Installation Questions - Is DTV Worth it?

[Dalirahma]

A couple of years ago I ordered Direct TV. The installer came and looked at my roof and said, 'too many trees'. I understood and let it go.

My buddies have been pushing Direct TV on me, so I decided to try a self install on a pole in my back yard. I found a spot that appears to have a line of site and decided to try. I bought the 3 LMB dish w/ Direct TV D10 receivers.

So I assembled the dish, put the pole into the ground (will add cement when I know I can get the signal) and made sure the pole is fairly plumb. Got the satellite on the pole and ran some power out to the pole to test the signal with the receiver and a small TV. Hooked up the RG6 cables and powered the equip up.

I ran through the guided setup and entered in my zip (55427). It tells me to set the dish to: 35 degrees elevation, 200.3 degree azimuth and 74.5 tilt. Okay, I set this up and try adjusting my azimuth...absolutely nothing. Again, I look at where it should be pointed, looks clear to me. Note: 3 of my surrounding neighbors get Direct TV with a similar setup. So I go online to investigate. I put in my zip on the Direct TV site and it tells me to set it at: 37.7 degrees elevation and 188.4 azimuth. Well, which one is right? I cannot seem to get ANY signal with either coordinates. How do I know that the dish can even communicate with the receiver?

It just seems like I'm close, but I'm missing something important. I've verified as much as I can. Maybe a silly question: does the Access Card need to be inserted to even test the signal?

Any advice would be much appreciated.

ToddR

 

[dishjockey]

The azmith from your set up menu is already corrected for magnetic north so it should be the the true reading on your compass. The difference in elevation is probably because you have a phase 3 dish.
Set your elevation to 30 deg. and slowly sweep your dish around if you can't find any signal move your elevation up 2 deg. and sweep again. This must be done very slow to find signal. Keep moving up in ele. and sweeping till you find the satellite.

 

[satman69]

The Directv site is giving you instructions for a single LNB dish. Do not follow these instructions. You most likely have a triple LNB dish so It tells me to set the dish to: 35 degrees elevation, 200.3 degree azimuth and 74.5 tilt.

Also this is a two person job. You need to be outside holding the pole on a cell phone talking to the other person inside who should be telling you when you get a signal based on your incremental adjustments.

 

[Dalirahma]

Also this is a two person job. You need to be outside holding the pole on a cell phone talking to the other person inside who should be telling you when you get a signal based on your incremental adjustments.

Thanks, both replies clarify which settings to use. As for the 2 person job...will it not work for me to run extension cords out to the satellite and and use a small tv and the receiver? I am assuming I do not need the phone line to find the signal or the access card, is that correct? Thanks again.

 

[walkerjs]

When we moved into our new apartment and I decided that I wanted to fire Comcast there was much question about whether I'd be able to get a signal of any kind because of the trees that appear to be located smack in the middle of line of sight from my balcony. So I went on a research quest prior to purchasing all the equipment (3 LNB oval dish w/three recievers) which included checking the internet dish-pointing sites using lat/long coordinates derived from a GPS receiver, compass readings corrected for true north, DTV's own dish pointing tips, and most importantly checking the direction of other DTV dishes scattered about the complex. Based on this information I determined that the birds should be located right about where the treeline 'descended', thus giving a reasonably clear line of sight when factoring in elevation. So I bought the equipment and made an appointment to have an installer set it up.

When the installer guy came he used his little device to allegedly locate the birds in a location about 20 degrees to the right of where I estimated them to be. They were, according to his readings, above the tree line so he said "I can guarantee you a 70 or 80 signal, but those trees are going to grow so you won't have very long." Then he wanted to charge me a bunch of money for a bucket mount and flat cables so I opted to build all that and set it up myself (not realizing that a 3 LNB oval dish is the most difficult of all dishes to point...ignorance can be an advantage in rare cases.) When I finally got everything built and connected (I did the same thing you did with a small...well, relatively small - 20" TV out on the balcony so I could read the signal meter without using someone else) I spent about an hour hunting in vain for signal pointing at the spot in the sky the installer claimed they would be.

Getting frustrated that this would indeed become "Walker's folly" as my wife called it, I decided to give the original coordinates I calculated a shot (couldn't hurt) so I moved the whole assembly to the location on the balcony I originally predicted that it would live and bingo! Signal on the 101. Armed with the knowledge that this would even be possible, a little fine tuning, fiddling with the tilt I was able to acquire the 110/119 and get it to a peak of about 89 with a 100 on the 101. Tightened everything up securely, ran my cables to the receivers, and called DTV to get signed up. We've had it going strong for two and a half months now.

Is it worth it? You betcha. I have discovered channels I like that Cable doesn't carry, NFL has allowed me to see all the pre-season games (big whoop, but hey I like football...even the ones that don't count) and my wife claims that FIT TV has helped her to lose weight. I could go on about how it freshens breath and makes my whites even whiter, but the real point is that we now get all the channels that "Digital Cable" gave us at $30/month less.

One man's experience.

 

[satman69]

Thanks, both replies clarify which settings to use. As for the 2 person job...will it not work for me to run extension cords out to the satellite and and use a small tv and the receiver? I am assuming I do not need the phone line to find the signal or the access card, is that correct? Thanks again.[/QUOTE]

That will work as well.

 

[Dalirahma]

Progress...I picked up some signals today.

I get no signal on 101, signals in the 70s on 110 and signals in the low 90s on 119. I tried tweaking things a bit and that's the best I've been able to do.

Does anyone have any insite into these readings? Any suggestions for tweaking and/or moving my post?

Thanks for all the replies. This forum has given me some hope!