Need to move a Slimline 5
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They can be installed with the signal meter in the receiver/dvr. It's not easy, but it can be done with patience.
Oh yeah, and
to Satelliteguys!
Oh yeah, and
to Satelliteguys!
Plenty of good used Birdogs for under $300 but why pay $300 for a meter to move your dish when you can pay less then half that to have a professional do it.
Call Direct, they will charge you like $150 to relocate the dish or better yet, put an ad up here or on craigslist offing a tech $100 cash to come out themselves to do it.
It would be more then they would make if it was scheduled and save you a couple hundred dollars.
BTW, the meter in the receiver and cheap less then $30 meters are not worth spit for pointing a slimline.
They will get you close but not dead on.
i moved moms slimline 5 myself using her HR 22 and a small lcd tv outside. Her's is NON-swm. just make sure your pole is perfectly plumb to begin with.
heres what i did.
1. started with a plumb ground pole cemented in the ground.
2. connect the HD receiver to the lnb unit
3. turn on the tv and receiver.
4. the receiver will go through a long boot up session looking for signal
5. after it gets through telling you to call whatever extension
6. hit menu and system setup.
7. if i remember right go to satellite / signal meters
8. set the recommended tilt and elevation settings for your zip code.
9. now rotate the azimuth until you see a blip of the 101w signals.
10. when you get 101 showing signal peak the signal using rotating azimuth east and west...now lock down the pole clamp.
11. now go to 110w. check signal levels on signal meter. they should be quite high...some tp's might be low because of spot beams i am not sure which are spots and national beams
12. you can peak 110 w by slightly adjusting tilt. it may be near perfect anyway.
13. now go to 99w and 103w sats KA band and check signal...don't be surprised if you have nothing.
14. using the fine adjusters one for elevation and one for azimuth....be sure your elevation nuts are loose. give a couple of turns until you see a ka signal.
15. peak 99 and 103 ...now go to the other sats like 99s and 103s...check signal on those...you may have to adjust the dithering bolts (those fine threaded adjusters) to get it in.
don't be surprised if ku 101 goes down a bit..i never found a way to peak all the sats perfectly. this dish design seems to be a compromise. but ka is tight beamwidth so peak it..there will be enough ku to get good service.
i am not a directv installer..i am a c band guy so my instructions probably are not even close to directv's training techniques. thats how i got moms to work and it works great.
heres what i did.
1. started with a plumb ground pole cemented in the ground.
2. connect the HD receiver to the lnb unit
3. turn on the tv and receiver.
4. the receiver will go through a long boot up session looking for signal
5. after it gets through telling you to call whatever extension
6. hit menu and system setup.
7. if i remember right go to satellite / signal meters
8. set the recommended tilt and elevation settings for your zip code.
9. now rotate the azimuth until you see a blip of the 101w signals.
10. when you get 101 showing signal peak the signal using rotating azimuth east and west...now lock down the pole clamp.
11. now go to 110w. check signal levels on signal meter. they should be quite high...some tp's might be low because of spot beams i am not sure which are spots and national beams
12. you can peak 110 w by slightly adjusting tilt. it may be near perfect anyway.
13. now go to 99w and 103w sats KA band and check signal...don't be surprised if you have nothing.
14. using the fine adjusters one for elevation and one for azimuth....be sure your elevation nuts are loose. give a couple of turns until you see a ka signal.
15. peak 99 and 103 ...now go to the other sats like 99s and 103s...check signal on those...you may have to adjust the dithering bolts (those fine threaded adjusters) to get it in.
don't be surprised if ku 101 goes down a bit..i never found a way to peak all the sats perfectly. this dish design seems to be a compromise. but ka is tight beamwidth so peak it..there will be enough ku to get good service.
i am not a directv installer..i am a c band guy so my instructions probably are not even close to directv's training techniques. thats how i got moms to work and it works great.
So your petty much boasting that you HAVE to be a tech in order to do this correctly ....
You probably won't get far with that idea here as many of us do our own set ups with and without meters.
I have seen D* tech that I would not consider Professional ....
That's all I've used to set up 2 Slimlines,& keep them peaked along with setting up Phase III with SL5 LNB's camping and Dish 1000's for same...
Where in that post did I say that?
I simply stated that he could get it done for a lot less then what he is willing to pay for a meter that he will most likely use once.
I saw you got all sensitive from a previous post so I didn't say he couldn't do it.
However, since YOU brought it up, yes, most self installing customers screw it up.
Let's face it as a tech we don't have hours and hours to spend playing with the dish and checking all the signals on the IRD meter to get the perfect peak. So in a techs mind you can't peak a Slimline dish with the IRD meter or a cheap analog. Certainly the people on this board are not the normal customer. The people on here are a bit more hard core willing to play with their equipment to get the most out of it.
kjlued's advise makes sense. If your willing to spend $300 just to peak a dish. Why not spend way less and have someone come out and do it for you.
Not saying that all installers do great work, far from it by any means. But the worst installs I have seen on a consistant basis were customer installs. Gettting to be less and less of it, because both E* and D* have made it hard for customers to get equipment to do it and because they offer the work done "FREE". But some of the things I have seen done by customers are amazing. Dishes nailed into the roof, cable wraped around electric lines, cables going through a window, some things that were just plain dangerous.
kjlued's advise makes sense. If your willing to spend $300 just to peak a dish. Why not spend way less and have someone come out and do it for you.
Not saying that all installers do great work, far from it by any means. But the worst installs I have seen on a consistant basis were customer installs. Gettting to be less and less of it, because both E* and D* have made it hard for customers to get equipment to do it and because they offer the work done "FREE". But some of the things I have seen done by customers are amazing. Dishes nailed into the roof, cable wraped around electric lines, cables going through a window, some things that were just plain dangerous.
How easy it will be to move depends somewhat on how far you are moving it...across town, across the country or to a pole from the roof at the same house. If the latter is true and if the mast it comes from is plumb then take careful note of which direction it is pointing, make sure your line of sight is at least as good as you had and put it on another plumb mast or pole pointing as closely as possible to original direction. Use a compass if you have one. Don't use it too closely to the dish-metal dish will throw it off. Tighten bolts to mast or pole enough so that the wind won't move it but loose enough to allow you to turn it. If the "from' mast was plumb and the "to" mast/pole is plumb then your tilt should be good and elevation should need little if any adjustment if signal strength was good at previous location. Having receiver and TV as close as possible will speed up the process. Use good cableing and connectors..removing them from the equation as a stumbling block. Dish type configuration should not be a problem...HD receivers will default to Slimline 5 and that is what you are using. Make matching marks on pole/mast at starting point, get on signal strength screen for the 101 and move in 1/4 inch increments left and right until highest signals are read. Make another matching mark on mast or pole that you can go back to and lock it down to mast. I'd be willing to bet at that point you will have a signal on the 99 and 103...might not be great but you have a starting point. "Zero" position scales on elevation and azimuth adjustment bolts.(turn the scale-not the bolts themselves) and loosen nuts that allow the bolts to be adjusted. Go to signal strength for 99. Make 1/4 turn adjustments at 1st-starting with azimuth adjustment (the one on the right if viewed from behind dish....its best if you record them on paper...can't beat being able to go back to where you started if necessary. If after an adjustment signal goes down then go the other way. Get signal as high as possible (making smaller than the 1/4 turn moves) before moving to elevation adjustment. Have some fun with it! It can't hurt to try. Good luck!
They can be installed with the signal meter in the receiver/dvr. It's not easy, but it can be done with patience.
Oh yeah, and
Agreed. This can be done by the average user in about 20 mins with basic instructions, tools and a compass.
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