To use a Switch or not? DISH 500 system

[atvwillie]

Greetings,
First, thanks for providing this forum...I've spent 3 days searching the web (including your forums) & have decided to finally just post my problem. I care-take a remote property so getting a tech guy out here (as DISH suggested) is out of the question. I don't know the entire set-up of this system as the owner's are unavailable for contact. Here's what I know: We're using a Dish 500 with (1) dual LNB & 1 receiver. Problem: Unable to acquire satellite 119 (transponder 3). This has been going on the 6 winters I've care-taken the place but I've decided to attempt to resolve the issue as a challenge (and to watch football as it's now shown only on channels that use this satellite apparently!!). After spending 20 minutes on the phone with DISH tech support they claimed the problem was a defective switch (and something they advised I couldn't fix or replace myself)...I traced the cables & ends up there is no switch installed (tech support came out for the initial installation years ago but the owner's could have mistakenly removed parts over the years, etc, as things sometimes get done like that out here). Am I understanding this correctly? The owner's must have planned on 2 receivers initially since they went for the dual LNB (one of the cables is just hanging loose outside now & used to lead to another bedroom - now they have a splitter on the only receiver & a cable from this leads to the 2nd TV). Do we indeed need a SW-21 (or other switch) to fix the problem? If so, I don't get why we test OK for satellites 61.5W, 110W, 148W & 119W (AND on all transponders but 3 to the best of my knowledge). By the way, any switch test I try says "no switch box detected". Please set me straight somebody! Many thanks!

 

[Smith P.]

YOu should continue trace the cable, you can't get 61.5W or/and 148W form one D500. Should be two more dishes(?!).
COuld you post pictures of your TV screen with finished switch check ?

 

[atvwillie]

Switch round II - Photo as requested

Thank you, thank you for your quick reply! Please see photo. I see what you're saying now....I mistakenly though I was getting all the satellites I listed but it's only possible to get 119 & 110 (and only 119 is registering) with the one dish that's present. Another question came up too....I saw on the screen that pops up just before the photo was taken (when you can select the 4 satellites & transponders) a box to check that says "Dish 500"...should this be checked on 119, 110, both or neither? I may be mistaken but I don't think either was checked at the moment. So, what are your thoughts now? PS When I'm unable to view a channel it'll say (error message) " 002 Satellite signal has been lost, signal acquisition is in progress. Please wait or press the (up or down) arrow button to change channels. Satellite 119 Transponder 3"

 

[TNGTony]

First of all, a switch check tests only odd and even transponders (no specific numbers) on all satellite locations. The picture you attached shows that 119° switch check is fine. However you cannot receive any other satellite at this time.

Okay, if you have a Dish 500 with a TWIN LNB it would look like this

Picture http://www.echostaruser.com
And you should be able to pick up 110° and 119°.

If you have a Dish 500 with two DUAL LNBs it would look like this

Picture http://www.echostaruser.com

You could have a single dual LNB but it would have one of the two LNBs on the second picture missing.

----
If you have a Twin LNB (1st picture), the switch is built in to the housing of the LNB and replacement is the only option. HOWEVER this may not be the problem with your 119° tp 3!!!!

Transponder 3 at 119° is a spot beam transponder. This means that signal on this transponder only hits certain parts of the country. Can you receive signal from any odd numbered transponder at 119° 11-21? If the answer is yes, then a switch is DEFINITELY not the answer.

In your description of the problem you mentioned a DUAL LNB (not a Twin). If you have a DUAL LNB, then you can ONLY receive one satellite at a time. My guess is this is your set-up and everything is okay, you just are at a location where the spot beam signal does not reach you. What town or zip is your dish physically in? If you rather not say, look at www.echostaruser.com and check out the spot beam maps. Specifically http://ekb.dbstalk.com/pictures/echo7.gif

Tony

 

[boba]

It sounds like this receiver is actually at the customers home and is "temporarily moved" to the current location so it isn't seeing all the channels.

 

[Smith P.]

atvwillie
if you could make another picture of previous screen selecting sat 119 and tp3; what SS value there ?
And a picture like Tony posted will help too - you missed 110W somehow.

 

[atvwillie]

Thank you for the replies & pictures. Satellite 119 Transponders 11-21 test out fine. We do only have 1 dual LNB although the dish is very different from your photos. It is aprx 6 ft in diameter & says "Channel Master" on it. When I'm on the satellite test page the button does say "DISH 500" in the top right corner & that's what I figured we had. The receiver itself says it's an "Echostar DV3 3000". If it helps I'll take a photo of the dish/receiver in the daylight tomorrow.

I'm in Alaska...according to the chart it doesn't look like we're in the trans. 3 spot beam, right? It sure would have been nice if the DISH tech guy I talked to a few days ago would have told me this if that's the only problem!

While the owner's of the property are away, they didn't take any of the system with them and are not using it elsewhere.

I can take a photo of the screen like I did before but when I put it on Sat 119 transponder 3 there is no reading...it simply says "not locked"

To summarize, in order to get the channels football is currently on (that claims we're missing 119 T3) if we purchased a second dual LNB with switch or a dual LNB (switch built in) this wouldn't solve anything as we'd still be out of the spot beam for the necessary transponder (3), right?! Or, would we have access to those channels utilizing the second satellite (110)?! Hmmm.

THANKS FOR YOUR PATIENCE as my knowledge is (obviously!) quite limited on the subject.

 

[TNGTony]

Correct, a switch and 110 Dish/LNB would not do anything about 119 tp 3. You absolutely, positively cannot get transponder 3 tp 119 in Alaska.

If by "Football" you mean the play-offs and Superbowl, you need local channels to get these. All remaining NFL games are on one of the 4 majpr networks.

Anchorage local channels are on 119 transponder 9. This is also a spot beam that covers most of Alaska. However you cannot subscribe to these channels outside the Anchorage area.

If you are outside the Anchorage area and in a locaton where no local ABC, CBS, NBC or Fox affiliate can provide signal, you can subscribe to NPS service for distant networks from SF and Atlanta. http://ekb.dbstalk.com/dishnets.htm. These are on tp 15 at 119

See ya
Tony

 

[boba]

Correct, a switch and 110 Dish/LNB would not do anything about 119 tp 3. You absolutely, positively cannot get transponder 3 tp 119 in Alaska.

If by "Football" you mean the play-offs and Superbowl, you need local channels to get these. All remaining NFL games are on one of the 4 majpr networks.

Anchorage local channels are on 119 transponder 9. This is also a spot beam that covers most of Alaska. However you cannot subscribe to these channels outside the Anchorage area.

If you are outside the Anchorage area and in a locaton where no local ABC, CBS, NBC or Fox affiliate can provide signal, you can subscribe to NPS service for distant networks from SF and Atlanta. http://ekb.dbstalk.com/dishnets.htm. These are on tp 15 at 119

See ya
Tony

Tony I believe this poster said he was a caretaker for this camp so I don't think he can order programming. Also from the fact his locals are on Transponder 3 this unit is probably supposed to be in some other part of the country and is only a $5 additional receiver on an account. If I am right even if he could order programming he couldn't qualify at the location where the receiver is supposed to be. He will probably have to be happy with football reports and replays on ESPN.

 

[atvwillie]

Thanks!

Gotcha....thank you. You really saved a lot of frustration, time & money. Tony, the link you sent explains a lot. ...I'll forward it to the owners & let them decide what they want to do. Thank you all for your input...this website is great!

 

[TNGTony]

Glad you are here! And glad you got the info you needed! Please feel free to "hang out" and enjoy the rest of the site. Let us know if you need anything else!

Tony

 

[KE4EST]

Where do the owners live other than Alaska. Thats gotta be why TP3 is not working, the receiver is set-up to pick up locals from another area.

 

[yogi64]

Atvwillie,
If your in the Fairbanks area they will proably deny a request like they did me, from mydistantnetworks, for locals, (no football). I have a 6' @119, 30"@148 and unitl Nov, canx locals due to being a distant network customer, was happy with Anchorage locals. However, I've had to get a 4' dish for 110, for fairbanks locals (football) but this is temporary till grd thaws in spring and swap w/6'. If you plan on trying to collect both 110/119 on the 6' dish youll need a special bracket to split lnb's and can be tricky to get aligned. There are some local installers out here that do well with it, and get a good install fee too. Personally, I would recomend what I've read in these forums on issue, use 2 seperate DishPro LNB's, point 6' at 110, 4' at 119, run single cable from each lnb to a DPxx type switch (depending on # receivers). good luck

 

[atvwillie]

All is dandy

TOUCHDOWN! I ordered "All American Direct" from the link you provided & within 24 hours we had access to the major networks (and thus football). Like I said, sure wish the DISH techs would have explained this in the first place. To the Fairbanks viewer - best of luck to you, sorry access wasn't as easy in your location. Thanks again Satellite Guys!

 

[TNGTony]

COOL!!! So you got to see Indy do to the Patriots what they did the the Bengals in the regular season! Amazing game. I've never seen a team (other than the Bengals) self-distruct like that before! The Saints came close.

Enjoy your network TV!

See ya
Tony

 

[Anole]

big dishes for Dish

There are at least two other recent threads discussing how to mount a second LNB on an Alaskan 6' dish to get the 110º bird, too.
Same for Mexican viewers. I think Puerto Rico had additional worries.
Search for keywords Alaska or Mexico in this forum section, and they should pop up.
Not more than 4 months back.
The forum members came up with all the (simple) details on where to place the 2nd LNB, what kind to use, et al.

edit:
the Alaska story: "Dish 500" out of a True-Focus 1.8M?
this is the Mexico story: Adding 110 to 119 on same Dish
here is Puerto Rico: Additional HD channels in Puerto Rico

 

[atvwillie]

Anole: Thanks, I'll be sure to get my info here if they ever decide to put on an "addition" to their system....for now, all's just fine. I appreciate the information. Cheers

 

[Anole]

There's stuff on the 110º bird they may be paying for and not getting.
Or, they may want to add some HBO-type channels.
Don't know if they'd qualify for Fairbanks local channels, but that's where they are.
I see you've solved your immediate problem - just covering all the bases