I called Dish on November 30 to schedule a superdish upgrade for the period 12/20 through 01/04 when I would be home. I was told that I needed to upgrage my 6 year-old Model 1000s to appropriate models. I ordered a 510 and a 301, They would not schedule a superdish upgrade until these were installed. I tried to get them to the receivers, then the superdish but they would not. When I got home on Dec 20th, I installes both receivers and activated them... took a whole 10 minutes, (It woiuld have been quicker but I was kept on hold at dish) At this time, I told them they would need a pole mount. I then received a date of Jan 15 2004. OK, the fun now begins. On Jan 15th,I fly home to Richmond, VA from Pierre, SD to be there for the install. The install 3-man install team (subcontractors) arrives. They have no poles! In fact they could not do any appoints the previous day(s) because of a lack of poles. I then get on the phone and explain the travel situation. They schedule me for the next day. Jan 16 in the morning. Guess what... no one shows up. The appointment was on my record, but they neglected to put it on the installer's 'grid'/workorder. Luckily, when I call the dish installation number, the perosn was able to squeeze me in that afternoon.
A Dish employee-installer shows up (not a sub, but a real dish employee) at 3:00 pm. The weather was clear, but around freezing and very windy. He plants and plumbs the pole. He attaches the superdish, the switch, and the cables. He runs the switch test. Sats 110 and 119 are at meter level 121 and 125, but no hit on 105. He says that about 50% of the LNBs for the 105 have been bad for him. He says he brings several setups with him to cover this problem. He installs set-up number 2. I run the switch test this time. We have 110 with a meter of level 121, 119 at 125 and 105 at 47. After slight adjustments, 110 is at 120, 119 is at 123 and 105 goes to 62. I order locals and as Emeril says BAM! In 3 minutes I have locals! The 510 PVR works great! Reception is great. My wife and I are now very happy!
Good Luck to all!