Trying to avoid dish mover need help

[Su Meri]

I "moved"to california to be able to receive local hd's here in Vegas. Now I have really moved to another house in vegas. Needless to say I could not call dishmover since my service address would change again. I have all the settings correct (elevation skew etc.) but cannot adjust the azimuth to get any signal at all. How, without the aid of a compass, can I figure out where to point my dish? I have been playing with it for two days going back and forth from the dish to tv and I have never received even a hint of a signal.
Now it's 9:30 and we have missed half of 24 and my wife is pissed!
Help!!!

 

[Jared Twomey]

what type of dish are you pointing, and which satellite locations are you trying to pick up? And are you doing this without any kind of a meter?
I'll give ya a quick runthrough of how to do this.
First thing is make sure that your mast is plumb, otherwise you will have to compensate on the elevation, skew, ect.
Also, that said... the elevation number is a starting point, not the end all. Usually you will end up moving it up or down a bit to "peak" the signal. The skew you should be able to leave where its at.
And then basically move the dish left to right until you get a signal on the receiver (if doing this without a meter)
Also, if you are relying on the reciever to tell you when you have a signal, you are better off having someone inside watching the tv while you move the dish VERY slowly, as some of the receivers can take a few seconds to register anything.
If you really get fed up and cant figure it out, what I would do is call a local retailer and have them come out and line it up. Don't do it as a dishmover and just have them do a service call. We do this all the time for people that setup their own systems at lake houses, ect. and just charge them a service call fee of about $65.

If this is your first attempt to line up a dish, take your time. It is a pretty precise thing to do. If you have the dish out of line by a quarter inch or so, it won't work.

 

[Su Meri]

Thanks bird,
I think I'll call in for some help with an installer like you recommended. I think I am having some swithc problems because I am getting an error when I run my switch test. Strange since I took everything from my old house where it was working fine.
Thanks again for the help

 

[lakebum431]

It really isn't that hard. But you do need a compass. Just run down to walmart or somewhere and get a cheap one. That will get you close enough, then you can just play with it until you get it dead on.

 

[Su Meri]

I got an installer out for $75, he came right away. Everything works great except for tonight I noticed that my HD locals are not coming in. I called dish and they said that my HD locals (LA HD locals) are on sat 129. We only set it up for 110 and 119 which both have good signals.
I will call the guy back out tomorrow, unless anyone has an idea of what I need to adjust to get a signal from 129 without messing up my other two?
I want to do it myself but I do not want to screw everything up!

 

[Jared Twomey]

is it a Dish500 or a Dish1000?
If it is a Dish1000 it should already have 129 locked in if 110 and 119 are lined up properly.
If it is a Dish1000, go into the Menu, and press "6,1,1" Then go to "check switch".
That screen should show you what satellites are connected.

 

[Su Meri]

Thanks Bird, it's a dish 1000, I just posted an update on another thread, but I am about to give up. Both 110 and 119 are locked in about 88, but 129 will not lock in. A second installer spent about 2 hours here this evening trying to get 129 to show up but couldn't get it. Now I'm missing a large chunk of HD including my HD locals.
Any ideas?
They are coming back tomorrow with a new LNBS but I am not hopeful

 

[VegasVoomer]

129 is pretty much unobtainable from Vegas. I use a second dish aimed at 61.5.