Hi, new here. This is my setup. Big dish taken down, small dish put on post, about 200ft to house (NEVER any signal or picture problems with big dish), used old ribbon cable underground, lightning protection outside house and inside, box had problems from day 1 indicated by necessity of pulling off coax on feed line to start satellite download (box would work fine all day but each night had to pull coax to restart system download data and find satellites). Those problems aside, was watching HBO fine Saturday, went to work in garage, very windy suspect old dish nearby rolled and hit new dish, no satellites. Have measured voltage to dish from box, getting 19.4vdc. Noted dish was moved about 15 degrees east. Went to satellite finder and put dish where I think it should be. Skew seems OK. Elevation not moved (I painted all hardware so see no marks or scratches where dish might have moved). No picture. Can I use my 1.9GHz spectrum analyzer to look at one of the outputs at the dish to check for satellite strength? I don't have anyway to look higher than 2GHz as that is all instrument is capable of. Never purchased a tuning device. Old dish was rock solid, never a problem. Can't seem to find a web site with info as to frequency of LNB outputs, so don't know where to look for dish signals. I am on East Coast, so using 1000.4 with 61.5, 72, 77. Any technical info will be appreciated. In past was broadcast engineer, so have access to lots of equipment but no analyzer higher than 2GHz and no satellite equipment, all for radio. Thanks.
Wind storm, system stopped working
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DishPro LNBs and DishPro Plus switches use 950-2150 MHz. The 1000.4 is notoriously difficult to point; I doubt that you'll find the sats again without a meter. I've heard that a bent dish will also kill the signal.
You need to secure that BUD, bud. Comparisons to other kinds of equipment and unrelated issues are not helpful in isolating the problem.
The 1000.4 isn't impossible to point without a finder, but you do need to inspect the dish carefully to see that it isn't warped/bent. Is the mast still plumb atop the post?
The 1000.4 isn't impossible to point without a finder, but you do need to inspect the dish carefully to see that it isn't warped/bent. Is the mast still plumb atop the post?
Thanks for the answers to my problem. I looked at the installation again. I DO NOT see any obvious injury to the dish, marks, bending, etc. I can put a level on the mount to be sure it is straight plumb. I remeasured to be sure I have voltage going into the dish, I do. I am going to remove the coax lead and be sure I have voltage appearing at the LNB. There are four females there. How is this wired? Is there a difference where the input is? Is there any exclusive output? Thanks.
I pulled all the wires and have varying 3 to 5 volts appearing at the LNB, but 18.5 at the input to the dish wiring. All the connectors are heavily laden with silicone sealant and I suspect ONE problem is insufficient voltage to the dish. Can anyone tell me what voltage the LNB requires for proper operation? Thanks.
Don't get ahead of yourself with voltage measurements. The output of the DISH is RF (in the IF band mentioned above), not DC.
There should be three outputs and one input (for an additional satellite slot).
As long as there's no external switchgear, each output can drive a receiver/DVR. There must be a one-to-one relationship between the output and the associated receiver.
In all likelihood, the problem is aiming and taking the dish apart only risks making it worse. Remember that the dish is trying to focus on something the size of a small BUD that is 22,000 miles away.
The secret is going to lie in having direct access to the signal meter in a receiver. To do that you need to either set up a receiver at the dish or have someone on the inside with some sort of two-way electronic communication (yelling probably won't get it at 200').
Using the "Point Dish" option from the installation menu, choose slot 61.5W and rotate the dish on the mast until it shows a signal. It will tell you if you're pointing at the wrong satellite.
Once you're pointed at the right satellite, rotate the dish gently back and forth until you get the best signal. Make sure that you don't lose signal when you tighten the bolts down.
If there's no signal anywhere, your dish (or LNB assembly) is probably tweaked.
There should be three outputs and one input (for an additional satellite slot).
As long as there's no external switchgear, each output can drive a receiver/DVR. There must be a one-to-one relationship between the output and the associated receiver.
In all likelihood, the problem is aiming and taking the dish apart only risks making it worse. Remember that the dish is trying to focus on something the size of a small BUD that is 22,000 miles away.
The secret is going to lie in having direct access to the signal meter in a receiver. To do that you need to either set up a receiver at the dish or have someone on the inside with some sort of two-way electronic communication (yelling probably won't get it at 200').
Using the "Point Dish" option from the installation menu, choose slot 61.5W and rotate the dish on the mast until it shows a signal. It will tell you if you're pointing at the wrong satellite.
Once you're pointed at the right satellite, rotate the dish gently back and forth until you get the best signal. Make sure that you don't lose signal when you tighten the bolts down.
If there's no signal anywhere, your dish (or LNB assembly) is probably tweaked.
Voltage measured to ensure continuity to dish. Upon further inspection, I don't think dish was hit, but blown off position by strong winds. I say this because the bolts holding the dish in place required tightening. I went to local Radio Shack, picked up a satellite finder, easily found the satellite, in doing so saw the mount was too loose, used the bars on the setup for fine tuning and am back in business. Thanks for the help. We learn something new every day.
RIght you are. The slighest torque on a 1000.4 ,for that matter any of them, will result in permanent inability to receive sigs.
