Dish mounting arm too short?

[Overthehillguy]

I just switched from Direct TV and the installer removed the Direct satellite dish and mounted the new Dish satellite in the same location on the side of the house. After it was installed, he said he couldn't get a clear signal because part of the satellite dish was being blocked by the roof's 1 foot eave overhang. He said it had to be moved to another location, so he bolted it to the balcony rail right outside my upstairs master bedroom sliding door, where it looks very out of place. He also said that the RG6 cable that I had throughout the house wasn't good anymore because it wouldn't process the HD signal to the Hopper properly (even though I was getting HD with Direct TV with no problem) so he ended up putting the Hopper in the upstairs bedroom rather than in the den downstairs where I wanted it, and hooked it to a few feet of new "upgraded" cable. He then put the Joeys in the downstairs den and the other bedroom, and connected them to my existing RG 6 cable which he said was OK to do.

I had a friend come by today who is very knowledgeable about DISH satellite (he's the one who told me about this site), and he says that I should call them back out and have them do the installation right. He said that they used too short of a mounting arm, and he showed me just how short it was when he compared to the mounting pole on the Direct satellite dish that they took down. He also went home and got a longer mounting arm that he says Dish uses on many of their HD satellite dishes and compared it to the one the installer used. While the dimension on the tube was the same, the length of the arm looked about 3 or 4 inches longer, which he said would make the satellite dish protrude further away from the house thus clearing the eaves. He also questions the cable story because he has a hopper and 3 joey's that use RG6 cabel and said he get a great HD picture on his TV's.

Although he's willing to let me have the longer arm if dish doesn't want to relocate the satellite dish, he says that dish should move it because I could mess things up if I let my son do it. He said if dish refuses to come out that I should ask to speak to a supervisor. I guess the questions I have is did the installer not have a longer arm with him so decided to use the shorter one because he didn't want to reschedule another visit, and is he right about the cable being the reason he had to install the Hopper in the master bedroom? Any suggestions on how I can resolve this problem, or just do as my friend suggests?

 

[garys]

The arm on the dish are different between Direct and Dish but there are not different length arms for Dish's dish (unless your friend is referring to the mounting arm). Also, the sats for Direct and Dish are at a different locations so the installer may be correct that Dish's dish would not work at the Direct tv location. The technology is also different between Dish and Direct as well so it is also possible that the RG-6 cable may have need to be replaced due to you getting a Hopper/Joey system. It is also possible your friend is correct as well and the installer didn't do the install correctly. If Dish installed your system, another tech should have come out a couple of days within the initial install to inspect the job which leads me to believe an independent contractor did the job. In either case you would indeed want a Supervisor to come out to inspect the job and have it redone. You do have a couple of weeks to have it corrected and you should not be charged to have it done.

 

[agentc13]

A Hopper/Joey installation calls for 3ghz RG6 to the Hopper. The Joey's don't require that (they can even be RG59).

There is a longer mast arm which is made for a 500+/1000+ dish. It isn't always on the vans and isn't something that will necessarily give you LOS from the previous location, but it's possible. The mast is made for the dish that gets international programming. (500+/1000+).

It sounds to me like the installer did things right although not exactly like you wanted. Your friend while knowledgeable is incorrect for at least parts of what they say. A Hopper will usually work fine on RG6 not rated to 3ghz, but Dish requires it for installation.

 

[sethwell]

The RG-6 cable may have needed to be replaced because the hopper requires RG-6 3GHz rated cable between it and the node. The Joeys don't need that kind and your existing cable was probably fine.

Sent from my phone using SatelliteGuys

 

[agentc13]

If Dish installed your system, another tech should have come out a couple of days within the initial install to inspect the job which leads me to believe an independent contractor did the job. In either case you would indeed want a Supervisor to come out to inspect the job and have it redone. You do have a couple of weeks to have it corrected and you should not be charged to have it done.

They do not QAS every job an internal tech does (usually only a handful per month). So that doesn't necessarily mean that it was a sub contractor.

To the OP,
If you don't like it mounted to the rail, did the tech ask about it first? If so, did you agree to it? If not, it may be worth getting in touch with Dish to see if you can get it moved. Did you have any other restrictions (like not on the roof)?

It's possible that it was mounted there because of Line of Sight issues. I would make sure that you can get LOS wherever else you would want it before dinging the tech with a trouble call. The longer mast may not make a difference on the LOS from the previous location.

 

[Stargazer]

The newer Turbo HD Dish 1000 masts are longer than the original Dish 300/500/1000 dish masts that were installed.