Need help with 119 w/Phase III

[satpac]

I have a question about the required clearance for all 3 sat signals and the Phase III dish. I live in a house that has a brick wall oriented along 90-270 degrees. The Azimuth for my area is 235. I can get 95 signal on 101, 65 on 110 and only about 25 on 119. I have not spent too much time aiming, but I wanted to know if it is possible that I need the 119 signal that is blocked by the wall.

Again, the wall runs exactly E to W ..I have some clearance away from the wall (the dish does not touch as it is aimed at 235) . I dont want to go up there on a fools errand if someone has encountered this problem before.


Thanks.

 

[raoul5788]

I have a question about the required clearance for all 3 sat signals and the Phase III dish. I live in a house that has a brick wall oriented along 90-270 degrees. The Azimuth for my area is 235. I can get 95 signal on 101, 65 on 110 and only about 25 on 119. I have not spent too much time aiming, but I wanted to know if it is possible that I need the 119 signal that is blocked by the wall.

Again, the wall runs exactly E to W ..I have some clearance away from the wall (the dish does not touch as it is aimed at 235) . I dont want to go up there on a fools errand if someone has encountered this problem before.


Thanks.

If the brick wall was blocking the signal, you would get a zero reading. The fact that your readings go down as you move to each satellite makes me think that it is not properly aligned. I would have it checked. Make sure the mast is plumb. If it is not, you will have a difficult time getting it right.

 

[Smith P.]

No, the wall is OK. Any trees around ? Or you didn't tilt the dish.

 

[satpac]

Thanks for the quick reply. I spent about an hour changing the settings. Trees dont' appear to be in the way (treetops are below the plane of the dish) I did set the tilt. Most of it was slow going with a baby monitor. I just didn't know if the 119 sat comes in from a large angle from where the center LNB is pointed. It's pretty much clear skies in front of the sat except the brick wall on the right hand side.
I have a sat finder now . Is it possible to cover the 101 LNB and fine tune the 110? The reason I have to ask all these questions is that it's pretty hard to get to where the sat is and I'd like to be prepared.

Thanks again,
S

 

[charper1]

If your mast is 110% plumb/level you should be able to cover the 110 and 119, set the skew and elevation and leave them alone. Manually set your receiver to 3 LNB dish (not auto-select). Then aim the dish's azimuth according to the coordinates shown in the receivers setup menu with the aid of a heading compass (as shown attached) you don't need any fancy or expensive gear. If you are not getting signal immediately, back off a few degrees and mark that with a pencil (make a line that shows your starting point that lines up and you can come back to). Bump ever so slightly, allowing about 10 - 15 seconds for the signal to register. Keep going till you get a good read; about 90 or higher. Bolt it down. Check actual TV channels like the DirecTV free/info channels or CNN; they are on 101.

Remove the foil covers from the other two LNBs and check their signals levels and actual channels. If you do the first steps correct, and your dish mast is plumb/level, you should not need any additional special tweaking for 110 and 119. The formula of how the dish and LNB are designed should have everything lined up. I have done this countless times without fail.

Also, these DBS dishes are not line of sight, but offset, so the signal will not travel "on the plane of the dish LNB arm" but from a bit higher up. Ex: http://www.satsig.net/22-deg-offset-dish.htm

 

[satpac]

I managed to get 95/70/60 on this dish. I then decided to take a good look at the actual reflector. The reflector dish IS warped its pretty obvious and it has a ding in the back. After comparing it to neighbors dish I tried in vain to 'mold' it back. Neighbors dish (reflector) works fine. Anybody have a spare reflector lying around?

Thanks for all the info.