Can I switch dishes?

LoTech

SatelliteGuys Pro
Original poster
Jan 22, 2009
498
0
Whitesburg, Kentucky
I'm pretty sure that I have a bad LNB on my 61.5/72/77 dish. When the installer set up my system they left the 110/119 dish in place. Will I still receive all of my old channels if I switch the cable back to the other dish, or will it not work at all?
 
Yes, as long as the dish still works, has LOS and wiring is ok. Hook it up and run a check switch. You will lose the majority of HD channels, but SD channels will still work.
 
OK, the dish guys came out and checked everything. Turns out that when someone comes to check things they work perfectly.

This leads me to another question. Can I run the output from my 1000.4 receiver into the extra dish input of the Dish 500? Will it combine both dishes so if the 1000.4 goes out again I can still get signal from the 500?
 
If you don't know what you are doing let the professionals do it. You should be under the 90 day free service for a new installation.
 
OK, the dish guys came out and checked everything. Turns out that when someone comes to check things they work perfectly.
what kind of signal strength does the receiver show?
menu 6-1-1 and scroll through the transponders. Change satellite to 72 and check each TP. Should be 50+ on signal

This leads me to another question. Can I run the output from my 1000.4 receiver into the extra dish input of the Dish 500? Will it combine both dishes so if the 1000.4 goes out again I can still get signal from the 500?
it will only see one of the two orbital slots if you combine them. But yes you can hook the output of the D500 to the D1000.4 input (as long as the D500 LNB is a dishpro)

I wonder why they did not change the LNB when they were there?
 
I got to thinking that their alignment might be off. I went out and tweaked the dish and I got about a 10 point gain in quality across the board. USA SD (TP 18 on 61.5) was getting a fluctuating 40; now its a solid 51. USA HD (TP 13 on 72) went from 50 to 59. Locals on 77 went from 52 to 61. Maybe it wasn't the LNB. A few points quality sure won't hurt either way.
 
yeah the 50's for signal will help greatly..sadly the meter isnt like FTA where you could get 100 quality ;)
50's on Eastern Arc is good

what locals do you get? Lexington? Reason I ask is I thought you were the one county in KY that got Bristol TN/Johnson City locals? Those are only on 110
 
I decided not to go with Dish in Whitesburg. They wouldn't let me take the Lex. channels. Direct was a little more accommodating. This was an upgrade to my existing Dish account. It is in an area that gets Lex.