Finally!

[Pixl]

If I can throw one more procedure on the pile.

Set a lap top on the coffee table in front of your tv, log into Skype.
Log into Skype with your Iphone and go out to the dish. You can even hear the beeps if available and watch the signal bars without hauling everything outside. There is a slight delay in what you see, so move slowly.

 

[Dee_Ann]

If I can throw one more procedure on the pile.

Set a lap top on the coffee table in front of your tv, log into Skype.
Log into Skype with your Iphone and go out to the dish. You can even hear the beeps if available and watch the signal bars without hauling everything outside. There is a slight delay in what you see, so move slowly.

First off, your avatar? HAHAHAHAHA!!!!!!!!!!!! Love it!

Skype.. Well, that sounds like a neat idea but my antique laptop doesn't have a camera.
But for those fortunate enough to have a modern laptop from this century, that would probably work well.

 

[Dee_Ann]

"Oh, and yes, I have tried the suggestion of tipping the dish up and pulling it down."

It's NOT a matter of just "tipping the dish" Dee, you have to hold it there for a few seconds and wait for the meter to respond, maybe three to five seconds.

Dee, again I think you are skipping over steps. You said you spent "hours" messing with the lnb, but AGAIN you skipped a step. Get the dish lined up first, THEN spend a few minutes on the lnb. The fact that you have found and can return to so many satellites proves that you ARE on the arc, but you'll forever miss the channels you want until you align the dish properly.

I, for one, am glad your back. At least we can stop worrying about you and your health, and/or finding that you fell off your rickety ladder. And a step stool is much safer than an upside-down bucket any day of the week.

If you wont take advise on tweaking your dish before messing with the lnb, good luck, I hope it turns out good for you.

Photto

Oh man... I had typed up a bunch of stuff and firefox crashed and I lost it all. I hate firefox 4. :rant: So, starting over again, this time much shorter..


Ok, bottom line. The limbs over the dishes. I think they are causing a problem, making it very difficult to get this thing set up properly.

That and we've had a few weeks of fierce winds around the clock. 20 to 30 mph winds pretty much non stop. That's not helping at all.


I got a rope from my dad and tried the red neck tree trimming method. No way.. That's an oak tree and it's way tougher than I thought it is.

I tried to climb up a ladder I have for getting on the roof. I got about half way up, maybe 9 feet or 10 feet up and I came to my senses and got right back down. NO WAY...

So I think it's time to call in a professional tree trimmer.


Also, I tried the tip the dish thing last week but I was on my iPhone and it was during the height of my frustration peak so I didn't get anywhere with it.

"Oh, and yes, I have tried the suggestion of tipping the dish up and pulling it down."

It's NOT a matter of just "tipping the dish" Dee, you have to hold it there for a few seconds and wait for the meter to respond, maybe three to five seconds.

Dee, again I think you are skipping over steps. You said you spent "hours" messing with the lnb, but AGAIN you skipped a step. Get the dish lined up first, THEN spend a few minutes on the lnb. The fact that you have found and can return to so many satellites proves that you ARE on the arc, but you'll forever miss the channels you want until you align the dish properly.

I, for one, am glad your back. At least we can stop worrying about you and your health, and/or finding that you fell off your rickety ladder. And a step stool is much safer than an upside-down bucket any day of the week.

If you wont take advise on tweaking your dish before messing with the lnb, good luck, I hope it turns out good for you.

Photto

Oh man... I had typed up a bunch of stuff and firefox crashed and I lost it all. I hate firefox 4. So, starting over again, this time much shorter..


Ok, bottom line. The limbs over the dishes. I think they are causing a problem, making it very difficult to get this thing set up properly.

That and we've had a few weeks of fierce winds around the clock. 20 to 30 mph winds pretty much non stop. That's not helping at all.


I got a rope from my dad and tried the red neck tree trimming method. No way.. That's an oak tree and it's way tougher than I thought it is.

I tried to climb up a ladder I have for getting on the roof. I got about half way up, maybe 9 feet or 10 feet up and I came to my senses and got right back down. NO WAY...

So I think it's time to call in a professional tree trimmer.


Also, I tried the tip the dish thing last week but I was on my iPhone and it was during the height of my frustration peak so I didn't get anywhere with it.

But now I have the little tv and the remote pyramid. I took it out back a while ago and tried it out and it works great! I can get a very usable picture on the little tv via the spare wire from the coolsat out to the dishes and the pyramid relays the remote control to indoors and I have 100% full and total control of the coolsat and the gbox. I can change channels, move the dish, scan, you name it. Just like I could if I were sitting indoors.


I will probably give it a go later when I wake up. My weird hours have me waking up about midnight now. Each day I wake up a little later and go to bed a little later. I have a couple of sleep disorders that really mess up my life in soooo many ways. But anyway, I will probably be out there about 2am or 3am to see what I can do with my new gadgets.

I am flustered with the fact that I have found many satellites, can go back and forth to them and get many channels, but only a limited number of channels.

I think that in addition to the tree problem, I think that the lnb is completely messed up. The mounting ring is all wonky and moves around and the lnb in the ring is wonky as well as the ring being wonky. The other thing that makes this difficult is that it's so high up in the air and I have to go up and down a scary old ladder, in the middle of the night no less.

I need to get my dad over here with his tools to cut that pole down a few feet and drill new holes in it and thread them for the bolts like he did before, just down lower.

This C-band stuff is HARD... And complicated! It's not for beginners, at all. And I'm like less than a beginner. And frustrated.

I need to do a lot more reading, you guys are posting and have posted lots of good stuff and I need to read it all then sit and contemplate it. It rarely ever goes into my brain and stick in that tiny little area called "Oh, that makes sense!".. It usually just spills out that very large hole in my head called the "WTH does that mean?" zone. It goes in for a few seconds, quickly gets lost in all that empty space and makes a quick exit.


I have so much working against me on this project. I can't think of anything I've ever tried to do that was more complicated or difficult than this C-band stuff...

 

[Dee_Ann]

I've got one of those little TV's too...they work great for aiming the dish and are alot easier to take on the roof than a 13" TV

Also, when I'm not using it for messing with dishes (more like messing up dishes) I can use it to watch my doggie cams. I had a few cameras put up outside so I can keep an eye on my baby when she's outside. I think I might purchase another of these things for the other camera. It's a very decent little tv that is very handy for multiple uses and the price is very affordable.

 

[T4Runner]

Dee, you are my kind of woman! LOL. Any woman that will spend the effort you have to try and get satellite is pretty high up in my book! My wife says we 'don't need all these dishes'... I will admit it is somewhat an obsessive hobby. But that's what it is: A HOBBY!

Keep plugging along and keep the pictures coming. You've got me hooked. If I was close I'd be over there offering a hand and I'm still trying to figure how you got a rope around that tree limb??? Now those pictures would have been worth their weight in gold!

 

[Dee_Ann]

Dee, you are my kind of woman! LOL. Any woman that will spend the effort you have to try and get satellite is pretty high up in my book! My wife says we 'don't need all these dishes'... I will admit it is somewhat an obsessive hobby. But that's what it is: A HOBBY!

Keep plugging along and keep the pictures coming. You've got me hooked. If I was close I'd be over there offering a hand and I'm still trying to figure how you got a rope around that tree limb??? Now those pictures would have been worth their weight in gold!

HA! Well, to tell the truth, when I first started messing with this a few years back I was looking at a pile of broken down dishes that the ex had left behind, they didn't work anymore and I was preparing to tote them all to the curb when I had a second thought about it and decided that I should see if they could be repaired or used for anything. Sure enough, there was hope for them.

All I wanted though was just one little dish. But there were several satellites so I had to put up several dishes to get them. I kept vowing to put up a motor dish and do away with all the ugly little grey mushrooms. Well, that never came to pass and I fell down the rabbit hole on this stuff and it did become an obsession. I blame my red hair on it. Red hair = hard head. I'm so flippin stubborn and hard headed that I just can't let it go. I don't like to admit defeat though I often contemplate it.. So, I just keep at it. Having fallen victim to republican economic monkey business, like so many others, I went from rarely ever being home to being home 100%. So, I needed something to do to keep my little brain busy. You can only work the garden for so long each day and then you have to find something else to stay busy. So, this is it I guess..

As for the rope, I tied a heavy metal thing on it, it looks like a horse shoe with a bolt through it, my dad left it here with the ropes and chain.
It weighs like several pounds and it was NOT easy to throw up there! After about three tries I started to run out of gas real fast. I had to stop and take a few breathers and it took me a bunch of tries. Then once I got it up there I "whipped" the rope a while until it finally dropped down enough for me to reach it on the step ladder. I wrapped the rope around it a few times and then through the chain on the tree and over to the mower. After I discovered that the oak limbs were tougher than I thought I was able to climb back up the step ladder and loosen the rope and pull it back down. I thought that part through, just in case of certain failure, I wanted to be sure I didn't have the rope stuck up there forever.


I'm not small or petite but I'm far from strong so that makes all this far more difficult for me than it would be for you guys. In many cases I have to hire someone to do stuff or sometimes my dad helps me but he's 74yro so there's a limit to what he can do.

It's not easy, this hobby.. It's really hard work and makes for a lot of pain in the brain...

BUT, the rewards are pretty awesome! IF you can prevail...

 

[sergei]

Oh man... I had typed up a bunch of stuff and firefox crashed and I lost it all. I hate firefox 4

You might find is easier to type it into a program like Word and then paste it here for the long ones, that's what I do now and makes for less headaches.

The other thing and it may just be the way these pictures were taken, but are you sure that the new pole is straight. Have you rechecked with a level? I went back to when the guy was installing it and I didn't see any level being used to check the pole and any type of bracing for the pole while the concrete setup. If not right then that would cause you all kinds of issues getting certain satellites.

 

[stanleyjohn]

I really dont see any good reason to mount a dish so high up on a mast.For me i have my 6 footer on a mast that alittle over 3 feet! It sure makes dish maintenance and LNB adjustments much easier.

 

[sergei]

I really dont see any good reason to mount a dish so high up on a mast.For me i have my 6 footer on a mast that alittle over 3 feet! It sure makes dish maintenance and LNB adjustments much easier.

Now in my case it sure makes it a lot easier to mow around them with the garden tractor and not hit my head , so she may have the same problem with having a lower system.

 

[Dee_Ann]

I really dont see any good reason to mount a dish so high up on a mast.For me i have my 6 footer on a mast that alittle over 3 feet! It sure makes dish maintenance and LNB adjustments much easier.

Well....... Originally I did not realize that the dishes would be so horizontal as they are, bird bath style.
What I ~THOUGHT~ I needed to have was clearance from the center of the dish to the edge of the dish plus a foot or two to mow under.
So, I thought on the 10 foot dish, it's five foot from center to edge, add two feet for mowing and that would put it like 7 feet up.

So my dad bought a pole that was 22 feet long and he had the people cut it in two so he could fit it in his van. He had them cut one to 11 1/2 feet and the other end was 9 1/2 feet. I had intended for the long one to be 5 feet in the ground and the shorter one, 4 feet in the ground.

The guy that dug the holes and planted them, could not dig any deeper than 4 feet. Oooopsy....... So, a lot more pole than I had planned on ended up being out of the ground than in the ground..

Then, I discovered that the things are almost horizonal when aimed. I was thinking that they would point something like the little ku dishes and would be more vertical. That's where I was thinking I needed all that clearance. Whooooopsy! So now I have this little problem.

Beginners luck?

So yes, they for sure need to be cut down lower. My dad said that's not a problem, that he can do that easily, not to worry.


Oh, and to address another question earlier, yes, the poles are VERY level. I personally leveled them. I wanted to be certain they were level so I did it myself. I put a few of the little ku poles up so I knew the routine. The guy that did the work, he mixed the cement so it was like peanut butter and the pole did not move once it was leveled. It did not need bracing up. I personally leveled the pole with a bubble level, I checked the level on east, west, north and south and it was PERFECTLY centered between the lines, not sort of centered, not touching one of the lines, not kinda maybe centered, the bubble was absolutely perfectly centered and the poles are still 100% perfectly level. Of that much, I am 100% certain. I checked and rechecked this several times.

I learned this lesson on White Springs. I had a bad time getting white springs because the pole was not level. The ground had dried up and the pole was loose and wiggly and the dish drooped. When it would rain the ground would swell up like a sponge and the pole and dish would straighten back up again on it's own for a few days till it dried out again.

That drove me crazy until I figured out what was going on.

So I waited until the ground was very dry and put a new pole in and made sure it was very level. TADA! Fixed! And then a week or two later, White Springs went bye bye... Just my luck..

I had that same problem with the dish for Galaxy 19(?) the one on 97.
Same exact problem.

It's one thing to plant a pole for a little dish with one sack of cement but these big ones, omg... I knew that there would be no fixing these beasts if they weren't right the first time so I made darn sure they were very, very right, the first time...

 

[Dee_Ann]

So my dad came by today. So did United Package Smashers.

My (sorta) new cordless drill/wrench came in today. It's in almost new condition, they said it was used one time. It looks like new to me.
It came with some small drills too, they also look like new.

I immediately put my name on them so my dad's sticky fingers don't become too attached to them.

Later in the evening Dad brought over a bag of tools, some new, some used. Most of them look almost new at least. He said these are light duty tools for small home repair stuff.

He also had previously given me some large adjustable wrenches for the big bolts on the big dishes. They were old and greasy so I had to scrub them up. Beggars can't be choosers..

He said the tools are mine to keep.

There should be enough stuff there to make it possible for me to work on pretty much all the satellite dishes no matter what they need done to them.

So, now I want to get a few more items. A much, much better satellite finder/signal meter and one of those little hand held tuners you guys are talking about in another thread. I think y'all have been getting them on ebay.


My dad is getting pretty old now and I think he has it in his mind to make sure I have some things I can use to fix things myself without having to pay people to do them for me. Well, some things at least. Some of the trivial things. I know he won't be around forever. Once he's gone though I'm gonna be at the mercy of the world if my car ever breaks down. That's not something I have the tools or skills to do.

We've had around the clock strong winds 25-35 mph for almost two weeks. And now we have nasty thunderstorms coming through so I won't be able to mess with the dish tonight. The ground is about to be wet with rain so there's no way I'm going to go out there with an extension cord on the wet grass. I guess I'll give it a try tomorrow night.

What I want to do is take the new little tv out there and try tipping the dish by hand as has been suggested several times. I can hit the satellite with NASA at 87 pretty easily. With the tv out there I can try different things until I can find MeTV again. It sure would be nice to also get thisTV as well, then I can leave the silly thing parked right there.

As it is now I am watching thisTV on satellite 99, the Caribbean channel. It's low resolution and the banner is very annoying but it does come in very strong. I've left it there for a few days now. If it ain't broke, don't fix it!


So tomorrow night for sure (unless the storm passes us without raining on us) I am for sure going to go out there with my new tools and stuff and see if I can get 87 tuned in properly.

 

[Magic Static]

There it is guys. A woman with a power tool. She will be unstopable now.

 

[Dee_Ann]

There it is guys. A woman with a power tool. She will be unstopable now.

Heh! I also own a chainsaw. Only used it once in 6 six years that I've owned it but it is mine. Still looks like brand new..

Oh yeah, and a John Deere riding mower and a walk behind weed eater..

 

[Pixl]

Dee,

Your tool presentation was very colorful!

Nice way to brighten up this place.

 

[Mr Tony]

Since you're on 99W did you do a blind scan and pick up other channels?

99W has World Harvest Network which does have some older shows during the day. Shows like Green Acres and Daniel Boone

4000 H 26400. Will log 5 TV and about 15 radio channels

 

[trinidex]

Heh! I also own a chainsaw. Only used it once in 6 six years that I've owned it but it is mine. Still looks like brand new..

Oh yeah, and a John Deere riding mower and a walk behind weed eater..

OMG! Tools, a John Deere... Dee you really are the perfect (sat guys) girl!

 

[Dee_Ann]

OMG! I just figured out this multiquote feature! How cool!

Since you're on 99W did you do a blind scan and pick up other channels?

99W has World Harvest Network which does have some older shows during the day. Shows like Green Acres and Daniel Boone

4000 H 26400. Will log 5 TV and about 15 radio channels

Hi and thank you Iceberg!

I checked and yes, I have a lot of channels on that satellite and that frequency shows several tv channels and a bunch of radio channels. They come in strong and clear. I found Hogan's Heros (not a real fan of war stuff) on KWHS. That's good though because I added it to my Titan listings and see other shows that come on throughout the day that I now have the option to watch. It scanned in as Lesea-5.

Thank you for the tip, I wouldn't have looked otherwise..

OMG! Tools, a John Deere... Dee you really are the perfect (sat guys) girl!

Oh I'm soooo far from perfect. I'm just trying to become more independent and save money when and where I can.
I got the John Deere at the suggestion of a neighbor after my old mower blew up and set me on fire in early 2010.
He told me that if I got a Deere and took care of it it would be the last mower I would ever have to buy. I love it because it gets the job done, FAST! I can mow my entire yard in 20 minutes and it's a big yard. It used to take me 5 hours to mow it with a push mower.

It cost me over $3,000 by the time you figure in the accessories (trailer, spreader, canopy, etc) and the extended onsite warranty but it was well worth it. When it's time to mow I just take the cover off, start it up and GO. 100% reliable!

I'm hard headed and stubborn. And my dad sort of prods me along, he's always gifting me with tools lately telling me I need to learn how to fix things myself because he's not going to be around forever. And yeah, sadly, he's right. He's also 74yro.

This stuff is very frustrating and it's probably the hardest thing I've ever tried to do. This requires brawn I do not have and brain power I do not have so I have to enlist the help of others to get through this. I have my limits.

The ku stuff is simple, simple, simple compared to C-band! And it's scaled down small enough that I can plant a pole for one myself, put the dish on it and find a satellite. Nothing to it..

This C-band, omg...

Oh yes! Speaking of help.

I was out back this morning and one of my neighbors shouted out a greeting to me so I stopped him and talked to him about trimming those limbs down. He's a thin, lightweight, agile kinda guy so I asked him if he could cut down those limbs over my dishes. He said yes, he can and will do it. I am going to pay him $50 to cut two limbs down.

We decided that I will need to throw a rope over them and pull them away from the dishes as they come down. I asked him to put a rope over a higher limb to tie onto the ones he cuts so the can be lowered down in a controlled manner rather than just dropped. He said no problem.

So one day this week he is going to take care of THAT problem for me.

I think that is going to help a lot.

Once the limbs are down then there is no reason this shouldn't work other than my ineptitude.

Oh, and my dad said that he will come over and cut those poles down this week. I told him it's a low priority so anytime this week or next is fine.

Well, the rain passed and the yard is dry enough, time to break out the Skin So Soft (mosquito protection) and get out there tonight with my new little tv and see what I can do. But with these +30mph winds (this has been going on 24/7 for two weeks) it's going to be iffy..

Statement as of 6:09 PM CDT on April 26, 2011
                  
... Wind Advisory remains in effect until 7 am CDT Wednesday... 

A Wind Advisory remains in effect until 7 am CDT Wednesday. 

Southerly winds between 15 and 25 mph are expected today and
tonight... with gusts up to 35 mph at times.

Precautionary/preparedness actions... 

A Wind Advisory means that sustained winds of 20 to 34 mph are
expected. Winds this strong can make driving difficult... 
especially for high profile vehicles. Use extra caution.

Winds over local waterways could be 5 mph higher than over land.
Small boats will be especially prone to capsizing.

Thanks guys! Y'all are the best!

 

[Dee_Ann]

And here we go!

I'm watching MeTV again!

That little tv I bought, that was the trick! I took it out back, put it on a tripod, plugged in the cone, brought up NASA then began fiddling with the dish while I watched the coolsat in real time with no lag like the iPhone was doing.

The picture is blocky and jumpy and freezy but the audio is pretty steady.

I stopped just before sunrise because I forgot to put some stuff on and a mosquito bit me on the finger and it felt like a wasp stung me, my finger puffed up so bad I can't bend it. That little rain we got, rain to mosquitoes is like gasoline poured on fire. I didn't think they would get so vicious so fast.

Anyway.. MeTV is coming in but it's pretty bad. And yes, I did the dish tipping stuff. I tipped it up and down while I watched the tv and got the best signal and picture I possibly could. I also messed with the lnb as well. It seems that the NASA channels are super powerful and the MeTV channel is super weak. The NASA channels come in with the lnb turned all kinds of different ways but MeTV is very, very touchy about it being exactly so.

I'll mess with it again tonight when I wake up and go into vampiress mode, as usual. This time though, mosquito protection!

Oh and I took my new drill and made some changes to that little tripod. I drilled holes in it and bolted a little plastic tray to it for the remote pyramid to sit just below and in front of the little tv. I sure wish I could get one of those pyramids that run on batteries so I don't have to use that extension cord.

I also purchased and paid for one of those little hand held tuner/scanners and hope to have that in three or four weeks.

Getting the tree trimmed should help too. But I'm going back out this evening and trying again to tweak MeTV. I really am excited about that channel and thisTV too. The WVXF copy of it is kind of not so great, they run a lot of infomercials and other nonsense covering over the national program line, the resolution is low, the picture is shifted over to the left and their banner ID thing is annoyingly large and invasive. They had a show on recently with subtitles and you couldn't read them at all, they were exactly behind their logo banner thing! Gaaaah!

Well, this was progress and the little tv set is just all kinds of awesome!
Maybe I can put the new meter onto the little tv so I'll have a bigger screen when I'm working.

Now if I could just get that flippin stupid birddog to work! That thing really chaps my backside! No wonder that dude sold it. I think I got the short end of the deal there...

Well, we'll see what this evening's outdoor antics turn up..

Oh and check out what happened with the wind last night. This has been going on for weeks. Last night though it got a little more interesting.

 

[Scott Greczkowski]

Hey I have that same TV! Love it and comes in VERY handy!

 

[Davage]

Hey I have that same TV! Love it and comes in VERY handy!

Me too! Handy little tv with built-in ATSC tuner. I got it for $58 from a surplus store..