I have an 8+ year old RCA dual-receiver system (installed May of '99). Came home from work tonight to the dreaded "Searching for Satellite Signal" on both receivers (power-cycled 'em both).. Go into signal strength, it shows 0 (as opposed to 90+ normally) on all transponders except 26, which shows in the 50's. I did have to clear tree limbs from my dish earlier this year, but haven't checked in awhile (will do so tomorrow). It wasn't a windy day today, and I think I'd have seen degraded signal strength/dropouts before now (I only lose service in heavy, heavy rainstorms). I am guessing the LNB on the dish is probably fried (I'll go check tomorrow before heading into work - the dish is mounted to the side of my house, in the rear).
I did call DTV and they gave me the upgrade line and a PIN code. The person I spoke with did tell me that they are pretty backed up on installs due to Sunday Ticket. I'm guessing it's gonna be a couple of weeks if I go that route.
My wife is homebound for health reasons and I'd really prefer not to wait very long as she is kinda dependent on TV for companionship while I'm at work. Questions:
1) I see my local Circuit City has triple-LNB oval DTV dishes in stock for $99. I assume I can just buy one and try to install it myself?
2) Of course, I'll need to aim it. I had extensive physics and astronomy classes in college, not to mention that I used to be an A/V geek/am now an IT geek, so I somewhat understand the issues. Any advice/tips/suggestions on getting it aligned? I see signal meters on eBay, anyone know if anywhere in the Milwaukee or Chicago areas would have this kind of gear in stock? Otherwise I'll be on the cell phone outside with the wife inside.
3) I assume I can use my old RCA equipment with the new dish... just use 2 of the 3 LNB's for signal. I assume if I updated to a DVR I'd need to run another RG58 cable to wherever the DVR is (IIRC they use 2 connections for the DVR)
4) Which satellite would I need to aim the 3LNB dish towards (weren't they something like 101, 110, and 119 degrees)? I assume it's a different one than my 8 year old dual-LNB dish was pointed to...
Any tips/suggestions/advice would be greatly, greatly appreciated. Thanks, in advance, for any info/suggestions you may have.
Sincerely,
--Robert
I did call DTV and they gave me the upgrade line and a PIN code. The person I spoke with did tell me that they are pretty backed up on installs due to Sunday Ticket. I'm guessing it's gonna be a couple of weeks if I go that route.
My wife is homebound for health reasons and I'd really prefer not to wait very long as she is kinda dependent on TV for companionship while I'm at work. Questions:
1) I see my local Circuit City has triple-LNB oval DTV dishes in stock for $99. I assume I can just buy one and try to install it myself?
2) Of course, I'll need to aim it. I had extensive physics and astronomy classes in college, not to mention that I used to be an A/V geek/am now an IT geek, so I somewhat understand the issues. Any advice/tips/suggestions on getting it aligned? I see signal meters on eBay, anyone know if anywhere in the Milwaukee or Chicago areas would have this kind of gear in stock? Otherwise I'll be on the cell phone outside with the wife inside.
3) I assume I can use my old RCA equipment with the new dish... just use 2 of the 3 LNB's for signal. I assume if I updated to a DVR I'd need to run another RG58 cable to wherever the DVR is (IIRC they use 2 connections for the DVR)
4) Which satellite would I need to aim the 3LNB dish towards (weren't they something like 101, 110, and 119 degrees)? I assume it's a different one than my 8 year old dual-LNB dish was pointed to...
Any tips/suggestions/advice would be greatly, greatly appreciated. Thanks, in advance, for any info/suggestions you may have.
Sincerely,
--Robert
