Both meters will work just fine. The first one may well be unnecessarily complicated (and several times the money) and it doesn't do anything the analog meter can't (other than being able to run off an optional battery pack).
I find analog meters much easier to follow than digital meters. Ask any race car driver what they think about digital gauges.
I find analog meters much easier to follow than digital meters. Ask any race car driver what they think about digital gauges.
The analog meters just don't seem to work well with any LNB that has a built in switch.
I'm assuming you're already doing this, but to go back to the basics, here's what I would do...
1) Set elevation as indicated (assuming mast is plumb), and SLOWLY swing the dish left and right (at least 40 degrees in either direction of the desired heading).
2) If no luck, lower the elevation 2 degrees and again SLOWLY go left and right of the indicated heading.
3) If still no luck, lower another 2 degrees and go left and right.
4) If no luck, go above original elevation 2 degrees.
5) Go another 2 degrees up.
You need to search a "box" and the above is how you need to do it.
1) Set elevation as indicated (assuming mast is plumb), and SLOWLY swing the dish left and right (at least 40 degrees in either direction of the desired heading).
2) If no luck, lower the elevation 2 degrees and again SLOWLY go left and right of the indicated heading.
3) If still no luck, lower another 2 degrees and go left and right.
4) If no luck, go above original elevation 2 degrees.
5) Go another 2 degrees up.
You need to search a "box" and the above is how you need to do it.
In my early days of aiming a DPP1000 with an analog meter, I would spend hours and often accepting a lowest reading between peaks. Then I tried the aluminum foil game with no success.
When I found the the dish used a 22KHz tone to select the 119 LNBF to the cable I was using, everything started to work. I found it a lot easier with a meter that generated the 22KHz tome because I was often setting the dish up far from the RV. You can set the receiver to look at 119 on all tuners but the analog meter might screw with the LNBF selection.
When I found the the dish used a 22KHz tone to select the 119 LNBF to the cable I was using, everything started to work. I found it a lot easier with a meter that generated the 22KHz tome because I was often setting the dish up far from the RV. You can set the receiver to look at 119 on all tuners but the analog meter might screw with the LNBF selection.
The 22 KHz is the standard frequency that comes from your receiver. You meter uses the fundamental frequency to allow you to find signal. When the switch is built in, the coax can be connected to the middle input that allows you direct access to 119.
OP, it's going on a week since you first started this thread, and it sounds like you're still having difficulty aiming your 1000.2.
While I'm sure you'll eventually get your dish aimed, will you be taking the 1000.2 back and forth to your tailgating location? If so, I suggest you buy one of the automatic portable dishes like a King Tailgater or a Winegard Pathway X2. They're made to work with your 211 receiver and either the Tailgater or Pathway X2 will automatically acquire the DISH sats. No fuss, no muss.
While I'm sure you'll eventually get your dish aimed, will you be taking the 1000.2 back and forth to your tailgating location? If so, I suggest you buy one of the automatic portable dishes like a King Tailgater or a Winegard Pathway X2. They're made to work with your 211 receiver and either the Tailgater or Pathway X2 will automatically acquire the DISH sats. No fuss, no muss.
As mentioned, if the pole the dish is sitting on isn't plumb, that elevation indicator won't be accurate. Try sweeping at 33, and 37 too. Even if the pole is plumb, that elevation scale isn't 100% accurate. What kind of meter are you using? For a DIYer, I recommend one like this:
NOT this -
I use one like the second one in your post for tailgating and it works just fine. I think it was $9 on amazon. Much better than trying to aim with the receiver.
I agree, using the receiver is not the way to go. A: make sure the mast is level, if not you'll have nothing but trouble. B: set your elevation and skew ahead of time. You can tweek those later. C: Use dishpointer on the your phone to get a general place to point to. I bought an OTA-900 MAX PEAK finder and found it very easy to use. On my 1000.2 I have two coaxs' coming from the LNB. Connect the one that is attached to the 119 sat post on the LNB to the meter. The meter should have enough power to run the LNB while you're aiming. If not, use a splitter to inject power from the receiver or external battery pack. Now... make small movements left to right or right left until the meter sees the 119 sat. Once you get the highest signal you can, tweek elevation, then skew. The new (old) 1000.4 dish makes it a little easier to do the fine tuning but you can do ok on the 1000.2 dish as well. I take my 1000.4 dish with us in the motorhome and usually have it up and aimed in under 10 minutes.
I'd buy a super buddy 1st...those have flaws with only seeing 1 satellite at a time. Of course that's just my opinion.
