am i crazy?

[swandive76]

i am north of Montana and am installing a slimline 5 dish with the swm lnb. Ive got the mast mounted and using dishpointer.com have everything dialed in.

Now im not using a sat meter......am i crazy? is there any chance that i could do this via trial and error?

Right now im getting no signal on 101 but a few transponders on 110 and 113 (i think) give me some signal.

what do you think? there are installers in my area but are expensive. i only want to bite that bullet if i have to.

Please let me know what you think

Swandive

 

[Jhon69]

i am north of Montana and am installing a slimline 5 dish with the swm lnb. Ive got the mast mounted and using dishpointer.com have everything dialed in.

Now im not using a sat meter......am i crazy? is there any chance that i could do this via trial and error?

Right now im getting no signal on 101 but a few transponders on 110 and 113 (i think) give me some signal.

what do you think? there are installers in my area but are expensive. i only want to bite that bullet if i have to.

Please let me know what you think

Swandive

A dish alignment needs to be exact for the best signal now you could invest in a signal meter or use the builtin signal meter in the receiver it all depends if you have plenty of time and know what your doing.Myself I 'd rather leave it to the pros so I carry the protection plan.

 

[Scott Greczkowski]

Because of the KA signals the dish needs to be exact. The install sometimes is tough for the pros and can be next to impossible for home installers especially if you do not have the correct test equipment.

 

[cfb]

Side question: are you planning on activating some new receivers you bought or some you've owned a while (like 4+ years) and deactivated?

If you're going to activate new receivers or you've moved and want to reactivate receivers you used at your old house, directv will mount the dish for you for free as a new customer or through the movers connection. If you're a new customer thats never activated service, they're going to put you on a 2 year commitment anyhow. The movers connection supposedly doesnt involve a contract commitment but check and make sure they dont do it to you anyhow.

So only reason to do it yourself is that you had directv service, have older OWNED receivers (not leased), have been inactive too long to use the movers connection, havent been inactive long enough to qualify as a new customer, and/or dont want the 2 year commit for a new customer.

 

[swandive76]

I do have time (just got laid off today actually!) and have some experience with pointing FTA dishes. but as exact as it seems to need to be it might be better to go with a pro. investing in a sat meter probably costs the same as getting someone to do it anyway!

CFB- i am not in the US so couldnt have DTV come install it for me. This is a new receiver that im activating and my service address is in Montana. So its all up to me to get it installed!

 

[Scott Greczkowski]

Side question: are you planning on activating some new receivers you bought or some you've owned a while (like 4+ years) and deactivated?

If you're going to activate new receivers or you've moved and want to reactivate receivers you used at your old house, directv will mount the dish for you for free as a new customer or through the movers connection. If you're a new customer thats never activated service, they're going to put you on a 2 year commitment anyhow. The movers connection supposedly doesnt involve a contract commitment but check and make sure they dont do it to you anyhow.

If they need to send you new access cards for the receivers then your going to be put in a two year commitment even though you own the receviers.

 

[cfb]

Really? Are you sure? I was going to reactivate two old directivo's last year and the access card people said there wouldnt be a new commit for that.

I thought you got the commit only if activating a new leased receiver.

 

[JMikeH]

If they need to send you new access cards for the receivers then your going to be put in a two year commitment even though you own the receviers.

I don't think that is quite true. Or at least it's not supposed to be. Though it does seem like the CSR's make quite a few mistakes, and getting it reversed, if they make the mistake, is time consuming.

The only time there is supposed to be a new commitment, is if you are getting new equipment, or using the mover's connection.

 

[cfb]

I'm pretty sure the movers connection isnt supposed to cause a new commit either.

Only activation of newly 'leased' receivers.

However I'm aware of people who have had their commit extended due to a movers connection.

 

[MikeinBaja]

I do have time (just got laid off today actually!) and have some experience with pointing FTA dishes. but as exact as it seems to need to be it might be better to go with a pro. investing in a sat meter probably costs the same as getting someone to do it anyway!

CFB- i am not in the US so couldnt have DTV come install it for me. This is a new receiver that im activating and my service address is in Montana. So its all up to me to get it installed!

Since you are (by your own admission) instaling out of the TOS territory and appear to be account stacking - no tech help here.

Triial & error can be a real b###h.

 

[peano]

Not sure why you think he is account stacking.

swandive, To aim a Slimline, you need to start with 101, get max. signal, skew to get max signal on 119 and then dither according to the instructions to get 99 and 103.

If you can't find 101 (which is easy) you will have no chance.

 

[swandive76]

thanks peano. i like that approch. ill see what i can do with that.

now my receiver detects my lnb it seems and when cyclying through the sats on the Signal Meter it has other ones in there like 110. Do i have a setting wrong?

 

[swandive76]

ok the plot thickens here....i had an installer come over and point my dish. we got it all lined up but the for each sat was taking a long time to respond. Then all of the sudden there was no signal across anything. They guy who was doing this thought it might be a bad power supply. unfortunatly he didnt have another one to test but he was 99% (in his own words) that it was the problem

Has anyone heard of that?

Another twist is that i dont see 99 in my list of sats when im checking the signal. i see all the other ones in the list but not 99. how does the receiver know what to list for sats?

any info you can provide is apprecieated!

thanks

swandive

 

[Jimbo]

SWAN,
Is the dish mast PLUMB ?
That is the number 1 thing to check in the beginning .... if not, all your other ones will be off as well.
Once you know it's plumb, and you can get the 101* the 99 and 103 should fall into place and need a little tweaking (dithering) from there.
Make sure when your going thru the set up on the recvr that your listing the Slimline dish.

Guys, Account stacking has nothing to do with what he's doing, relax and help the guy out. (mike, if you don't want to help him, fine, thats your choice).

 

[swandive76]

Thanks jimbo for your help and for support here. My mast is plumb I did check that but will check again just to be sure.

The prob I'm seeing Is that 99 isn't even in the list of birds to check signal on. The receiver picks my LNB type for me and doesn't allow me to change it. It sets me to slimline5 swm. That's ok. But in the signal meter I can only chose from 101, 110, 103, 119 and one called swm. No 99. Is this because I'm not pointed right?

Let me know what you think. Thanks again for your support

swandive

 

[Davedirectv]

What point are you at for activating the receiver?

If you aren't seeing the 99 and you haven't activated the receiver, I wouldn't worry to much about it, the receiver isn't requiring it to get activated. And, you won't be able to see it until you get the box going, so get it activated, see if it passes installation verification and post results. If everything is where it needs to be, you will see the 99 after activation.

Now, if the receiver isn't getting good signal on the 99, that is a whole different story. You might have plumb and level issues like Jimbo says, or pi issues like the installer said. Most likely it's not level and plumb, seeing how these things work best when they are dead nuts on plumb and with a very clear LOS.

Either way, post updates with where things current sit.

 

[swandive76]

the receiver is not activated at the moment. I was able to get the dish pointed and got great signal on all birds. Once i completed the installation verification 99 was there.

so I guess I just need to activate! I will let you know once I have done that.

thanks again

swandive

 

[Kevin1514]

KING TV Seattle

mis-post

 

[swandive76]

thanks guys. im up and running!

 

[trellaine]

Thanks for helping him and others like him. You guys are the best! Everyone helped me as well upon my many questions. Thank u.