Need help with a 3 sat legacy setup

[gamerrill]

I'm a long time E* customer (since '96, IIRC), and in that time I've always owned and installed my own equipment. I'd like to keep it that way, but this newest upgrade is kicking my butt and I need an assist.

The reason I'm upgrading is to get mpeg4 hd. I'm one of those guys who still has the mpeg2 hd pak. My old system is a Dish 500 with 2 legacy dual lnbs fed into an sw21. The receiver is an 811. I've purchased a 211, a second dish, another legacy lnb, and an sw21x. The new hardware is installed. The existing lnbs are attached to the sw21x and the output attached to the sat 1 input on the sw21. The new lnb is attached to the sat 2 input on the sw21.

When I've run check switch, the installation summary shows the system as sw21-3sat as it should, Port 1 is 119, Port 2 is 110, and both are ok, but Port 3...nothing. I've aimed the dish to 61.5 (I'd like to avoid 129 for now) as well as I can with a compass, but I'm not able to pick it up.

Dish tech support wasn't much help, one rep said I had to have a legacy twin lnb on the Dish 500 for this to work.

Any ideas or comments will be welcome

Gary

 

[boba]

Without a signal from 61.5 your switch test is correct. Where are you located is 61.5 visable from where you live?

 

[Anole]

This takes me back.
Not sure, but this might work:

Hook 61º dish directly to your receiver and aim it properly.
Personally, I'd use a $10 meter - it's a snap.

Then once you've got that 61º signal...
If your original wiring and switch layout doesn't work,
put the SW21X on the 110/119, ...
...and the SW21 to the 61º and the output of the first 21x switch.
If I remember, the 21x needs to come first.
(at least it used to for some receivers)
Could be wrong, but it's easy for you to try.

And yes, you must have a signal on 61º for your switch matrix to be properly detected.

[FONT=Fixedsys]..

                            ------119º lnb
                           |
                           |
                   ------SW-21[COLOR=Red][B]X[/B][/COLOR]
                  |        |
                  |        |
                  |         -----110º lnb
                  |
[/FONT][FONT=Fixedsys]RCVR------------[/FONT][FONT=Fixedsys]SW-21
                  |
                  |
                   --------------61º lnb

[/FONT]

crap! LA's a shakin' !!!

 

[datwell]

Well, you can try cascading the SW21s or you can do an SW64. Ours is inside the basement (no rain/snow and a pretty constant temperature) and works just fine.

--Doug

 

[gamerrill]

Boba, I'm in SW Missouri, just south of Springfield. Elevation is 36 degrees, azimuth is 131 for 61.5

Anole, I think I'll give a try to hooking 61.5 up directly, thanks.

Datwell, I'm hoping the cascade solution works, an sw64 would be a lot more work to do in a short amount of time. I think I'd have better luck swapping all the lnbs for dp lnbs and using a dp34.

 

[Anole]

I think I'd have better luck swapping all the lnbs for dp lnbs and using a dp34.

That is an excellent solution. (if you are willing to consider it)
I changed over from Legacy to DishPro a number of years ago.
The SW21 cascade idea runs out of steam at two receivers.

When I did all this, I put the DP34 inside the house.
Seemed like an easy solution - and I didn't have to go outside to tie in more receivers.
None of the equipment is very expensive, and you can often find it dumpster-diving.

As an added benefit, the switch test runs MUCH faster.

Oh, yea, and there are those four outputs... :up

 

[Mr Tony]

The SW21x/SW21 setup works fine

I had a SW42 (which is like 2 SW21x's together) and a SW21 for 110/119/61.5 just fine (811 and 301 receivers)

 

[philhu]

Boba, I'm in SW Missouri, just south of Springfield. Elevation is 36 degrees, azimuth is 131 for 61.5

Anole, I think I'll give a try to hooking 61.5 up directly, thanks.

Datwell, I'm hoping the cascade solution works, an sw64 would be a lot more work to do in a short amount of time. I think I'd have better luck swapping all the lnbs for dp lnbs and using a dp34.

The cascade system as shown in the diagram definitely will work.

Mine is hooked up that way now, and I just fixed it last week (See my other posts).

sw21x and sw21 on both inputs to the rcvr is the way to go.

SW21x are cheap and work great. Just make sure you have an sw21x and sw21 (Not 2 sw21 or sw21x)

 

[gamerrill]

Well, I never was able to find the signal from 61.5. The lnbs were connected exactly as Anole's diagram showed and even after connecting the 61.5 lnb directly I couldn't get the signal.

I ended up calling a local retailer who sent out an independent subcontractor. He installed a 1000.2 and did the receiver activation. I've read some of the horror stories about installs but this sub struck me as professional and very experienced.

I want to thank everyone who responded. I regret that I wasn't able to make it work for me as it has for some of you. But I have my HD only package now so it's all good from here. (better when Ciel 2 goes up)

Gary