Dish alignment

[lugnut1012]

I look on this forum all the time but have not really posted before. I have a dish that is mounted on a pole next to the house. No line of sight issues at all. The signal readings keep getting lower and lower. I am wanting to get the dish realigned but I am not handy enough to do it. If I call Direct TV and have one of their guys come out will it cost me anything? It has been really windy in our part of the country and I am worried that the dish is out of alignment. What would be my best action? Thanks

 

[raoul5788]

It's tricky to do yourself but you might be able to do it. First, what are your signal strength numbers on all of the satellites? That will give us an idea of how bad the alignment is, if that is actually the issue.

 

[noonespecial]

Service calls always cost the customer money, unless you have protection plan. However, if you have been with them for at least a year, you can usually get a free equipment upgrade as long as you renew for 2 years. Techs are required to pass a signal test to close work orders, so upgrades a lot of the time are really just "free" service calls.

You can do it yourself, especially if iit'sa kaku dish, the dish has east/west, up/down fine tuning.
It sounds like your pole is moving in the ground/ground is shifting, or the tech forgot to tighten the dish after alignment.

 

[ZandarKoad]

I would have someone inside looking at the signal strength while you go outside and gently twist the dish left, right, up, down. Talk to them on the phone while you do you "push / pull" test so they can read the numbers from the screen as you do it.

 

[Zashel]

i actually met a guy from my high school class who did his own dish by face-timeing his ipad from his iphone. i thought that was pretty clever.