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Its not hard to do yourself or at least try. Take a sharpie and mark where it is now before you move it.

digiblur said:

Its not hard to do yourself or at least try. Take a sharpie and mark where it is now before you move it.

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Having installed several dishes over the years, I gave this a try already. The first problem was that 129 was not listed as an available sat on my point-dish screen, so no AZ or EL info was shown for my zip code. I found a zip code chart online which listed the AZ as 232 and EL as 28.8 for my zip (62704). The current position for 61.5 is AZ-139 and EL-36.

I marked the current position with a sharpie, lowered the EL 7 degrees, then swung the dish around while my wife watched the point-dish screen set to 129. After more than 30 minutes of going back and forth, I was unable to get a signal, so I moved the dish back to 61.5, which I found easily.

The dish is mounted to the fascia under the eve of the roof, and I noticed that the elevation when pointed at 61.5 was 32 degrees on the actual dish gauge instead of the 36 that it was supposed be. This leads me to believe that the original installer did not get the post plumb. If this is the case, swinging the dish around the azimuth would also change the elevation, making it difficult to find the sat.

I just thought that if Dish did the re-pointing for free, I'd let them mess with it rather than getting back up on the roof.

If you have an HD package and are paying for your locals it would seem that there would be no charge or additional commitment for Dish to point your side dish. However, when calling them I got different answers from different TSRs.

My SD locals were on 148 (side dish) but also added to 129. My HD locals were recently added to 61.5. I decided to do the repointing myself since I could still get the SD locals off my 1000.2 which included 129. Well, I had trouble getting a signal from 61.5, it wouldn't lock on and said it was the wrong satellite. I got tired of going up and down on the roof so I just called dish for them to do it. Since the service call was a week away I later decided to try again and rechecked to make sure the dish was plumb. After a few adjustments, I did a check switch and 61.5 and my HD locals came in fine. I called dish and cancelled the service call.

Make sure that Dish makes any necessary changes on their end if needed. I was first told nothing was necessary but later found out that they had to make a change. I had a notice posted on channel 10 that told me to contact them about my locals moving. When I first called they cleared the announcement and I noticed that my SD locals were being received on 129 instead of 148. This was before I repositioned the side dish. This cleared the side dish for repointing to 61.5.

WildBill said:

Having installed several dishes over the years, I gave this a try already. The first problem was that 129 was not listed as an available sat on my point-dish screen, so no AZ or EL info was shown for my zip code. I found a zip code chart online which listed the AZ as 232 and EL as 28.8 for my zip (62704). The current position for 61.5 is AZ-139 and EL-36.

I marked the current position with a sharpie, lowered the EL 7 degrees, then swung the dish around while my wife watched the point-dish screen set to 129. After more than 30 minutes of going back and forth, I was unable to get a signal, so I moved the dish back to 61.5, which I found easily.

The dish is mounted to the fascia under the eve of the roof, and I noticed that the elevation when pointed at 61.5 was 32 degrees on the actual dish gauge instead of the 36 that it was supposed be. This leads me to believe that the original installer did not get the post plumb. If this is the case, swinging the dish around the azimuth would also change the elevation, making it difficult to find the sat.

I just thought that if Dish did the re-pointing for free, I'd let them mess with it rather than getting back up on the roof.

Click to expand...

If you have signal 129 should be in the point dish screen but you don't need it right now. Leave it on 61.5, put it on something like transponder 22. Since that transponder is active on both 61.5 and 129. Then swing it on over and look for a "wrong satellite" message. Then after that do a check switch.

Ejohn60 said:

My SD locals were on 148 (side dish) but also added to 129. My HD locals were recently added to 61.5. I decided to do the repointing myself since I could still get the SD locals off my 1000.2 which included 129. Well, I had trouble getting a signal from 61.5, it wouldn't lock on and said it was the wrong satellite. I got tired of going up and down on the roof so I just called dish for them to do it. Since the service call was a week away I later decided to try again and rechecked to make sure the dish was plumb. After a few adjustments, I did a check switch and 61.5 and my HD locals came in fine. I called dish and cancelled the service call.

Make sure that Dish makes any necessary changes on their end if needed. I was first told nothing was necessary but later found out that they had to make a change. I had a notice posted on channel 10 that told me to contact them about my locals moving. When I first called they cleared the announcement and I noticed that my SD locals were being received on 129 instead of 148. This was before I repositioned the side dish. This cleared the side dish for repointing to 61.5.

Click to expand...

Thanks for the response, but I'm a bit confused. At first it sounds like you are saying that you repositioned your wing dish to 61.5, got a lock, then ran a check switch and the programming came in without having to call Dish. Then in your last paragraph you seem to say that you had to call Dish about moving the locals BEFORE you could reposition your wing dish. Are you saying that you can't get a lock on a different satellite without Dish authorizing it first?

digiblur said:

If you have signal 129 should be in the point dish screen but you don't need it right now. Leave it on 61.5, put it on something like transponder 22. Since that transponder is active on both 61.5 and 129. Then swing it on over and look for a "wrong satellite" message. Then after that do a check switch.

Click to expand...

I'm willing to give repositioning one more try, so I want to make sure that I understand what I need to do. Are you suggesting that I may not have been able to get a lock on 129 because it was not listed as an available satellite at the top of the point dish screen? If so, rather than changing the satellite selector to 129 on the point dish screen before repositioning, I should leave it on 61.5 and look for the "wrong satellite" message while re-pointing to 129. Final question: can I peak the signal while on the "wrong satellite" message, or do I have to do the check switch first and then select the 129 sat on the point dish screen before peaking? Thanks for your help.

On the point dish screen keep the 61.5 sat selected, choose transponder 22. Now go swing your dish to the proper elevation and turn your dish to the west slowly. Have someone watch the tv and have them tell you when the signal goes up. It will say that it is the wrong sat, but will let you fine tune the strength of your signal. When you find the best signal, run check switch. It will show 129now. Hope it helps

Yep... leave it on 615. Move it to 129. You will see the wrong satellite message about 129. Tweak it and lock it down. Then you will need to run a check switch.

Nothing needs to be changed with dish on programming. As long as you have the locals on your account and have an HD package you should get the locals.

Thanks to all. I'll give it a try.