Signal on 99 and 103???

[ShiningBengal]

So why is it I'm only seeing 101, 110, and 119 on my signal strength tests and why aren't I able to see channel 499 and all these 9000+ test channels? Seems everyone else can but they're not available to me. I just figured I had 2 missing lnbs. I'm a knucklehead too. LOL

Robin

You are not a knuckhead. First, you are not supposed to see anything but "searching for satellite" on 499. It merely indicates that you have the right dish installed and the B-Converters on the back of your HR20.

Currently, 99b and 103a are used only for spot beams. You will get your HD locals on one of those two satellites, but not both. Normally you will see one transponder on one of these two at a high 90's or 100 level. That may be all you see, depending on what spot beams may be straying into your airspace from another nearby DMA.

Unless you have a special smart card installed in your HR20, you will see nothing in the 9000 series channels. You will have to wait until 103b goes live later this month.

If you are getting your HD locals, relax. That's all you are supposed to be getting. Stop testing your satellite signal levels already! There is nothing wrong--even if your test says "Failed" instead of OK after 99b or 103a. That is normal--at least for now.

 

[ShiningBengal]

Did he install a multisiwtch as well? If you use just a regular 5x8 your ird wont see 99 or 103. You need the special KA Zinwell multiswitch.

True only if he actually NEEDS a multiswitch. You don't need one if all you have is four inputs (ie, one HR20 and 2 non-DVR's).

If he is getting his HD locals, he is receiving 99b or 103a. Therefore, he has no problem w/ the multiswitch.

 

[satfrat]

You are not a knuckhead. First, you are not supposed to see anything but "searching for satellite" on 499. It merely indicates that you have the right dish installed and the B-Converters on the back of your HR20.

Currently, 99b and 103a are used only for spot beams. You will get your HD locals on one of those two satellites, but not both. Normally you will see one transponder on one of these two at a high 90's or 100 level. That may be all you see, depending on what spot beams may be straying into your airspace from another nearby DMA.

Unless you have a special smart card installed in your HR20, you will see nothing in the 9000 series channels. You will have to wait until 103b goes live later this month.

If you are getting your HD locals, relax. That's all you are supposed to be getting. Stop testing your satellite signal levels already! There is nothing wrong--even if your test says "Failed" instead of OK after 99b or 103a. That is normal--at least for now.

Allow me to clarify,,,, there is no 499, period/ There is 498 and 500 but I simply have no 499 on my system. This is my problem and I'm trying to find out why.
Here in Vermont, we need 2 dishes in order to get locals. i don't have access to the sky for locals so I'm able to get HD network channels after getting waivers.

As for 99 & 103,,, there's nothing to test because they don't exist on my system. Now if all these 2 satellites do is spotbeam HD locals, then they are no concern to me anyways. If 499 is only testing for the transmission of HD local, then that would explain why I don't have access to that channel.

Robin

 

[ShiningBengal]

Allow me to clarify,,,, there is no 499, period/ There is 498 and 500 but I simply have no 499 on my system. This is my problem and I'm trying to find out why.
Here in Vermont, we need 2 dishes in order to get locals. i don't have access to the sky for locals so I'm able to get HD network channels after getting waivers.

As for 99 & 103,,, there's nothing to test because they don't exist on my system. Now if all these 2 satellites do is spotbeam HD locals, then they are no concern to me anyways. If 499 is only testing for the transmission of HD local, then that would explain why I don't have access to that channel.

Robin

Thanks for the further detail. I should add that 99b and 103a are currently used only for spot beamed HD locals. 103b, the DirecTV 10 satellite just launched, will almost certainly have a great deal of new content, as will 99a, DirecTV 11, to be launched early next year.

The fact that you have no test channel 499 may indicate that you cannot receive signals from 99 or 103. Remember, there will be a total of 4 satellites in those two slots. There are also two satellites at 119 now, so the slimline dish actually can see a total of 8 satellites. You must need to access other satellites for your locals now, but I'm wondering if that will be the case once 103b and 99a are on line.

You may want to check that out on the technical support forum on the DirecTV website. That's a better place to go for accurate information than the vast majority of CSR's.

 

[Hemi 6.1]

Allow me to clarify,,,, there is no 499, period/ There is 498 and 500 but I simply have no 499 on my system. This is my problem and I'm trying to find out why.
Here in Vermont, we need 2 dishes in order to get locals. i don't have access to the sky for locals so I'm able to get HD network channels after getting waivers.

As for 99 & 103,,, there's nothing to test because they don't exist on my system. Now if all these 2 satellites do is spotbeam HD locals, then they are no concern to me anyways. If 499 is only testing for the transmission of HD local, then that would explain why I don't have access to that channel.

Robin

You might want to go back to your satellite set up and make sure you have it set on 5LNB. That could be your problem.and you must have the B-band Coverter attached.

 

[Jimbo]

Satfrat,
You definatly have the correct dish.
What receiver are you currently using ?
I looked over the thread and didn't see you mention it, so thought I'd ask.

Jimbo

 

[charper1]

If we all go back and read the beginning; unless I am wrong the secondary OP satfrat was concerned only that he did not have a 5LNB dish or the correct dish setup because he had no signal from 99 and 103 and that the installer gave a bit of bad info. This has all been cleared up as I read it and we were calling the installer a knucklehead, not the OP LOL!

Are you sure you don't have only 3 lnb's on your Slimline? I'm located in Vermont and had a 3lnb Slimline installed 6 weeks ago. Total newbie I am. I only get 101, 110, and 119 satellites. My installer told me that I didn't need the other 2 lnb's because of my region. He also told me that I will be able to receive ALL the new HD cable channels when they become available with only these 3 satellites and the 2 B-band modules on the back of my HR20-100s receiver. I hope he knew what he was talking about?

Robin

He's a knucklehead!

The SlimLine has the ability to "see" all 5 orbital slots with the 3 housings. One can see 3 at a time; so 5 LNB total.

99, 101, 103, 110, 119

REALLY? how do some of these guys get hired/stay hired.

 

[satfrat]

Satfrat,
You definatly have the correct dish.
What receiver are you currently using ?
I looked over the thread and didn't see you mention it, so thought I'd ask.

Jimbo

I have the HR20-100S. My system setup says I have 3lnb system. My installer said something about your market(Vermont) is 1 of few that use a totally different satellite for locals. I was assured that because I have 2 B-Band converters on the back of my HD DVR, I would receive ALL the HD cable channels that are coming aboard. I specifically switched over from C-Band to DirecTv for HD even tho I kept an active premium movie subscription for the east/west feeds of HBO & Starz. I'm hoping not having 99 & 103 won't prevent me from the HD conversion. That's 1 of the reason I keep an eye on this site,,,, once folks start see changes, i better see them too or I'll be doing some holloring. LOL

Robin

 

[raoul5788]

I have the HR20-100S. My system setup says I have 3lnb system. My installer said something about your market(Vermont) is 1 of few that use a totally different satellite for locals. I was assured that because I have 2 B-Band converters on the back of my HD DVR, I would receive ALL the HD cable channels that are coming aboard. I specifically switched over from C-Band to DirecTv for HD even tho I kept an active premium movie subscription for the east/west feeds of HBO & Starz. I'm hoping not having 99 & 103 won't prevent me from the HD conversion. That's 1 of the reason I keep an eye on this site,,,, once folks start see changes, i better see them too or I'll be doing some holloring. LOL

Robin

Try changing the 3 lnb to 5 lnb in the setup and see if that gives you channel 499.

 

[Jimbo]

I have the HR20-100S. My system setup says I have 3lnb system. My installer said something about your market(Vermont) is 1 of few that use a totally different satellite for locals. I was assured that because I have 2 B-Band converters on the back of my HD DVR, I would receive ALL the HD cable channels that are coming aboard. I specifically switched over from C-Band to DirecTv for HD even tho I kept an active premium movie subscription for the east/west feeds of HBO & Starz. I'm hoping not having 99 & 103 won't prevent me from the HD conversion. That's 1 of the reason I keep an eye on this site,,,, once folks start see changes, i better see them too or I'll be doing some holloring. LOL

Robin

Try changing the 3 lnb to 5 lnb in the setup and see if that gives you channel 499.

satfrat,,
Incase you are unsure, you need to go thru the initial receiver set up in order to change the set up from 3 to 5.

As Raoul said, the dish may be set to 3 instead and that would be why you are having your issues.

Jimbo

 

[satfrat]

I went thru the receiver setup and changed the 3lnb to 5 lnb and it picked up 99 OK and 103a OK but their was a setup error on 103b. I had 7 transponders at 103a and I had 6 out of the 7 read 0 strength with transponder 6 reading 75. On 103b, I had 16 transponders read 0. On test signal strength, with 99, I had 100%. With 103a, I had a signal strength of 78, but I couldn't acquire a signal on 103b.

That's where I'm at, that's a bunch for the helpful advise. It's appreciated!

Robin

 

[Jimbo]

I went thru the receiver setup and changed the 3lnb to 5 lnb and it picked up 99 OK and 103a OK but their was a setup error on 103b. I had 7 transponders at 103a and I had 6 out of the 7 read 0 strength with transponder 6 reading 75. On 103b, I had 16 transponders read 0. On test signal strength, with 99, I had 100%. With 103a, I had a signal strength of 78, but I couldn't acquire a signal on 103b.

That's where I'm at, that's a bunch for the helpful advise. It's appreciated!

Robin

You are in the same boat as the rest of us.
Nothing on the 103b yet, I believe thats where the New sat comes in, when it is hot you will see SS there.
Glad you got it all working, btw, did 499 show up now ?

Also, incase I haven't said it yet to the site !

Jimbo

 

[satfrat]

You are in the same boat as the rest of us.
Nothing on the 103b yet, I believe thats where the New sat comes in, when it is hot you will see SS there.
Glad you got it all working, btw, did 499 show up now ?

Also, incase I haven't said it yet to the site !

Jimbo

Yep, I finally have 499 and have that all too familiar "searching for signal". I gotta wonder why my installer only programmed my receiver to be a 3 lnb system? Doesn't make much sense to me considering the numerous number of times I told him that my main reason for making the move to *D was for the upcoming HD channel parade. O'well, ain't no biggie now.

Robin

 

[charper1]

back to my original comment: because he was a knucklehead; LOL!

 

[satfrat]

back to my original comment: because he was a knucklehead; LOL!

Well I gotta stand up for this installer. the guy spent 4 hours on my installation. He cemented a 6' pole for my Slimline, about 75' away fromthe house and buried the line around my surepack driveway. He drilled from an 8' messy crawlway thru my cellar wall and drilled thru my floor under the baseborad heating behind my audio rack. The guy did a lot of messy work and charged me nothing. I was figuring $100 so when I guy goes thru all that just for a subscribing account, he gets the benefit of the doubt from me. And that's the rest of the story.

Robin