tale of woe - help needed

[lee1]

help needed - Star choice 315 set up

A few weeks ago my SC dish was hit by lightning. The DSR 405 receiver was unplugged but because it was connected via the coax to the dish it got fried. I have obtained a lower end receiver the DSR 315. However I have tried to move from the 60E dish to the 75E. I have not removed the 60E dish yet. I was not sure if it got fried. But when I hooked up the receiver all I saw was the red dish (no signal). I have now tried to temporarily mount the new dish in front of the old one until I get a new mount welded - since the bolts for the 2 mounts do not match up. I thought my alignment was close but I cannot be sure. However, I am still getting the red dish/ no signal indicator on the front of the receiver. So here are the questions due to the no signal:

1) How much can I assume that my coax that runs to the house is still good after the lightning strike on the dish?

2)Assuming the coax is good - how close do I have to be with alignment to get an indication of having a signal? Despite the fact I have just received the replacement receiver and dish I have no immediate way of knowing if they are good as well. I bought these items from a Canadian seller on Ebay. They were advertised as new and appear to be - although the receiver did not come with a remote but I knew that and it was ok since my 405 remote works with the 315. FYI - I am tuned to channel 284 for set up.

3) The receiver/dish did not come with set up instructions so I am just trying to recall what I did when I hooked up the other system. Is there any way to test the receiver without having a signal? Digging up the concrete encased pipe to weld a new mast mount is going to be time consuming.

4) Does anyone have a 75E dish set up manual? My 60E dish has an indicator as part of the screw/bolt for inclination, etc. I see no such indicators on the bolts on the 75E. Also, the clamp mount assembly is one piece without a center pivot - so I don't understand how it adjusts - unless I have a missing part.

I feel like I am working in the dark on this re-install so any tips would be appreciated.
thanks!

 

[Satellite Expert]

You cannot assume that the coax has not been fried. The dish aim has to be exact. Here is link to instructions: http://www.kusat.com/go.php?path=/install/sc.php

I hope you called SC with the 315 serial # before buying to confirm $0 balance.

Good luck.

 

[icstephen]

Im sure you've tried this but there is a meter in the options section of the 315, it is a bit slow but get in the vicinity of the satellite and very slowly move the dish (it has both a tone and a meter). it only took me 5 min to get a solid signal using this method (the only negative is that you have to have a tv and the receiver close by).

steve

 

[philhu]

I took a dish lightning hit 4 yrs ago. It fried 4 rcvrs dish and DTV and all 4 underground coax wires

What a pain.

 

[PhillyOTA]

If the receiver was only connected to the dish, the surge had to come through the coax. The coax is most likely toast, even if you can't see any external damage.

Eddie

 

[lee1]

Thanks and follow up

Thanks for the replies. The KUSAT link really showed what those mysterious brass washers were for. Any other guides links will be appreciated.

If I assume for a moment that the coax was fried then can I do the following to test the receiver and connections?:

Directly attach a short piece of coax (about 8 feet) to the LNB coax connector - have the receiver outside - have a small TV outside. Attach the other end of the short coax to the receiver and then run a coax output to the coax connector on the back of the TV. Although this seems straightforward I want to make sure that having the reciever a short distance away from the dish does not present problems.

FYIs: to those who have replied:
I have not yet tried the meter in the 315 yet. I was waiting till I actually got some signal rather than the red dish (no signal).

The unit was packaged in a way that makes me believe it has never been initialized. But being in the US I can't call SC directly. I go through my broker.

 

[Mr Tony]

Once you hook the cable up to the LNB, go into the ebno screen
options 6-0-5 rightn arrow to diagnostic C

On the right there is a number thats either + or -
If it doesnt move and it a - (like -1.0) then either the LNB is shot or the dish moved
If its a + (like +9.9) then the LNB is good.

I have a 315 and this is the easiest way to fine tune a dish

 

[lee1]

indicators for skew elevation?

One thing I still don't see is what works as the marker for the elevation numbers. I just figured out the marker for the skew. My 60E had a little line as part of a bolt with skew and for the elevation. I still don't see such an indicator with the 75E. Any tips?

 

[Van]

During the end of june and begining of july we had some nasty electrical storms roll through the detroit windsor area, from these storms Ive replaced / reinstalled over 2 dozen systems including the coax due to direct and indirect ( hit the house or hit the ground close enough to the house to come back through the house ground ) lightning hits. The ones that took a direct hit definitely had to have the coax replaced, one system had the coax buried 4 - 6ft deep and still took a hit to the system from lightning hitting a tree 150ft from the house frying everything.

 

[lee1]

update

After digging up the post that held my 60E from 2 ft of cement and welding on a new plate mount for the 75E (because the mounts for the 2 don't match) adding soil and a new bag of Quickcrete I mounted the new dish.

I used a temporary coax run and quickly got a signal on Satellite A4. Signal quality in the regular read out is 80+ and in the ENBO diagnostic I have a 9.0.

The provider ID still reads 0 but I think that gets filled in after activation?
I then decided to check the old coax that runs underground. It works! So, I don't have to run cable again.

Later today I will be contacting my broker and going through re-activation.

Thanks for Everyone's help - particularly Iceberg and Satellite Expert.

 

[Mr Tony]

as long as you have an ebno # of higher than +5, once the "hit" is sent youll be OK....provider ID changes with the equipment (LNB type)

 

[lee1]

a weird development

My broker activated my system earlier this morning.

I came home to check things out and I turned the receiver on. It was dialed to channel 534 because it was the last channel I did the signal check for. I then switched to 299 and left it their for 30 minutes to do the channel mapping.

I then started checking a few channels just to see what was on. For some reason I am getting some channels I used to get and not others. Here are a couple of examples:
I do get 303, 304,305, 500, 502, 504...

Some channels I don't receive:
300,301,302,400, 401, 600, 601, 602,...
On the channels that I do not receive the dish on the receiver goes from green to red indicating that there is no signal. I get the message "we are processing your request" - of course also an indicator of no signal.

Anyone have any ideas of what is going on?

 

[Uplink]

try leaving it on a channel that doesn't work for a while. if that doesn't work try resetting it.

 

[Jumbo Dumbo]

Wrong channel maps. You are getting vertical transponders only.

So if you have stacked map, it should be unstacked. If you have unstacked map, it should be stacked.

 

[lee1]

Is there a diagnostic I can go into to confirm if it is set up for stacked or unstacked?

The label on my LNB says that it is non stacked.

 

[Mr Tony]

call your broker and have them call SC to "rehit" the unit

 

[lee1]

It took two calls from the broker to SC but I am now fully connected. Thanks to all.