After doing a self install of Dish 500 Dual Pro Twin LNB, thought this might help someone doing same in regard to pointing the dish.
Dish pointing instructions in installation manual proved to be about as useless as Dish Network tech support when I called for help. Followed installation instructions to the letter and got sat 119 and 129. Supposed to get sat 110 instead of 129. Never could get sat 110 following instructions. After doing some research, found that dish generally points half way between sat 110 and 119 in both azimuth and elevation.
After spending a few hours trying to point dish by following instructions in manual, had both sat 110 and 119 tuned to excellent signal strength in about 10 minutes with following method:
1. Be sure dish mounting post is perpendicular in all directions and you have clear view in recommended azimuth bearing for your area.
2. Find proper dish pointing azimuth and elevation for your area for sat 110 for a ROUND satellite dish. This can be found on Dish Network website or by using receiver and selecting the Dish 300 system instead of the Dish 500 system for dish pointng settings.
3. Set the elevation to the recommended angle for the 110 sat and round dish. Set the skew to 90 degrees.
4. Point the dish to the recommended azimuth bearing for the 110 sat and round dish.
5. You should have a signal from the 110 satellite. If not, turn the satellite dish right or left about 1 degree and wait about 5 seconds to see if you get signal. If not, rotate dish another degree in same direction. Repeat until you receive signal or move the dish at most 5 degrees. If still no signal. return dish to original pointing azimuth and turn in 1 degree increments in opposite direction for up to about 5 degrees. If you haven't received a 110 satellite signal by now, you either didn't point to the correct starting azimuth or the elevation angle is incorrect. Check these settings and repeat. Note: If you put a mark on the mounting post and post clamp, you can better keep track of where you started and how far you have rotated the dish.
6. Once you get sat 110 signal, fine tune it to the strongest signal possible by adjusting the azimuth first, then the elevation. Make very small movements of the dish when doing this fine tuning.
7. Once you have the strongest 110 signal possible, snug one of the post clamp bolts so the dish doesn't move. Put a mark on the mounting post and the clamp so you can return to this position if necessary. Sometimes when you tighten the post clamp bolts, the dish rotates slightly and signal strenth will change. That's okay for now because you will be changing the azimuth in following steps anyway.
8. Loosen the skew bolts and rotate the dish to the skew setting recommended for your area and tighten so dish doesn't move.
9. Loosen the elevation bolts and LOWER the elevation 3 degrees and tighten bolts.
10. Loosen the post clamp bolt and rotate the dish to the west 4 degrees (if you are behind the dish, rotating it to the right is turning it west).
11. You should have good signal from both the 110 and 119 satellites. You can fine tune the signal by making slight adjustments to azimuth, elevation, and skew (I found the skew had much less impact on signal strength than the other two settings). If you don't get both 110 and 119 sats, rotate the dish azimuth back to the starting mark you made for the 110 sat and move the dish in 1 degree increments to the west until you get sat 119. If you rotate the dish 10 degrees and don't get a 119 signal, return to the starting mark for the 110 sat, lower elevation 1 degree then rotate dish to west again in 1 degree increments. You should eventually get the 119 sat.
For dish pointing purposes, the 119 sat is to the west and lower in elevation setting from the 110 sat. Therefore, once you tune in the 110 sat, never increase elevation or rotate the dish to the east to acquire the 119 sat.
Important note: When adjusting for satellite signal, be sure the transponder number you use is an active one. I found that transponder 15 worked for obtaining signal on both 110 and 119 satellites.
One other problem I encountered involved the satellite receiver. If you ran the check test and didn't get the the proper satellites or only one satellite, it seemed to lock in and receiver wouldn't indicate signal from another satellite even if the dish was pointed correctly. I disconnected the the sat in cable from the receiver, ran the check test to "clear" the system (so it didn't recognize any satellites), reconnected the cable, and ran check test again. When the menu screen asks, be sure to save the current test or it retains the settings from previous test.
So if the installation instructions fail for you and tech support keeps telling you to call an installation technician, try this. Hope it works for you like it did for me.
Dish pointing instructions in installation manual proved to be about as useless as Dish Network tech support when I called for help. Followed installation instructions to the letter and got sat 119 and 129. Supposed to get sat 110 instead of 129. Never could get sat 110 following instructions. After doing some research, found that dish generally points half way between sat 110 and 119 in both azimuth and elevation.
After spending a few hours trying to point dish by following instructions in manual, had both sat 110 and 119 tuned to excellent signal strength in about 10 minutes with following method:
1. Be sure dish mounting post is perpendicular in all directions and you have clear view in recommended azimuth bearing for your area.
2. Find proper dish pointing azimuth and elevation for your area for sat 110 for a ROUND satellite dish. This can be found on Dish Network website or by using receiver and selecting the Dish 300 system instead of the Dish 500 system for dish pointng settings.
3. Set the elevation to the recommended angle for the 110 sat and round dish. Set the skew to 90 degrees.
4. Point the dish to the recommended azimuth bearing for the 110 sat and round dish.
5. You should have a signal from the 110 satellite. If not, turn the satellite dish right or left about 1 degree and wait about 5 seconds to see if you get signal. If not, rotate dish another degree in same direction. Repeat until you receive signal or move the dish at most 5 degrees. If still no signal. return dish to original pointing azimuth and turn in 1 degree increments in opposite direction for up to about 5 degrees. If you haven't received a 110 satellite signal by now, you either didn't point to the correct starting azimuth or the elevation angle is incorrect. Check these settings and repeat. Note: If you put a mark on the mounting post and post clamp, you can better keep track of where you started and how far you have rotated the dish.
6. Once you get sat 110 signal, fine tune it to the strongest signal possible by adjusting the azimuth first, then the elevation. Make very small movements of the dish when doing this fine tuning.
7. Once you have the strongest 110 signal possible, snug one of the post clamp bolts so the dish doesn't move. Put a mark on the mounting post and the clamp so you can return to this position if necessary. Sometimes when you tighten the post clamp bolts, the dish rotates slightly and signal strenth will change. That's okay for now because you will be changing the azimuth in following steps anyway.
8. Loosen the skew bolts and rotate the dish to the skew setting recommended for your area and tighten so dish doesn't move.
9. Loosen the elevation bolts and LOWER the elevation 3 degrees and tighten bolts.
10. Loosen the post clamp bolt and rotate the dish to the west 4 degrees (if you are behind the dish, rotating it to the right is turning it west).
11. You should have good signal from both the 110 and 119 satellites. You can fine tune the signal by making slight adjustments to azimuth, elevation, and skew (I found the skew had much less impact on signal strength than the other two settings). If you don't get both 110 and 119 sats, rotate the dish azimuth back to the starting mark you made for the 110 sat and move the dish in 1 degree increments to the west until you get sat 119. If you rotate the dish 10 degrees and don't get a 119 signal, return to the starting mark for the 110 sat, lower elevation 1 degree then rotate dish to west again in 1 degree increments. You should eventually get the 119 sat.
For dish pointing purposes, the 119 sat is to the west and lower in elevation setting from the 110 sat. Therefore, once you tune in the 110 sat, never increase elevation or rotate the dish to the east to acquire the 119 sat.
Important note: When adjusting for satellite signal, be sure the transponder number you use is an active one. I found that transponder 15 worked for obtaining signal on both 110 and 119 satellites.
One other problem I encountered involved the satellite receiver. If you ran the check test and didn't get the the proper satellites or only one satellite, it seemed to lock in and receiver wouldn't indicate signal from another satellite even if the dish was pointed correctly. I disconnected the the sat in cable from the receiver, ran the check test to "clear" the system (so it didn't recognize any satellites), reconnected the cable, and ran check test again. When the menu screen asks, be sure to save the current test or it retains the settings from previous test.
So if the installation instructions fail for you and tech support keeps telling you to call an installation technician, try this. Hope it works for you like it did for me.
