Can't get all SAT's

[IMO_GILLYMAN]

Hi guys, I'm having a problem setting up my dish. I have a phase 1 dish hooked up to, 2 tivo receivers no problem with signals allways in the hi 90's. I decided to get the Phase 3 dish so I could get HD for a new HD receiver, I can't seem to get all three Sat's to come in. I can get 101 and 110 high 90's and nothing on 119 or I get high 90's on 119 and nothing on 101 or 110. I've tried every possible tilt, ele, and aza. that I could thing of in every possible position. I can peak 101 in the 95-100 range, and then I adjust the tilt and can't get 119 to come in at all. My zip is 21774, you guys have any idea what I'm doing wrong? I have a acutrac22 pro and tried to use per instruction, couldn't figure it out so my wife stayed at the TV and I was at the dish on our cells.

Thanks for any help
Gilly

 

[Jimbo]

Hi guys, I'm having a problem setting up my dish. I have a phase 1 dish hooked up to, 2 tivo receivers no problem with signals allways in the hi 90's. I decided to get the Phase 3 dish so I could get HD for a new HD receiver, I can't seem to get all three Sat's to come in. I can get 101 and 110 high 90's and nothing on 119 or I get high 90's on 119 and nothing on 101 or 110. I've tried every possible tilt, ele, and aza. that I could thing of in every possible position. I can peak 101 in the 95-100 range, and then I adjust the tilt and can't get 119 to come in at all. My zip is 21774, you guys have any idea what I'm doing wrong? I have a acutrac22 pro and tried to use per instruction, couldn't figure it out so my wife stayed at the TV and I was at the dish on our cells.

Thanks for any help
Gilly

It sounds like your doing everything right.
If you have the 101 and 110 in the 90's it should be a tilt adjustment.
Try tightneng everything up at your best signal strength , check signal again, then slightly put pressure on one side or another and up and down, and see if any of this helps. If it does, yu will know what direction needs adjusting, loosen slightly and make your adjustment.

IF that doesn't help, take a visual look around and verify that no obsticles could be blocking the view of that LNB..
The slightest obstruction can cause this, a branch , bunch of leaves ect.
(sister had this once, I thought nothing of it, but when I cut off a small branch of leaves , it poped right in)

IF that doesn't help and you know your close. I guess it's possible that the LNB could be bad.

Give these a try and let us know.

Be patient while doing these, no large movements, remember a slight move here is quite a bit 22,000 miles up.

Jimbo

 

[IMO_GILLYMAN]

Thanks I'll give it a try, I first tried the AT9 dish and I thought maybe lnb was bad so I tried the phase 3, I still got the same sig's on 101&110, and nothing on 119 and vice versa. Same results on both dishes.

Thanks Again
Gilly

 

[damaged]

It sounds like you might be hitting the right sats, just on the wrong slots.

 

[Jimbo]

Thanks I'll give it a try, I first tried the AT9 dish and I thought maybe lnb was bad so I tried the phase 3, I still got the same sig's on 101&110, and nothing on 119 and vice versa. Same results on both dishes.

Thanks Again
Gilly

No obsticles in the way ?
If you are trying to do the AT-9.
I would guess you would work it the same way, get the 101, 110, 119, up and going and thm work the 99 and 103 after you have good signal on the main 3.

Have you looked over the video for the AT-9 yet ?

Jimbo

 

[IMO_GILLYMAN]

Yes, I watched the video a couple hundred times and did everything they said, except my wife in the house on her cell telling signal strength. The meter works but I can figure it out. I would perfer to get my AT9 working but will be happy with the phase 3 dish at this point. This is driving me nuts , I'm going to get at of work early today and work on the dish in a couple hours. There's a tree in front of my house, if I can get 101&110 and not 119 and vice versa is it possible the tree is blocking the signal? I get high signal strength from all Sat's when I do them individually......

Thanks Again
Gilly

 

[Jimbo]

There's a tree in front of my house, if I can get 101&110 and not 119 and vice versa is it possible the tree is blocking the signal? I get high signal strength from all Sat's when I do them individually......

Thanks Again
Gilly

Yes this is very possible, cut out a few clumps of leaves, or a branch, I hate it when people say cut it down, no need to cut the whole tree down....perticularly if you can isolate the obstruction.

Jimbo

 

[IMO_GILLYMAN]

It sounds like you might be hitting the right sats, just on the wrong slots.

Wrong Slots??? Now I'm lost....

Gilly

 

[Stan Towne]

Sounds like the tree is at fault. Rather than tree trimming, I would sugget moving the dish away from the tree.

 

[ShadowEKU]

Wrong Slots??? Now I'm lost....

Gilly

hitting 119 with the 110 lnb and so on. pretty easily done... What i do when i do a Phase 3 (im not an installer im a tech consultant and have done about 40 of these) is zero in the 101, then slowly adjust till i hit 119 then work on 110.... since its in the middle it makes it easier... beware of those trees... it really depends on how tall they are and the relation to the dish... most people dont realize the signal comes in much higher than the dish.

 

[damaged]

To add to what Shadow said:

First thing out of the box, make sure your mount is PERFECTLY plumb, if not, you're wasting your time, get it plumb.

Make sure, as was pointed out by Shadow, to aim for the 101 first, an easy way to do this, is to use foil and cover the 119 and 110 LNBs, this will insure that you aren't getting the 101 sat on the 119/110 LNBs on accident, leaving the 101 clear, then get the 101 aimed, make sure you can get guide data, check, on your receiver, channel 490 and 491, you should see 13V for 490 and 18V for 491, check your signal levels on the 101, make sure there are a total of 32 transponders (as the 110 and 119 have less), some of the 32 will be at 0, this is normal, once you know you have the 101 in good, remove the foil, if the skew(tilt) is right, they should be there, if not, than your skew needs adjusting, start off your skew at the position your receiver gave you for skew in setup, then, adjust the skew in very small increments, check signals on all sats, if not at least low 90s (I'd go for mid-high 90s if you're a perfectionist), adjust the skew again, wash rinse repeat.

And ALWAYS remember, to remove the power from ALL receivers before dis/connecting coax, as if you accidently touch the coax ends to metal, you can short out an LNB (btw, turning the receivers off is NOT good enough, unplug them).

And of course, there is the possibility that if there is indeed a tree partially in the line of sight, you may not be able to get all 3, in which case, you can find a new location where you can get all 3, or you might want to try a 2nd dish to grab the missing sat, you would then need a switch with a flex port, if I'm not mistaken.

Good luck.

In case you have not seen it, below is the url for the official install of the phase3 dish:

http://www.directv.com/learn/pdf/12429_00_AntennaManual_1D.pdf

 

[IMO_GILLYMAN]

Thanks for all the help!!!!: When I got home I had a extra 4x4x8 and attached to my existing 4x4 that was 4 feet off the ground. I attached the phase 3 dish and have hi signals on all three Sat's in about 2 minutes!!! I didn't think the darn tree was the problem since I was able to get the signals individually. I'm going to put in a 10' post in and attach the AT9 to it and take down the old post and dish.... Called Directv and now have my HD on my DLP awesome picture. Thanks for all the help and new knowledge....

Thanks so much for the help from everybody!!!!!!: :up

Gilly

 

[damaged]

Thanks for all the help!!!!: When I got home I had a extra 4x4x8 and attached to my existing 4x4 that was 4 feet off the ground. I attached the phase 3 dish and have hi signals on all three Sat's in about 2 minutes!!! I didn't think the darn tree was the problem since I was able to get the signals individually. I'm going to put in a 10' post in and attach the AT9 to it and take down the old post and dish.... Called Directv and now have my HD on my DLP awesome picture. Thanks for all the help and new knowledge....

Thanks so much for the help from everybody!!!!!!: :up

Gilly

Nice work, glad it worked out for you, enjoy!

 

[grydlok]

Hi guys, I'm having a problem setting up my dish. I have a phase 1 dish hooked up to, 2 tivo receivers no problem with signals allways in the hi 90's. I decided to get the Phase 3 dish so I could get HD for a new HD receiver, I can't seem to get all three Sat's to come in. I can get 101 and 110 high 90's and nothing on 119 or I get high 90's on 119 and nothing on 101 or 110. I've tried every possible tilt, ele, and aza. that I could thing of in every possible position. I can peak 101 in the 95-100 range, and then I adjust the tilt and can't get 119 to come in at all. My zip is 21774, you guys have any idea what I'm doing wrong? I have a acutrac22 pro and tried to use per instruction, couldn't figure it out so my wife stayed at the TV and I was at the dish on our cells.

Thanks for any help
Gilly

setting are 234 elevation
54 on the tilt.
119 is 28degrees for MD.

edit never mind,

 

[ShadowEKU]

Post? bad idea... use a pole...unless you want to replace it in a year or 2... wood (even treated) tends to bend twist and warp in the elements.

 

[IMO_GILLYMAN]

roger that thanks

Gilly