New to satellites, want to learn. 1000.2 dish setup.

[Newseum Mike]

Hi everyone, I've got a dishnet 500 and DVR 625 in place in my condo in 22312 (Alexandria, VA) and I've also got a little house in 22553, Spotsylvania, VA. (lucky to have electricity there) where we spend weekends.

With the hope of not buying extra service, I bought a Dishnet 1000.2 dish and LNB's that I'll permanently mount in Spotsylvania and take the DVR with us on the weekends. I'm an engineering technician in DC and satellite technology is something I'd like to learn about, our new building's going to have at least a dozen dishes.

Man what a pain it is to align this thing using the receiver! It seems to be very slow to respond. Guess it's time for a real meter. Yes, I've read the manual, my aiming should be 245az/128sk/28inc. for 119 The tinfoil idea is next.

I called Satpro (a site sponsor) and bought an Accutrac 22 pro meter.

My question (one of them) is am I headed in the correct direction, or are there any other caveats concerning the 1000.2 and the DVR 625 I'm likely to encounter? Are they compatable at all?

I've seen the threads on adding a '44 switch, but doesn't the 1000.2 already have one? Will a power adapter be needed (or useful at all?).

I bought the 3 LNB model in case I decide to add channels later on, my service now only receives channels from 110 and 119. My wife is from Ethiopia, any of that programming on any accessable satellites?

Actually, this is kind of fun, but very small movements of the dish translate to large changes in signal. Any other satellites you've found interesting? If I get this to work, I've got a port left.

Thanks everyone.

Mike

 

[341]

Hi everyone, I've got a dishnet 500 and DVR 625 in place in my condo in 22312 (Alexandria, VA) and I've also got a little house in 22553, Spotsylvania, VA. (lucky to have electricity there) where we spend weekends.

With the hope of not buying extra service, I bought a Dishnet 1000.2 dish and LNB's that I'll permanently mount in Spotsylvania and take the DVR with us on the weekends. I'm an engineering technician in DC and satellite technology is something I'd like to learn about, our new building's going to have at least a dozen dishes.

Man what a pain it is to align this thing using the receiver! It seems to be very slow to respond. Guess it's time for a real meter. Yes, I've read the manual, my aiming should be 245az/128sk/28inc. for 119 The tinfoil idea is next.

I called Satpro (a site sponsor) and bought an Accutrac 22 pro meter.

My question (one of them) is am I headed in the correct direction, or are there any other caveats concerning the 1000.2 and the DVR 625 I'm likely to encounter? Are they compatable at all?

I've seen the threads on adding a '44 switch, but doesn't the 1000.2 already have one? Will a power adapter be needed (or useful at all?).

I bought the 3 LNB model in case I decide to add channels later on, my service now only receives channels from 110 and 119. My wife is from Ethiopia, any of that programming on any accessable satellites?

Actually, this is kind of fun, but very small movements of the dish translate to large changes in signal. Any other satellites you've found interesting? If I get this to work, I've got a port left.

Thanks everyone.

Mike

Yes, cover the two outside LNBs with foil and peak to 119. I used my receiver to peak...it does take extra care and make each change in dish position very small and wait for quite a few seconds to see if it locks on before you change to the next position to find 119.

That triple LNB does have an internal switch that enables the "LNB IN" port. If you do add a switch, the internal switch in the LNB is deactivated and the three output ports (that were combined without an external switch) are separated into 119 - 110 - 129 and the "LNB IN" port will no longer function. Here is the installation guide for the 1000.2:

Dish Network Installation Guides

...and click on "Dish 1000.2 - Installation Guide" to download the .pdf file

Here is a website that I found very usefull in determing what sats I would want to point to. It has a programming/transponder/channel breakdown for any E* satellite:

Dish Network Channel Chart (Unofficial)

 

[Newseum Mike]

I've spent the last two Saturdays trying to align this dish, there's probably some incompatibility with my DVR 625 receiver.

I tried covering the outside LNB's with foil, but still no go. On a side note, the meter I got from SatPro didn't work out of the box, and they've said that they'll take it back and even apply my return shipping cost to whatever new meter I decide on. My company will have at least 10 dishes on the roof of their new building, so now a Birddog (and experience with it) are desirable, despite its cost.

I guess I'll have to get a Dishnet 500 dish and forget about having the 129 satellite available. Eventually I'll have cable at the house, messing with this 1000.2 dish just isn't worth it. (IMO)

-edit- just saw that RandallA and billK are using 625's. Maybe I'll give it another Saturday.

Thanks for the help everyone.

Mike

 

[RoyW]

I've spent the last two Saturdays trying to align this dish, there's probably some incompatibility with my DVR 625 receiver.

I tried covering the outside LNB's with foil, but still no go. On a side note, the meter I got from SatPro didn't work out of the box, and they've said that they'll take it back and even apply my return shipping cost to whatever new meter I decide on. My company will have at least 10 dishes on the roof of their new building, so now a Birddog (and experience with it) are desirable, despite its cost.

I guess I'll have to get a Dishnet 500 dish and forget about having the 129 satellite available. Eventually I'll have cable at the house, messing with this 1000.2 dish just isn't worth it. (IMO)

-edit- just saw that RandallA and billK are using 625's. Maybe I'll give it another Saturday.

Thanks for the help everyone.

Mike

Actually I initially aligned my 1000.2 using a 625 receiver so that certainly isn't an issue. I'm presently running three receivers, a Vip622, the original 625 and an old 301. It is however a challenge to get a decent signal off 129 but of course you need to first get a signal off 119 to do your tweaking. Remember to do a check switch first however.

 

[RandallA]

What RoyW said, peak 119 using TP 11 first and run check switch. Once you can check that you have 110, 119 and 129 try to get better signal from 129. Raising the elevation by 1 or 2 degrees have helped others including myself get better readings for 129 on a 1000.2.

 

[Newseum Mike]

Thanks for the replies guys.

Shoulda bought the Birddog earlier; today my company will be moving their dishes from 110, 119, 101 and 61.5 to a new location on the roof. I've volunteered to set them up, rather than having a tech do this. Maybe now the company will purchase the meter rather than me (prime example of late barn-door-closin').

We've got 8 dishnet receivers, 4 DirecTV's, and one HD receiver, the NTSC receivers being reinserted into the company's CATV system, the HD going to the chairman's office.

I went up there to get an idea of which way they're pointing now (with a compass) and was surprised at how much building steel masks magnetic north. I wrote down what passed for azimuths, but also drew arrows on the new locations hoping to reduce my setup time.

I did notice a Channel Master dish that's not connected to anything, if I get the 1000.2 dish working in 22553, I may try to use the extra dish on the input port available on the 1000.2 setup. (prime example of gettin'-ahead-of-yourself)

Outside of the fact that I've never gotten my own thing to work with the new dish, the technology involved is pretty neat.

Thanks again!

Mike

-edit- do I need to run separate RG6's from each LNB, maybe?

 

[meitedlce]

I'm a dish network installer...

Not sure why you have a 1000.2 dish but it still works.

A dish 500 with a DPP twin LNB is all you really need unless you plan on running HD or maybe 3 rcvr's from your set up.
The 1000.2 has DP-adapter and Dish Pro Plus cabability's all built in so there is no need for additonaly equipment.

You dont really need to cover up the other two LNB faces unless you just want to. Also it depends on what kinda meter your using as well. Some meters are not strong enough to power up the LNB by itself so you would need a power source. Most of them you can plug the incoming rcvr coax to your meter and then your meter to port 1 on the LNB.

(make sure your coax (cable line) is plugged into RCVR and rcvr plugged into electrical outlet to have incoming power)

Then try it. Or you can have Dish Network come out and install it. This can be free depending on circumstances...
Do you have warranty?
Have you ever moved before while having dish?
..
If yes to warranty,
and No to moving...
then call dish and have them set up a dish mover, this will not cost you anything...
they will leave your current set up at your other house and they will set you up all new at your new place. Just dont tell them your going to be taking it back and forth, and dont plug into a phone line at the second lacation while there on weekends. Any more questions on this let me know.

 

[Newseum Mike]

Spent last Saturday aligning my dish with my new Birdog finder (thank you SatPro!). After a little experimentation, I was able to lock in 110, and with the skew setting, 119 fell right in place. I don't know about 129 yet, I'll have to get a wire into the correct LNB for the meter. Satpro refunded me the shipping, and notified me that the price had dropped (they were having a sale)

It got a lot easier when I removed the receiver and used the meter on its own, after connecting to to the right LNB. The metering in the receiver will sometimes false on me, or the delay in reception causes problems.

On a side note, when moving my companies dishes several weeks ago, I had to put a new fileset into my new Birddog, the default off their website. The fileset my unit came with had some missing satellites, or wrong designations (some satellites were renamed, maybe). After this, it was relatively easy.

Thanks for everyone's help.

Mike

 

[Brussam]

I am a full-time RVer and so I move and setup my Dish 1000 Pro every so many days.

Since I acquired a AccuTrac Pro 22 meter, I found that I don't have to mess with the foil on the outer LNBs anymore. I do lockup on 110 or 129 instead of 119 sometimes, but a Switch Check will tell me if I am on or to the right or to the left of 119.

I also have an Align-a-Site for setting the azimuth and elevation. I have found that there is a lot of magnetic variation from the metal dish. But the Align-a-Site makes it real easy to do a -9 or +10 azimuth correction if I am not on 119.

I have been tracing the actual magnetic azimuth to the targeted azimuth trying to come up with a variation table. So far it is in the +20 to +40 degrees. That has helped getting into the azimuth ball park pretty quick.

 

[highdefjeff]

Dual analog meter, all the way!

Check this out. Hopefully, it will answer questions for you no matter what meter you use.
Solid Signal

 

[fire_317]

To Highdefjeff

Check this out. Hopefully, it will answer questions for you no matter what meter you use.
Solid Signal

highdefjeff:

I have a Dish 500 dish with a DPP Twin LNB. A 301 receiver and a Dish 721 receiver (using a separator). I would like to get a Dual analog receiver to tune up this system. I read you web page and want to know how to use a dual analog meter with my setup. Can you provide info/suggestions/help with my configuration? I was going to email using the contact on the bottum of the webpage you listed, but was not sure it went direct to you. Can I contact you at that address?

I noticed on the close up view of the meter, it has an input for sat rec 1 & sat rec 2. That is no problem as I have coax from each running to the dish, but how does it know 119 vs 110?

Thanks!
Dan

 

[highdefjeff]

Maybe I need more clarification on the site...

Dan, all of that is on the page, but when you use a dual analog, it is best to use a Dish Pro Twin, or legacy Twin, so as to not damage the meter(Not a Plus). That said, I put mine on hundreds before there was any problem.

Yes, you can contact me from the site.

As stated in the directions, when you hook up to the LNB, you will notice two different strengths on the meters. Use the gain to make them "equal" in the 80-100 range. (The meter doesn't know which is which, and with a 500, it doesn't really matter as long as you then, peak them. Incidentally, the 119 is the stronger of the two.)

Contact me by email and I'll give you a little more info.