East Arc or West Arc

[kreipe]

I upgraded to HD programming in November and until recently have had no problems. They installed a new dish with three white 'eggs' on the receiver and the words "TurboHD" on the dish itself. The last few weeks I have noticed that my SD channels are spotty on reception (80% of the time I get the channels/20% no signal).

I called Dish Network and they talked me through a bunch of diagnostics including getting signal strengths from SAT 110 and 119. The signal strength for both of these satellites were about a 16-20. They said I needed a realignment of my dish. ($6.00/mo or $95 service call)

I spoke with my dish installer and he recommended (to save $$) that I turn to the signal strength meter on the TV and try and 'push' the dish a little to see if the signal strength would go up. I turned the meter on and no signal came from either 110 or 119, but I was receiving channels perfectly. I then tried to move the dish, it moved quite easily (his bolts into the roof are not very well affixed). Still no change on 110 or 119. But I still got SD and HD programming quite well.

TODAY: I did an online check of the angle that I am to use. The dish is physically located on the east side of my house facing in a SSE direction. My question is, Am I picking up 110/119 facing this way or am I really picking up the "east arc" sats? Wouldn't Dish have know this? So tonight I'll go home and scroll to the 61/72.7/77 signal strength meter and see what's up. Which transponders would I need to check?


I'm still pretty disappointed in the overall install of the dish. But that's another discussion.

 

[TheKrell]

From the direction, I imagine you have an Eastern Arc dish. You can easily identify this by looking at the LNB assembly which is in front of, and pointed back at, the dish. An EA dish has 2 white plastic covers close together and one much farther away all by itself. If that's the only dish you have, then you should be receiving 61.5, 72, and 77 deg west longitude satellite locations. I believe you can view this info by hitting the Info button on your remote TWICE.

 

[kreipe]

I recall that the dish indeed has three white covers, with two of them together away from the third.

That's information I can actually use! To think I was on the phone with 2 different Dish tech folks for about 1 hour and neither of them knew that I was NOT suppost to be pointing at the 110/119 sats. Oh, brother.

Is there a particular transponder I should use to align my dish?

 

[harshness]

Is there a particular transponder I should use to align my dish?

It is often helpful to use one of the weaker CONUS transponders.

Before you do that, you'll want to get the mounting plate better anchored. When the mast is plum and solid, set the skew and elevation according to the numbers from dishpointer.com.

There's a chance that tightening down the mounting base alone will bring everything back to when it was installed.

 

[TheKrell]

Thanks harsh. And I can't edit my post above but...You do NOT get to see your satellites by hitting the Info button twice. I was thinking of Menu 6-1-3. Don't know of any shortcut to get to that screen.

 

[skyviewmark]

Thanks harsh. And I can't edit my post above but...You do NOT get to see your satellites by hitting the Info button twice. I was thinking of Menu 6-1-3. Don't know of any shortcut to get to that screen.

Better recheck that thought. Hitting info twice brings up the satellite. At least it does on my 722K and 622

 

[TheKrell]

Better recheck that thought. Hitting info twice brings up the satellite. At least it does on my 722K and 622

Of course you are right. What I thought I wrote above was to hit the Menu button twice, not the Info button twice. Of course hitting the Menu button twice does not show you what satellites you are getting; what I wanted to write was Menu 6-1-3. Hitting the Info button twice will indeed show you the satellite you are on.

 

[delta_charlie]

Better recheck that thought. Hitting info twice brings up the satellite. At least it does on my 722K and 622

Hi, the info twice brings up the satellite position in use at the time on my ViP 222 as well. Menu 6-1-1 brings up the satellite position, TP and signal meter. Later, DC