Well...I have heard everyones horror stories about bad installs. Here is mine. All is well now.
I had my upgrade for a Dish 1000 and a VIP 622 today. Last night from 6pm until 11pm I totally rewired my house/3 tv's. with OTA and Dish cable runs, color coded all cables, new splitters, diplexer, ground blocks etc. I labled all cables and connections inside at the tv, removed my 510 DVR, removed the old Dish 500, and had everything all ready for the tech, so all he would have to do is put the Dish 1000 on the mast, run a short cable to the diplexer, aim it, and then inside the house connect the 622 to the hook ups, which again, I had all labeled - even with the names of each connection according to the 622 manual, so all terms matched up , etc. So this should have been real easy, right?
So my wife feels me in that when he gets here, he is looking at all my dishes (fta) and is real confused. She filled him in, and gave him my instructions of what I did in prepartion. He then goes to the back of my house and was about to dismantle my Primestar that is aimed at IA5 and AMC4. My wife tells him, no, that is FTA and has nothing to do with Dish. He says, yah, but there are 2 lnbs on it. She repeats and they go back and forth for a few minutes.
So now, he is clear that the primestars are not Dish, and goes and mounts the Dish to the mounting post where the old Dish 500 was. He then comes inside and starts to hook up the 510 DVR that I had unhooked. He claims he has to hook it up so he can start aiming the dish. My wife suggests he get the new receiver for that. OK, so he starts to aim, he has 129 in at 105 on the meter. My wife is watching from inside. She has helped me install many a dishes and is familiar with it all. So she is watching from inside, it goes 105, 0 105,0 105, 0 then the tech is walking around the yard looking up in the air.
I get home about now, and meet him. He asks me about all the FTA stuff, and thinks it is cool. he asks if I would like to come work for them. Then he tells me, well I had some problems, but I moved the dish back about 8 feet and now I can get 129. I could not get 129 before. I say, hmmm, really? That Fortec dish (I point to it) the is right next to the Dish 500....That is aimed at 129. He gets confused....Anyway, I let him do his thing, and now the dish is mounted in the exact same area, there is no difference from where it was a few feet away. Whatever, if it works, great......I notice that he has 2 of the bolts in the mount into rotten wood. Very obvious. Oh well, i am not afraid to redo it sometime.
SO, he has now run 2 new lines (I wanted the existing ones used as they are buried already). So again, I will just redo it my way after he leaves. I don't like to interfere, or think I know more than he does, after all he does this for a living.
So we go inside. He can't get the 811 to download or do a switch check. He goes to his truck, I reset the 811, and it works. Back in the living room, he says I forgot to run a cable and he needs it. I said, well I ran all cables, all were marked and color coded. The tag fro the cable in question is laying on the floor, so I know it was there. I think maybe he pulled it through the flor... I pull my oak entertainment center out (about 6.5' tall, hugh and heavy, full of gear.....no cable...I am goign to get pissed soon...I then hear.."oh never mind, I already hooked it up".
SO, 4 and a half hours later he is done! He has 2 more installs to do, and it is 5 pm!
After he left, I went outside, cut his 2 new lines, ran port 1 to my diplexer for OTA/Dish feed, switched a few cables at the house back to how I had them setup, and I gained 15-20 points on all 3 satellites!
WHEW! Sorry for the long post!
I had my upgrade for a Dish 1000 and a VIP 622 today. Last night from 6pm until 11pm I totally rewired my house/3 tv's. with OTA and Dish cable runs, color coded all cables, new splitters, diplexer, ground blocks etc. I labled all cables and connections inside at the tv, removed my 510 DVR, removed the old Dish 500, and had everything all ready for the tech, so all he would have to do is put the Dish 1000 on the mast, run a short cable to the diplexer, aim it, and then inside the house connect the 622 to the hook ups, which again, I had all labeled - even with the names of each connection according to the 622 manual, so all terms matched up , etc. So this should have been real easy, right?
So my wife feels me in that when he gets here, he is looking at all my dishes (fta) and is real confused. She filled him in, and gave him my instructions of what I did in prepartion. He then goes to the back of my house and was about to dismantle my Primestar that is aimed at IA5 and AMC4. My wife tells him, no, that is FTA and has nothing to do with Dish. He says, yah, but there are 2 lnbs on it. She repeats and they go back and forth for a few minutes.
So now, he is clear that the primestars are not Dish, and goes and mounts the Dish to the mounting post where the old Dish 500 was. He then comes inside and starts to hook up the 510 DVR that I had unhooked. He claims he has to hook it up so he can start aiming the dish. My wife suggests he get the new receiver for that. OK, so he starts to aim, he has 129 in at 105 on the meter. My wife is watching from inside. She has helped me install many a dishes and is familiar with it all. So she is watching from inside, it goes 105, 0 105,0 105, 0 then the tech is walking around the yard looking up in the air.
I get home about now, and meet him. He asks me about all the FTA stuff, and thinks it is cool. he asks if I would like to come work for them. Then he tells me, well I had some problems, but I moved the dish back about 8 feet and now I can get 129. I could not get 129 before. I say, hmmm, really? That Fortec dish (I point to it) the is right next to the Dish 500....That is aimed at 129. He gets confused....Anyway, I let him do his thing, and now the dish is mounted in the exact same area, there is no difference from where it was a few feet away. Whatever, if it works, great......I notice that he has 2 of the bolts in the mount into rotten wood. Very obvious. Oh well, i am not afraid to redo it sometime.
SO, he has now run 2 new lines (I wanted the existing ones used as they are buried already). So again, I will just redo it my way after he leaves. I don't like to interfere, or think I know more than he does, after all he does this for a living.
So we go inside. He can't get the 811 to download or do a switch check. He goes to his truck, I reset the 811, and it works. Back in the living room, he says I forgot to run a cable and he needs it. I said, well I ran all cables, all were marked and color coded. The tag fro the cable in question is laying on the floor, so I know it was there. I think maybe he pulled it through the flor... I pull my oak entertainment center out (about 6.5' tall, hugh and heavy, full of gear.....no cable...I am goign to get pissed soon...I then hear.."oh never mind, I already hooked it up".
SO, 4 and a half hours later he is done! He has 2 more installs to do, and it is 5 pm!
After he left, I went outside, cut his 2 new lines, ran port 1 to my diplexer for OTA/Dish feed, switched a few cables at the house back to how I had them setup, and I gained 15-20 points on all 3 satellites!
WHEW! Sorry for the long post!
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