Tailgate dish aiming tips

[vanflip]

Hi all,

Have a dish pro 500, DP301 rec, and am hoping to gain some advice to improve my aiming of the dish.

I have been able to get signal w/o a challenge; just poor. Aiming to 119, and am only able to get about 50%. I constantly go from tv to no signal. No matter what I do, elevation, azimuth, skew, I can't get any better than this.

Any advice?

Thanks!

 

[GoWulfpack]

My Vip211 will keep a signal at 30%.

 

[Scherrman]

Having signal for 119 at 50 is great. What is your signal for 110?

 

[lakebum431]

As they said, 50% should be just fine. You said you have a Dish 500. I assume that you are running a check switch after you aim? That usually clears up errors (especially if you use the 301 on any other setup elsewhere).

The previous question was key. What is your signal on 110? Use transponder 11 on both 119 and 110 to give us the numbers so we know exactly what you are looking at.

Other than that there are some big keys to a portable setup. I tailgate with a Dish 1000.2 so it gets three satellites so I know what you are going through. First and foremost, with a multisatellite setup (like the Dish 500) you need to make sure that the mast that you have the dish on is perfectly level. Yes, you really do need to take a level with you and make sure it is leveled both front to back and side to side. It really does matter! Second, set the skew to what it should be for your location and leave it. Do not adjust it again. Next, elevation. Set it to what dish has but I've found that in the southeast I usually have to increase it by about 2 points on what Dish has listed (I'm not sure about in Oregon). Third (and only after you have done the other steps) start slowly moving the dish back and forth in the direction of the satellties. You should be able to get good signal on both satellites pretty easy. Then run the checkswitch.

Also, if you find that you are getting dropouts after you "should" have a good signal then you can tune a little more for that specific channel. Figure out which satellite and which transponder that channel is on (hit menu 6 1 1 or go to The Echostar Knowledge Base and look it up). Then make very slight movements to adjust for that specific transponder. You'll be amazed what a difference the slightest movement can make. Good luck!