No sat B or C

[ckudrna]

Hi,
I installed a new 3LNB for HD, put 4 cables into a 5X8 switch.

On my Hughes HTL-HD i only get Sat A at 95%, and sat B and C are at 0 with no signal.

All the other boxes in the house (4 other ones) get 100% for SAT A (they do not use the other LNBs)

Why Am I not getting B or C on the HD box? I have RG6 running from the dish to the switch, and then the coax from the switch out to the TV. It is split on the other end with a channel master splitter seperating the OT antenna with the sat in.

What should I be doing? Why does SAT A look so good and B and C are at 0?

Should their be a special order to the in ports on the switch, do i need to flip around the two new cables on the switch?

 

[Neutron]

You can't use a splitter. You have to use a diplexor to split your OTA and SAT signals.

 

[ckudrna]

It is a diplexor.

I have totally taken the switch out of the equation and have each cable running right to the reciever. Sat A works, still no B or C.

What is wrong here?

 

[Neutron]

Do you have your dish pointed correctly? Try moving it left or right just a bit and see what it does.

Also, do you have each receiver set for an Oval 3 satellite dish?

 

[ckudrna]

Only one reciever is an HD (only one HD)

It is set on Oval 3

Sat A goes from 86-93%, Sat B and C do not change at all with little changes in dish position. I can move it so Sat A goes down to 25% in each direction and still nothing from Sat A or B.

Does Directv have a setting on their system what type of dish each customer has? Do i have to let them know i changed dishes?

Sat A is the farthest to the left, when looking twords the direction the dish faces, B would be all the way right, and C in the middle?

Their is a tree about 25 yards ahead on the way right, but the dish still has line of sight in each direction.

Cable is about 15 feet form the dish to the HD reciever. Is the reciever bad, or is the dish bad?

I am very upset right now that this is such a process. I am strongly considering taking all this garbage back to Circuity City and getting comcast digital cable with HD here, at least that works.

 

[ckudrna]

I think the dish is broken

I moved it to the middle of the yard, spent an hour aligining it, get 99% on SAT A, and still nothing on B or C.

I am going back to get a new dish right now. I will report

 

[ckudrna]

Went and returned the dish and got a new one (Eagle Aspen 3 LNB)

Put it up in 4 minutes flat to get the cubbies in HD here, got it up and working.

Sat B still is 0, but C is up to around 65. I think the tree needs to be severly pruned (or entirely cut down)

I will fine tune tomorrow but it looks sweet and was done like with 30 seconds to put the ladder away.

 

[Neutron]

So are things working okay? You should still get a signal on Sat B.

 

[ckudrna]

Yeah it is strange, no signal from B at all.

After I returned the dish and put the new one up, the SAT A signal was the same (mid 90s +) and C was around like 60 but still 0 for all transponders on B??

Is this ANOHER faulty dish, I do not know why having A and C would still get B to be 0?

Should i try adjusting the skew a little more? Will it really have any effect if i am dealing with no signal at all?

 

[Neutron]

Have you called Directv and scheduled a tech?

 

[ckudrna]

No,

If it is an Aiming thing i can screw with aiming it rather than call out a guy for $70 to tell me it is aimed wrong. The first dish had to have had a bad LNB, as sat B and C would not come in at all, but now C does with the new dish.

If A and C are decent signal strength, how is B not getting anything at all unless it is a equipment problem? If the LNBs are to auto align, i find it hard to think that it is not aimed correctly??

If it is in fact the dish i will never buy anything again from Circuit City, or "Eagle Aspen" or whatever fly by night company makes this thing. The Funai i got from BB a while back works great at my Arizona residence, no issues at all. This is a strange one.

The only channels i really do not get are HDnet and HBO HD, the others (Discovery, ESPN, SHowtime, all come in fine)

 

[ckudrna]

I tried re aiming for a few hours today. Reciever states Elevation to be 36 with tilt at 68.

When taking it out of the box, the tilt and elevation were set on the dish very close to the values I have them at now, nowhere near the ones given by the HTL-HD.

I get decent signal for SAT A and C at around 43 elevation and 90 tilt.

If i got up in elevation slightly SAT A will peak at around 90, while SAT C will go to Zero.

Where I have it right now gives me the best signal for both A and C.

B still is 0, not even a flicker. I move the dish into the middle of the yard and mounted the base to a piece of plywood for temporary testing. A and C both come in around 70 at max (with elevation at 43 and tilt 90), while B is still 0, nothing at all on B.

Now, is their a way to tell if the SAT B LNB is faulty? How can i determine if the LNB is not working correctly? These built in switches make everything more difficuilt.

I am so far not impressed with these Eagle Aspen dishes. The first one had two faulty LNBs and now i think this one has at least 1 faulty LNB. The old 18 oval dish got 100 percent signal on SAT A on most recievers in the house, now this new dish peaks at about 75 with maximum positioning.

I am tempted to go to best buy and buy the Funai which I have had personal experiance with working well. Going from a 5 year old oval with 100% signal to this thing is a step in the wrong direction.

Since SAT B is out, i do not receiver CBSHDE/W, HBO HD, and HDnet. Everything else (Discovery, HDN movies, SHOW HD work fine).

I want to get this going before the olympics start on the 13th, as I have a feeling those are going to be through the 119 bird.

Anyone know how i can test the LNB for the B bird to see if it is actually workiing the way it should be? Anyway to jerry rig the old single LNB to pick up the 119?

 

[Neutron]

Have you tried getting a Phase-III dish directly from Directv? I think you can order one through them.

 

[ckudrna]

I'm not sure how much different ordering from directv will be.

Ordering a new one from them would also not help my aug 13th olympics deadline either.

I am thinking that a tree is in the way, actually, i am pretty sure about it. I trimmed the sh*t out of it yesterday but still nothing.

I took a walk around the house to see what my best line of sight would be. When we first moved here 13 years ago not a tree in sight, now that it has been heavily landscaped i can't get a good view from anywhere around the whole damn place.

Maybe i will snap some photos tomorrow and put them up to see what you folks think about the tree obstruction. A and C come in fine, B is absolutly 0 on all transponders.

I understand it is a little lower down on the horizon? How much would the elevation change from optimizing for Sat B and Sat A? A few degrees either way would max A and 0 out C or max C and 0 out A. Very sensitive, kind of annoying, i want like a 10 foot DBS dish.......and then im going to cut down every tree in the state.

Im going to drive a pole in the ground in the middle of the yard to see if it comes up so at least i can rule out faulty equipment and justify cutting down trees.

 

[Neutron]

Have you tried calling tech support and seeing if their techs can help you get it positioned right over the phone?

Fire those pics away. I'm curious as to see exactly what you're talking about.

 

[Tom Cahill]

ckudrna,

It is VERY IMPORTANT that you level the mast before you put your dish on.The dish should have come with a little bubble level already in the mast.The phase 3 dishes can be a pain in the a$$.You then need to set your dish with the settings that your receiver gave you.You will never get all three satellites with your dish set at 90 degree tilt.

 

[ckudrna]

You think that is the problem?

I used the existing mast that was on the wall in the first place, from the old directv dish. It was professionally installed years ago, but it looks like it was put in by a two year old with a plastic toy set.

I will take off the dish, get it all plumbed up and try again with the given numbers. The old mast did not have a level in it, but the new mast that i am not using does. I will try that.

 

[blew]

When you say that you are getting signal on Sat A, what transponder are you using to do the setting ? I had a hell of a time setting up my phase III until I discovered that there are common numbered transponders between the 3 birds. I was getting great signal on sat A transponder 28. Problem was that I was actually aimed at a different bird's transponder 28.

Make sure that you do your aiming to Sat A. using transponder 1. Only Sat A has a transponder number 1. I also second the plumb and level mast suggestion

 

[ckudrna]

Hi,

I played with the thing all day, moved it all over the yard, mounted it to tree trunks, patio chairs, all kinds of stuff. I did get SAT B in a different location, so i know it is not equipment. I have been using transponder 2 on SAT A.

I will try slight adjustments in skew, azimuth, and elevation while tunning to transponder 1 on SAT A.

This is really bugging me already!

With the skew set in the 60s and the elevation at 36 ,it looks like the lowest LNB is pointing right into the ground.....................It looks like they made these things to work in Iowa where nothing surrounding them for miles on each side is higher than 5 feet of corn stalk.

I will see what kind of success i have making slight adjustments.

Thanks for the tip.

Is it really possible to tune into, for example, the 110 bird with the SAT A Lnb?

Could I be one whole satellite off to the right?

 

[dishjockey]

Your always bashing installers, figure it out yourself.