Please help me. I moved and now it says I have no siganl

[05_sprcrw]

Hi,
I have a dish network 500 series dish and receiver. I moved it from my old place to my new place last night installed everything aimed it to where it said to, and now I have no signal. When I do the check switches all it says is nothing is connected. What am I doing wrong? I have tried replacing the cable on the dish itself and linking directly to the box and still it does not work. It was working fine before the move and I transferred everything to my new place and now it says no signal? Thanks in advance for any help you can provide it will be greatly appreciated.

 

[kb2vgp]

Moving your own dish and receiver is not too difficult, but a satellite dish is not like a regular antenna where you just point it in the general direction and you receive a signal. The dish has to be pointed at a very specific point in the sky or you do not have signal.

Several things to consider when trying to point your own dish:
1) Know the azimuth, elevation and skew of the dish. You need to know where on the compass you need to point the dish and the angle in which it looks. Unless you've moved a great distance from your previous location, your skew will unlikely need to be changed.
2) Line Of Sight - You have to have a clear line of sight to the south or southwest sky. If there are trees, bushes or buildings between the dish and the satellite - no signal.
3) When pointing the dish, you need to connect the dish to the receiver. Next go to the point dish screen) menu 6-1-1 and choose satellite 119 transponder 11. You will hear the beeping and when you find a signal the pitch of the beep will increase. When you find a signal, switch the satellite to 110 to fine tune the signal. Once you get the strongest possible signal, tighten all the bolts on the dish. I always tightened the bolts that clamp onto the mast until the bracket was deformed so wind would not move the dish. If you have old hardware, it could be brittle though.
4) When running new cable from the dish to the receiver, make sure you use RG6 rated for 2150 MHz minimum. Anything less or RG59 will burn out.

Last if you simply can't get a signal, call Dish and use their Dish Mover program. I believe you get one free mover per year, but I've never used it since I move my own dish since being a former installer.

 

[05_sprcrw]

Thank you,
I did not move very far and after using the menu to get the azimuth elevation and skew, it confirmed that I was correctly set. I will make sure the cables are RG6 tonight after work. And my line of sight is clear I am the tallest building by 1 story. I had that screen pulled up last night but it was like the receiver was not reading that the dish was connected to it. It had a message something along the lines of not locked...... I was going to call their mover service but I did not want to have to sign a new 2 yr contract to get it moved. I would have to pay $100 to get it moved by them. I feel I am more then capable of installing it. I am going to guess it is the cables because I was just using what I had around from my cable tv days.

 

[kb2vgp]

Change the cables anyway since they are not the correct ones. I doubt that the cables are currently the cause of why you do not have signal, they will work temporarily, but not for long.

Make sure that your mast is plumb. After that, make sure the elevation on the dish is correct (use the edge of the metal, not where the red mark is). Next you will want to start either to the right or left of where you need to point the dish. Then, very slowly, move the dish to where it should be pointed until you receive a signal. Listen for the highest pitch and lock the dish there. Next, with the elevation bolts locked, gently tilt the dish up and down to fine tune your signal and then tighten the bolts once you have it. After that switch to the 110 satellite and (leaving your bolts tightened) just tilt the dish up, down, left and right to see if you increase the signal. Once you have the strongest signal, tighten all bolts for a final time.

From what you've described, I doubt that the dish is pointed correctly and needs to be. Make sure you change out your cables as well.

Good luck!

 

[05_sprcrw]

Thanks a million! I was using the red marks as the identifiers for my angles. I am guessing I did not have it pointed right.

 

[Laddyboy]

Thank you,
I did not move very far and after using the menu to get the azimuth elevation and skew, it confirmed that I was correctly set. I will make sure the cables are RG6 tonight after work. And my line of sight is clear I am the tallest building by 1 story. I had that screen pulled up last night but it was like the receiver was not reading that the dish was connected to it. It had a message something along the lines of not locked...... I was going to call their mover service but I did not want to have to sign a new 2 yr contract to get it moved. I would have to pay $100 to get it moved by them. I feel I am more then capable of installing it. I am going to guess it is the cables because I was just using what I had around from my cable tv days.

You can have the skew, azimuth, and elevation set and still not capture the signal without further adjustment. That said, even if you are not picking up the sat signal, the point dish screen should show connections to the LNB. If you have a good connection to the LNB/switch, just move the antenna in tiny increments left or right, up or down, to get a ping on the signal. It's often easier to foil over the 110 LNB and locate the 119 satellite with the 119 LNB. Once you peak on that, unfoil the 110 LNB and check signal strength after doing a Test Switch. You could also sign up for the DHPP. Service calls are $29.

 

[05_sprcrw]

Thanks I guess if I can't resolve it I can always call the tech to have them help figure it out.