Thread: FS: VIP Dish 211k

Originally Posted by Iceberg

best advice there




now the only thing I hope (and it may sound dumb) is that you dont have 2 dishes at same satellite since DBS uses the same frequencies across the arc. If the elevation was different on all 3 dishes then you should be ok

Nope. I downloaded a file from the Birddog site for the three satellites. I looked up the elevation of all three and wrote it down. I went to each dish, set the elevation then turned the dish side to side until the meter lit up for that satellite.
I would tweak it, tighten it up and go to the next. Each elevation was different and I can clearly see that each dish is aimed at a different point of the compass. I used dishpointer.com to get a view of the yard, there is a very detailed, hi-res photo of my yard and my dishes are very clearly visible in great detail. With all the hurricanes our area gets new photos often. So I am able to get a visual on where the dish should be pointing. Like 97w line up with the peak of my neighbor's porch roof. I find landmarks to use as general visual guides. The satellite pics they have are about 2 years old so my C-band dishes weren't up at that time but that's no big deal. I can move the little pin around my yard and put it pretty darn close to where the dishes really are now as some have moved, some are gone, some are new..

But yes, the birddog identified each satellite by it's unique name so I am 100% certain I have them all aimed at the proper place..

ok just wanted to make sure

Originally Posted by Dee_Ann

So anyway, I went to Lowe's and I bought a fish tape, wire pull lubricant and a roll of string.

Pulling additional wires into a conduit is nearly impossible unless it's a short run. What happens is the fish tape will twist around the cables and when you pull the new cable in it grabs the existing cables (especially in the bends) and bunches them up and damages them and halts the effort. The preferred way is to remove the ends and pull out the existing cables as a group with one of them joined securely to a pull wire. Then attach all the existing and new cables to the pull wire (just wrap electrical tape around all of them making sure to wrap the ends) and you will have no trouble pulling the bunch back in especially if you use the lube. It helps a lot if someone is pushing the cables into the conduit as you pull them through it.

Originally Posted by rglore

Pulling additional wires into a conduit is nearly impossible unless it's a short run. What happens is the fish tape will twist around the cables and when you pull the new cable in it grabs the existing cables (especially in the bends) and bunches them up and damages them and halts the effort. The preferred way is to remove the ends and pull out the existing cables as a group with one of them joined securely to a pull wire. Then attach all the existing and new cables to the pull wire (just wrap electrical tape around all of them making sure to wrap the ends) and you will have no trouble pulling the bunch back in especially if you use the lube. It helps a lot if someone is pushing the cables into the conduit as you pull them through it.

That sounds like a good plan but it would be pretty hard for me to go through all that. The tube underground it runs through is 1 1/2" pvc plastic so I'm hoping that it won't be too impossible.
As it is now, one wire comes out of the tube and goes into the box where the discque switch is. But the other existing wire comes out of the tube then is reburied and runs over to the big C-band dish.
They are twin siamese wires, it's a RG6Q that has paired to it a category 5 ethernet wire. The ethernet wires are being used as control and power for the two C-band dish motors. I would have to disconnect those and dig up that second wire. Plus cut the connectors off and put new ones on them again. Now that would be a major, major pain in the backside. I do understand what you're saying though and I can see how it could be a huge problem if it goes wrong. But I'm going to go ahead and try running it as is for now and see how it goes.
If it doesn't go right I can always pull the new wires out and try again or if all else fails, pull ALL the wires out. Pulling everything out is going to be my last option because it would be pretty disruptive and a lot more work.

But thank you for mentioning this to me as I had not considered this potential problem. I will more attentive to the process now and if it gets tangled and hangs up at least now I'll know what it might be and what the solution is.

Thank you...

Originally Posted by Iceberg

I'll send the other one as a backup
(I have no use for it)

Got it! Thank you so much!




Over the weekend I took down and changed around ALL of my ku dishes, prepping for my pizza addition never week. Gawd I feel so traitorous!
Now I've got everything a mess out there, plus to make matters worse, it rains every other day and it's bloody cold in the morning and bloody hot in the afternoons. And the mosquitoes are out of control.
It's so hard to make any progress with things like that going on. I have one of those ground fault plugs that I run an extension cord from when I was testing my DN tuner and my dish conversions. That was pretty scary because there was standing water out there, I stayed out of it and put the cord where it wasn't in the water but still.. I still need to buy some rain boots though. I'm tired of muddy, WET sneakers.
The forecast has it raining every other day for the next week and the ground is saturated so there's no chance it's going to dry up back there any time soon.


And I still need to run another wire for my DN system. I'm lucky in that when I did repairs to the old tubes and ran new wires about a year or two ago, I had the forethought to NOT glue on the curved things on the tops of the tubes (to keep rain out) so that I can slide them off and push the wires straight through.





This one comes apart near the ground, the one next to the house which is also buried right smack in the middle of my rose bushes, the curved thing on top comes off.
I figured that it would be impossible to push future wires through the curves so I left them where I can remove them.


However, I'm seriously thinking about digging the old tubes up and putting all new 2" tubes with gentle, roundy curve elbows instead of the sharp 90 degree elbows this one has.
I would have lots of room for all the wires I could ever need and it would be easier to pull them through a larger tube with round elbows. And I could also leave three or four strings in it for future use.




I put the 3x1 switch on the dishes and did a switch test and it found the three dishes. I let it download a program guide and I was watching some sort of info channel I guess, it was showing how to use Dish equipment. I had no sound so I'm not sure. I saw it was saying there was a free preview weekend, Lifetime was one. I tuned to it and I saw it playing in HD, some stupid "True Ghost Stories" or something stupid like that.


Two or three other channels showed as free previews and I tuned them in, also in HD. I found a channel on 129 that says congratulations, you're pointed at the satellite at 129. Duh..
There were a handful of assorted channels coming in but with no sound and on a 7" LCD in bright sunlight, it wasn't exactly making me want to sit out there and watch.
Besides, there was a strong, harsh north wind blowing and all I have is a light windbreaker. It's fine for going back and forth from the car to the store but to sit outside for hours, not so good.
Once I confirmed that it's working I shut it all down and called it a day.

With the never ending rain however, I am beginning to have serious doubts about getting activated next week. That was my goal but I still have to run the wire and that is gonna be a royal pain..
But, at least I've made SOME progress.. I just wish I could have one week of cool, dry weather.. Dream on.....

Hang in there Dee. you'll get it together and all will be good.

Originally Posted by HIFI

Hang in there Dee. you'll get it together and all will be good.

Thanks, I'm still hoping to get it going next week, if I can just get either a break in the rain or some new rain boots..

Oh yeah! I found on ebay and sniped, three additional remotes for this thing. I have a 1x4 HDMI splitter so that I can put TV's in all the rooms of the house off of the single tuner, I just need to get more TV's and more of those remote pyramids. I have two now, I need two more and I'll be in good shape. But anyway, I got three remotes for $10 + $8 s&h. Not a bad deal.. Two of them are 20.0 and one is a 21.0 I read that it can be switched to use IR only. I wish this tuner has RF but oh well.
So with this I can leave a remote in each room instead of carrying one around the house all the time.

So I guess I have all the main things I need inside the house, now I just need to run the main wire from the dishes and I'm good to go!

"prepping for my pizza addition never week."

I hope that typo isn't a premonition!


"prepping for my pizza addition never week. Gawd I feel so traitorous!"

Any relatives named Luke?

Originally Posted by navychop

"prepping for my pizza addition never week."

I hope that typo isn't a premonition!


"prepping for my pizza addition never week. Gawd I feel so traitorous!"

Any relatives named Luke?

OOPS....... NEXT week. Not never...

No, no relatives named Luke but I used to date a guy named Luke many, many moons ago...