No Signal from SWM

[SeaWolf34]

Ok, if it only has 1 output, its a SWM, thats good, its either a SWM 3 or 5.
Are you running the Repeat Sat Set Up ?
It should automatically pick up the SWM and switch from Multiswitch to SWM, but this is where you can check.

Jimbo: Apologies for the delayed response. Park WiFi was out for a bit and I decided to watch NFL stuff off air this weekend.

The LNB is a SWM 5. Did setup this AM. It did automatically p/u the SWM 5. I have 80's and 90's on (101 W) (all but 2 tranponders). Howsomever, 119 and the others were all labeled N/A. Tilting the dish to D* recommended 106 deg only took the 101 W values down to the mid to low 70's. When I finally (out of frustration) selected DONE, The only satellite that wasn't RED Xed, was 101 W. The channels which I get (25% maybe) are mostly HD).

I have no idea how to proceed. I did the Az & Skew dithering, so I can't get any better 101 w reception. But there "obviously" is a bunch I still don't know.

 

[Jimbo]

Jimbo: Apologies for the delayed response. Park WiFi was out for a bit and I decided to watch NFL stuff off air this weekend.

The LNB is a SWM 5. Did setup this AM. It did automatically p/u the SWM 5. I have 80's and 90's on (101 W) (all but 2 tranponders). Howsomever, 119 and the others were all labeled N/A. Tilting the dish to D* recommended 106 deg only took the 101 W values down to the mid to low 70's. When I finally (out of frustration) selected DONE, The only satellite that wasn't RED Xed, was 101 W. The channels which I get (25% maybe) are mostly HD).

I have no idea how to proceed. I did the Az & Skew dithering, so I can't get any better 101 w reception. But there "obviously" is a bunch I still don't know.

Tip it back to where you were in the 80's and 90's ...
I don't know where your Locals come from, but for the majority of us, we don't use anything on the 119 anymore and the 110 is of no use either, so if you have good signal on the 99, 101 and 103 Sats, your probably gonna be good.

One thing to look at, see if your guide is populating properly, if not, it's becasue it's picking it up from the 119, which is used for the 5 lnb set ups.

You CAN get a SWM 3 lnb set up if your finding that your not using anything on the 119 Sat.

 

[Jimbo]

Tip it back to where you were in the 80's and 90's ...
I don't know where your Locals come from, but for the majority of us, we don't use anything on the 119 anymore and the 110 is of no use either, so if you have good signal on the 99, 101 and 103 Sats, your probably gonna be good.

One thing to look at, see if your guide is populating properly, if not, it's becasue it's picking it up from the 119, which is used for the 5 lnb set ups.

You CAN get a SWM 3 lnb set up if your finding that your not using anything on the 119 Sat.

One of the actual Installers will chime in if I have anything incorrect, or if the Guide has actually been moved when on the SWM set up.

 

[SeaWolf34]

Tip it back to where you were in the 80's and 90's ...
I don't know where your Locals come from, but for the majority of us, we don't use anything on the 119 anymore and the 110 is of no use either, so if you have good signal on the 99, 101 and 103 Sats, your probably gonna be good.

One thing to look at, see if your guide is populating properly, if not, it's becasue it's picking it up from the 119, which is used for the 5 lnb set ups.

You CAN get a SWM 3 lnb set up if your finding that your not using anything on the 119 Sat.

Thanks for the feedback. I did return the sat dish to 90 deg. and got the original signal strength back. Q: How do I know if I'm picking up 99 and 103 sats? {trying not to be a pain; just asking. I'm happy to have what I have.

 

[raoul5788]

Both satellites, 99c and 103ca/cb, should show signal strengths in the upper 80s at least.

 

[Jimbo]

Thanks for the feedback. I did return the sat dish to 90 deg. and got the original signal strength back. Q: How do I know if I'm picking up 99 and 103 sats? {trying not to be a pain; just asking. I'm happy to have what I have.

Look at the Signal Strength meter.

 

[texasbrit]

One of the actual Installers will chime in if I have anything incorrect, or if the Guide has actually been moved when on the SWM set up.

SWM systems always use the guide data from 101....

 

[Claude Greiner]

110 is probably not going to register anything.

Also 99 and 103 sometimes don't register a signal in the ca or cb band.

If you can peak 101 into the high 90's the rest should all fall into alignment

 

[SeaWolf34]

Look at the Signal Strength meter.

I did that. 99c was in the low 50's & 40's. 103 - nothing. Blank. Guess I'll try some even finer tuning of the satellite dish as Claude suggested. It's not as if I don't have time on my hands.

Many thanks to all who have helped (steered) me thru the D* jungle. My WVB and mini Genie are up and running. Having two video sources will minimize marital friction. Cooking shows vs. political shows (and NFL etc).

 

[texasbrit]

Claude, I think you have your satellites mixed up here. 103ca and 103cb should always be in the high 80s at least.

Ok, back to basics. First, ignore all the satellites except 101. If the dish is not correctly aligned on 101, everything else is irrelevant. Make sure your dish mount is compl,etely plumb, if it isn't you will struggle getting things aligned correctly. Set the azimth, elevation and tilt corresponding to your location. You can use the info from the receiver, or go to dishpointer.com for confirmation. Make sure you are setting the elevation correctly, using the edge of the sliding mount (it's sometimes painted white) not the mounting bolt. Use the dithering technique to find the center of the beam. Your 101 signals should mostly (not all) be in the very high 90s or even 100. Some of the transponders are spotbeams carrying locals to different cities and so might be low or even zero. But if you do not see high 90s/100 on many of the 101 transponders then the dish is NOT aligned and looking at the other satellite signals is a waste of time. Similarly for 119, several transponders should be very high 90s/100.

Once 101 and 119 are aligned you can look at the others. Ignore 110 (Puerto Rico only) and 99s/103s (spotbeams for different cities). 99c, 103ca and 103cb should all be in the very high 80s to mid 90s. If they are not, use very small adjustments of the fine tuning adjustments in azimuth and elevation to peak them.

 

[Jimbo]

SWM systems always use the guide data from 101....

Thank you .
I thought it depended on whether it was a 3 or 5 SWM, but your saying it's always on the 101 with swm, thats great news.

 

[SeaWolf34]

Claude, I think you have your satellites mixed up here. 103ca and 103cb should always be in the high 80s at least.

Ok, back to basics. First, ignore all the satellites except 101. If the dish is not correctly aligned on 101, everything else is irrelevant. Make sure your dish mount is compl,etely plumb, if it isn't you will struggle getting things aligned correctly. Set the azimth, elevation and tilt corresponding to your location. You can use the info from the receiver, or go to dishpointer.com for confirmation. Make sure you are setting the elevation correctly, using the edge of the sliding mount (it's sometimes painted white) not the mounting bolt. Use the dithering technique to find the center of the beam. Your 101 signals should mostly (not all) be in the very high 90s or even 100. Some of the transponders are spotbeams carrying locals to different cities and so might be low or even zero. But if you do not see high 90s/100 on many of the 101 transponders then the dish is NOT aligned and looking at the other satellite signals is a waste of time. Similarly for 119, several transponders should be very high 90s/100.

Once 101 and 119 are aligned you can look at the others. Ignore 110 (Puerto Rico only) and 99s/103s (spotbeams for different cities). 99c, 103ca and 103cb should all be in the very high 80s to mid 90s. If they are not, use very small adjustments of the fine tuning adjustments in azimuth and elevation to peak them.

Wow. I'm overwhelmed. Thank you for the detailed advice. Time to get to work. Even though I'm sure the mounting post is vertical I will double check, and start another dithering run. I thought high 80's and low 90's on 101 would be good enough.

Aside for Jimbo: Go Buckeyes - Beat Bama!!!

 

[SeaWolf34]

Wow. I'm overwhelmed. Thank you for the detailed advice. Time to get to work. Even though I'm sure the mounting post is vertical I will double check, and start another dithering run. I thought high 80's and low 90's on 101 would be good enough.

Aside for Jimbo: Go Buckeyes - Beat Bama!!!

For Texasbrit >O.K. I got 101 up to 95% across the board. But only 99ca responded with avg 86%. 99cb was too low to be useful. 103 Nada!

In the process of fiddling around I accidentally used my genie c41 remote on the HR44. Nothing happened. So I hit mute & enter and voila I have 2 remotes that communicate with my HR44, and none for my client Genie c41. I looked into it, but it doesn't seem to me there's a way to turn the client on so i can sinc it w/the remote. Tried holding the red button on the r/h side of the C41 for 12+ secs, but nothing happened. The green light on the back of the C41 is on, so batts are ok.

Pleading for help here (again). Anyone? Thanks in advance. Now that she has the Cooking channel, my Master Chef has taken over the HR44!

 

[raoul5788]

You should be trying to get 119 in as best as possible after 101. 99c and 103ca/cb should be close then. After that, dithering should get you there. Dithering is the adjustments with the tuning knobs that texasbrit mentioned in post #30.

 

[cinsu]

Pressing the blue directv logo on the front of the C41 should power it on. You can also revert the RC7x to IR by pressing mute+select, 961, channel down or a complete reset by doing mute+select, 981

 

[texasbrit]

For Texasbrit >O.K. I got 101 up to 95% across the board. But only 99ca responded with avg 86%. 99cb was too low to be useful. 103 Nada!

In the process of fiddling around I accidentally used my genie c41 remote on the HR44. Nothing happened. So I hit mute & enter and voila I have 2 remotes that communicate with my HR44, and none for my client Genie c41. I looked into it, but it doesn't seem to me there's a way to turn the client on so i can sinc it w/the remote. Tried holding the red button on the r/h side of the C41 for 12+ secs, but nothing happened. The green light on the back of the C41 is on, so batts are ok.

Pleading for help here (again). Anyone? Thanks in advance. Now that she has the Cooking channel, my Master Chef has taken over the HR44!

What areyour 119 signals?

 

[SeaWolf34]

You should be trying to get 119 in as best as possible after 101. 99c and 103ca/cb should be close then. After that, dithering should get you there. Dithering is the adjustments with the tuning knobs that texasbrit mentioned in post #30.

Thanks. I'll give it a try after Christmas is over. In the meantime, the Azimuth dithering feature is not working well. Very difficult to turn the screw, and I stopped when there was metal bending. So I'll need to figure what's up w/that! Elevation dithering- no problem.

 

[SeaWolf34]

What are your 119 signals?

I have NO 119 signals at all. As I posted to raoul, my azimuth dithering mechanism is actually bending (slightly) metal instead of changing Azimuth. Have to deal w/that first.

 

[SeaWolf34]

Pressing the blue directv logo on the front of the C41 should power it on. You can also revert the RC7x to IR by pressing mute+select, 961, channel down or a complete reset by doing mute+select, 981

It worked. Thanks cinsu. Never mind that it took several tries. It worked. Just takes longer to do things right at my age. Aircraft; no problem! Satellite TV - yikes.

 

[cinsu]

The dither bolts will only allow you to fine tune and have a limit on how far they will let you go. Beyond that you will need to loosen the 3 bolts holding it on the mast for azimuth or the bolt behind the elevation dither bolt for the elevation. Also make sure you have loosened the fine tune bolts before turning the dither bolts. These can be different depending on the back assembly.

On this assembly there are 2 on the bottom and 1 on either side.

On this one there is 1 on top and 1 on each side.

Not loosening these bolts before turning the dither bolts, or, trying to turn the dither bolt farther then they are meant to go could break your back assembly and the plastic pieces are not easily repairable.