Dish for Tailgating Help

[TomD]

I did some searching on this forum, but didn't find anything regarding the following problem.

I got hold of a Dish 300 and legacy LNB from an installer friend of mine. I wanted to use that setup with a tripod and my 301.

I followed instructions from an earlier post and removed the satellite input from my 301 and ran a check switch to put it into legacy mode. I then hooked the 301 up to my satellite dish with the legacy input and ran a check switch. I was not able to get the receiver to read the LNB.

I then took a Dish Pro LNB off of my dish pointed at 148 and hooked that up. The receiver recognized the LNB but I wasn't able to get it to see all the transponders, two of which were, of course 4 and 8 which have the ESPN stations. It did get some of the other even transponders, so it didn't seem to be an even/odd thing.

I then took of the Dish Pro LNB and reconnected the Legacy LNB, ran a check switch, and then the receiver actually recognized the Legacy LNB, and I got all the transponders and channels.

Anybody know why it wouldn't recognize the Legacy LNB right off the bat? I've actually done this procedure two different times and it worked out the exact same way.

Any help would be appreciated.

 

[dfergie]

I did some searching on this forum, but didn't find anything regarding the following problem.

I got hold of a Dish 300 and legacy LNB from an installer friend of mine. I wanted to use that setup with a tripod and my 301.

I followed instructions from an earlier post and removed the satellite input from my 301 and ran a check switch to put it into legacy mode. I then hooked the 301 up to my satellite dish with the legacy input and ran a check switch. I was not able to get the receiver to read the LNB.

Find a Satellite first, then do the switch check...

I then took a Dish Pro LNB off of my dish pointed at 148 and hooked that up. The receiver recognized the LNB but I wasn't able to get it to see all the transponders, two of which were, of course 4 and 8 which have the ESPN stations. It did get some of the other even transponders, so it didn't seem to be an even/odd thing.

I then took of the Dish Pro LNB and reconnected the Legacy LNB, ran a check switch, and then the receiver actually recognized the Legacy LNB, and I got all the transponders and channels.

Anybody know why it wouldn't recognize the Legacy LNB right off the bat? I've actually done this procedure two different times and it worked out the exact same way.

Any help would be appreciated.

 

[SimpleSimon]

I was not able to get the receiver to read the (Legacy) LNB.

That is correct. Legacy LNBs do NOT report their type (they are not DiSeqc compatible).

A receiver recognizes the type of Legacy gear by sending LNB & Switch specific commands (typically 38 or 50 of them) and seeing what happens to the signal. If there's no signal, the receiver can't figure out what it's got.

When you run a Check Switch, you immediately discover if the box has detected DishPro gear or not. If the screen shows test "1 of x" where X is 38 or more, it's looking for Legacy gear. If it's 2,3, or 4, it's DishPro. Note that we might see higher numbers as new DP gear appears.

Now, I'm going to go from memory. 2 tests is a DP Single or Dual, 3 is a DP-Twin or DP34, 4 is a DPP-Twin, DPP44, or cascaded DP34/DP21.

 

[HokieEngineer]

Make sure your tripod is leveled. Not sure why you werent getting those two specific transponders. I've tailgated a bunch, we had a dish300, legacy lnb, and 2800. First step is leveling the tripod with some wood blocks. Use a compass to find where you need to point, or you can just tell your friends you can "see" the satellite in the sky and point it from experience .

Last week was our first time trying a dish500 at the tailgate. Of course it was cloudy too so I couldn't use the sun as a reference point. It took a little longer, but we ended up getting it.

Also, make sure you mark the dish with some yellow tape or something. I cant tell you how many times someone has almost bumped into ours!