How often to you adjust your dish(es) ?

[Kraven]

Just wondering.

Seems whenever I fine tune it to a specific satellite, it kills the reception on other birds.
Ex: after a full scan last night, I was missing RTV/TUFF.. adjusted the lnb for it, then I lost other channels
as a result.

Cheers, K

 

[FaT Air]

Spring, after the ground thaws, then again after 'deep freeze' in the fall. May do a little peaking if after a heavy rain loosens the soil and notice lower Q's. BUD on a floating slab, and Ku on above ground framework. This past winter was very dry, little snow, that had the BUD pole tipping forward about 2 degrees after the thaw. Otherwise normally it's under .5 degrees off. Ku was unaffected.
I have a 10 ft BUD and can only occasionally see signal on RTV @ 87w. Everything else there is strong 70+ Q. RTV @ 137w is strong.

 

[stecle]

If the install is done properly the answer should be never.

 

[xtgold]

trees/bushes are more of a problem for me.
Bushes are knocking down the signal for 85w wildfeeds but it's been too hot out for yardwork.

 

[rv1pop]

CU ?? Every time I try to use it.. KU -- almost never. 1 CU, 7 KU!

 

[turbosat]

Like xtgold I spend more time adjusting the trees than the dishes! Cut an old crap-tree today, don't know what it was but it hung up in a walnut tree branch, stood on its own stump. When i started to stack-cut it, flipped totally opposite direction and fell on the corner of my storage building. Luckily it didn't hurt anything as it was just the top small branches. I could use a Cat D4 for a couple of hours lol.

 

[Lone Gunman]

My Winegard dish that I installed here at the new house back in 2000 never got touched again until NPS stopped selling subs a few years back and I finally switched over to an LNBF for FTA and removed the Corotor II. I was picking up 37.5W back to 139W with that one in spite of some trees on the horizon in front of 139W. I moved that dish to another location a week or so ago and I'm done tweaking on it now, I think. The Unimesh I put in it's place seems to be working well also at this point so if it ain't broke, I probably won't try to fix it.

So to answer your question I don't mess with mine unless I have a problem and that's usually a lightning strike that takes out the LNBF.

 

[jorgek]

I have 2 fixed KU dishes. One for 30W and the other for 97W. Had to tweak the 97W dish after a huge storm and high winds.
I also have a 31" test dish which I move around the back yard to see what I can get. I bolt it to a work mate bench. So this one get constant adjustments.

 

[Blindowl1234]

Usually in the spring the KU dish is leaning so I have to adjust it. Our soil is clay and holds water very easily. Even a well installed fence leans around here lol...My 8 foot dish has done good this year no adjustment so far.

 

[Kraven]

Looks like am close to have the 39" finely tuned. That low trans on 125w is now at 70%. However, by fine tuning it, I sarcrificed Cozi (18840h on 103w: fluxes from 40-60%).
One major issue is the amount of trees in this town. Everyone's got a forest in their backyard.

Cheers, K

 

[Dee_Ann]

Here in SE Texas on the Gulf of Mexico the soil here is this black, useless clay that we call "Gumbo".. When it dries out it's like black concrete and it's impossible to dig through it without power tools.
We have been having pretty severe drought issues for several years and when the ground dries out it cracks open, some cracks so big you can break your ankle if you don't watch out, it's a really hazard for my dog too.
After more than a month of no rain at all I started to lose my HD signal on my Dish Network tuner and my FTA channels started dropping in and out too. I went outside and shook the dishes, they were really, really loose and leaning.
So I got a soaker hose and a timer so that every six hours my satellite dishes get watered for 30 minutes. The ground soaked up the water and it swelled back to where the dishes are not as loose. I got my signals back.

But what it's going to really take is pulling the poles up and replacing them with poles much more sturdy and longer so I can put them at least 4 feet in the ground. My C-band dishes are 4 feet deep and rock solid.
I think all my ku dishes are at the most, 2 feet deep. This has been an on going problem for me from day one. Back when I first tried to get Whitesprings on 129 it gave me grief because of the drought. By the time I finally figured it out and fixed it, they went dark.

So if you plant them deep enough you shouldn't ever have to adjust them.. It really matters..