Cannot get 119

[dsurette]

I have a Dish 500 with a 311 receiver. I thought that I was reasonably proficient at setting it up in our camper until now. I am up in western Maine with a very limited view of the sky. Using an Align-a-Site and satellite finder I can get a strong signal on 110. But no matter where I place the dish and realign, I can't get 119. I really need 119 for the race coming on at 5 p.m. I am up here with my daughter and we are both NASCAR fans.

After getting a strong signal on 110, I move the tripod mounted dish to the left, which is toward the east, and then realign for a signal. By moving it toward the east, I am looking more westward through the trees where 119 should be. I do this in small increments hoping that I can get 119. I do a check switch after each movement and still all I get is 110. I have put foil over the 110 feed and tune for 119 and I get a strong signal on the 119 bar but it never turns green and says something like "not connected, 110 W". I don't have a meter available here to check the DC switching on the coax line.

Is it possible that I lost my DC voltage? How does the voltage make the LNB switch satellites? Is there voltage for one satellite and remove the voltage for the other? I looked for a fuse in the 311 but there is only one for the AC input. Strangely, it is labeled F2. What happened to F1?

Thanks for any advice you can give me.

 

[HIFI]

you are seeing 110 with 119 side!lower elevation 4 then swing back west

 

[garys]

Cover either the 119 or 110 lnb and see if you still have signal. You could be getting 110 thru the 119 lnb.

 

[kb2vgp]

If you are getting 110 through the correct side of the LNB, 119 is probably being blocked by trees. Based on what you said in your original post, you have a LOS issue here.

 

[harshness]

The difference in elevation between 110W and 119W is as much as 5.3 degrees in Maine.

Make sure the skew is set for somewhere between 31 and 34.5 degrees. Having the wrong skew is the third possible problem (after wrong azimuth and no LOS).

 

[dsurette]

Thanks for the replies. It looks like is it LOS. The hole through the trees that was allowing me to get 110 just wasn't low enough to get 119. I was actually able to get about a 10 reading on 119 but no higher and it was unstable.
So we had to go to the Town of Rangeley and watch the last part of the race at a sports bar. Poor us!
Thanks again for your help.

BTW, does anyone else use the Align-a-Site tool for setting up a dish? Does anybody know what the tool is aiming at for a Dish setup? Is it aiming at 110 or 119 or something in between. Is there some kind of a diagram that shows the position of the satellites with respect to a fixed point on Earth? Are the satellites different distances from Earth? So many questions....