Frustrated with 1000.4 DIY install and 61.5. Any advice?

[BearHuntr]

I live in Janesville, WI and I currently have a dish 1000 and a 622 receiver. The Madison, WI HD locals are on the 61.5 satellite and in order to get them I need a second dish. I really don't want 2 dishes if I can help it, so I bought a 1000.4 dish off of eBay with the hopes that I can retain just one dish and get everything.

This is my first self-install and I've spent the past 2 days trying to get the 1000.4 dish to work, but I'm running into a problem. I do have some tall trees in the area, but I believe that my line of sight is ok. Anyway, I did a rough point to 61.5 with tin foil on the 72.7 and 77 LNBs (as suggested in another thread) and then uncovered them and did a check switch. All 3 satellites show as ok on the check switch screen, so then I began to fine tune 72.7 on transponder 21. I was able to get it to about a 43 signal, which seemed low, but it sounds like this is somewhat normal. 77 was at about 45 and 61.5 was at 56 on my spotbeam of 05. I'm able to acquire a signal and download the guide and everything seems great. I've got my local channels in HD, but as I start checking other channels, I noticed that I can't get some HD channels like USA HD and Comedy Central HD. 61.5 on transponder 21 is only getting around 21 at best and transponders 19 and 27 are below 10 and I can't seem to get them any higher.

Does it make any sense that my locals in HD come in great on 61.5, but other HD channels don't? I'm about ready to give up on the whole single dish idea, but wanted to make sure that I'm not missing something. I might try another location for installing, but does anyone have any advice on other things I could try? Also, as a side thought, is there any way that I can connect the 1000.4 dish to the 1000 dish or vice versa to combine the two to get everything?

Thanks so much!

Scott.

 

[dvrexpander]

Well you need to make sure the skew is set good and at this point I have no idea what it is supposed to be set in Florida but I would guess around the 80 mark and work from there up or down. Also Elevation can start around 46 and you can again adjust from that point and azimuth set to around 172 to 177 cause again your area may be different and sometimes different from up to 20miles of each other.

Sat 77 and Transponder 16 for example should be around 50

Sat 72.7 and Trans... 15 should be around 53

Sat 61.5 trans... 14 around 69

Those sats and transponder numbers are the hardest to hit and you should try to adjust for those numbers. The Eastern Arc's shouldn't be that hard to hit as long as you don't have a tree or something in the way and usually you won't since they are all high elevations. So to answer your question, the above factors could be throwing off just about anything if something isn't exactly or pretty darn near right and since your "guessing" your way through..you need to take your time and test upon moving one thing for a while.

Also: DO NOT run a check switch on low signal settings...it will only cause issues, be sure to let the receiver sit un powered for about 5-10mins before messing with it again...and don't trust the LNB you got...it may have issues you don't know about not to mention some odd defect on the dish or arm from a drop or shipping.

 

[Frank Jr.]

I am not an installer but do use the 1000.4 dish for the eastern arc as you do. The signal strength for all three sats on the eastern arc are not great to begin with no matter how good you align the dish. I am assuming you know what transponders you use for each of the channels you have. Some transponders are spot beams that you do not use therefor those signal strengths do not matter. After peaking the dish I would try power booting the receivers and let them go through the whole start up process. Hope this helps.....

 

[BearHuntr]

sava700, I'm in Wisconsin, not Florida. I thought that it was bad to mess with the skew setting once you mount the dish.

I really don't understand the transponders and what I need to be using to peak it, I was just going by what I read in other threads.

 

[dvrexpander]

sava700, I'm in Wisconsin, not Florida. I thought that it was bad to mess with the skew setting once you mount the dish.

I really don't understand the transponders and what I need to be using to peak it, I was just going by what I read in other threads.

Yeah I was thinking Florida for some reason but either way the numbers will be slightly different no matter where your at. Just follow them as much as you can from what I gave you and you should be ok. What you could really try to do is get a single LNB not a legacy but a DP and try to just hit the 77 as its harder out of the 3 to get and once you lock in strong on it the others will fall in to place. See if you can talk a tech into coming by and if they have a super sat buddy can help you really quick perhaps for a small tip

 

[BearHuntr]

It weird that I have 77 and 72.7 pretty strong, but so weak on 61.5. I'm going to try a different location this weekend and see if that make any difference. Thanks!

 

[BearHuntr]

Success! By moving my dish to a slightly different location I was able to get all 3 EA sat locations.

 

[Voyager6]

Success! By moving my dish to a slightly different location I was able to get all 3 EA sat locations.

So, it was a line of sight issue. Congrats on your perseverance.:up