I have aligned a DTV dish for a guy and it seems to work fine. I just can't get past one little thing. He had a 3LNB setup that was set for 40 degrees elevation and 70 degrees skew (of which, is what it is suppose to be in this area). I put up the new 5LNB dish and able to get it dialed in fine but the dish shows it being lined up 22 degrees elevation. When I hold the old dish next to the new one, it seems to be the same. When I dial in the new dish at the supposedly correct 40 degrees, it points way high into the sky. Are the new slimline dishes different in the fact the the degrees scale needs to be multiplied by 2 or something. Thanks, in advance for any help on this.
DirecTV Alignment problems
- Thread starter Ratchet442
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no, they are not any different. are you sure your mast is level and plumb? If not this will throw your elevation off.
it is not dead level plumb, but the buble is well within the circle. I'd guess it at 98% plumb. It's just a butthair off. I didn't think that it was enough to make up for about 20 degrees.
I mean this thing is evident. the old dish at 40 degrees looks nothing like the new dish at 40 degrees. They are pointing at 2 totally different elevations. Its like the degree stamping was done wrong. you can almost set a can of pepsi in the new dish set at 40 degrees. The dish is supposed to be set at 40 degrees and the actual working old dish was set at 44 degrees. The new is working and set at 22 degrees. Hence the theory behind the scale being a multiplication of 2.
I've recently experienced the same sort of this with a Slimline5. Putting one on the roof because of tree issues. The one on the ground is EL 38 and Tilt 64. On the roof the EL is 40 (not that big of a difference) and the Tilt is 70. I am surprised that the Tilt is so different. Both masts are plumb.
Satellite Finder / Dish Pointing Calculator with Google Maps | DishPointer.com will tell you how to set a Ka/Ku 5 LNB
The older Phase III 3LNB dish centered on the 110 satellite.
The Slimline 5LNB/3LNB is centered on 101.
Therefore, the alignment parameters will be different.
The Slimline 5LNB/3LNB is centered on 101.
Therefore, the alignment parameters will be different.
Ok, I'm thinking that I didn't express myself properly. Let me start over here for a second. Regardless of whether the satellite dishes work and regardless of what elevation they are supposed to be at. If I set both the 3LNB dish and the 5LNB at 40degrees elevation, per the scale on the side of the dish, they are not even anywhere close to the same elevation of one another. I was just wondering as to why this is.
Yes the dish works properly. Thats not the point though. I'm trying to figure what the difference is in the dishes are so that when I do the next one I'm not sitting pondering the heck out of it for 2 hours like last time. Was it intended to be stamped that way? was it stamped wrong? Has someone run into this before and oh yeah by the way that happens sometimes? Just trying to get a grip on the huge difference between the 2 dishes that I was led to believe, are the same setup other than LNB's.
Around here, you set up a phase 3 at 64 degree tilt, and a slimline3 at 72 degrees.
Maybe his case he had some bad gear, but just to say there isn't a difference is just simply not that case.
Maybe his case he had some bad gear, but just to say there isn't a difference is just simply not that case.
Perhaps it has to do with the size of the dish and the length of the lnb arm. That would change the needed elevation, therefore different numbers.
Here's a follow up. I have been able to get my hands on the same type of dish setup but at another location for the same customer. The Receiver, once you enter in the type of equipment, tells you 40degrees of elevation. This particular 2nd dish was installed by a DirecTV Dealer and not very well but was set at the same 22 degrees of elevation. I re-aligned the dish and again the elevation was about 22 degrees. I have 95% or better on the receiver signal meter for the 101, 110, 119, 99 and 103 satellites. So I am to assume the either the specified degrees of elevation on the receiver is wrong. Or, the 5LNB satellites are being stamped wrong. Either way I now know to start with the Specified Elevation and multiple times .55 to get a rough starting point for the correct elevation.
Just for grins, I checked on dishpointer.com and entered my zipcode.
Here's the results for the Slimline dish.
Elevation: 35.0
Azimuth (true/mag): 214.9/227.4
Skew: 64.9
For the Phase III:
Elevation: 30.4
Azimuth (true/mag): 225.2/237.7
Skew: 58.2
Not a big difference in values for skew and elevation, but visually could look quite different. Especially due to the difference in sizes.
Here's the results for the Slimline dish.
Elevation: 35.0
Azimuth (true/mag): 214.9/227.4
Skew: 64.9
For the Phase III:
Elevation: 30.4
Azimuth (true/mag): 225.2/237.7
Skew: 58.2
Not a big difference in values for skew and elevation, but visually could look quite different. Especially due to the difference in sizes.
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