With no Voom signal on install... what should I do?

[blkhawk666]

Ok, had two men stand n my roof one holding a dish the other with a meter for a half hour... the guy just movin the dish from side to side up and down with the meter guy saying No No No... so in other words...
no signal so I cant get voom. They said in Los Angeles 7 out of ten cant get the signal. Should I demand another installer to see what can be done? Or should I give up and go with the hd on my dishtv or should I move to D*? All and any advice is appreciated!

And yes, after the news I wouldnt get voom, I unplugged the phone cancled all engangments for the weekend ... I am so depressed!

 

[Seawaves]

Well, that guy Thomas who was here told me that everone he had gone to install had a signal. I'm in Santa Monica....I've got 90%

 

[Mr. Biggles]

Is there an obstruction lower on the horizon that would seem to possibly block the LOS to the sat?

When you say "holding the dish"...do you mean literally? These guys should have hand held doo-hickys which should tell them when they have LOS. Handholding a dish and pointing it around with a signal meter attached is a new one to me.

 

[barth2k]

E* (Dish network) right now has as much HD as D* (plus TNTHD) and is chaper to boot. So if you already have E*, maybe you should stay there.

Sorry about your V* install.

 

[Nick]

...had two men stand on my roof, one holding a dish the other with a meter for a half hour... the guy just moving the dish from side to side up and down with the meter guy saying No No No...

It sound like your installers were either inexperienced or in a hurry. They should know in advance what the AZ/EL numbers are. Ask for another installer. The aiming/signal acquisition process requires the dish to be mounted and adjusted incrementally by only 1 or 2 degrees at a time. After each adjustment, the installer should wait for several seconds to see if they get a signal lock. Granted, 61.5 is a tough shot from the west coast, but if others can get it, you can too, provided you have a sufficient elevation angle and a clear shot to the bird.

Make them keep trying 'til they get it right. Good luck.

 

[Sean Mota]

E* (Dish network) right now has as much HD as D* (plus TNTHD) and is chaper to boot.

Sorry about your V* install.

I was going to ignore this but I couldn't. How can you quantify this.

E*: has TNT-HD, HBO HD East, Show HD East, ESPN-HD, CBS-HD (ONLY O&O), HDnet, HDnet movies, Discovery HD. This is 8 HD channels. Did I miss one? OK, HDevent (which hardly shown anything) and PPV-HD (which hardly shows anything as well).

V*: TNT-HD, HBO HD East, HBO HD West, Show HD East, Show HD West ESPN-HD, Discovery HD, TMC-HD, Starz-HD East, Starz-HD West, Cinemax-HD East, Cinemax-HD West, Playboy-HD, Bravo-HD+, Encore-HD, NFL-HD. This 17 channels. Add in the exclusives 21 and you have 37 channels! NFL-HD is out of season right now.

Just based on quantity I do not know how E* would have as much as V*. If that was the case I would have not bother getting V*.

 

[Hall]

You'd better re-read his post.... He's comparing Dish's HD offerings to DirecTV's HD offerings. The OP did ask if he should stay with Dish or move to DirecTV.

 

[Sean Mota]

You'd better re-read his post.... He's comparing Dish's HD offerings to DirecTV's HD offerings. The OP did ask if he should stay with Dish or move to DirecTV.

That's what happens for trying to do two things at the same time. Sorry about that Barth2K and thanks Hall for pointing out my mistake.

 

[iceshark]

As an avid installer over the years I agree with the last post.
If your guys were holding the dish and trying to find signal. GOOD LUCK!
Totally like finding needle in haystack.
If they had it mounted and did not use to correct elv and azm and were also moving up and down and side to side. At best this can get a lucky hit in a few minutes or a complete miss.

If they were half trained they would at least hook dish to a test tv or main tv and use communication and start at correct elevation and work from there. And that would be a very baisc way to do it.

It only takes one trained person with a signal meter hooked up at dish to find and peak signal in 5-10 minutes max

Email wilt or someone and plead to get a better installer out for a second try!

Could you do us a favor and do a fast very rude survey on your site.
Go outside and aim your arm pointed like a arm on a clock at about 9:45 (no it does not matter am or pm .LOL) Look for a clear line of unobstructed site somewhere on your roof or property.

Then let us know what you find.
Just trying to make it a better chance for you!

 

[TheForce]

For a quickie test these guys should have used a portable tripod to look for the LOS. Han holding is a waste of time. Anyone who thinks this would work probably can't hold the dish steady either. They were in a hurry. Get another test with an installer who will use a tripod with the dish to hunt for signal.

 

[Bruce]

I have self installed all of my dishes(D* then E* then E*'s Dish 500 then E*'s 61.5)all by hand using two portable CB radios with my wife or my son to tell me what my signal levels are on the TV,now if I can do 61.5 by myself anyone should be able to do it unless there is a problem.