Seeking experienced installer for SC in Houston, TX

[Hankster]

I finally bought the 75 cm elliptical dish and the DSR 317 yesterday from Kusat and should get it in a few weeks depending upon UPS. If anyone can refer me to an experienced installer in Houston that had done SC setup in the Houston area, I would greatly appreciate it.

I've talked with some guys on Craigslist, but none of them want to get on the roof to install the dish. I've talked to the guy who installed my Dish Network system, but he says if he gets caught installing some other system, he'll lose his Dish Network rights.

Please PM me with any references.

Thanks,

Hankster

 

[Hankster]

Also, anyone know where I can buy a mast that will fit the SC 75 cm elliptical dish for *C in the Houston area. I am having a hard time with this. I found a guy that's installed FTA systems in Houston who's willing to give it a try, however. But after checking in, apparently I'm getting my dish, my receiver and some phone wire, but no mast.

 

[chemie]

Just buy a steel fence post from Lowes or Home Deport. You can get 6 or 8 foot length (normally used for chain link fences). Just get the right diamter (I forget which one)

 

[bwaldron]

Just buy a steel fence post from Lowes or Home Deport. You can get 6 or 8 foot length (normally used for chain link fences). Just get the right diamter (I forget which one)

2 inch OD.

 

[Hankster]

Well, I got the dish and receiver today, and it had one of those side-angle masts that you can mount to the eave of the roof with. Still, my installer will look it over and he may bring a different mast just to be safe and see which one will work. He's also programming the Anik satellites in his bird-dog (satellite finder) what not. This is his first install of *C, but he has installed for Dish, DirecTV and FTA systems before, so I figure I'm in good hands. The install is this Thursday (Sept. 6th). I'll let everyone know how it goes. If it works out well, I can refer the installer to others in Houston.

 

[Hankster]

Well, the guy got the *C 75 cm dish installed, he downloaded Anik F1's deal off the Birdog site and we thought we had it, but it wasn't the K-band version (which Birdog didn't have!) and he wasn't able to get it by the time I had to go get my kids from school !@$#!#@!@#!

We did call Phil at KuSat and he mentioned some AMC1 satellite which was close by. He said he's going to come back tomorrow and try again. He didn't want me to pay him any money until we got the signal for the right satellite and got it as strong as possible. I'll post again to update the status of this install.

 

[Hankster]

Well, the guy wasn't able to come back to try to aim the dish and get the satellite today, so we're trying again on Monday AM. This really sucks. He went to the Birdogtv.com website and configured his satellite finder for Anik F1 and F2, but apparently it was the wrong frequency or something and couldn't get a fix on it. Phil at KuSat recommended getting AMC1 first and then tracking down and to the right. : sigh : I'm trying to be patient here--I've waited this long to get *C, I guess I can wait 3 more days. At least I hadn't paid the guy yet...

 

[Satellite Expert]

1 trick for an installer to use is to look for a DirecTV triple LNBF elliptical dish in the neighborhood. The settings for skew, elevation, etc are the same except that SC dish is aimed 1.1 degrees to the right of the DTV dish aim.

 

[Hankster]

Well, we ended up doing a pan and scan which got us a signal Quality between 55 and 66 varying, and Ecb between +7.0 and +8.0 dB consistently. Phil at KuSat activated it and I've got the preview channell going on 299. The guide is partially loaded now and I should be able to surf around in about 10-15 minutes. The guy that did the install had done Dish and FTA, but never had done *C before. It was a bit of a challenge, but he was patient and it all worked out.

 

[Mr Tony]

Starchoice is like free to air so that's weird why he couldnt get it

+7 to +8 is pretty good for that far south

 

[Hankster]

It's all coming in good and clear! I've got eNews Daily on CTV from Vancouver on my office TV right now! This is SO COOL! I wish I'd done this sooner!

 

[Mr Tony]

glad its working out

by the way I just checked my setup here in Minnesota and most channels are between +7.7 and 10.0 on a larger than standard dish

 

[Hankster]

Well, it's been a couple of weeks--Signal steady at 61 and Ecb at +7.8 to +8.2 with no problems. My kids are thrilled to have Treehouse on some evenings--it doesn't log off in the evening like Noggin and Nick Jr do, so they have more age-appropriate programming to watch later if we let them. I've been enjoying watching some shows with times shifted later or earlier when it's convenient for me--this is a great system!