aiming the dish???

asmcbride

SatelliteGuys Pro
Original poster
Jan 20, 2005
161
8
WV/VA
Over the weekend I hit the sides of my 2 dishes with the bagger on the riding mower...needless to say, I've since had no satellite service. I've got 2 Dish 500 dishes (110, 119 and 61.5). What is the recommended method to repoint these dishes to get my signal back? Is there a special tool I can find online that will find the direction they need to point if I put the information in that is displayed on the receiver after entering the zipcode? I need to get my service back and dont want to drop $100 or more on a service call to Dish. Thanks in advance.

-mcbride
 
If you can hear the audio from your TV turn it all the way up and before you loosen anything "tug" your dish slowly left/ right and up/down. The higher the tone the stronger the signal. After you figure out which way you need to go loosen the nuts just enough to allow the dish to move. On the dish with 110/119 you'll have to check back and forth. If its not possible to hear the audio you'll need a helper at the TV--a cell phone might come in handy here. Its pretty easy to do if you haven't knocked it WAY out of alighment. Good luck!:up

Ed

I use transponder 11 on 110 &119 and 01 on 61.5.
 
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Good pointers so far.

Make sure the mast is plumb, goto the point dish/peak angels, verify your/set your elevation based on your zipcode, once locked in, then set the azimuth (left to right), VERY slowly wait a few seconds, and so on... no fancy equipment needed.
 
Plus, realize/figure out which direction the dishes spun when you hit them with the bagger, and turn them in the opposite direction. Once you get them back and locked down, use an indelible marker pen (or scratch a line with something sharp) to draw a 'tic mark' line between the dish mount, and the dish pole. That way if it ever happens again, all you have to do is line up the marks between the dish mount, and the pole!
 
Make sure the mast is plumb...

Hey, we're talking about a DISH install, aren't we? My DISH installer had to borrow tools from me to pound my posts into the ground. The Primestar dish I installed myself for FTA is far closer to plumb than its DISH counterparts.

Repointing is all trial and error for me, but so far I've been able to repoint both the 500 and the one pointed at 61.5 when violent storms have knocked them around a bit.

I probably should redo the masts myself one of these days.

Of course if the mast truly is plumb, all those pointers are really good ones.
 
Over the weekend I hit the sides of my 2 dishes with the bagger on the riding mower...needless to say, I've since had no satellite service. I've got 2 Dish 500 dishes (110, 119 and 61.5). What is the recommended method to repoint these dishes to get my signal back? Is there a special tool I can find online that will find the direction they need to point if I put the information in that is displayed on the receiver after entering the zipcode? I need to get my service back and dont want to drop $100 or more on a service call to Dish. Thanks in advance.

-mcbride

you can get a service call for far less than that:

call and enroll in the DHPP.
call the next day and say somethings wrong and you dont know what.
get your service call for $29 or $59 (depends).
call a few days later and cancel the DHPP.

its done all the time.
 
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