1000.2 EA, best way to aim?

joegr

SatelliteGuys Pro
Original poster
Oct 8, 2010
327
321
Gulfport
I am trying to properly aim a 1000.2 EA dish for my mother (See below for full back story). She has two VIP211K receivers. This is in zip code 365xx. After finding signal, I adjusted the aim and elevation for the strongest reading (around 80). I think that was on 77. I verified that all here channels seemed to be coming in on both receivers. On the 2nd receiver, I couldn't get any signal bar indication on the point dish screen, but it was working fine as much as I could tell. Going back to the first receiver, I couldn't get a signal bar now either, but it too was working. She said that last night she couldn't get her local stations (others may have been missing too) on the 1st receiver, but she is getting them now, on the 2nd receiver. She does not know if they would have been out too on the 2nd one last night, or if they are working now on the first one.
I set the skew via the chart, and never tried to adjust it. Should I try that? If so, what do I look for? How do I get the signal strength bar to come back on the point dish screen? I tried each of the three satellites, and different transponders. Should I try to get the strongest signal for a different satellite when I go back? If so, which one is best, and which transponder?

Full back story:

My mother needed a new roof after this last hurricane. She went from shingle to a metal roof this time. Up till now, she had two satellite dishes on the roof, one for the living room TV, and one for the bedroom TV. The living room one was a 1000.4 WA, and the bedroom one was an EA dish, (not 1000.2) but it only had two LNBs. It was working, but the wiring was ugly and it was two roof mounts. Also, she complained a lot about rain fade. I have no idea why it was two dishes instead of one, or why it was one of each arc. I ordered an under eave mount (Amazon product ASIN B00B40BMQQ), and I happened to have a new 1000.2 EA dish that I ordered years ago. She didn't want to lose satellite while the roof was being done, so I installed the "new" dish and wired it to both receivers and removed the two old dishes and a lot of the ugly wiring on the exterior walls (new wiring in the attic).
I set the dish skew, elevation and aim, as per the chart I found. I did a check switch, and after a long time it came back as a 1000.2 with no reception. I slowly altered the aim until the signal bar on the point dish screen started to show. I peaked it in aim wise and then elevation wise. My helper that was watching the meter on the point dish screen was a little late in indicating that it did say wrong satellite. I tried it anyway, and there were no local channels. I went back and tried the aim and elevation again. This time, it said it was the right satellite, and after getting maximum reading, I did a check switch again, and it verified that all three satellites were being received. I thought I was done, but I guess not. Is it as simple as picking a different satellite to get max signal on? There do not seem to be any trees in the way. Would it be better to use the 1000.4 WA dish? I picked the 1000.2 EA because of the fine tuning adjustments it has for aim and elevation.
 
The 1000.4 has the fine tuning adjustments, not the 1000.2. Did you run a "Check switch" routine once you had the signals dialed in?
Yes I did do a check switch afterwards. And sorry, I do have the 1000.2 and 1000.4 transposed. It is a 1000.4 eastern arc dish.
Which satellite should I pick to try and dial the aim in better? Apparently, 77 wasn't an ideal choice.
 
Yes I did do a check switch afterwards. And sorry, I do have the 1000.2 and 1000.4 transposed. It is a 1000.4 eastern arc dish.
Which satellite should I pick to try and dial the aim in better? Apparently, 77 wasn't an ideal choice.
I peak on 72.7 and then tweak a bit as needed to find the best balance between 61.5 and 72.7. 77 really isn't needed other than for an occasional drop to SD in heavy rain/cloud situations, but if the other two are good, 77 should be good as well.
 
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Since I had the dish numbers backwards, I had looked up the wrong skew angle. I corrected that and re-aimed using the 72.7 satellite first. I think I have it now. I think the mount looks really good too.
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I'm curious, the eave is not 90° it has angle to allow for rain runoff. With that in mind how do you get the vertical part of the mount perfectly plumb? Or, is the joist perfectly level?
 
A neat looking installation! I remember seeing a similar mount except it was squarer. The fellow had made it up out of common exhaust pipe sections and elbows pop riveted together. It was attached to the roof rafter with lags through holes drilled in the flattened end.
 
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I'm curious, the eave is not 90° it has angle to allow for rain runoff. With that in mind how do you get the vertical part of the mount perfectly plumb? Or, is the joist perfectly level?
I put it in place with just one bolt to begin with. Then I rotated it so that it was perfectly vertical in one dimension. Then I pilot drilled the other three hole and put those lag bolts in. I found that it was off about 1/4 bubble in the other vertical dimension, so the joist was not perfectly level. I loosened the four lag bolts and put a shim under the lower part of the bracket and retightened. With a lot of back and forth, I got it to nearly perfect level all the way around.
 
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I put it in place with just one bolt to begin with. Then I rotated it so that it was perfectly vertical in one dimension. Then I pilot drilled the other three hole and put those lag bolts in. I found that it was off about 1/4 bubble in the other vertical dimension, so the joist was not perfectly level. I loosened the four lag bolts and put a shim under the lower part of the bracket and retightened. With a lot of back and forth, I got it to nearly perfect level all the way around.
Very cool!
 
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