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Last reply · posted in DIRECTV General Forum
I got a new HD TV this year. I called Hughes after hooking it up to upgrade me to an HD dish and receiver. Unfortunately it turns out that the other satellites are lower in the sky and blocked by trees on my property. I may look into cutting trees, but would pursue options that would limit the cutting requirements. In the meantime I am wondering if I can make better use of the signal I'm getting from my mid 1990's era DirecTV dish by using an HR 20 or 21. I'm sure the extra connections on the rear of the receiver would provide more options, but don't have a clue about how that receiver would operate using the signal provided by my old dish. Any one else know about this?

Thanks
5 Replies · 1315 views
Bob Nielsen
There is now a Slimline dish with only 3 LNBs instead of 5, so it doesn't need to see the satellites at 110 and 119 degrees. That will probably work for you. Call Directv (not Hughes) and they should be able to upgrade you to a new dish and DVR.
G
When the upgrade installers came in July that might have been the system they were considering. They told me that my current system receives from one satellite, and the new one would need to receive from three. The additional two were slightly to the west of the direction my current dish points, and a little lower in the sky. I've been trying ti find out what the numbers mean, and believe that the higher the number of degrees the further west from due south the dish needs to point. My current dish on the house roof appears to point right into the trees when observed from the ground. However I have a barn north of and uphill from the house that might be a better spot for the dish. I did not think of that when the installers were here.
I think I'll just get them back out here and look at the whole thing again.

However in the event it doesn't work out I'm still curious about the original question .....
Zynergi
... In the meantime I am wondering if I can make better use of the signal I'm getting from my mid 1990's era DirecTV dish by using an HR 20 or 21. I'm sure the extra connections on the rear of the receiver would provide more options, but don't have a clue about how that receiver would operate using the signal provided by my old dish. Any one else know about this?

Thanks

It would be the same as you have now as there is no HD programming on the 101 sat, you might get a slightly better image quality if it is even noticable, but still no HD programming.

The 3 LNB Slimline (4 line Multiswitch and a Single Wire Multiswitch) version is out now and points to the 99, 101 and 103 which are all fairly close to each other (2 degrees to the left and right) so 90% of the time if you can get 90's on the 101 you should be fine with the 99/103 which are HD sats. If your area does not offer the 3 LNB Slimline then you can disable the 110/119 (lower sats) by choosing a 3 LNB Slimline in the Setup menu. But you would have to convince a tech that it will work and possibly talk with his supervisor to get a kaku installed with no line of sight to the 119. You could also purchase the LNB +-$40 from this sites sponsors.
G
Thanks for the informative responses. I believe I'll get the installation techs back out to give it another look. At the very least I can use an HR20 to maximize my use of the signal the current dish brings in.
Jimbo
Thanks for the informative responses. I believe I'll get the installation techs back out to give it another look. At the very least I can use an HR20 to maximize my use of the signal the current dish brings in.

I would seriously consider moving it to the barn you mentioned and you can be upgraded to the new stuff, dish and rec. wise, so you can take advantage of all the new HD channels.

Back in June/July the 3 lnb slimline was not yet available, may still not be , depends on what they are installing in your area.

Jimbo
Scott Greczkowski
Staff member HERE TO HELP YOU! Cutting Edge
Last reply · posted in The Chit Chat Club
Sometimes a thread gets so many posts in it that is can cause issues for the server so that why today we introduce The Song Name Game Part 3!

So let the game continue!

The last song was added by Bobby who posted...

One Meat Ball - Andrews Sisters

CONTINUE ON AND HAVE FUN! WELCOME HOME TO SATELLITEGUYS.US!

Here are the original rules for the game as posted by WebbyDude back in 2006. http://www.satelliteguys.us/threads/68645-Song-Name-Game

Just name a song title and the band who performed it. The next person does the same thing, but needs to list a song title or band name which includes a word from the previous entry. Pick songs from any genre.

Example:

Long Live Rock and Roll -- Rainbow

Rainbow in the Dark -- Dio

Another example:

Ride the Lightning -- Metallica

Lightning Strikes -- Ozzy Osbourne


Get it?


An additional note: we all know that song titles, sometimes, use profane words. Because this is a family friendly website it is advised that you clean up that title up a bit. This is accomplished by using something like sh!t instead of the real word. Thanks....
68658 Replies · 2680198 views
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dishstaller
I Wanna Talk About Me - Toby Keith
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Bobby
98.6 - Keith
harshness
I'm Easy - Keith Carridine
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gms49ers
It's Easy - Boston
RaiderPower
Take It Easy On Me - Little River Band
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R
Last reply · posted in Computers and Gadgets
Lately my eight year old Dell laptop has been shutting off even when I have a full battery. I have had to keep it plugged up all the time to keep this from happening. Any idea what is causing this? I replaced the battery about three years ago.
2 Replies · 44 views
arlo
A recalibration might be needed. Even if it shows full, the individual cells may have become unbalaced. And the BMS chip in the battery reports false information to the pc.
Try this. Start it up in the bios/uefi and leave it there until the battery dies and it shuts off.
It might just keep running longer than in Windows. Or run for a short while and shut off.
If it's the first case. Probably just needs a balancing. If the latter, the pack might just be dead.
Not throwing stones but perhaps just a cheaply constructed battery with substandard cells. Could be.

Patience. Keep restarting it in bios/uefi until it won't fire up anymore.
Then plug the charger in and let it complete a full charge. And see what happens. If it's better.
Do the same thing one more time. Run it until it dies dead-dead. Then just let it charge, pc shut off.
When charged, it might be better. It might not be.

There are bench jigs that read the actual BMS and override it to let a tech manually monitor and charge the separate packs. They can also reset any "time bombs" in it that cause an otherwise good pack to show bad.
Maybe Santa will be good to me some year.

You might just need a new battery. Maybe the PC power management chip is going. A Dell common thing.
Leaving a laptop plugged in with a full battery is known to reduce the life. Asus for one recommends that you don't leave the charger plugged in all of the time even when shut down. And setting Windows to charge the battery to 85% instead of 100% increases life.
That's all I got.
dishstaller
That's all I got.
That was quite enough....I definitely learned something from your post. Thanks
TRG
TRG
Pub Member / Supporter
Last reply · posted in Computers and Gadgets
I set up a music server for my brother a few years ago. It's basically a small headless computer but it needs to have a DHCP IP address reserved for it in the router settings. This was easy to do in his DSL router. He's switching to Starlink now and I was wondering if these setting are easily accessible in the Starlink router. I'm pretty sure he will be getting the latest V5 router.
5 Replies · 283 views
b4pjoe
I set up a music server for my brother a few years ago. It's basically a small headless computer but it needs to have a DHCP IP address reserved for it in the router settings. This was easy to do in his DSL router. He's switching to Starlink now and I was wondering if these setting are easily accessible in the Starlink router. I'm pretty sure he will be getting the latest V5 router.
If you can't get into the router to reserve an IP address just don't use DHCP on the device that needs connected and assign it to a specific IP address in the network settings.
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HipKat
I set up a music server for my brother a few years ago. It's basically a small headless computer but it needs to have a DHCP IP address reserved for it in the router settings. This was easy to do in his DSL router. He's switching to Starlink now and I was wondering if these setting are easily accessible in the Starlink router. I'm pretty sure he will be getting the latest V5 router.
They are not. Your best bet is to set up a third-party router, attached to the Starlink for your server, that you can get into, like a Linksys, etc
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Foxbat
…it needs to have a DHCP IP address reserved for it in the router settings. This was easy to do in his DSL router. He's switching to Starlink now and I was wondering if these setting are easily accessible in the Starlink router. I'm pretty sure he will be getting the latest V5 router.
The Starlink V5 Install Kit I just got comes with the Mini Router. It is pretty limited in what it can do. For example, it can provide only one IP subnet at a time, no Guest Network, but it does support the pass-thru to a third-party Router. You can also split the Wi-Fi into separate 5 GHz & 2.4 GHz SSIDs to help some IoT devices that don't support 5 GHz bands to work.

The larger Starlink Router that still comes with the V4 Kit does support a Guest Network with separate IPv4 Subnet, but it's $120 from Starlink. And it still won't do DHCP Reservations.
harshness
If you can restrict the DHCP address space to assign addresses to one end of the subnet (i.e. x.x.x.50+), you can manually assign the IP address on pretty much any operating system. This is a default behavior on several popular routers. As the Router Mini only supports 235 devices, I expect that's already done.

Another option is to use a router that supports PoE to power the antenna. This article discusses that option (under PoE Power heading):

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Foxbat
Now that I've had the v5 kit with the Mini Router, it's not as bad as I first thought. Yes, no DHCP reservations, but you can set up multiple SSIDs that have separate IPv4 subnets, and like the big brother, you can select from 192.168.x.0/24 or 10.x.0.0/16 (where "x" is 1-4).

You can also split a subnet and have different SSIDs for the 5 GHz and 2.4 GHz channels to handle some IoT devices. I haven't discovered what subnet the 2nd NIC on the router assigns, I'm guessing it's the first subnet.
dishstaller
Pub Member / Supporter Lifetime Supporter
Last reply · posted in The Chit Chat Club
2 Replies · 50 views
dishstaller
Sorry for posting the wrong link. Just corrected it.
dishstaller
Pub Member / Supporter Lifetime Supporter
Last reply · posted in The Chit Chat Club
Terrible tragedy. You would think that they would have safe guards in place that would prevent something like this from happening. I guess if you are going to ride in a passenger train it might be best to get a car near the rear.

2 Replies · 54 views
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Jimbo
Terrible tragedy. You would think that they would have safe guards in place that would prevent something like this from happening. I guess if you are going to ride in a passenger train it might be best to get a car near the rear.

They will have to look at the switching sections to determine WHY 2 trains were on the same track ... at the same time.
dishstaller
Thought this article might be of interest to some of you who might travel via train.