yet another dish alignment help thread

[lcantu]

Guys,

I know that there are many alignmet help threads around but couldnt find one with a similar issue as mine.

I have been a long time dish user and i will be switching to directv soon. Im trying to get my dish aligned but after spending one day i couldnt

My setup
Receiver: R16-300. I bought this years ago and never connected it, it is still brand new and has a SWM port on the back where im connecting the LNB cable
Dish: Slimline
LNB: SL3-SWM

Alignment gear
Rough alignment to get sat signal was done with an ASL1 and old analog meter. Fine tuning of the signal level done with the IRD signal level monitor

The problem
I installed the dish and roughly aligned it according to the el, az and tilt for my zip code, after finding signal on 101 and aligning everything im only getting readings on the higher transponders. My levels are
1-8:0
9-16:0
17-21:0
22:99
23:90
24:0
25:0
26-28:100
29:0
30-32:100

No matter what i do i cannot get signal on the lower transponders. I read a thread saying that sometimes you can get this behavior if you are pointing to the wrong sat but i find it hard to beleive that im not aiming at 101 now.

This morning i even took the receiver and TV out to test connected directly to the lnb bypassing all the house wires but the result is the same.

At this point im thinking that i may have a bad receiver or lnb. I have a SL5 laying around somewhere in my basement and will try to find it and see if anything changes, however if you have any input on what could i be doing wrong, it would be much appreciated

thks

 

[b52pooh]

Do you have a power inserter to provide power to the dish? Without one, there is not enough power to the dish.

 

[texasbrit]

Assuming you do have a PI, you are pointed at 119 instead of 101. 119 has TPs 22-32, which is what you are seeing.

 

[lcantu]

Assuming you do have a PI, you are pointed at 119 instead of 101. 119 has TPs 22-32, which is what you are seeing.

Thanks a lot for the answer!

I do have a PI, my setup is IRD-->PI-->SWM lnb

I tought that i aligned this to 101 but what you say make a lot of sense, i should be on 119. Will try to point the dish to the left to find 101 then

thks!

 

[raoul5788]

to Satelliteguys Icantu!

 

[lcantu]

just came in from aligning the dish again. Indeed i was doing it wrong. I moved it to the left and found sat 110 with only three transponders then farther to the left and increasing the elevation was able to get 101 with most of the TP in the 99-100 range.

Thanks for the heads up about me pointing to 119 initially this helped a lot in understanding what i was doing wrong.

One awkward thing is that the elevation i had to set is in the higher 45-48 range when the receivir was requesting me to set it up at 39 this was also making difficult to find 101 as it never gave any signal on the 39 elevation setting. Ohh well, at least is now working.

 

[Jimbo]

just came in from aligning the dish again. Indeed i was doing it wrong. I moved it to the left and found sat 110 with only three transponders then farther to the left and increasing the elevation was able to get 101 with most of the TP in the 99-100 range.

Thanks for the heads up about me pointing to 119 initially this helped a lot in understanding what i was doing wrong.

One awkward thing is that the elevation i had to set is in the higher 45-48 range when the receivir was requesting me to set it up at 39 this was also making difficult to find 101 as it never gave any signal on the 39 elevation setting. Ohh well, at least is now working.

You are getting 99 and 100 on most of thgem ?
Thats excellent ... I normally have about 5/6 at 100 .

When you set up the elevation, did you go by the nut holding the dish in place, or the line to set it up ?
Lots of times people use the wrong one, common mistake.

 

[lcantu]

You are getting 99 and 100 on most of thgem ?
Thats excellent ... I normally have about 5/6 at 100 .

When you set up the elevation, did you go by the nut holding the dish in place, or the line to set it up ?
Lots of times people use the wrong one, common mistake.

I used the nut holding the dish in place for the coarse elevation setting and from there I used the fine tune elevation nut.

I was not expecting to get so good levels but this is what I have

 

[texasbrit]

FYI for coarse elevation you should be using the line marked on the dish not the bolt. But one way or another you've got great signals on 101.

 

[Jimbo]

Nice work ...
Your 99 and 103 will be in the same ballpark ... not as many 100s, but your doing fine.