SO after it cooled down outside I went out and spun the dish on the pole. I had my dish hooked up to my Super Sat Buddy so I can monitor things, I also had my ipad so I could see the signal meter on my AZbox.
In moving the dish left to right I did see very slight increase of signal level, from a 30 to a 38.
Pulling and pushing on the dish didn't really give me much a point or two but nothing to worry about..
Then I got an idea and got out my tall ladder. I then climbed up and loosened up the LNB and started pushing it in and out of the holder and started seeing some imrpvement (was up to 47!) and then I did something with the Geosat Pro C2 Dual LNB. The box on the outside of the LNB was originally pointed at the 2 o clock position. I turned it so that it is now facing the 11 o clock position and pushed it in twards the dish. my signal jumped to 65! I locekd it down.
Since I have come in I have gone from NASA on 87 to NBC on 105. (I am getting my best signal ever on NBC with it coming in at 68!) For the first time ver I was able to scan in ABC HD on 99, but its barely enough to lock on. (I can not lock onto the RTN stuff on 87 though.)
So now I have gone to 105 and for the most part things are working well. I am surprised flipping the LNB made a difference like it has. I am sure there is more fine tuning to do, but I will wait til my Arcset comes in so I can see how far I am off.
Ok Scott. I am going to tell you a BIG secret. All the way from the Bayou. The way to set the skew with ALL the voltage controlled LNB's that set at 9:00: move your dish to whatever satellite is at your True South, then make some kind of mark on the scalar ring at the 9:00 position with a sharpie. On my bigger dishes that you can't reach on a ladder, I have a sharpie taped to a 6 foot piece of 1x1 wood stock to do it. You could use a broom, even, if you need to
THEN, you run the dish to the west until you can reach the LNB comfortably from a ladder. Hook your receiver, meter, or whatever to the LNB AT THE DISH, no ipad, yelling at Prize Goddess over the phone, you MUST be AT the dish with your equipment. The lag in any electronic device is just too great when doing this, IMO.
Then select a satellite that has BOTH a H and a V transponder, ( I use 125w here, but you being farther east, may have to go farther west to find one that you can reach the LNB from a ladder comfortably). You know now, from your mark earlier, where the 9:00 position is, you can put the LNB in, tune your two transponders, and get your skew correct. That arrow molded into the housing isn't always the best place to set it, sometimes its a few degrees off.
Then and only then can you adjust your in and out ( F/D), although it should be set and forgotten, ideally, All my dishes work better with other than stock LNB settings, so that isn't out of the ordinary. I chalk it up to age and manufacturing error.
Once you are sure the signals are close on each polarity ( remember we dont know what the transmit power of the transponders are, so they may not be exactly the same, you just dont want one with 25 quality and one with 90 quality), THEN you can use the instructions on the geo-orbit site. I knew nothing about aiming a dish, but reading geo orbit, got me to the point I am. ( well that and Linuxman and Anole yelling in my ear that I was doing it wrong all the time....)
Keep us updated. And yeah, it ain't easy. If it was, we wouldn't have directv for all the slackers out there.
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