Anyone do a must carry on the 129 lately?

[rcdallas]

Ok so I'm out of Dish 1000's, doing a upgrade from a Dish 300 (119) to a Dish 1000 upgrade (119/110/129).

I explain to the customer I'm out of dish 1000's, so I offer him every option available to do the job now and offered to go back and get some dish 1000's for a single dish solution.

He okay'd a dish tree. I took a dish 500 put it on the pole, took the dish 300 and lowered it to hit the 129.

I tune everything in (so i thought), check switch I get 110/119. So I'm like ok, simple misalignment. Goto retune, nogo, same thing, nogo.

I spent quite a bit of time on a very simple upgrade. For the life of me I could not get the 129, the only way I could actually get it in was to take the dish 500, lower it 3-4 degrees and move it to the right so I'm getting the 129/119 off the dish 500 and the 110 off the dish 300.

Is there something new at the 129 location (or close to it)? I've done a must carry on the 129 in the past and no problem, but now there has to be something new out there, trying to tune onto the 129 seemed impossible (maybe not if you have a birdog).

I asked a couple of fellow techs and a couple of them said it took them forever to do a must carry on the 129, so I know it's not just me.

Anyone else run into this?

 

[SmityWhity]

Dish 300 - As in the original 18" or a converted Dish 500?

Maybe the 18" requires more patience for your location?
I know you have patience, so that can't be it.

Sometimes we get over-confident -- Did you replace that Legacy with a DP?
EDIT: Maybe the customer is not getting both Polarities on 110.

 

[ccg3]

I take it you had the correct LNBF on the single dish for 129? it's FSS and what type of switch? Just double checking.

 

[TNGTony]

ccg3,
Sorry. 129 is NOT FSS. It is DBS. 105 and 121 are FSS linear polarization. 118 is FSS circular polarization.

 

[webbydude]

The *only* that comes to mind is perhaps your pole isn't plumb. Yeah, yeah, yeah...I know...seems TOO obvious, right? . Cocky/arrogant/egotistical me has gotten bit twice so far this year on that sort of thing. 110 and 119 come in just fine, but the 129 didn't.

Sorry if it sounds too condescending...just trying to give an option.

 

[rcdallas]

Everyone can forget things at time and I for one certainly don't know everything either.

I changed out the legacy dual with a DP dual. An actual Dish 300.

My pole wasn't *dead* plumb, but it was plumb enough (I think). I had no problem getting the 110 off the 300. Maybe that was it, I don't know.

I can say my next one shouldn't be too hard as now I remember exactly what the signal strength is like on my meter when it was peaked out. Whatever else I was hitting had a smoking signal vs the 129.

Like I had said two other people I work with reported the same thing recently so I was curious if anyone else had noticed this.

Next time any of ya'll do one and have a issue with it on your -plumb- mast , lemme know.

 

[SmityWhity]

My pole wasn't *dead* plumb, but it was plumb enough (I think).

Even though plumb is better, I don't think it would matter as much using the dish for a single satellite location. Besides, it must of been plumb enough, since the top dish was able to peak on 119 & 129.

Only other thing I can think of would be line of sight. Even if that 18" has a 22 degrees offset, it may have been too low on the pole for 129.

Just thinking.

 

[rcdallas]

Thanks for the input, it was wide open LOS, no trees or objects for at least 1/4 mile away.

Here's a pic of my dish tree.

 

[SmityWhity]

Now I believe you swapped the legacy with a DP. LoL

If the 300 has LOS that close to the ground, then the only thing left I can possibly think of would be the 500 LNBF cluster blockiing the signal to the Dish 300; if during the original attempts the 500 was a little more westward, and the 300 was more eastward. But not in the current mounting positions.

Nice install, I did that once when I was out in VA. But I used a 35' TV mast, stuck it in the ground a couple of inches, then used a bracket to attach it to the side of the 2nd floor deck, with the mast only extended right above the deck railing. I used a Dish 500 and a Dish 300. For 61.5, due south, it did not matter if the 300 was on top or bottom, but the 500 for 119 & 110 had to be on top to get LOS.