Thread: trouble setting up slimline 3 sattelite

Hi, I'm new to the forum but looking for some help. I moved and took my h24 receiver with me. The house i rented had an old 18" round dish and switch already mounted out of laziness i hooked it up and went through the programming and it worked. I finally got a slimline 3 dish so I could get my local channels again but I'm having trouble setting it up.

Receiver says Azimuth should be 210 degrees elevation 39 tilt 72

The mounting post is level and the tilt and elevation is set. The azimuth is supposed to be 210 degrees what and where is that?
There is only one wire coming from the satellite i hooked that to the power inserter and the inserter to the receiver. i assumed i didnt need a switch since i only have 1 receiver.
any help would be great.

Originally Posted by ihtrucktech

Hi, I'm new to the forum but looking for some help. I moved and took my h24 receiver with me. The house i rented had an old 18" round dish and switch already mounted out of laziness i hooked it up and went through the programming and it worked. I finally got a slimline 3 dish so I could get my local channels again but I'm having trouble setting it up.

Receiver says Azimuth should be 210 degrees elevation 39 tilt 72

The mounting post is level and the tilt and elevation is set. The azimuth is supposed to be 210 degrees what and where is that?
There is only one wire coming from the satellite i hooked that to the power inserter and the inserter to the receiver. i assumed i didnt need a switch since i only have 1 receiver.
any help would be great.

What is Azimuth ?
Thats your Left and Right.
If you have a compass, set it to 210 and thats the general area that the dish will point when done to find the Sat Signal.

You didn't say if you have a signal at all when you set up the Slimline as of yet.
If the elevation and Tilt is set correctly and the mast is plumb, when you find the signal the 99, 101 and 103 should fall into place.

You want to be pointing to get the 101 Sat first.

Also, make sure to run the "Repeat Sat Setup" when configuring.
Seeing it's a SWM set up, it will already find the SWM configuration.

I have no signal at all when i check it with receiver. Also the reveiver picked up that it was a slimline 3s swm with swm as the switch.

Originally Posted by ihtrucktech

I have no signal at all when i check it with receiver. Also the reveiver picked up that it was a slimline 3s swm with swm as the switch.

So its just an alignment issue from the sounds of it, you have to be very precise with these, its 22,300 miles up there and the HD side of thing is harder yet, smaller window.

I'm guessing you've set up dishes before ?

Patience is your best friend.

Sent from my Samsung Epic using SatelliteGuys

ihtrucktech,
I checked Dish Pointer and you have the correct settings (azimuth, elevation, and tilt) for your location. Now you just need to find the bird. As Jimbo mentions, patience is a necessity. I am going to assume that you do not have a meter, so you will have to use the one in your receiver. Go to: Menu>Settings&Help>Settings>Satellite>View Signal Strength>Signal Meters and you will see a signal bar for tuners 1 & 2 for satellite 101. You need to have a TV near your dish or have someone tell you when the meter is peaked (at its highest point). You get the dish arm lined up on the compass setting 210 and then you move the dish left and right for the highest reading on the meter. When you have the highest reading tighten the bolts that hold the dish to the pole. Make sure they are really tightened down since you do not want the dish to move left or right when you do the other adjustments. Now loosen the bolts that hold the elevation setting and slowly move the dish up and down until you get the best reading. When you have that tighten down those bolts so they do not allow the elevation to move. Your meter should now register mid to high 90s. Now you change the satellite setting to 99 or 103 and adjust the tilt until you get the highest reading. We can talk about "dithering" later. You need to get these settings done and working before you do that. This may sound a bit complicated, but once you do it it gets easier.
Bob

Always helps when a second person can stand at tv while your at dish especially without a meter

Ok so i've scanned the entire southwest sky it seems and have no signal at all not even a glimmer of hope. The tilt is set it has a pointer to line up on 72 degrees.now there is no pointer on the elevation so other than guessing is there a good way of telling where 39 degrees is? Could the eye be bad?

Is the power inserter hooked up correctly? Is it a SWM LNB? And I think I've read it's set to SWM already, double check to be sure. When dealing with SWM you have to go very slow until you find the satellite.

Originally Posted by ihtrucktech

Ok so i've scanned the entire southwest sky it seems and have no signal at all not even a glimmer of hope. The tilt is set it has a pointer to line up on 72 degrees.now there is no pointer on the elevation so other than guessing is there a good way of telling where 39 degrees is? Could the eye be bad?

OK. Let's back up a bit here. You mentioned that you had an old 18" dish. Did you replace the pole with a 2" diameter pole for the new dish? If you didn't you will have a real difficult time getting your Slimline to be truly vertical.

Also, there should be markings on the bracket that attaches to the back of the dish that have elevations stamped into it. If you don't see them, you have some kind of non-standard mount. The elevation markers are on the part of the bracket that controls the up and down motion; not left and right or tilt. You can go to home depot and get a device that measures tilt, but you should have it on your bracket. And remember, your whole first effort is focused on getting the best signal on sat 101. You ignore your tilt settings for this bird.

It is really important to get the azimuth and elevation set to the settings you posted at the beginning. You are trying to find something the size of a large school bus 22,000 miles away. A little movement makes a lot of difference. You just need to be patient.

Also, as Hutch suggests, make sure your power inserter is setup correctly. The IRD connection goes to your receiver and the to SWM side goes to the dish. It might also be worth your while to check all connections. Rarely, but sometimes, there is a bad connection in the line that causes problems.

If you still can't find the 101 satellite, you may have to have someone from D* come out and figure out the problem.