Warped dish?

[Charlym]

I was at a Dish retailer this morning picking up some RG-6 cable and asked him some questions.

I just bought a new dish 1000.4 dish to use on a tri-pod camping in Florida.

I asked him about aiming this dish, and he said good luck, and it might take up to 2 hours!

Then he said something I never heard before, he said that these dishes come warped from the factory, and some are so bad, that the installer can't get all 3 sats.

I've never had a problem with the dish 500, aiming 110, and 119 sats.


What is he talking about? Is the shape of the dish as a reflector so important that you can't get a signal?

Has anyone with a 1000.4 had this problem?

I haven't tried this dish out yet , and won't until the middle of Dec. in Florida.

 

[ardeel]

who ever sold you the dish is a idiot...2 hrs to tune a dish ? its not any harder than tuning a dish 500, if any thing its more forgiving in the elevation range. The shape of the reflector is extremly important. They are packed pretty solid when shipped in bulk and i have never received any out of shape from the factory. if you have a bent reflector, your "salesman" is most likely responsible. You should try it a.s.a.p. because Dec. may be too late for a refund. I have tried tuning out of shape reflectors, usually due to tri pod tipping over, and was un able to get a strong signal from any sat. but im sure that is relative to how out of shape it is

 

[Charlym]

Thanks for the reply,

I did not buy the dish from him, and until a couple of days ago didn't know he existed.

I bought the dish from a eBay merchant, and was delivered UPS.

The box looked fine, with a slight tear, so I didn't refuse it.

When I finally took out the parts, and looked at the dish, it looked like they dropped the box, and one corner on the rim, on the back was slightly bent back, but looking at the front, looked fine!

I took a rubber malet, and with a few wacks, knocked out the dent.

I don't think this should have an affect on the performance of the dish.

Buying it on eBay, I have no recourse, and the whole thing was only $80 bucks.

I don't think the shape, or integrity was hurt, with this slight impact.

ardeel, are you a installer?

Do you know if a VIP622 pre-recorded program will work off the hard drive, if the receiver isn't hooked up to a dish, and can't phone home?

I have a external hard drive too, and when I get to my destination, and for whatever reason, can't get service with the dish, will I be able to watch what is is already recorded?

 

[ardeel]

yes you can watch pre recorded shows with out a connection to the dish. a small dent in the convex of the reflector usually is acceptable for example if it were hit by a baseball, what renders them useless is being twisted or slightly folded

 

[Charlym]

ardeel thanks again.

The dent was not in the convex of the reflector at all, just on the back rim which I was able to straighten out, so I guess it will ok.

By the time we are going to leave, I should have over 80 hrs of HD movies, and TV on both the internal and external HDD's.

That should hold me for a while!

 

[dishcomm]

I was at a Dish retailer this morning picking up some RG-6 cable and asked him some questions.

I just bought a new dish 1000.4 dish to use on a tri-pod camping in Florida.

I asked him about aiming this dish, and he said good luck, and it might take up to 2 hours!

Then he said something I never heard before, he said that these dishes come warped from the factory, and some are so bad, that the installer can't get all 3 sats.

I've never had a problem with the dish 500, aiming 110, and 119 sats.


What is he talking about? Is the shape of the dish as a reflector so important that you can't get a signal?

Has anyone with a 1000.4 had this problem?

I haven't tried this dish out yet , and won't until the middle of Dec. in Florida.

It happens. Dishes soemtimes come from the mfgr damged or warped. However there was no earthly reason for the retailer to deliver such doom and gloom.
Sounds to me like he's one of these pricks that because you won't hire him to install your stuff, he's going to give you a hard time.
It should not take long. Plumb the mast and set the dish on the mast..Now, carefully follow these guidelines...
After setting the dish on the mast, "snug" the three bolts on the clamp just enough so the that dish does not "rock" on the mast...
One other thing. When setting the elevation, set it just a tick higher( about a degree) than the publsihed number. What this does is compensates for the weight of the mast and lnb. Now, turn ther dish to the east well past the published degree setting for your azimuth. Then sweep it slowly to the West( right)....This method helps you avoid pciking up the sats at 81* west. Made that boo boo before.
Just remeber to move the dish left or right slowly and when you see your meter acquire signal, slow down. Go until the meter peaks and slightly past that to make sure you are on the correct birds. Then mave the dish back to the highest signal....Now, tighten the mast clamp bolts carefully without moving the dish....Now gently grasp the top and bottom of the dish. Pull back until the meter signal weakens. If it gets stronger, loosen the nuts on your elevation. Now wiht those nuts snug but just enough to allow movement up or down, move the dish up( back from the top) until the meter shows a slight decline in signal. STOP. Hold the dishj in place and tighten the elevation nuts....If the dish is properly peaked, it is time to check your work...have soemone inside fire up your tv and look at the signal atrength on the screen. Hopefully you'll be at least in the 50's on all transponders. This should be adequate. You can tryo to fine tune the dish as well.
Tuning the D-1000.4 is a somewhat difficult task without a good meter. However it can be done by using the method above

 

[dishcomm]

Thanks for the reply,

I did not buy the dish from him, and until a couple of days ago didn't know he existed.

I bought the dish from a eBay merchant, and was delivered UPS.

The box looked fine, with a slight tear, so I didn't refuse it.

When I finally took out the parts, and looked at the dish, it looked like they dropped the box, and one corner on the rim, on the back was slightly bent back, but looking at the front, looked fine!

I took a rubber malet, and with a few wacks, knocked out the dent.

I don't think this should have an affect on the performance of the dish.

Buying it on eBay, I have no recourse, and the whole thing was only $80 bucks.

I don't think the shape, or integrity was hurt, with this slight impact.

ardeel, are you a installer?

Do you know if a VIP622 pre-recorded program will work off the hard drive, if the receiver isn't hooked up to a dish, and can't phone home?

I have a external hard drive too, and when I get to my destination, and for whatever reason, can't get service with the dish, will I be able to watch what is is already recorded?

I'm sorry I did not go deeper into the thread....
9 times out of ten, a dish in the condition you described is now a bird bath.
You may have recourse against UPS because they are responsible for the safe transport of what they carry.

 

[rocket69]

A bent dish is a pain to peak and it will never get you all you need. I have gone to many service calls and installs are new with 2-3 service calls from DNS. Customer is on the verge of ditching the dish.

best way to tell is put the dish vertical stand behind it and look down. if the left and the right look like they are the same all is well .

If the left or the right is bending out more then the other it is bent and you need to replace the reflector no real way around it for the end user other then pointing it out to the tech.

 

[Charlym]

A bent dish is a pain to peak and it will never get you all you need. I have gone to many service calls and installs are new with 2-3 service calls from DNS. Customer is on the verge of ditching the dish.

best way to tell is put the dish vertical stand behind it and look down. if the left and the right look like they are the same all is well .

If the left or the right is bending out more then the other it is bent and you need to replace the reflector no real way around it for the end user other then pointing it out to the tech.

The dish looks perfect! The bend was mild on the lower left corner of the rim on the back of the dish, it did not affect the shape of the reflector.

I'll just have to wait until I get to Florida and try it.

If it doesn't work, I'll just go to a Dish dealer, and pick up another reflector.

To much of a hassle to put in a claim with UPS, considering that the whole dish only cost $ 80 bucks!

Thank you all for the advice/help.

 

[rocket69]

if its just the rim you shuld be just fine. dishpointer.com will help you get within the ball park

 

[satcomm@live.com]

hey guy not sure if you read my post on troubleshooting but dish receivers can not CAN NOT but used with out a dish, Like i said the system will surge voltage untill it burns its self out and then you will be all kinds of mad because you have 80 hours of recorded stuff and the dish guys telling you he cant copy to another receiver

 

[ardeel]

hey guy not sure if you read my post on troubleshooting but dish receivers can not CAN NOT but used with out a dish, Like i said the system will surge voltage untill it burns its self out and then you will be all kinds of mad because you have 80 hours of recorded stuff and the dish guys telling you he cant copy to another receiver

this news to me.....ive used my 722 to watch recordings several times, for hours, without being connected to a dish. as a matter of fact with one of the recent software updates i noticed it says "you have lost signal, you may watch recorded shows until its fixed". i realize the intention is that its still connected to the dish, but i would hope the software engineers would take a cut or disconnected cable into account

 

[GGAG]

Without a dish connected to my VIP211 am I allowed to watch OTA channels? I had installed the VIP211K in the RV, and after connecting everything except for the dish input to the receiver, I found that I could play recordings from the EHD just fine. Since I now had a decent OTA antenna, I would try that out also. When I tried to access the Local channels menu item under settings, the following message was displayed.
024 Unable to Access this Feature at this time. Data not available.
Can anyone shed more light on this message? In reading other threads I have seen that the exact same message is displayed for a hard drive problem.

 

[rocket69]

Axx to scan locals you have to have a working and active vip on any dish bird. Then you can scan. I have not tryed to see if ota still works after you disconect the reciver . My gess is that I will work untill you remove the power going to the box.

As for blowing out the tuner on a dvr for having it not hooked up is bs. Your box tunes to 12v or 18v to tune into a transponder on a dish. When you are watching any live program the tuner will keep that voltage going un less your box is off

 

[Claude Greiner]

If the Dish is bent of warped, throw it away and get another one. Not worth wasting your time messing with.

 

[GGAG]

Axx to scan locals you have to have a working and active vip on any dish bird. Then you can scan. I have not tryed to see if ota still works after you disconect the reciver . My gess is that I will work untill you remove the power going to the box.

As for blowing out the tuner on a dvr for having it not hooked up is bs. Your box tunes to 12v or 18v to tune into a transponder on a dish. When you are watching any live program the tuner will keep that voltage going un less your box is off

Thanks Rocket69. I was almost ready to contact Dishnetwork. It will be about a week before I can park the RV for more than a couple of days, and get the dish set up. Guess I'll have to rely on the old OTA digital to analog converter till then.

 

[Phils]

Your box tunes to 12v or 18v to tune into a transponder on a dish. When you are watching any live program the tuner will keep that voltage going un less your box is off

Doesn't the voltage to the LNB stay 'on' even if the receiver is 'off'? I say that because 1) the receiver uses the same power (~ 50w) whether it is on or off and 2) while connecting and removing my dish-finding-meter on this last trip, I aways did it with the receiver 'off' and was able to hear a tiny arc/spark anyway.

This was also the first I've ever heard of problems when you watch the DVR without a dish attached. It's something I've done for years, but maybe I've never accumulated enough hours to cause a problem This last trip camping was the first in a decade that I even took a dish, tho I was only able to pick up 119 (good enough). Normally we camp in thick forest so a dish hasn't been an option. It's always been "acquiring satellite signal" appears, then go to DVR.

Phil