Issues pointing dish for Hopper setup

[MoHo]

Need information from an installer or someone with the knowledge about HD dish pointing. I have 2 Dish accounts, both set up with Hopper. One of the accounts is for my motorhome. For the motorhome, I have to set up my dish on a tripod when I relocate. Before I had HD, I've been setting up my dish with no concerns, for 110 & 119. But after the installer left, I was left with concerns from what he had said to me. 2 issues - first one: where my motorhome sat, he said he could not get 129 for HD, because of trees. So he pointed at the eastern satellites instead of the closer western satellites. He told me that if aiming at western sats, he would have used an LNB with 3 eyes for 3 satellites. But he told me that since he was aiming at the farther eastern satellites, that he only needed to hit 2 satellites to get all of the channels. So he put an LNB on that had 2 eyes to aim southeast. SO, now I'm faced with a reloacation. If I aim at the normal western sats, I can only hit 2 of the 3 satellites. I figured I would have to get a new LNB. I called Dish tech support and asked about my concern. After he put me on hold to read, he told me that if I hit 129 and one of the other ones (110 or 119), that I would get all of my channels. I'm not sure who to believe - tech support or the installer. My gut tells me the installer was right. If so, then I need a new LNB to get 3 satellites. Does anyone know the answer to this? Should I ask Dish to bring me another LNB?
Next issue: I starting talking to the installer about setting the dish up and he told me that, with my new setup, that the signal strength inline meter would not work. The tech support guy on the phone couldn't answer that. He told me that only the installers knew about that. He told me to just use the on-television dish pointer meter to set it up, which means I need to get someone to help me and watch the television while I move it around. I would love to buy a Satellite Buddy, but can't afford one of those at this time. So, without a Sat Buddy, what is the easiest way to set up (HD - hopper)? If I only need 2 satellites, which 2? What difference will it be from when I didn't have HD?
Thanks!

 

[mike123abc]

Both East and West have 3 satellites. The Eastern however has all main programming on just 2 of them - 61.5 and 72.7, the other satellite just has local channels for some markets.

The Western Arc has HD split up over all 3 satellites 110/119/129.

So, if you receive 61.5/72.7 right now and have your locals available you are probably OK for now, but the issue that could come up is if they ever move your locals to 77.

 

[MoHo]

So I'm moving the motorhome next weekend from Minnesota to Mississippi. It will have to be set up again. Should I just keep shooting at the eastern sats? Or should I request that Dish Network swap out my LNB for a 3 eye, so I can get all of my HD on the western 3? If I just try to shoot east again, how do I find out the az, el, & skew to hit the eastern 2? Which 2 are they? Thanks, Any info on this is much appreciated. I'm just wondering if the best thing would be to tell Dish Network I want another LNB. Is it going to be harder to hit 3 sats? Should I call an installer to set it up for me or will this work pretty much like it used to before HD?
Thanks again, so very much!
Steve

 

[Brussam]

The WA is generally the best for RVers traveling the whole country, mainly because RVing is so much better west of the Mississippi. You need the WA triple LNBF head for the three WA satellites. If you want HD, most, not all, of HD is on satellite 129, but you really need all three satellites to get your programming package.

Having a good meter makes life a whole lot better. I used to use an Acutrac 22 Pro but my battery wore out and I had a flaky push-button. So I bought a First Strike FS1. Relying on the receiver meter just doesn't make it when you are trying to set the dish up 150' away from the RV. With a triple LNBF dish means you need a meter that can drive the mufti-switch in the head so you aim with the correct LNBF.

If you don't have one, invest in a good tripod with adjustable length legs because not all tripod sites are level. I recommend the HD Tripod from TV4RV.com. Without adjustable length legs, it is very hard to get a vertical mast which is critical for the proper alignment of the dish in the Skew dimension.

I have a lot about setting up a dish at RV Satellite TV.

 

[towboy123]

An added thought the Eastern Arc is much higher in the sky and therefore most times it is easier find Line Of Sight. I install in Raleigh NC Market we are lucky enough that locals are on both so we always have the choice. If you go over to the Greenville Market HD Locals can only be found on the EA. I'd always prefer the Western ARC but having options is always best.

 

[bwexler]

I live full time in my RV.
I have a Motosat dpp 500 automatic dish on the roof that I have been using for years with my VIP 622s and 722k.
I obviously never had 129, but got plenty of channels to satisfy me.
Why can't I continue to use my dpp500 with my new Hopper?
If there is a way, what do I have to do to make it work?
I do have a dish 1000.2 portable but would rather not have to mess with it if I don't have to, especialy for one night stops.

 

[Brussam]

You probably could. We have a Trav'ler on the roof and use a DPP 1000 on a tripod when the trees are in the way. At one of our stops this year, we could use the Trav'ler and we couldn't get a clear shot of 129. So for all intents and purposes, the dish was working like a DPP 500. The Hopper did the switch check and found 119 and 110 on the three tuners.

Just to prove things, I even covered the LNBFs with foil and proved the Hopper will run the Switch check with only one satellite.

For 5 years before we got the Trav'ler, I setup the ground tripod every stop even for the one-nighters. And for most of that time, the setup also included setting up the HughesNet Internet dish. Good tools make the job easy.

Since you want the provision of either using the Motosat or the ground tripod, you have to put the Solo so it connect to either dish. I use high quality switches to switch between the ground tripod and the roof dish. You probably have one of the Motosat coax feeds going to the bedroom. You will have to extend it to where the Solo will be. Photos of my setup Hopper 2000

 

[bwexler]

I do not have a Solo Node, I have a Duo Node.
It requires 3 cables from the Dish to be happy.

I have the Duo Node mounted on the top of my AV cabinet so I can simply unscrew the 3 cables from the tripod dish and connect the cables from the Motosat, but first I will have to run the extra cable from the Motosat to the Duo Node.

 

[Brussam]

It would be interesting of the Dual is okay with the Motosat dual LNBF.

If I ever wanted to have a second Hopper I see that as a possible issue, I have nore than ebough coax inputs to the trailer to have three cables from the ground tripod. But a third cable from the Trav'ler could be a real challenge.