pointing dish

[little Tim]

Having trouble getting satellite 129. when pointing dish which satelitte do I bring up on the screen? 110, 119 or 129 and which transpnder?
I live in Iowa and am using dish network DVR 922 receiver. Currently signal strengh on 110 and 119 is between 36 and 42.


thanx, Tim

 

[boba]

What experience do you have aiming a dish? Do you have a tuning meter? Your signal strengths are very low

 

[harshness]

If you didn't get your dish settings from dishpointer.com, you should do so before you proceed.

Central Iowa isn't really specific enough. We need at least your five digit ZIP code along with the azimuth, elevation and skew numbers you're using to be able to tell you if you're pointing at the right satellites.

The mast can't be just close to plumb. It has to be dead on plumb or you'll be doing this by guess and by golly; tweaking freehand (without benefit of the scales on the dish mount).

Another option would be to use the search feature to find any of the dozens of other threads that asked essentially the same question.

 

[little Tim]

I did use the search and could not find what I was looking for. and I did use my zip code to find cordinates. What I have always done in the past is guess and by golly then tweak it in. my question is does it matter which satellite I have on my point dish screen to best tweak in the dish. I have found that the point dish screen works as well as the $20.00 meter.


thanx, Tim

 

[little Tim]

I also have a dish and receiver in my shop and never had this much trouble.

 

[sam_gordon]

I put up a temporary dish set up once a year. Granted, it's in the same location every year so I have a general idea where to point, but I use 119 to get a peak, then check 110 (I'm not concerned about 129). IMO, your 119 needs to be up around 65 at minimum, 75+ is better.

I simply use the receiver's meter.

 

[little Tim]

thank you will gie it a try in the morning

 

[bwexler]

When I traveled in my RV with a tripod dish, the task of pointing it did not like me.
If there was a twig or a building within 5 miles it was always in my LOS and affected my pointing experience.
I could alo always point to 119 just not with the 119 LNB. I always favored either the 110 or the 129. At least now that I am in a house and no longer have the RV, I found my brand new never opened 10 year old signal meter.

 

[KKlare]

Use the old trick of covering the outer LNBs and use 119W possibly with Dish 300 numbers.
Use 119W on the western arc because it is the central LNB of a 1000 dish. EA people different problems.
Get the elevation close as given, then swing the azimuth in smallish steps, say 2 deg and later 1 deg.
With 119W about peaked, uncover and try to get 110W and 129W on scale. 129W will be some lower.
You can balance those two by slight skew changes. That should not be needed if you got the mast plumb.
Make a final elevation adjustment to better balance 119W vs 110W+129W. 119W may be slightly lower than 110W.

I was going to try for 72W because 61.5W has little to add or as backup. But my previous 61.5W side dish,
useful in VOOM days when pointed to 72W has a tree on the line so I would have to move the base.
Both pointings would barely clear a neighbor's chimney.

As said there is plenty of reading on others' methods. And check their recommended transponders.
-Ken

 

[harshness]

I did use the search and could not find what I was looking for. and I did use my zip code to find cordinates.

The beauty of dishpointer.com is that it allows you to visually stick in pin on your dish location and it gives the critical numbers out to one decimal place. Start with the best information you can get and you'll save a lot of fuss.

Whether your pointing a DISH dish or a DIRECTV dish, the basic process is the same for all zip codes. The only things that change are the azimuth, elevation and skew.

 

[Bruno]

There is a lot of different dishes out there so it makes it hard to tell you the best way to get 129. I would mark my dish with a sharpie before i moved anything. So maybe you can get back to 119 and 110. If the mast is plumb and you set the skew right then the center lnb should be on the 119. The 110 and 129 should fall into place. In the old days you could get a signal on transponder 11 on all three sat. You could take some alumin foil and put on the two outer lnbs and see if its on 119. If your 119 and 110 are really that low i would first think the dish has come down. Unless the dish gets hit seldom do they go up. (like boobs) You also need to think is it possible the 129 lnb is bad or there is a problem. I have also seen where the dish has been turned too far and different lnbs are just picking up 110 and 119. Its important that 119 is on the center lnb. I used to use a single lnb in the center spot to find 119 and then put on the lnb to pick all three locations. If you cover up the lnb's with Alumin foil make sure you set your rec to the sat your looking for.