Dish 500 plus down

[botman]

Hi first post!

I have a dish 500 plus with (2) 322 sat recievers) running 4 tvs
everything worked great for about 14 months lately about the last 2 weeks
on and off "not all the time" I would be losing then aquiring the sat signal

I watched tv last night everything seemed fine, when somone went to watch this evening I could not get a signal on either 322 reciever's I ran a point test and a switch test
"One reciever displayed a incorrect input connection or swich problem message" the other reciever never gets that far basicly feed errors

During the inspection I went up on the ladder looking for a swich I could not see one inside the house, only things that read separaters going into the recievers, but what I noticed was the ground wire thats part of the two line feed common out of the dish was hanging just cut. and by the ground the other side of that ground. My ladder was a little to short to reach the dish but I seen two screwss half way in the lnb or somthing, is the switch located in that?

I called Dish and have a tech comming out in about a week thats a long time for my family to go without tv, Now I'm going to pick up a proper size ladder could it be a loose connection in ther you think or any advice what to look for
the Dish is very clean and the reciever connections have always been the same
and worked

Thanks really need some help on this if posible

Ed

 

[RandallA]

The D500+ has a built in switch feeding your 2 322s receivers, so no need to look for a switch.

What are your signal strength on the two receivers? Menu, 6, 1, 1. Report SS on 119 and 110 TP11 on both. Also go to 118.7 and report a few of the TPs. That will give us an idea if the dish was moved or not.

The two screws that you saw are holding the LNB, you just remove those and pull out the LNB. Then you can check the connectors.

 

[botman]

The D500+ has a built in switch feeding your 2 322s receivers, so no need to look for a switch.

What are your signal strength on the two receivers? Menu, 6, 1, 1. Report SS on 119 and 110 TP11 on both. Also go to 118.7 and report a few of the TPs. That will give us an idea if the dish was moved or not.

The two screws that you saw are holding the LNB, you just remove those and pull out the LNB. Then you can check the connectors.

strenth is 64 63 back and forth like
sat 119
transporter15
turner input 02
sDish ystem 500
My correct zip

Not sure about that other stuff don't know where that is

Thanks a ton for helping

Ed

PS when testing sat 110
it says wrong sat and is red same 63-64 ss

 

[RandallA]

64 for transponder 15 on 119? That's very low. You can use the remote to move to the satellite field and then go up and down to select 110 and 118.7. You could do the same for the transponders. Just use the remote to move to the left or right and then up and down for the TPs.

If it's 64 on 119 your dish moved or you have bad connectors. Give us the readings for 110 and 118.7 just to confirm but it looks like the dish moved.

BTW, what's your location? What locals do you get? I just want to check what TP you need to check for your locals.

 

[botman]

64 for transponder 15 on 119? That's very low. You can use the remote to move to the satellite field and then go up and down to select 110 and 118.7. You could do the same for the transponders. Just use the remote to move to the left or right and then up and down for the TPs.

If it's 64 on 119 your dish moved or you have bad connectors. Give us the readings for 110 and 118.7 just to confirm but it looks like the dish moved.

BTW, what's your location? What locals do you get? I just want to check what TP you need to check for your locals.

there is no 118.7 JUST 118 and its reading O
New Jersey ch 2 4 5 7 11
110 is about the same ss as 119

Thanks

Update

I can get up near the Dish to touch it and look around prety good
it appears mounted solid but not enough to safely unscreww that LNB
and check the connections, and sence he never tightend them
"Its a good bet there not treaded right as well"


if that SAT moved I don't know how?
the ajustment slot seems to be in the same spot as installed
it has a indented crease where the nut is and the dish seems mounted solid

It just went up to 77 ss and I tried to get a sat signal but
I JUST GOT A PROBLEM HAS BEEN DETECTED WITH YOUR SWICTH MESSAGE

 

[dishcomm]

Hi first post!

I have a dish 500 plus with (2) 322 sat recievers) running 4 tvs
everything worked great for about 14 months lately about the last 2 weeks
on and off "not all the time" I would be losing then aquiring the sat signal

I watched tv last night everything seemed fine, when somone went to watch this evening I could not get a signal on either 322 reciever's I ran a point test and a switch test
"One reciever displayed a incorrect input connection or swich problem message" the other reciever never gets that far basicly feed errors

During the inspection I went up on the ladder looking for a swich I could not see one inside the house, only things that read separaters going into the recievers, but what I noticed was the ground wire thats part of the two line feed common out of the dish was hanging just cut. and by the ground the other side of that ground. My ladder was a little to short to reach the dish but I seen two screwss half way in the lnb or somthing, is the switch located in that?

I called Dish and have a tech comming out in about a week thats a long time for my family to go without tv, Now I'm going to pick up a proper size ladder could it be a loose connection in ther you think or any advice what to look for
the Dish is very clean and the reciever connections have always been the same
and worked

Thanks really need some help on this if posible

Ed

You have a Dish 500 not a Dish 500 plus...The Dish 500 plus is roughly 30" wide by 23 in high..The Dish 500 is 20" in diameter....The two satellite orbital alots you should be seeing on your point dish screen are 110 and 119...There is no external switch..The switching process is inside the LNB which is marked "Dish Pro Plus"...
Now, with those weak sigs there could be any num,ber of things wrong....Misaligned dish, trees or other obstructions in line with the direction the dish is "looking", bad LNB, bad ground(unlikely) bad receiver or bad grounding block...Sounds to me like the dish is misalgned or the LNB is bad....
OK... I impolore you,....DO NOT attempt ot fix this yourself..DO NOT put yourself at risk by attempting to get to the dish..That is what we get paid for..I am sorry you have to wait a week for service..But TV is not that important that you should be climibing out onto a roof and endangering yourself..And tampering with the equipment can be construed as voiding your waranty..Get some good books to read or find another activity..Please let the pros handle this...

 

[RandallA]

If you can't reach the dish safely, then just wait until the tech. shows up. We could tell you how to adjust the dish but if you're not getting there safely might as well wait.

Like dishcomm said, you have a D500. One thing to try since you can touch the LNB is to push the dish gently on one side first and then the other side and have someone tell you if the SS goes up. If it goes up then you know the dish needs to re-aligned.

 

[botman]

It says dish network plus on it

I'll tell you I'm not a satelite dish fan any more
one moment everything workings the next your TV out for a week
"Its most likely a loose connection, and if not its that lnb with built in switch" for sure and he'll probaly swop that in less then a minute and play around for an hour insulting my intelligence
our contract is up in about 3 months In a way this might be a blessing this happened, now then later, I also have a plan but its still going to cost
30.00, If the cable company around here is even in the range of dish I'm gone ASAP I'm certainly not going to jump to direct tv for more of the same

Dish better crack the wip
and that post about dish cracking down on installs I read before
this guy probaly cost them me as a customer

they lost about 50+ a month for 18 months do the math
they got me for about 2 or 4 more months but I will drop to basic low low basic tommorrow I don't even think I will waste the money to have them even reapir the other guys work might nail me for even recievers and who knows what DO NOT GET THAT PROTECTION PLAN IT IS A SCAM


Believe I'm no defender of cable thats why I let them drill into my roof
I begede to do that myself but it was a warrantee thing, tell now what warrantee was ther anyway in the end?

at least with cable if the cable line's not carrying anything in, they get right on it
because its not just me it's probaly the block as well

Not to mention feeding tvs with cable would be 1000 easier
remenber I pay extra for recievers for those tvs

Watch don't get hurt
PS I have been a general contrator and roofer for years before turning to the easy life of websites I'm going to get back into it fully this spring and just do both, not haveing the proper ladder was an embasrasment to me


Let the pros do it right
That guy that installed my dish, was a real pro I see uh!
can you imagine what would have happened if lightning hit a
ungrounded dish? he could have just drove a stake in the ground.

 

[botman]

If you can't reach the dish safely, then just wait until the tech. shows up. We could tell you how to adjust the dish but if you're not getting there safely might as well wait.

Like dishcomm said, you have a D500. One thing to try since you can touch the LNB is to push the dish gently on one side first and then the other side and have someone tell you if the SS goes up. If it goes up then you know the dish needs to re-aligned.

That is very smart thinking
I will try that tomorrow, I can't wait to see if the connections are all tight
and also do what you described, if nothing works I will just order a lnb onine
its just alittle more then the service call would have been which should be free anyway

Thanks

Ed

 

[Jared Twomey]

Let the pros do it right
That guy that installed my dish, was a real pro I see uh!
can you imagine what would have happened if lightning hit a
ungrounded dish? he could have just drove a stake in the ground.

While he should technically have grounded it... if it got hit by lightening that little ground wire wouldn't have done much at all. It would have smoked it as well as the coax on the way down. And no, he couldn't have drove a stake in the ground, that is a violation of NEC grounding code. If he did use a stake he would have had to daisy chain a couple stakes back to the house ground.

I'm sorry you are having issues. Unfortunately a lot of installers and companys take forever to do service work. Installs get more priority a lot of times cause they pay better. This is why I deal with local guys that I can go down and yell at if they aren't taking care of the problem.

 

[RandallA]

If it says D500+, then it's a 500+. But why would he put a 500+? Are you subscribing to any International channels?

This is what's on 118.7:
http://ekb.dbstalk.com/118list.htm

Regardless, try one of these TPs for 118. Tp 17, 14, 23, or 18 and see if you get anything. I still believe the dish needs to be repeaked.

 

[rcdallas]

" My ladder was a little to short to reach the dish but I seen two screwss half way in the lnb or somthing, is the switch located in that?"

He is describing a Dish 500 with a DPP Lnb. He was saying Plus because it says plus on it. It's 14 months old, Plus dishes werent around back then.

Ed,

It sounds to me like you have a pretty hacked up install. Can you post some pictures of what you have over there?

DISH Network is pretty reliable, provided you have a well located dish, a solid mount, and good cable. You just have a cheesy easy install, that could be very well pointed into a tree, or even just loose connections.

Cable Company can have issues of their own. I work in alot of areas where they won't bother to upgrade their aging aluminum hard line that is RF leak city, all kinds of fun with the ghosting, horrible pictures on the low channels, etc. Some cable operators could care less if you have a fuzzy picture and it affects the whole block... that's one nice thing about DBS, your isolated and you might be able to fix it yourself.

 

[RandallA]

"He is describing a Dish 500 with a DPP Lnb. He was saying Plus because it says plus on it. It's 14 months old, Plus dishes werent around back then."

Good catch rcdallas. Thanks.

 

[botman]

While he should technically have grounded it... if it got hit by lightening that little ground wire wouldn't have done much at all. It would have smoked it as well as the coax on the way down. And no, he couldn't have drove a stake in the ground, that is a violation of NEC grounding code. If he did use a stake he would have had to daisy chain a couple stakes back to the house ground.

I'm sorry you are having issues. Unfortunately a lot of installers and companys take forever to do service work. Installs get more priority a lot of times cause they pay better. This is why I deal with local guys that I can go down and yell at if they aren't taking care of the problem.

-----------

That makes sense having somone local to talk to, I'll look onto that when our contract is up Thanks

PS isn't is totally against code to have "no ground at all"
if it doesn't do much why does the code require it,
because I don't see any other logical reason for it
other then lightning,

 

[botman]

" My ladder was a little to short to reach the dish but I seen two screwss half way in the lnb or somthing, is the switch located in that?"

He is describing a Dish 500 with a DPP Lnb. He was saying Plus because it says plus on it. It's 14 months old, Plus dishes werent around back then.

Ed,

It sounds to me like you have a pretty hacked up install. Can you post some pictures of what you have over there?

DISH Network is pretty reliable, provided you have a well located dish, a solid mount, and good cable. You just have a cheesy easy install, that could be very well pointed into a tree, or even just loose connections.

Cable Company can have issues of their own. I work in alot of areas where they won't bother to upgrade their aging aluminum hard line that is RF leak city, all kinds of fun with the ghosting, horrible pictures on the low channels, etc. Some cable operators could care less if you have a fuzzy picture and it affects the whole block... that's one nice thing about DBS, your isolated and you might be able to fix it yourself.

-------------

I'm in a area where cable is all around me, thats not a problam
and I don't think they could get away with a fuzzy picture for long
plus out in the country where dish is the only game in time
look at the surcharges added to service compared to the city
But thats somthing else for another time

I explained to the CS rep the install was done bad, she replied no install would come out that fast or want to for any type correction job THAT IS THE TRUTH I SWEAR

there should be no charge for a botched job or general mantence call
the cable company, phone and electric company's etc invest tons of money in on the ground man power why not the sats simple because they can get away with it

you tyhink throwing those sats in the sky cost more then man power
local utilitys pay out?

Its nothing more then a cash cow for the sat ceo's thats all
screw the customer, pretty soon well start having a race to the bottom
in all utilitys as well you can see it happening already with the phone

 

[botman]

Just as I was about to log off I just thought of somthing odd about this install The elevation and skew are meant as excellent starting points based on your zip and in most cases need to be slightly peaked right? They are set on exactly what the reciver reads I don't think he bothered to fine turn anything and it worked for around 14 months a hair away from being off sat and finally with a breath went off signal

I never went into the signal info, never thought I had to
because I noticed a reciever can display a picture here with
a 65 70 ss ( granted for only a few minutes

this may be out of alignment

 

[Jared Twomey]

Just as I was about to log off I just thought of somthing odd about this install The elevation and skew are meant as excellent starting points based on your zip and in most cases need to be slightly peaked right? They are set on exactly what the reciver reads I don't think he bothered to fine turn anything and it worked for around 14 months a hair away from being off sat and finally with a breath went off signal

I never went into the signal info, never thought I had to
because I noticed a reciever can display a picture here with
a 65 70 ss ( granted for only a few minutes

this may be out of alignment

while the numbers that the receiver gives you technically is a starting point, normally you only move the dish maybe an 1/8" or so in either direction to "fine-tune" the dish. So just cause the dish is on the settings that the receivers says doesnt exactly mean he didnt line up the dish correctly. If i'm not mistaken, you earlier said you have had this system installed for 14 months without a problem, right? If the dish had not been properly lined up when the installer put it in, you would had have problems from day 1.

 

[botman]

while the numbers that the receiver gives you technically is a starting point, normally you only move the dish maybe an 1/8" or so in either direction to "fine-tune" the dish. So just cause the dish is on the settings that the receivers says doesnt exactly mean he didnt line up the dish correctly. If i'm not mistaken, you earlier said you have had this system installed for 14 months without a problem, right? If the dish had not been properly lined up when the installer put it in, you would had have problems from day 1.

while the numbers that the receiver gives you technically is a starting point, normally you only move the dish maybe an 1/8" or so in either direction to "fine-tune" the dish. So just cause the dish is on the settings that the receivers says doesnt exactly mean he didnt line up the dish correctly. If i'm not mistaken, you earlier said you have had this system installed for 14 months without a problem, right? If the dish had not been properly lined up when the installer put it in, you would had have problems from day 1.

-------------------------------------------------

I bet that dish never had a real good ss from day one, the fact that it produced a picture means nothing I just got one reciever working on about 70 ss transponder 21 and the picture is not bad I couldn't tell
Plus combined with screws half in and grounds hanging at both ends of the run
you tell me?

The other reciever says there was a problem detected with your swich
then yestreday the other worked at times and this one said that, its that lnb with built in swich if the screws were half in, moisture or water could have found its way in and recked havoc, I would also think not having a ground wasn't helpful any way you look at it it was not ideal setting for that swich


For the record the Dish just says "Dish Network 500" on it
the lnb has the word Plus on it

I ordered that lnb, and will see what happends, the good part is it appears the az seems close enough to leave it were it is, because it did work before and I do not want another hole in my roof I'm just trying to hang on till the contracts up, I'll round a new line in and use that grounding block this time

I have a small bw tv Ill use outside with me to get the ss high as possible

and as far as the elevation and skew settings yeh that would be really easy
to just put the dish together on the ground and set those to the scale
thats what I'm sure he just did. then mount and throw the lnb in any old why and go

 

[papalittle]

you seem to have convinced yourself that it was a botched install but i do not really believe that since it worked for 14 months from day one. there are many things that can cause problems that are not fault if the installer. things i have found are bad cables from manufacturer, bad lnbs especially ones made in tiwain, dish warpage from the sun or ice or high winds. trees whose limbs have grown into the LOS. there are many reasons for signal lose. before jumping into conclusions that you had a bad install wait for the tech to come and fix it.

 

[dishcomm]

It says dish network plus on it

I'll tell you I'm not a satelite dish fan any more
one moment everything workings the next your TV out for a week
"Its most likely a loose connection, and if not its that lnb with built in switch" for sure and he'll probaly swop that in less then a minute and play around for an hour insulting my intelligence
our contract is up in about 3 months In a way this might be a blessing this happened, now then later, I also have a plan but its still going to cost
30.00, If the cable company around here is even in the range of dish I'm gone ASAP I'm certainly not going to jump to direct tv for more of the same

Dish better crack the wip
and that post about dish cracking down on installs I read before
this guy probaly cost them me as a customer

they lost about 50+ a month for 18 months do the math
they got me for about 2 or 4 more months but I will drop to basic low low basic tommorrow I don't even think I will waste the money to have them even reapir the other guys work might nail me for even recievers and who knows what DO NOT GET THAT PROTECTION PLAN IT IS A SCAM


Believe I'm no defender of cable thats why I let them drill into my roof
I begede to do that myself but it was a warrantee thing, tell now what warrantee was ther anyway in the end?

at least with cable if the cable line's not carrying anything in, they get right on it
because its not just me it's probaly the block as well

Not to mention feeding tvs with cable would be 1000 easier
remenber I pay extra for recievers for those tvs

Watch don't get hurt
PS I have been a general contrator and roofer for years before turning to the easy life of websites I'm going to get back into it fully this spring and just do both, not haveing the proper ladder was an embasrasment to me


Let the pros do it right
That guy that installed my dish, was a real pro I see uh!
can you imagine what would have happened if lightning hit a
ungrounded dish? he could have just drove a stake in the ground.[/QU
"he'll probaly swop that in less then a minute and play around for an hour insulting my intelligence"
What the hell is this supposed to mean?..Are you implying that the tech that fixes the problem quickly has to spend an hour or so sitting around doing nothing so you get the perception he's what, kissed you ass?
Ya know what, when people like you drop satellite and go to cable or rabbit ears, I am glad..I don't want your money..
By the way, your command of the English language is astounding.