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rcdallas
Last reply · posted in DISH Network Support Forum
Well, just when satellite installs started to get boring, I finally got to do a install that tested my edurance and skill as a DISH installer.

Here's the scoop, about 6 weeks ago, I roll on a New Connect, 3 room install, 211/622 - 119/110/129 orbital out in the backwoods surrounded by tree cover, as I turn onto the street I start thinking yeah right.

Customer currently has/had DirectTV dish so there must be some hope, so I go onto the roof with my Suunto, checking for LOS to the 110/119, it looks ok, so I then obviously seeing I can't get the 129, so I look for the 61.5, looks like I have the option of putting 61.5 kitty corner of the roof. Cake install - add a wing dish right? Nope.

As I start to unload the van, right as I'm about to start installing the mast for the 110/119, I figured I should double check for LOS before I do any drilling, sure enough my LOS for the 119 looks like it would only last until the trees filled in, so I ruled it out.

I could not get LOS for a Dish 500 on 110/119 on one single dish. So I end up spending 1.5 hours going over the customer's entire property, seeing what all my options where... I finally ended up finding I can get the 110 on the roof of the house, 61.5 kitty corner, 119 other side of his yard, only problem with the 119 is there's a tree branch pointed right dead smack in the middle of the path.

I talk everything over with the customer, advise him about the tree branch, and advised it would have to be a 3 dish install spread everywhere, and this type of install is strictly more or less geared for the "power user", and if I did it, it would work well, and for a very long time -- Customer reschedules, I advise him if it's not me, I'm willing to bet the next tech will laugh and call NLOS and ride off.... time goes by, I hear nothing about it.

A couple of days ago at a team meeting, indirectly I'm being bitched at if I roll onto a job, do not make promises to customers, you cancel a job if its NLOS along with a bunch of other BS. I say nothing, but I am thinking about that particular job in the back of my mind throughout the day.

Sure enough today I look at my work order, look at the notes, and its that job, I'm thinking hell yeah.... I see notes on there about the customer being upset because the last couple of techs out there said it could not be done, customer paid to have tree branch cut off, keep in mind the last tech out there is the one who's installed for years..... I'll end that there.

Anyhow, I roll onto this job this morning, enroute I change the work order for the correct equipment, I spent 30 minutes on the phone, apparently DISH does not have a way to reflect 3 dish installs, apparently noone ever does one, anyhow I line my ducks in a row and plan how I'm going to knock it out. I pull up, get out and check my position for the pole on the 119 in the yard, and sure enough I got it. Customer comes out, I tell them it's going in.

By golly 7.5 hours later it was finished, and I tell you what, it'll work for years upon years provided how the dishes are strategically placed for LOS. Boy where they happy they finally have High Definition, I know DirectTV could not of done it off of there fancy oval looking dish, I know comcrap sucks in that area.

All in all, it's rare where you can find LOS using single dishes on the 119/110/61.5, its usually either of the two.

110, I'm 5 degrees above tree line, 119 I am 5 degrees below tree branches, about 5 feet to the left of the tree trunk, and 61.5 I'm smokin wide open about 12 degrees above.trees period at that I don't see the aging trees growing much more anyhow, there already tall as can be, plus at the distance back I am, I estimate about 15-20' above @ 110 location. The 119 dish is about 60' from the house.

Here's some pics....
40 Replies · 6142 views
ZandarKoad
Ah, well, if I had to deal with the D500+ and D1000+ for HD locals then yes, I'd be taking 2-3 hours too. I do a Plus Dish about once every other week right now. The 6 NC's a day is assuming I can roll to my first job at 7:45AM. My office is pretty good about sending us our routes at about 7:15AM or so. Getting the equipment is always an issue... But usually I have a few spare receivers and dishes that I smuggle from my retailer so that I can have an efficient day, and get equipment when it is closest to my route. Oh, and I eat lunch on the road.

Not counting drive time:
Alone, a two tuner NC takes me on average 1:15 and a four tuner takes me about 2 hours. So 6 NCs in one day is doable, but harsh. But right now my brother in law is working with me, and we can finish a two tuner in under an hour and a four tuner in 1:30 flat (baring wall fishes, etc). So I'm kinda starving on only 4 NCs a day... I'd love 5-6. That would be an 8-10 hour day which will still let me have a family life. I'm newly married, and want to work my arse off now so that I can be set when the children start popping out. This is NOT a career for me. I hope to be long gone in 5 years... Here's to hoping.
dishcomm
Ah, well, if I had to deal with the D500+ and D1000+ for HD locals then yes, I'd be taking 2-3 hours too. I do a Plus Dish about once every other week right now. The 6 NC's a day is assuming I can roll to my first job at 7:45AM. My office is pretty good about sending us our routes at about 7:15AM or so. Getting the equipment is always an issue... But usually I have a few spare receivers and dishes that I smuggle from my retailer so that I can have an efficient day, and get equipment when it is closest to my route. Oh, and I eat lunch on the road.

Not counting drive time:
Alone, a two tuner NC takes me on average 1:15 and a four tuner takes me about 2 hours. So 6 NCs in one day is doable, but harsh. But right now my brother in law is working with me, and we can finish a two tuner in under an hour and a four tuner in 1:30 flat (baring wall fishes, etc). So I'm kinda starving on only 4 NCs a day... I'd love 5-6. That would be an 8-10 hour day which will still let me have a family life. I'm newly married, and want to work my arse off now so that I can be set when the children start popping out. This is NOT a career for me. I hope to be long gone in 5 years... Here's to hoping.
That's quick..I have issues with demos..I admitedly take too much time..I have admeanor that is inviting and people tend to want to ask me questions that they normally would not..This takes time..I can do a prewired dual in about 1.5 hrs and a quad takes abiout an houir or so longer..Thing is I take the customer service thing a bit far and that adds a lot of time. I usually will go over the entire job with the customer before starting work. The nicer the house the more picky the customer and the more time it takes. Every question answered sem to generate 5 more questions. I get questions about how much the prograaming will be when the bill will get there..Those wquestions I tell the customer to call dish and askthem..I get this crap all the time....."How come so and so channel isn't in the package I ordered?" The bottom line is most , I mean it, MOST customers have no clue what they bought. I had a thing wiht a customer who got all spun up over the frigin tennis channel..He insisted the sales partner told him the Tennis Channel was part of the top 200....He would n't let me activateuntil he go tthis straightened out..He looke dme right in the eye and said, if I don't get the Tennis Channel with this package I am canceling the job and you can hook my Diretv back up...I wanted to drop this bastard right where he stood..Anyway 90 mins(No kidding) later i finall go the guy to sign..I run inotthe is garbage all the time..This and other reasons are why I am getting the hell out of this sh!tty business..I wish I could just put my head down and do the work. But I have been told "you care too much"..So yeah partly my fault for being too nice..What are ya gona do
Oh well...We are very slow right now..Been that way for a month...We have 15 techs and we're getting about 25 to thirty jobs per day...Half are NC's the rest are service changes and other company's TC's..The DNS office here has a goal for NC's so they keep most of them for their techs...It's so stupid...get this..In order to get their NC nuimber the DNS office will send their trucks out to jobs that are two hrs from their office..In fact these people have to drive by our(literally) office to get to these jobs..And we are 30 milers closer to the work..The DNS office GM thinks it's stupid too. But he says he is a victim of the same silly numbers game..anyway in about two months or so when my new venture hopefully gets going, I will defer all satellite work to the next crop of guys.....Or I am goning to get into doing structured wiring only..No more DNS contract work..I am at the end of my rope...
dodge
3 dish install

No los for 110 at the same spot that 119 is on??? Never seen that!!!
G
If I'm not mistaken the orange direct burial cable is not solid copper center, is it still an approved use cable.
webbydude
If I'm not mistaken the orange direct burial cable is not solid copper center, is it still an approved use cable.

For D* and E*, yes. When it comes to Wildblue...that's a big no-no
Former member 209992
Last reply · posted in SatelliteGuys Support Center
For some reason, the satelliteguys.us site is loading a lot slower than usual on both Chrome on my Asus laptop and Safari on my iPhone.
I'm also seeing longer appearances of the blue bar at the top and the "3 blue bars" loading symbol.
Is anyone else also having the same problem? Thanks in advance.
521 Replies · 17798 views
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Scott Greczkowski
Ok the update is complete. :)
Foxbat
Scott, I was having major issues getting connected around noon ET. Looks fine now. I captured a Safari session that was showing high CPU utilization in the Rendering of the page, like 90+%. I have a JSON file I created that I could share.
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Scott Greczkowski
Been using the site at that time and saw no issues. A quick look at the logs shows nothing strange.
Foxbat
Yeah. It's probably something going on with the MacBook as my iPhone has been pretty snappy.
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Scott Greczkowski
I have been optimizing the site the past few days... and got us here now. :) We are rocking now!

Screenshot 2026-10-15 144737.webp
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H
Last reply · posted in FTA Receiver / Equipment Support
I just received 6 receiver 2 port mini Multiswitch and it work great, no external power need it, and you can connect 6 receiver instead of 4 on most Mini Multiswitches... If anyone is interested in where they can get one PM me....
IMG_1786.webp
2 Replies · 38 views
Titanium
Have you tested using external power? Over the years, have found unpowered polarity switching to be unreliable. Especially problematic when used with DiSEqC motors or switch stacking.
H
No I have not. I just got it the other day and it is connected to six receivers working just fine. What I do is non power mini multi-switches work best with LNBF's and with LNB's
dishstaller
Pub Member / Supporter Lifetime Supporter
Last reply · posted in Internet Television (IPTV) Discussion Forum
Wasn't exactly sure where to post this. Just had a customer come in inquiring about internet. He has HughesNet and had heard good things about mine. He asked if we provided email addresses and it kinda caught me off guard. I said he should be able to keep whatever email he had been using....my sister in law is still using a BellSouth email addy and they haven't been around here for many years. He said he had gotten a letter from HughesNet stating that they had until Nov 16th to save, move, forward, whatever, their Hughesnet emails because they would lose them after that date.

I have never heard of a company simply mass-deleting email accounts (the customer still has his HughesNet service). From what I understand, in the past, the company who was ditching their email service simply sold the customer base to a company like Google.

Anyone else getting this letter. He said he would show it to me tomorrow when I go out there and set up his internet.
1 Replies · 41 views
Foxbat
Doing a Google of the HughesNet Email notice, it seems that HughesNet has been trying to eliminate hosting emails since 2019. And with HughesNet filing Chapter 11 back in August, it would be a smart move to switch to a more stable Email provider. Even AT&T farmed out their Email to Yahoo! years ago.

SpaceX's Starlink and the Cellular 5G Home Internet solutions have pretty much relegated HughesNet and its high latency, low bandwidth Internet service to History. If Earth had shorter days, maybe a Geostationary Internet Solution might have stood a fighting chance…
TWiT Tech Podcast Network
· posted in TWiT Tech Podcast Network
0 Replies · 2 views
dishstaller
Pub Member / Supporter Lifetime Supporter
Last reply · posted in The Chit Chat Club
Can't help but wonder if a worker overlooked checking the harness. I rarely ride a roller coaster anymore but when I do I check the harness myself pretty aggressively.
Can't imagine what the son is going through.

21 Replies · 162 views
Jimbo
Back on the Goliath Roller Coaster ... I'm interested to find more details as well ...
Like where on the track did this happen (somewhere I read that it was on the climb up the top), which is impossible ...

They really need to take that ride and add at the very least, seatbelts ...

The Park is opening back up on Friday, the ride will Not be opening ... personally, I would keep it closed until different type of restraints can be designed and installed (over the winter).

I find it hard to believe that this ride is even allowed to be running with the restraints that exist at the moment, there are other rides that use the same type and they have been shut down across the country.

You got to believe that every ride has at least 2 types of restraint systems in place.

I wonder what and when we will hear from the Manufacturer ... and whatever governing bodies control these ...

Just think, this is a Major Amusement Park .... I would not have any problem getting on the Roller Coasters I have rode ...

Imagine what these County Fairs and others like them, I would not be caught Dead on one of them ... they get put up and tore down every other week, where is the safety for those rides ... No Thank You.
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dishstaller
Imagine what these County Fairs and others like them, I would not be caught Dead on one of them ... they get put up and tore down every other week, where is the safety for those rides ... No Thank You.
The first roller coaster I ever road was one of those. I was terrified but I was with my friends and didn't want to wuss out. While in line I kept looking at the guys running the ride.....few teeth, not that bright looking....I just KNEW my life was over.
  • Haha
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Jimbo
navychop
I would not be caught Dead on one of them

Yet IF you were on one, you might be caught dead.
dishstaller
Had no idea there were that many redundancies built into those restraints.
Jimbo
Had no idea there were that many redundancies built into those restraints.
It makes sense, however, I would want more types of restraints, so if one doesn't work, the other does ... the restraints coming over the shoulder I would have expected ... with a Seat belt as last resort.

Fwiw, I inquired with what they use on Coasters at Cedar Point, various Coasters, different restraints according to what the car and track requires ...

NONE of the Coasters at CP use THAT particular system :)
I'm glad to see ...
TheRatPatrol
Last reply · posted in TV Shows
Anyone else watch this show? Any guesses as to what was in the box Gibbs gave to Abby that was on her desk? It look liked it was glowing.

I also heard that someone was leaving the show at the end of this season. Any guesses as to who thats going to be?
2129 Replies · 214616 views
TheRatPatrol
Wait, Tony is the director now? Apologies, I stopped watching a while ago.
  • Wow
Reactions: Howard Simmons
Jimbo
Wait, Tony is the director now? Apologies, I stopped watching a while ago.
Was Gibbs still there when you quit watching ?
If so, A Lot has happened ....

It's been pretty good all along , once you get use to Gibbs being gone.
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Jimbo

Howard ...
You don't like Tony, or Tony as the Director (he's only been there for 30 seconds now) or you don't like NCIS ?
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Howard Simmons
Howard ...
You don't like Tony, or Tony as the Director (he's only been there for 30 seconds now) or you don't like NCIS ?
Tony as the director.🙄
Jimbo
Tony as the director.🙄
Would you rather have LaRoche ???
dishstaller
Pub Member / Supporter Lifetime Supporter
Last reply · posted in The Chit Chat Club
I bought the fixed color version of these bulbs for my store several years ago...work great and no more replacing ballast. Finally had one go out and when I went back to Amazon I saw that now they come in selectable versions so no more guess work as to what color light would do best in a certain area. They are now double OR single ended...used to be strictly one way or the other. If any of you are looking at replacing the old style 4 or 8 ft bulbs, you might want to give these a try. The 8 footers are BRIGHT. I put 5 in my shooting/target shed and you can get a decent tan if you are in there long enough.

1 Replies · 20 views
Foxbat
When we re-lamped my in-Laws' house for sale last year, we were able to get all the Edison bulbs and a few fixtures with switch-selectable Color Temperature. We tried a few and settled on 3000°K as the best fit for the house. Matching the lighting in all the rooms made for an inviting experience. The Shop was the only place that we went with 4000°K for the LED 4' fixtures.

The house was sold within a month of going on the market, so we must have done something right.

The other advantage is if the new owners decide that they prefer a warmer light, they can unscrew the bulbs (I think it was close to 70 bulbs) and set them to the 2500K/2700K settings.

I'll have to check these out. Thanks!