Please help! Roofers took down my dish!

[beerandhotsauce]

So I just finished having a new roof installed on my house, and in the process the workers apparently removed my Dish Network dish. They didn't disconnect anything, and placed it back in the same position it was in, pointing it in the same (general) direction. Now I have complete signal loss, signal code 11-12-11, error 015A on my Hopper 2. I have an appointment for a tech to come out and align it, but I'm still out $50 if that happens, and I'd really like to avoid that if it's unnecessary. I also have no obstructions whatsoever in the sky.

I found my all of my aiming information, which I'll list below if that helps. I'm in zip 19958. I was pointing at the 61.5/72 satellites before so I used that information on dishpointer.com to generate these numbers:

Elevation: 45.1
Azimuth (true): 176.1

I see nothing about skew, which is another factor I've been reading about.

Can I just verify the elevation on the dish is correct and then point it in that direction using a compass? I also noticed that there is an audible tone emitted in the diagnostic section of my Hopper 2 when I choose a satellite under signal strength. Does this pitch change as I get closer to locking onto the satellite? I ask because I don't have access to an assistant for this, but I could hear the tone outside.

Thanks in advance!

 

[JSheridan]

So I just finished having a new roof installed on my house, and in the process the workers apparently removed my Dish Network dish. They didn't disconnect anything, and placed it back in the same position it was in, pointing it in the same (general) direction. Now I have complete signal loss, signal code 11-12-11, error 015A on my Hopper 2. I have an appointment for a tech to come out and align it, but I'm still out $50 if that happens, and I'd really like to avoid that if it's unnecessary. I also have no obstructions whatsoever in the sky.

I found my all of my aiming information, which I'll list below if that helps. I'm in zip 19958. I was pointing at the 61.5/72 satellites before so I used that information on dishpointer.com to generate these numbers:

Elevation: 45.1
Azimuth (true): 176.1

I see nothing about skew, which is another factor I've been reading about.

Can I just verify the elevation on the dish is correct and then point it in that direction using a compass? I also noticed that there is an audible tone emitted in the diagnostic section of my Hopper 2 when I choose a satellite under signal strength. Does this pitch change as I get closer to locking onto the satellite? I ask because I don't have access to an assistant for this, but I could hear the tone outside.

Thanks in advance!

I've got an $800 meter to align dishes and I wouldn't try an alignment without it.

 

[Bobby]

Is the newly placed mast plumb?

 

[TheKrell]

The last time I had my roof replaced, my roofer didn't even attempt to reinstall. So I just called Dish and had them reinstall and align the old dish. When I was mixed-arc with a single dish 500 on 61.5, I thought I'd be clever and remove the Y-shaped yoke and replace it with an I-shaped yoke. It took me a couple of hours to find 61.5 again! So I don't bother these days, given the reinstallation cost which quite frankly I don't remember.

 

[beerandhotsauce]

Well based on these responses I'm sure my best bet is to just let the tech come out and deal with it. What's aggravating was that the roofing company didn't tell me which day they would come or I would have called Dish way in advance to avoid a service gap.

 

[HipKat]

This is a major pet peeve of mine. And I have argued with guys who are roofers about it. They don't seem to understand that without a meter it's impossible to accurately point the dish. This year we had a major hailstorm that did a lot of roof damage in the area, so I've been dealing with this all summer long and normally when I do an install if the roof looks like it's starting to where I go out of my way to tell the customer that if they get a new roof, call Dish and have us come out to remount it.

I don't understand why these guys think they can put up a dish. I'm pretty sure they wouldn't hire me to come over to their house and put on a new roof

 

[Bobby]

The roofers are probably thinking the dish is like a TV antenna. They don't seem to realize that the satellite is a long ways out there and doesn't have the broad beam that TV stations do.

 

[navychop]

This is a major pet peeve of mine. And I have argued with guys who are roofers about it. They don't seem to understand that without a meter it's impossible to accurately point the dish. This year we had a major hailstorm that did a lot of roof damage in the area, so I've been dealing with this all summer long and normally when I do an install if the roof looks like it's starting to where I go out of my way to tell the customer that if they get a new roof, call Dish and have us come out to remount it.

I don't understand why these guys think they can put up a dish. I'm pretty sure they wouldn't hire me to come over to their house and put on a new roof

Why not? Roofing is easy! Just go to a 7-11 and ......

 

[ewindowman]

17 years and a cheap plastic compass that came with my self install dish 500 kit . lots of trial and error but I have signal.

 

[boba]

From previous experience make sure the roofers don't use roofing nails to anchor the mast. Nails won't hold up to wind.

 

[beerandhotsauce]

From previous experience make sure the roofers don't use roofing nails to anchor the mast. Nails won't hold up to wind.

Well I went up to see what they did. It appears that they used the same hardware, but they spread this goopy silicone all around the bolts in what i'm assuming was an attempt to prevent any future leak issues. Looking closer, I notice that the dish's ground wire was completely cut off and just stuck into the silicone.

Needless to say, Dish is coming out this morning. Thanks for all the replies!

 

[HipKat]

Well I went up to see what they did. It appears that they used the same hardware, but they spread this goopy silicone all around the bolts in what i'm assuming was an attempt to prevent any future leak issues. Looking closer, I notice that the dish's ground wire was completely cut off and just stuck into the silicone.

Needless to say, Dish is coming out this morning. Thanks for all the replies!

That is exactly what they do, which I don't see as a proper seal. Plus, if they didn't get the lags properly tightened, now you can't get a nut driver on them to tighten them. Also, on Architectural Shingling, they never try to put the footer on a spot where the shingles line up, almost always put it where they offset, which means it's not plumb. I've seen them bolt the mast down with the footer pointing in the general direction of the Sats smh...

Then, last month, there was this beauty I ran into

3 guesses why this wouldn't get signal and I'll give you a hint. It's not because the lags were only half way in and it's not because it was pointing north.....

 

[the mack]

Looks like a little extra skew.

 

[TheKrell]

3 guesses why this wouldn't get signal and I'll give you a hint. It's not because the lags were only half way in and it's not because it was pointing north.....

LOL! What could possibly be worse than pointing north? I see the mast is upside down, but it seems to me that would hardly matter if the dish is pointed north.

 

[MitchDeerfield]

Hit the roofers with a lawsuit for damaging your sat dish. Open and shut case.

 

[HipKat]

LOL! What could possibly be worse than pointing north? I see the mast is upside down, but it seems to me that would hardly matter if the dish is pointed north.

The mast is it vertical out of the foot plate lol. Customer told me hadn't and wasn't paying the roofers til they repaired that spot after I fixed the dish

 

[Bogy]

I've never had a dish on top of my roof, in two locations so far. I sure don't want one there now. I like it where it is now, on the ground, mounted on a pole, where I can get the snow off easy. I've got a steel roof, on what is basically a 3 story house. Nobody wants to install a dish on my roof any more than I want one there.

 

[HipKat]

I've never had a dish on top of my roof, in two locations so far. I sure don't want one there now. I like it where it is now, on the ground, mounted on a pole, where I can get the snow off easy. I've got a steel roof, on what is basically a 3 story house. Nobody wants to install a dish on my roof any more than I want one there.

I've seen Direct mount to steel roofs, but my company won't and I'm pretty sure Dish doesn't allow it, as far as I know

 

[Almighty1]

I've never had a dish on top of my roof, in two locations so far. I sure don't want one there now. I like it where it is now, on the ground, mounted on a pole, where I can get the snow off easy. I've got a steel roof, on what is basically a 3 story house. Nobody wants to install a dish on my roof any more than I want one there.

I have 1 Directv HD DISH, 1 unknown dish from the previous home owner and 2 DISH Network dishes (500+ and a 1000.2 as I need 118 for the international channels) on the Western Arc all on my flat tar and gravel roof. The first 2 dishes are at the back corner of the house and the 2 DISH Network dishes are at the front corner of the house pointing at the back of the house as that's the south. What's the best thing to do when the house is renovated as there will be an additional story added to the top of the house. Do I just have them unmount it and then have DISH mount it on a pole instead?

 

[littlecloud319]

I have 1 Directv HD DISH, 1 unknown dish from the previous home owner and 2 DISH Network dishes (500+ and a 1000.2 as I need 118 for the international channels) on the Western Arc all on my flat tar and gravel roof. The first 2 dishes are at the back corner of the house and the 2 DISH Network dishes are at the front corner of the house pointing at the back of the house as that's the south. What's the best thing to do when the house is renovated as there will be an additional story added to the top of the house. Do I just have them unmount it and then have DISH mount it on a pole instead?

That or have it mounted to the siding on the south side of your house. If you do a pole mount make sure the pole either goes below the frost line or cement it in place.