New Member - Advice please

[schmad27]

Hello everyone, glad to be here. I have been installing satellite for myself ever since C-band was still popular. I currently am a Dish Network subscriber. I have a Dish 1000 dish with 2 receivers, a VIP 211 for HD and a DP301 for standard. I just moved from a location in the zipcode 21030 to the zipcode 21093. About 2 miles a apart. Like I said I have installed satellite systems many times but am at a loss as to why I am having trouble finding this elusive 129 satellite. I had it at the original location. Nothing changed during the move. In the new location, there are no obstructions to the dish, I get 119 and 110 just fine. I have tweaked and tweaked the azimuth and elevation til my wrists turned blue. I'm pretty sure there is not a problem with the LNB because I at least get a wrong satellite indication. Can anyone share any detailed troubleshooting steps that may help?

Satellite dish settings:
Azimuth = Compass reading about 240 - 244 (Is there a more accurate way to get the azimuth setting or reading?)
SKew = 129
Elevation = Tweaked to 31.

Signal meter is showing the following:
Sat 119 Trans 11 = 73
Sat 110 Trans 11 = 60
Sat 129 Trans 17 = Wrong Sat - Echostar 119 West - 73

Check Switch Results:
Port 1 2 3
Sat 119 110 Conn
Trans OK OK X
Device Twin Twin Dual
Status Reception Verified
Switch DPP Twin

For the channels I do get the picture is great, fyi.

​

 

[Hall]

What were your settings previously ? Moving 2 miles shouldn't cause much change at all, I'd think.

 

[schmad27]

Correct, settings before were about the same.

 

[mdwatt]

It's definitely an alignment problem of some type. Your skew and elevation settings shouldn't change at all. They should have been left alone. Either you have a line of sight problem, or your mount is not plumb.

 

[oljim]

You may be off a little and getting 119 with the 129 LNB
Cover the 110 LNB and see if you still get 110, If you do drop dish down a little and right a little.

 

[mdwatt]

On some receivers, in the switch matrix, if you're missing 129, and you go to check the signal strength on it, it will give you a signal reading on 119 and say wrong sat. This is an error in how the receiver communicates with the plus twin. It's not actually picking up signal from the 119 in the 129 spot. The dish is completely missing the 129 signal. It's a guaranteed alignment problem of some type.

 

[Scott6760]

If you have no obstructions, your skew is right (or even close) and you are seeing 110 and 119, you should see 129. If it says conn with an X below it you might have a bad DPDual on your dish 1000. Check the connections from the DPDual to the DPPTwin. You can test your DPDual by switching it to the 119 slot on your dish and connecting it straight to your receiver, bypassing the DPP entirely. If it picks up 119 then you know it is working.

 

[schmad27]

Turns out the house next door was in the way although it didn't appear to be. Moved the dish toward the front of my house and all is ok. Weird thing about the signal strength though, I'm only getting 40 - 52 % for HD but the picture looks fine. Non-HD is around 60 - 73 % and those look ok, too. Not sure how accurate the meter is.