Slimline re-align suggestions?

[VewDew]

Hello,

I am hoping to get some tips from all of the installers that frequent this forum. I have been only getting high 20's to low 30's on sat 110(b) so I contacted a local antenna/sat place here in town to have my slimline adjusted. (They installed it last January) To be blunt, this guy is not the most knowledgeable installer so I was hoping maybe some of you could give me some pointers to suggest to him when he gets here. I went with him because I was sure I could get him out here on Saturday.

Any help would be much appreciated.

 

[Jimbo]

Hello,

I am hoping to get some tips from all of the installers that frequent this forum. I have been only getting high 20's to low 30's on sat 110(b) so I contacted a local antenna/sat place here in town to have my slimline adjusted. (They installed it last January) To be blunt, this guy is not the most knowledgeable installer so I was hoping maybe some of you could give me some pointers to suggest to him when he gets here. I went with him because I was sure I could get him out here on Saturday.

Any help would be much appreciated.

You could probably re align it yourself by then

Jimbo

 

[PATECO]

What sort of signal are you getting on the other sats? This will help determin what to do.

 

[fxstsb]

Hello,

I am hoping to get some tips from all of the installers that frequent this forum. I have been only getting high 20's to low 30's on sat 110(b) so I contacted a local antenna/sat place here in town to have my slimline adjusted. (They installed it last January) To be blunt, this guy is not the most knowledgeable installer so I was hoping maybe some of you could give me some pointers to suggest to him when he gets here. I went with him because I was sure I could get him out here on Saturday.

Any help would be much appreciated.

I don't have a lot positive to say because you really need a good meter. I installed mine and had to buy an Accutrac 3. They cost several hundred dollars. The process is not exactly straight forward too. One of the websites has a video on how to do it.
If it was installed in January was it bad then? Maybe it got bumped. A pipe bubble is nice to have, also mark the final az/el.

 

[Ramy]

If you are getting signal then all you need to do is adjust the nuts on the dish that move is slightly. That's what I did and now I get high 90's and some 100 on transponders. You will need a second person to help, otherwise you will do alot of traveling back and forth.

 

[VewDew]

What sort of signal are you getting on the other sats? This will help determin what to do.

I get high 60's to mid 70s on 101, the rest get low 70's to low 80's, with no signal higher than 83.


I would try to adjust it myself but it's at the corner of my 2 story house and I don't do heights that well.

 

[vurbano]

Well the tech came out today. "D* hasnt trained anyone in this area on how to peak for 103".. "we dont even have a signal meter for it yet"


I said: "well why did D* even send you here", "I dont believe it"

he repeaked the 101,110 and 119 locations and now my 103b readings are between 75 and 88. A lot better than 30-40

I cant believe D* has been installing these dishes with untrained contractors!!!!!!!!! Driving a D* truck even.

 

[rockaway1836]

If he peaks it for 101 110 and 119 it should take care of it's self.

 

[1sweetchevy]

I live just to the SW of St.Louis and have a slimline dish. I get signal strenghs from the high 80s to the high 90s on 101, 110, and 119. However on 103a I only get high 60s to mid 80s and on 103b I only have 5 transponders showing , 3 are in the teens and 2 are in the 40s. Any sugestions? I have friend who used to be an installer, and he called a guy he knows who still does installs and he said this was normal. Obviously they aren't getting any training here either.

 

[rockaway1836]

I live just to the SW of St.Louis and have a slimline dish. I get signal strenghs from the high 80s to the high 90s on 101, 110, and 119. However on 103a I only get high 60s to mid 80s and on 103b I only have 5 transponders showing , 3 are in the teens and 2 are in the 40s. Any sugestions? I have friend who used to be an installer, and he called a guy he knows who still does installs and he said this was normal. Obviously they aren't getting any training here either.

Without going over my signal values for every transponder on ever bird. I can tell you that using the signal meter and just transponder 1 I have a 96 on the 101 an 87 on 110 and 98 on 119. With those numbers I get an 87 on transponder #1 on 103b. Some transponders are up as high as 100 for me.

 

[Ramy]

If he peaks it for 101 110 and 119 it should take care of it's self.

Not totally true. You can have good signals on those and not on 103. I tweaked mine with those srewnuts and those above stayed about the same and the 103 got better.

 

[vurbano]

If he peaks it for 101 110 and 119 it should take care of it's self.

Umm thats what the first uninformed tech said that originally installed it. He was dead wrong.

 

[vurbano]

I live just to the SW of St.Louis and have a slimline dish. I get signal strenghs from the high 80s to the high 90s on 101, 110, and 119. However on 103a I only get high 60s to mid 80s and on 103b I only have 5 transponders showing , 3 are in the teens and 2 are in the 40s. Any sugestions? I have friend who used to be an installer, and he called a guy he knows who still does installs and he said this was normal. Obviously they aren't getting any training here either.

Call D* back out and demand a free re peak. Also tell them to train their techs. They are going to have a giant clusterf$ck with all of these improperly installed dishes.

 

[Ramy]

Just do it yourself, takes less time and headaches.

 

[1sweetchevy]

Just do it yourself, takes less time and headaches.

Does anyone know what order the sats are in in relation to the horizon. I know they go in sort of a digagonal line up from the horizon, but I don't what order they are in. Is 119 the lowest and 103 the highest? I'm trying to get an idea of what direction I need to try to move it without screwing it up worse than it is.

 

[iwc5893]

We use the 101 and 119 to peak the dish by going through the dithering process. If done correctly, this will bring in all 5 sat locations with fairly equal signal strength.

There are a couple of signal meters out there that will read the 103b sat...Accutrac III is one of them. Most techs are using meters that will not be able to see these sats though, so that is why they peak the dish the way they do.

 

[rockaway1836]

Umm thats what the first uninformed tech said that originally installed it. He was dead wrong.

Just trying to help. No need to be rolling your eyes. Since there was no 103 at the time of install for any of us the only way to go would to have tried to get the highest signals that you could. For most of us it seem to have worked out. Sorry it didn't work out for you.

I would normally do my own install, but due to just having moved and still unpacking I used D's movers connection. However, I put the dish together, set the tilt, and elevation while the insaller was digging the hole for the pole mount. Then as he pointed the dish I read out the meter readings to him. As he tightened down the dish signal levels would drop. I would then tell him to make the adjustment as he went. As it turned out my signal levels came out pretty good. My signal levels are posted above someplace

 

[Jimbo]

I don't have a lot positive to say because you really need a good meter. I installed mine and had to buy an Accutrac 3. They cost several hundred dollars. The process is not exactly straight forward too. One of the websites has a video on how to do it.
If it was installed in January was it bad then? Maybe it got bumped. A pipe bubble is nice to have, also mark the final az/el.

The sat meters that D* uses do not peak the 99 and 103, at least the Birdog that I always see them using. the installer tld me he had an Accurtrac and thought it was junk ... no he would not give it to me

Jimbo

 

[Jimbo]

If you are getting signal then all you need to do is adjust the nuts on the dish that move is slightly. That's what I did and now I get high 90's and some 100 on transponders. You will need a second person to help, otherwise you will do alot of traveling back and forth.

Ramy,
When you did your adjustment, did you happen to notice if you lose any signal from the other sats ?

Jimbo

 

[rockaway1836]

I guess you could always use the receiver as your meter along with a pair of walkie talkies. Or even cell phones.