D* installer part 2 Grrrr!
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igator99 said:
I installed the pole. The signals are fine. I would have gone four feet down, but I hit ground water!
Halsted put the dish on the pole and aligned it. That's all they did, since I also ran the cables in a trench for them!raoul5788 said:I installed the pole. The signals are fine. I would have gone four feet down, but I hit ground water!
I have a few days of vacation time coming up I might just do it all myself. How far did you dig for the trench and do you need special cables?
igator99 said:
The trench is about a foot deep. Get some electric conduit to put the wire in, then bury that. The cable is buriable without conduit, but it protects it from other problems, like accidental cutting.
igator99 said:
Yes. You can get them at Home Depot or Lowes. Get one big enough for more wire. You might want to run extras in case you want them later for another receiver or a dvr.
raoul5788 said:
A real pro came out today. He spent about 30 minutes with his instruments trying to find a line of sight on the various sats. 61.5 is blocked and 129 he was if on it. He said it was doable but he didn't have the pole he needed. He said he would need a sturdier pole for the bigger dish. So he said he will come back out in the next few weeks and hook me up. As a customer I really appreciated it. If he decides eventually it is impossible I will not have a problem with it. He really tried hard. It is the guys that show up and take one look and take off I have a problem with. I don't blame them after learning they get paid by the job. The real problem lies with these two companies for not taking care of their workers and not giving them the incentive to do a hard job.
If the 61.5 is blocked and the 129 is iffy then you aren't gaining anything by installing the AT9 dish. The thing that you should concentrate on is battling your HOA to be able to cut out (or at least top) some of the tall trees around your home. Use the reccent hurricanes as a reason. Find some photos of homes in the area that were damaged by fallen trees as evidence to back you up on why the trees need to be topped. Even if it weren't for the dish alignment problems I would do it for the sake of the nice home you have. It would be a shame to see a home as nice as yours crushed by a fallen tree just because of an HOA's closed minded rule.igator99 said:
uboatcmdr said:
Hey uboatcmdr. I don't have to take pictures. I would say 1 in every 8 homes had a tree in it after Katrina in this subdivision. A good storm passed through last night and more trees fell knocking out power in some areas and hitting homes. I know that a pine tree will fall if any strong tropical storm passes through. One person that had two trees hit his house during Katrina cut down three more that were threatening his house and some A-hole down the street reported him so he was fined 500 per tree. I want to thank everyone on this board for their advice and support. I hope the guy that came by today can do it and if not that is the end of my quest for an upgrade. At least until the next good storm comes through.
Thank you again uboatcmdr.You are most welcome, I just wished I could have helped you more. As for your neighbor who got fined by the HOA, I'm sure that if he (or anyone) fought it and took the HOA to court the fine would be ruled unenforceable. The mere fact that two trees fell on the home and that three others were in threat of causing damage negates the HOA's rule on cutting trees unless of course the HOA wants to be responsible for any damages caused by trees which do damage to homes within their jurisdiction. No judge in his right mind would side with the HOA when it comes to something which is a potentail hazzard to the safety and welfare of the public in general (should have been a lawyer or a politician, shouldn't I?igator99 said:Hey uboatcmdr. I don't have to take pictures. I would say 1 in every 8 homes had a tree in it after Katrina in this subdivision. A good storm passed through last night and more trees fell knocking out power in some areas and hitting homes. I know that a pine tree will fall if any strong tropical storm passes through. One person that had two trees hit his house during Katrina cut down three more that were threatening his house and some A-hole down the street reported him so he was fined 500 per tree. I want to thank everyone on this board for their advice and support. I hope the guy that came by today can do it and if not that is the end of my quest for an upgrade. At least until the next good storm comes through.
).wobbie said:
Well D* sent five techs to my house. Four young kids that took one look and split. One older tech that told me he could hit it in my front yard and he would be out with the tech to supervize things and never showed. The E* guy walked around my front and back yard and thought he might be able to hit the sats with one dish and a stronger pole. He said he could do it with two dishs but he feared I would eventually have trouble with a tree and he didn't want to do an install only to have branches knocking the signal out with a good wind. He spent a little over 30 minutes which is longer than all of the D* combined. I may never see this guy again (sorry but my trust is low) and in the end it might be impossible but at least the guy tried.
wobbie said:
I do have his number. He told me to keep the account open and he would be back 8/3. Why would he do this other than he is doing his best to get me the signals? I did offer him 100 extra and he simply said he didn't have a pole long enough with him. He said he originally thought he could get on the roof to adjust the dish with my current pole. He seemed like he really wanted to do it but he didn't have the equipment and told me he would be back. Would he have another reason for me to keep my account open? Did Dish pay for him to come out (it is a two hour drive for him)? Should I call him and offer him a little more money?
I would say he told you to leave the work order open due to the fact that if you close it and want to open another then Dish will run another credit check or the fact that when he does return... and hopefully he does... and you have closed the work order, then he will not be able to do the install. I see no other alternative motive... again.. my oppinion... for him to have the work ordser left open. As far as the 2 hour drive, if he is with DNSC he is getting paid by the hour.. if he is with a R.S.P. ( Regional Service Providor) he probably got paid a trip charge. Either way, I would suspect he had one or two ther installs in your area that day. As far as offering him more money.. if he did'nt react negatively to your offer of $100 then I would say he is sincere about doing the job for you. In the mean time.... if I were you.... again... just my oppinion... I would call him a few dyas or so in advance of 8/3 to confirm with him that he will be coming back and doing the work. I would also ask him if he could call you the night before the install and give you an E.T.A. If you feel comfortable with offering him more money, I would wait until the job is completed and up to your satisfaction, then I would "TIP" him accordingly.... Again.. just my oppinion. Heck..... we all tip the pizza guys a few dollarsjust for parking in the drive... leaving oil stains and walking to our door. I see nothing wrong with tipping a guy that does quality work on what we consider our BIGGEST investment.. our home. Keep us posted.. Okay??
wobbie said:
I really trust this guy that he will do it if possible with a good signal. I thought it was strange to keep an account open but it makes sense if he thinks he can get it done. I just have a bad habit of trusting a lot of people that end up well you know. I will call him this week and confirm he will be coming out and getting and ETA. I have no problem tipping anyone that goes above and beyond the call of duty. From my experience with installers just the fact he spent 30 minutes looking things over tells me he will try and if successful why not a tip? Thanks again for the advice.
I'm dead.
The last installer called me and told me he didn't think he could get a strong enough signal on the HD sat. I trust his opinion because he took the longest of all the techs walking around my house. I guess eventually I will lose my DirecTV signal. Thanks to everyone that gave me advice.
The last installer called me and told me he didn't think he could get a strong enough signal on the HD sat. I trust his opinion because he took the longest of all the techs walking around my house. I guess eventually I will lose my DirecTV signal. Thanks to everyone that gave me advice.
What exactly is "the HD sat"? There is more than one; There is HD on a total of 5 DirecTV satellites; so depending on your HD LIL situation and you can get HD from 4 satellites. If you have no HD LIL, then you can get HD on 3 sats.
If you can hit one or two sats you should be able to get what you need from the rest. What sats are you hitting now? Sounds like a dish that needs to be moved to a better mount location. Any pics?
If you can hit one or two sats you should be able to get what you need from the rest. What sats are you hitting now? Sounds like a dish that needs to be moved to a better mount location. Any pics?
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