Is my signal strength ok?

[cpa4u]

I am seeing some "sparklies" or ghost images on certain screens/channels. It is most noticeable on the program guide. There are these sparklies as I call them trailing to the side of the words. Also, noticed these on certain channels while watching them. Most recently last night's football game. I have seen the other threads talking about trying S-cables for the hookup. So, I am going to try that too. I have a 522 receiver and was told when the guy did the hookup that the signal strength meter on those always shows a lower strength than say a 301. Is that true? If anyone has seen some of my other posts, I am NOT a fan of the guy or company that did my install.

Anyway, I live in western Ky (Hopkinsville) and have the following:

110: 11/96 12/92
119: 11/98 12/90

Are those good enough for my area or should they be better?

Thanks so much! This forum has been so much help for me so far.

Rick

 

[TuxCoder]

If those values were taken under clear or lightly cloudy skies, they could be quite a bit better but are good enough to keep a signal lock most of the time. During normal weather and nominal rain you shouldn't experience any dropouts. Under moderate to heavy rain you'll start getting dropouts that can be avoided if the dish was better peaked.

However, with that said, the sparklies and trailing edges you see in the program guide are not caused by signal strength problems. The guide is just a computer application being generated locally by the 522 and displayed on your TV, so any display problems within the guide (aside from the current channel video in the corner) are caused by the cable, your TV, or the 522, in order of most to least likely culprit in my opinion. Seeing the problem in the guide is a great way to narrow it down to your in-home equipment. It rules out the cable from the dish to the 522, and it rules out the dish/LNB/switches, and everything beyond the dish.

 

[Mr Tony]

are those from the 301 or the 522?
What are the signal strengths on the other?

I know the older receivers (the 4 digit models) had a max of 125, although it only worked to 100

 

[cpa4u]

Iceberg,

I only have one receiver on the system. It is a 522.

Tux,

Is "peaking" the dish something that I could do myself by slightly adjusting it? Or, is that something an installer would need to do?

 

[TuxCoder]

That's a tough call. It's really best left to an installer, but I don't know if they would charge you or not. Also, many installers don't seem to care enough about their work to want to increase your signal strength. You could attempt it on your own, but it takes a lot of patience and setup. Without a satellite finder meter, you really need to have a TV where you can see it, showing the 522's point dish screen. Sounds like you just have a round 18" Dish500 dish? Or is it a SuperDish (oval)? The Dish500 is looking at 2 locations so it could be tough to peak, but the SuperDish is looking at 3 locations and is probably nearly impossible for most of us to peak.

 

[Mr Tony]

A Dish500 isn't that bad to install

best thing to do is take a magic market and mark where you are now and try to see if you can get a little better. If you can't, go back to the original spot

 

[Mickdog]

What kid of vehicles, maybe security systems do you have around you? Is there a Military base near by? Here is why I am asking. I had a problem with a vehicle that had a radar Detector/jammer unit in it. When it came around, my signal fluctuated. Also, the Military has been testing new Commo gear that affected such things as, Yes silly as it is, garage door openers. Last summer, (I live vicinity of Eglin AFB), the news reported incecdents of peoples garages opening without them operating the remote. So, do an inventory of the area and see what is around. Unfortunately, with the advent of ever increasing technology, not every company or agency communicates with each other to see if their latest endeavors affect the others. FCC having no real cops really have no control in the matter. I remember when someone with a high powered CB would knock a regular TV signal off!

 

[TuxCoder]

I used to make my old 42MHz RC car twitch when I clicked the MIC button on my CB . Back then (don't know if still true) RC cars used some of the "Citizens' Band" frequency range.

But... back onto topic, if you do decide to try to peak your dish yourself, first leave all the bolts tightened and just gently warp the thing in various directions until you find the direction that improves signal strength. Then loosen whatever bolt(s) control that axis of motion and slightly adjust, watching the signal strength, and tighten. And as Iceberg mentioned, first mark the starting location on all the scales/etc.

 

[cpa4u]

Mick,

Actually the 101st Airborne (Ft Campbell) is about 10 mins from where I live. They are always flying over on training missions. Think that might have something to do with it?

Others....

The only reason that I want to do it myself is that I have ZERO reliance in my installer nor the company he works for. I had another thread on here a few weeks back about all the trouble that I went through trying to get them to ground the system. They never did do it properly. So, I am having someone else out this week to do that for me (electrical guy, not a dish installer type).

It is a Dish500 system. I'll use the magic marker to indicate the present position and try to adjust it slightly. What was funny was that the guy installed the dish, then came inside, unpacked the receiver and never went back outside to adjust anything. is that typical to get it perfect on the first try??

 

[Mr Tony]

um, no

unless he was using a meter, he just guestimated.

I would go into the system install screen and put your zip in there. That will give you your elevation, azimuth and skew. Make sure the skew and elevation are right.
Use transponders 11 & 12 to aim and slowly move it and see if it changes.

 

[cpa4u]

Ok, just went out and looked at the dish after putting my zip in the setup menu. Per the install screen I should have: azimuth 221, Elev 38 and Skew 121. From looking at the dish, I have Elev 50 and Skew 120. I'm not sure how to check the azimuth? Looks like he has the elevation off quite a bit. But, from looking at where the dish is mounted, if I lower the elevation, it will pointing directly into another part of my roof. He installed it on the back side of my house on the corner of an attached storage room. The dish points back toward the main part of the house, which has a high pitched roof. Will that kill my reception if I lower the elevation to what the system says it should be if it points directly into the roof?

 

[SimpleSimon]

You are NOT getting the difference in elevation that the scales seem to be telling you or you wouldn't have any signal at all. Your numbers from earlier are pretty good - it will take a fair chunk of patience to improve on them, but it CAN be done.

The discrepency in elevation numbers may be how you're reading the scale, or it could be the mast is not plumb. You need a small level to check that. Some masts have a centering levelright in the top - look there first.

If the mast is not plumb for some reason, it's NOT the end of the world. It can ALL be dealt with by fine-tuning. Treat the aiming numbers as a starting point, not the end point.

You have good signal to start from, so forget the numbers and do as someone said - gently nudge the dish, hold it to wait for the signal graph/tone to catch up, then repeat until you get sick and tired of the whole thing.

 

[cpa4u]

Simon,

Thanks for the additional info. If my numbers aren't too bad as is, I may not mess with it. My problem sound more like an issue of the cables from the 522 to the TV as someone posted above. So, that is going to be my focus. I'll pickup a good quality S-video cable and try that.

 

[Barry Erick]

Sparkies are from analog. Your signal strenth will not do anything for that. If you were looking at a analog satellite, that would be another thing, but for digital, as is the signal from dish, if you have a useable signal it is perfect. If not, pixelation or nothing. The sparkies are either from a analog feed dish is putting up, or, if you are feeding your tv over a channel, man made noise getting into your equipment.Singal strenth will not make a picture clearer.. it can only make it appear or not have intermittent breakup.

 

[mitchflorida]

If I lose signal during a heavy rain storm, will it do any good to go to the Point Dish screen and manually change the transponder that the receiver is using? It seems like each transponder has a different strength.

I tried this once and it seems to work. Why doesn't the receiver pick the strongest transponder to begin with?

 

[Mickdog]

Mick,

Actually the 101st Airborne (Ft Campbell) is about 10 mins from where I live. They are always flying over on training missions. Think that might have something to do with it?

Could be. Ft Campbell also happens to house the Army portion of the 160th SP Ops. They have lots of super secret communications gear in the Nightstalker birds. Good possibility. I was stationed there from 84 to 86.

 

[TuxCoder]

If I lose signal during a heavy rain storm, will it do any good to go to the Point Dish screen and manually change the transponder that the receiver is using? It seems like each transponder has a different strength.

I tried this once and it seems to work. Why doesn't the receiver pick the strongest transponder to begin with?

This confused me when I was new to this too, but you're not really changing anything in that screen. The satellites send down all the channels, in groups, where each group is sent over one frequency, or transponder (TP). So each satellite has many transponders, and each TP has about a dozen certain channels on it.

So all the point dish screen does when you change transponders is set your receiver's tuner to that particular frequency so you can see how well you're receiving that TP. One reason some are stronger than others is that some TPs point to the whole continental US (ConUS beams) while others are more narrowly focused on certain regions in the US (spot beams) for more efficient use of the allocated frequencies. You might be on or near the edge of some spot beams, hence their lower values.

BTW, you might notice that at various times when you enter the Point Dish screen, the transponder number is already set to a different value each time... the starting value is in most cases the transponder that carries the channel you were currently watching when you entered the menus.

 

[Bobby]

Why doesn't the receiver pick the strongest transponder to begin with?

It chooses the channel you asked to receive and that channel is on a particular transponder on a particular satellite. You do the choosing not the receiver.

 

[SimpleSimon]

And while we're talking about such things, a note to the audience.

Remember that when quoting signal strengths for 110 & 119 in your posts, ALWAYS tel us the receiver model, and the numbers for transponders 11 & 12 on BOTH birds.

It'll save everyone a lot of time.