Lost some channels, am guessing antenna shifted

[diitto]

Hi... Here's my setup... I installed my own original system back in 2005 which included a 3 LNB dish I aligned myself... In around 2007 I upgraded the dish to the newer 5 LNB. Because it saved me a significant amount of money to let Directv install that dish, they came out and with me watching, installed and aligned that larger dish... It's worked fine every day since, until (I am guessing) now... I live in California and last night and continuing today, we are having our first rain and wind of the year... Now we've had this level of wind and rain often over the past two years since this dish was installed and it's never burped... But this is the FIRST wind of this year and I am wondering if something worked itself loose over the summer and this wind has now moved the dish...

I awoke this am and found that some of the HD channels are "searching for signal, 771"... The SD version of those same channels work and a lot of the HD channels themselves work but not all... I went to the satellite setup and below are all the satellite power levels... I always have assumed that channels that record "0" are supposed to be 0??? But someone tell me if I am wrong... I've never understood why some always show 0 and others show N/A or in my chart shown with a dash "-"...

And one more point... I have, in the past, used the "audo feedback" to send an audio signal out a window near my dish so I can listen as I adjust (when I did the original 3 LNB)... I am staring right now at the page that has two green bars for Tuner 1 and Tuner 2 on Satellite 101 (with levels at 87% or so) and I have the Audio Feedback set to Tuner 1, and I have the TV turned ALL THE WAY UP and I hear nothing??? What's up with that??? I tried it on another tv in the living room and got the same, no sound??? I will likely need that if I need to go adjust the dish but I have no sound... Any idea what I am doing wrong???

So here is my list of power levels... Which one is the HD channels.. One specific channel I cannot receive today (though it worked fine last night before the storm) is FNC_HD (Fox news) which is on channel 360... Channels near it come in fine (HD) but not that one... And there are others too but that is an example... Any ideas what might have happened??? Any feedback would be much appreciated...

thanks... bob... see list below...

Satellite 101, Tuner 1 (32 total at 101)

1-8 79 76 76 92 76 86 77 87
9-16 80 83 80 92 81 93 76 92
17-24 78 0 79 98 79 94 79 91
25-32 80 0 79 0 83 89 78 91

Satellite 110 deg, Tuner 1 (3 total at 110)

1-8 - - - - - - - 82
9-16 - 79 - 80 - - - -
17-24 - - - - - - - -
25-32 - - - - - - - -

Satellite 119, Tuner 1 (11 total at 119)

1-8 - - - - - - - -
9-16 - - - - - - - -
17-24 - - - - - 69 57 68
25-32 0 72 65 70 59 70 62 72

Satellite 99 [c], Tuner 1 (14 total at 99[c])

1-8 15 37 15 35 12 38 13 35
9-16 12 42 10 35 12 39 - -
17-24 - - - - - - - -
25-32 - - - - - - - -

Satellite 99 , Tuner 1 (16 total at 99)

1-8 0 0 0 0 0 0 - -
9-16 - - - - - - 40 0
17-24 40 71 0 0 0 0 24 47
25-32 - - - - - - - -

Satellite 103 , Tuner 1 (16 total at 103)

1-8 0 0 0 0 0 0 - -
9-16 - - - - - - 67 0
17-24 54 83 0 0 0 0 47 79
25-32 - - - - - - - -

Satellite 103 [c], Tuner 1 (14 total at 103[c])

1-8 24 48 24 43 24 47 24 43
9-16 23 44 23 42 20 42 - -
17-24 - - - - - - - -
25-32 - - - - - - - -

 

[jdspencer]

Your 99c and 103c signals are way too low.
Your dish needs to be aligned.

 

[diitto]

Can I align it myself??

Your 99c and 103c signals are way too low.
Your dish needs to be aligned.

Hi... Thanks for the input... I installed and did the original alignment on my old 3-LNB dish. I purchased a $30 RF power meter and powered it by a 12 volt battery... I then attached it to one of the four dish outputs and peaked the dish quite easily... I got great signals and that setup worked until I later switched to the 5-LNB dish... It is a bigger dish and I had read it was a lot harder to align so I let Directv do it... I was there when they did it... They set the alignment to spec before they put it in place, then mounted it on the mast, did the tiniest of adjustments while looking at their meter and it was done... That was two years ago and I've never had any issues other than tiny rain fade rarely... And then this morning, boom... Some wind last night and now I've got bad signals... Do I need to call Directv or do I stand a chance of correcting it myself... It's raining hard outside and has been all day or I'd be out there now trying to see how hard (or easy) this Ka-Ku dish is to align... Any thoughts?? Is it easy?? I had heard no but when I watched these guys put it up, I thought it appeared trivial... Thoughts???

thanks... bob...

 

[cfb]

Its extremely difficult to do it without the proper equipment. I did several of the older style dishes with a piece of coax, a receiver, a small tv and an extension cord. I dont think I'd have much luck with that approach with the current dish

You might have a look at it when the rain stops. Might be something obviously loose or bent and you can try putting it back to where it was and see what your levels are. Otherwise directv will charge you for a dish alignment unless you have the protection plan.

You might be able to sign up for the plan and commit to some number of months of it in exchange for the dish align being done for free...

 

[diitto]

can't get audio feedback to work on HR-20's but it works fine on R15

Hi... Thanks for the input... I also noticed the following... We have three Directv receivers in our house... One is an older R15 DVR... The other two are newer HR-20 HD-DVR's... I went into the satellite setup screens for all three receivers... On the R15, when you go to the View Signal Strength and from within that to the Signal Meters screen, on the R15 I get the Audio Feedback (beeping sound) as advertised... When I do precisely the same steps on either of the newer HR-20's, I can get to precisely the same screen and it shows that I should be getting Audio Feedback on say Tuner 1 (if that's the one selected), and I certainly see a green color bar on Tuner 1 (and Tuner 2 for that matter), but I GET NO SOUND... None at all... I've tried turning the volume up to max and there is nothing... But the More Info on those HR20's says "Audio feedback (beeping sound) is associated with the currently selected tuner."...

Is it possible that they've disconnected this feature on these newer HR-20 recievers because perhaps they don't want you using just audio feedback as a way of finding the peak signals????

The reason I ask is because one of these two HR-20's is very near a window that opens up to very nears where my dish sits up on a low part of the roof... Though I could do it, it's not convenient to move the R15 to this same location so I am trying to figure out why I get no audio feedback on either of the HR-20's even though that feature appears to be there...

Anyone know why I can't get any sound even though the screen says I can???

thanks... bob...

 

[jdspencer]

You do have the sound effects turned on in the audio setup menu, right?

 

[diitto]

No audio feedback on HD-DVR's...

You do have the sound effects turned on in the audio setup menu, right?

Yes, I checked that specifically and it is TURNED ON but still on the HD-DVR's I get no sound on either one of them even though it says it should be there... Again, as I said, it works fine on the R15 but that is in a different part of the house and not convenient for use as feedback for tweeking the dish alignment... Any other thoughts??? Are there others out there with the HR-20 HD-DVR who CAN USE the audio feedback on their satellite dish setup???

thanks... bob..

 

[cfb]

The audio signal level thing doesnt work on my hr20-100. I think I saw that as a known bug a couple of times.

 

[diitto]

need to learn again about how the dish works...

Thanks... Yeah, I have now seen a small number of posts here and there that implies this feature is busted on the HR-20's... Great... OK, here come some tougher questions... I think I knew this stuff at one time but have forgotten... I installed my own cables back in 2005... I did a lot of research, bought the best, high bandwidth cable, put on the best connectors, so on, so on... I intentionally chose to have no connections between the LNB connections and the attic where I have a Zinwell WB-68 6x8 multiswitch... That was to keep weather and corrosion and stuff out of the cables... However, that does make it impossible to put an inline power meter in any of the four lines out by the dish for the purpose of tweaking the dish alignment... Hmmm... Do any/all of you have such an inline connection in any of the four output lines??? I could put one in if I had to do so... The other option would be to disconnect one of the connections at the LNB long enough to install an inline meter and a temporary test line but doesn't that defeat the entire idea of not messing with the LNB after you've tweaked the dish alignment??? But here's the real question, can someone point me again to a tutorial on the 13volt/18volt and 22 kHz on or off concept used to select certain satellites and certain RH/LH circular polarization signals??? I've forgotten how that all works... Do I have to have an inline meter capable of selecting satellites and transponders or can I do this selection from one of my DVR's??? Again, I have three DVR's (2 that are dual tuners and 1 single) and so those five tuner signals connect to five of the 8 Zinwell outputs in the attic... And then then the four proper inputs of the Zinwell (of the six possible) connect to the four LNB signals off of the dish... I want to be able to peak my own dish... Again, how do I do this short of adding an inline barrel to one of the four LNB outputs out by the dish??? I haven't worded this very well but it's long enough so I will stop now... thanks... bob...