SWN 3LNB Installation Help!!!!

[mailbox1372]

I am unable to receive ANY signal reading on my TV! It's driving me crazy.

So a little background information on the problem that I am having (with plenty of pictures).

My goal is have to an HD feed at my football tailgate this year. I purchased a 3LNB SWM Direct TV Satellite dish, with accompanying splitter and power supply.

Next, I located Azimuth, Elevation, and Skew(tilt) from the iPhone app DishFinder - which I also confirmed with Directv.com for my zip code (213, 40, and 70 respectively). I used a compass to accurately point the dish, and completely leveled the mast; elevation and tilt accurately set too. Here is a picture of my dish.

Here is the LNB:

From the LNB runs a 6 foot coax that I Have routed as follows: Dish to Splitter:

Splitter to power source:

Power source to a H23-600 HD receiver. I have been mindful of the red colored terminals to send power all the way through to the Satellite.
I have not been able to receive a signal what-so-ever. I have tried in my backyard, with coordinates identical to my working satellite for my home (that is not SWM however), and have tried at my tailgate location (which we successfully set up SD satellites/receivers in the past – it is very open, not sure it is a line of sight issue).
My home satellite is a Slimeline 5 LNB (not SWM). My DVR at home requires two lines in with special adapters.
For the remote satellite (for which the receiver is not a DVR), I have not been using the adapters. But, because I took this box from my house, I am worried that it has been set-up for the 5LNB and not the 3LNB SWM. On the signal strength screen, I am not able to see SWM as an option. I have tried to manually switch satellites, but am unable due to “No signal”.
Any ideas on what to do next? Is one of my cables possibly bad? I just bought them, but not sure any signal is getting to my receiver. I took the receiver inside to confirm it is working – and it works fine with my home satellite.

 

[caseyf57]

I am unable to receive ANY signal reading on my TV! It's driving me crazy.

So a little background information on the problem that I am having (with plenty of pictures).

My goal is have to an HD feed at my football tailgate this year. I purchased a 3LNB SWM Direct TV Satellite dish, with accompanying splitter and power supply.

Next, I located Azimuth, Elevation, and Skew(tilt) from the iPhone app DishFinder - which I also confirmed with Directv.com for my zip code (213, 40, and 70 respectively). I used a compass to accurately point the dish, and completely leveled the mast; elevation and tilt accurately set too. Here is a picture of my dish.
View attachment 80505
Here is the LNB:
View attachment 80504
From the LNB runs a 6 foot coax that I Have routed as follows: Dish to Splitter:
View attachment 80503
Splitter to power source:
View attachment 80502
Power source to a H23-600 HD receiver. I have been mindful of the red colored terminals to send power all the way through to the Satellite.
I have not been able to receive a signal what-so-ever. I have tried in my backyard, with coordinates identical to my working satellite for my home (that is not SWM however), and have tried at my tailgate location (which we successfully set up SD satellites/receivers in the past – it is very open, not sure it is a line of sight issue).
My home satellite is a Slimeline 5 LNB (not SWM). My DVR at home requires two lines in with special adapters.
For the remote satellite (for which the receiver is not a DVR), I have not been using the adapters. But, because I took this box from my house, I am worried that it has been set-up for the 5LNB and not the 3LNB SWM. On the signal strength screen, I am not able to see SWM as an option. I have tried to manually switch satellites, but am unable due to “No signal”.
Any ideas on what to do next? Is one of my cables possibly bad? I just bought them, but not sure any signal is getting to my receiver. I took the receiver inside to confirm it is working – and it works fine with my home satellite.

Hello mailbox 1372,

I will take a shot at your problem. 1 - Your house is a non-swm system so anytime you use a receiver from a non-swm system and use it on a swm system you need to rerun the setup for a swm system when you tailgate and do the same when you bring it back to your non-swm home system (it is not about swm 3 or swm 5 setup but swm or non-swm setup). The bbc's are used at home for hd on a non-swm system but are not used for the swm system. The dish used for tailgating has one cable from the satellite so it can support 8 tuners. A dvr is considered 2 tuners and a receiver is 1 tuner. If you are using only one hd dvr or one hd receiver you could even get away without a splitter at all. The 8 way is overkill (highest signal loss while the 2 way has the least). You could use a 2 way or a 4 way green label splitter depending upon the number of receivers/dvr's you will use for tailgating. Remember maximum number of tuners is 8 (can not stress this fact enough). No splitter wiring method 1 receiver/dvr. Cable from satellite dish to power inserter port power to swm. Signal to ird cable at least 3 feet or further from dvr/receiver port 2 (no bbc's). 1 green label splitter method. 1 cable from satellite to green label splitter input. Power passing (red terminal circle) port to power inserter port power to swm. 2nd splitter port (non-power passing to satellite receiver/dvr port 1. Keep power inserter at least 3 feet away from any dvr/receiver. Reminder always redo satellite setup when going from a non-swm to a swm setup or a swm to non-swm setup. On the non-swm setup use 2 cables for a dvr with 2 bbc's and 1 cable with a bbc for a receiver. On swm setup use 1 cable with no bbc. I hope that this is not going to confuse you. If I was not clear enough then please ask. Either I or someone else may be able to make it cleared to you. I hope you will enjoy your tailgating with your new setup.

 

[BobStokesbary]

As caseyf5 noted, your first issue is satellite setup. Go to Menu>Settings & Help>Settings>Satellite Dish Setup>Satellite>Repeat Satellite Setup. Set your dish type to 17:Slimline-3S (SWM). I would also get rid of the splitter. For tailgating or one receiver setups you just don't need it. Once you have that corrected you need to be sure you have your dish pointed correctly. I posted the following setup instructions on another thread like yours and will repeat it here.

Now, for aiming. Go to dishpointer.com and set the Satellite line to 101 W DIRECTV 4S... Next enter your location on the first line. You can fine-tune your exact location by moving the green spot to exactly where you are located. This gives you the azimuth and elevation you need to align your dish. I don't know where the elevation marker is on a standard dish, but you should see a red line on the back part of the elevation markings. Use this line to align with the elevation markings embossed in the bracket.

One of the most important steps is to make sure your mounting pole is exactly vertical. None of the other steps will work well if you skip this critical step.

You do all your initial alignment on sat 101. So use the settings you see on the dish pointer site to do you basic setup. I set the elevation first to the number you see on the dish pointer site. It seems to work easier for me. Tighten the elevation bolt enough that the dish will not move while you do the azimuth. Next rotate the dish on your pole until the LNB arm lines up with your compass setting. As Chip noted, keep your compass away from anything metal since that will mess up your setting. Now tighten the pole bolts a bit to keep the dish from moving on its own.

At this point you should see some signal showing up on the meter display. Move the dish slowly left to right and back for the highest reading on the meter. When you get that position, tighten the pole bolts to make sure the dish will not rotate any more. Now move the dish up and down slowly for the best signal reading for the elevation. When you find that position tighten the bolts holding the elevation bracket. For tailgating this should be good enough to get you a workable signal on 101.

Now set your tilt to the offset value you see on dishpointer. Now, you can change your meter satellite setting to 99 or 103 to check for the best tilt while you rotate the tilt on the dish. But, I find that for my RV use it is usually good enough to just set it to the values on dishpointer and leave it alone. I would only mess with it if you have dropout problems with any HD channels.

If you follow these simple steps you should be golden.

Enjoy

 

[mailbox1372]

Thanks Bob and Caseyf5 for the responses.

So, done a lit of research over the past few days and have come to the conclusion that 101w is just a very hard satellite to find. Do you think I need to invest in a signal strenght meter? The Birdog is very expensive, considering I only set this up a few times a year. If I get a meter, could I got the the acutrac 22 pro and an ASL to split the satellite signals?

I've been told that without a meter, set-up could take hours IF I can even locate the satellite at all.

Thoughts????

 

[raoul5788]

The 101 satellite is actually easy to find. If you haven't tried Bob's suggestions, do so. It is a pretty thorough explanation of how to set up a dish. If you don't have any success, come back and we will try to give you some more help.

 

[mailbox1372]

OK - so this is what I will try this evening. I will hook my receiver back into my home system, and change the satellite setting to 17: Slimeline 3S (SWM). I think I will need to hook back into home system, because when I don't, the receiver won't change the seeting due to 'No Signal'.

Outside - I will spend much more energy to make sure my mast is plumb.

Question about signal strenght testing - do I go to Satellite 101 or look for SWM? I've read directions that say I should see a satellite option as SWM. Also, is the signal meter audio? Meaning, will it beep when I get a stronger signal? I use transponder 1.

 

[BobStokesbary]

As Chip mentioned, 101 is really easy to find when you have things working correctly. And, yes you use 101 for your setup. Looking at the SWM is meaningless for aiming. And transponder 1 is as good as anything.

I doubt your signal meter audio works (my HR24 has that option but no sound comes out). If you are serious about a tailgating setup you should have a TV that is fairly portable for this use. Just use that TV for looking at the meter display your receiver generates. On my first setup I did the whole thing in my driveway where I could easily control things.

In looking at your photos again, I see a splitter. Drop that. You don't need that for only one receiver and it only complicates things if something is wrong. On the PI make sure you have it connected correctly. The "to IRD" side goes to your receiver and the "to SWM" side goes to your LNB.

One other thing; I wouldn't want you to give out your specific address, but if you give us your zip code we could at least give you the general settings that you should reference and confirm that you are getting the right basic settings.

Good luck.

 

[mailbox1372]

Thanks everyone. I have tried over and over again, but to no avail. I think the problem is with my receiver. I pluged my receiver back into my 'home' DTV network to confirm that it is working. My question is, how do I program the receiver? Do I select 'Repeat Satellite Set-up' while plugged into my taigate satellite? Or do I change the type of satellite to look for (i.e. 5LNB to Slimeline 3s) while plugged into my home network?

I really hope this last step will help. I have been able to pick up NO signal. My zip code is 43212 - I have been using the following coordinates: 213, 40, 70

The only other thing could be RG6 cabeling. I am using a standard coaxial cable right now, but will be picking up RG6 tonight.

 

[raoul5788]

Your numbers are way off. The azimuth is 231, elevation is 35, and the skew is 62.

 

[digiblur]

Take your time.. Have some patience and you will get it. 101 is super easy to find. I can find it just by eye but I have been doing this a while.

Make sure your mast is plumb. Use one wire from the lnb to your power supply. Follow the labels. Don't hook it up backwards. Use a good wire from the power supply to the receiver. Hook up a tv. Have all of this right next to the dish. No splitters. Power up the power supply and make sure the light is on. Now power up the tv and receiver. Go through the setup and make sure you select the right dish and lnb with swm.

Put the receiver on the 101 signal Page that shows all the transponders. Now slowly move the dish back and forth adjusting the elevation every so slightly.. You will find it. Go slowly... Very slowly and very minor adjustments.. You have to give the meter time to react.

Sent from my C64 w/Epyx FastLoad cartridge

 

[Lanarian]

Wait Wait Wait!! You said you get "No Signal".. If thats what your TV is displaying (That message exactly), then your problem is not with the Dish. It's either the TV is on the wrong input setting, or the cable(s) from the Receiver to the TV is/are bad.
That message is a TV message, not a direcTV message.
If your getting "Searching for Satellite (771)" or "a Satellite Signal could not be detected", then the receiver is most likely set to the wrong Dish Type. For the SWM 3, you want "17: Slimline 3(S) SWM". The multiswitch type will automatically switch to SWM. If it's Sat signal not detected, and the dish type is correct, then you have a bad coax somewhere between the dish and the receiver.
And, finally.. If the dish type is set correctly, you dont have anything besides the power inserter connected and your getting 771, then your dish is pointed wrong.
A "Problem Communicating with Dish (771A), would indicate Dish type set correctly, but a bad coax or connector.

 

[BobStokesbary]

Your numbers are way off. The azimuth is 231, elevation is 35, and the skew is 62.

Chip, I think you mistyped his zip code. When I look at dishpointer his numbers are good.

 

[mailbox1372]

Thanks Digiblur... can someone else confirm the coordinates from raoul... they are not the same ones I am getting from Dish Pointer for 101W.

 

[mailbox1372]

Lanarian -

Thanks for the information. I am almost certain that my issue is with my receiver being set to the wrong dish type. I do not know how to reset it to 17:Slimeline 3s. When connected to the SWM, the receiver will let me try to make the change, but due to no signal, can not verify. I can't improve the signal strenght, becasue my signal strenght meter doesn't work. Do I take the receiver inside, hook up to the home network, and switch that way? Or is there a way to totally rebort the satellite set up (the red bottom in the card door does not do it).

 

[harshness]

Life would probably be easier with a legacy LNB (unless LOS is indeed an issue) since that appears to be what you have at home.

 

[raoul5788]

Chip, I think you mistyped his zip code. When I look at dishpointer his numbers are good.

I double checked Bob. The numbers I gave him are right according to dishpointer.

 

[41963]

do not mean to be rude. but the Az/El and tilt cordinates you have been given are wrong. I do installs in your area regularly for about a year. The numbers are elevation- 41, the tilt in 71 and the azimuth is 212. the easiest way to pick up that 101 is to get you az/el set corectly and swing the dish back and forth between 210 and 215. you will find it quite easily. When you are setting up your receiver there should be no problem with selecting dish type. It is number 17. you can actually unplug the coax all together and still be able to select the correct setting. Also be very careful if you are using rg-59 coming off of your PI. I have seen a rg-59 line melt from the PI being connected for to long. That could be your major problem. Make sure that you are using a solid copper center conductor as well. the swm freq. has a more difficult time traveling on a copper clad steel center conductor, and you will aslo notice a greater attenuation from a copper clad cable. good luck with your set-up. Tell you what you could probably find a local teck in your area who would be willing to hook his meter up to your system. Should only take a few minutes with a good meter to figure out the problem.

 

[41963]

when you get your receiver connected to your swm set-up reset the receiver using the red button on the front. when the screen pops up saying hello welcome to or whatever quickly punch in 0,2,4,6,8 on your remote and allow for the receiver to take a download. this will give the receiver the newest software available and i have found that switching from a legacy setup to a swm setup the receiver will need this download.

 

[raoul5788]

I checked zip 43212 in my HR20 and it does show 213, 40, and 70. Sorry for the wrong information, but that's what dishpointer has.

 

[harshness]

I checked zip 43212 in my HR20 and it does show 213, 40, and 70. Sorry for the wrong information, but that's what dishpointer has.

Did you specify the correct dish setup? I get 213.7, 40.2, 69.8 from dishpointer.com when using the MultiLNB DIRECTV SL3. The numbers you cited in post #9 are considerably closer to the numbers for the Phase III dish (225.2, 36.1, 61.6).