Slimline with SWM - trouble pointing (I'm a moron)

[Duster23]

Ok, here is a quick rundown of what I have going on. I currently have a Slimline dish with a SL5-LNB (Non swm) mounted at my house. I have two H23/600 HD Receivers that work flawlessly. I recently purchased a cabin that is about 2 hours north of my home. The neighboring cabin to me (about 1 mile down the road) was recently purchased by someone new and they switched over from Directv to Dish Network. The new owners had placed the Directv dish out by the road with the trash, so I stopped and picked it up. Appearance wise I thought i was the same exact thing that I had at home. I was thinking that I would be able to mount the dish, bring my H23/600 Receiver with me and everything would be fine and dandy.


Come to find out the dish that I have at the Cabin is a Slimline dish with a SL5-SWM. I quickly found out that I needed a power inserter and was able to obtain one from a local installing company. I didnt want to mount my dish on my room so I just threw a pole in my truck from home to use. When I arrived at th Cabin I realized that the pole I have is for a smaller dish (1.65" rather than 2" outside diameter) I thought I would still be able to use this pole and just install some shims on 4 sides before tightening the dish down. After 2 hours of trying to point the dish I havent been able to get anything other than 0 for my satellite signal. My Receiver seems to automaticaly recognize that it is on an SWM Dish (Option 18) and that it has a SWM rather than a multiswitch - this makes me believe that I have the wiring all done correctly and am just having issues pointing the dish.


As I stated earlier, the dish came from 1 mile down the road so I did not adjust any of the settings on it at all. All of them are right on for what directv recommends for my zip code. How difficult is it to point the dish? I have some trees that are about 75-100yards away but dont appear to be interfering at all. Is is absolutely vital that the pole be 100% level? If so, then I am assuming that I will have much better luck by switching to a 2" outisde diameter pole. If anyone has any suggestions please let me know. I am quite mechanically iclined but know VERY little about satellite pointing/dishes/etc. Thanks.

 

[raoul5788]

to Satelliteguys!

For starters, yes it is essential that the pole is plumb. It also needs to be the right size, which you found out is 2". If it isn't, the dish can move. Even a slight bit of movement will give you a bad signal strength. You can get the right one from the same place you got the power inserter. The settings on the dish, if they haven't moved, should be fine for you. The issue you will have is moving from a swm setup at the cabin to a non swm at your house. For whatever reason, the receiver/dvrs don't like moving from one setup to another even if you change the settings in the menu. For that reason, I suggest you get a non swm lnb for the cabin. When you are pointing the dish, give it time to register the signal strengths. Move the dish a little at a time. Good luck and come back and tell us how it is going!

 

[Hutch1814]

to Satelliteguys!

For starters, yes it is essential that the pole is plumb. It also needs to be the right size, which you found out is 2". If it isn't, the dish can move. Even a slight bit of movement will give you a bad signal strength. You can get the right one from the same place you got the power inserter. The settings on the dish, if they haven't moved, should be fine for you. The issue you will have is moving from a swm setup at the cabin to a non swm at your house. For whatever reason, the receiver/dvrs don't like moving from one setup to another even if you change the settings in the menu. For that reason, I suggest you get a non swm lnb for the cabin. When you are pointing the dish, give it time to register the signal strengths. Move the dish a little at a time. Good luck and come back and tell us how it is going!

Just to touch up, everything is correct but you have to be super slow pointing a SWM without an AIM. SWM seems to take a little longer to register for whatever reason when it comes to showing a signal

 

[raoul5788]

Good to know, although I never noticed any difference myself.

 

[stardust3]

On my SB I have to let meter on for at least 15-20 secs before I can even tune or have it register.

 

[Duster23]

Thanks for all the help. After installing A 2" pole and realizing that my compass was picking up interference, I eyeballed the dish and had it receiving every signal above 87 within 5 mins.

 

[raoul5788]

Excellent!

 

[BobStokesbary]

I'm glad it all worked out for you. Don't be too upset with having trouble with the compass. I think it has happened to a great many of us here. I certainly had issues the first couple of times I set things up on my RV. Do enjoy.