q's about connection, programming, and splitting

[subway]

I would like to know if there are any ways to change my system setup for the better. I recently read many of the posts on this site and have a couple questions that weren't answered. Also I was about to call Dish network to get cinemax for a penny when I thought there might be something I'm missing / don't know about that I should wait for before I call Dish up.

I have 2 dishes, one was used for international channels (international) a long time ago and is now just sitting, it has one lnb? at 119 while another is being used for the national channels (national) and has 2 things one for 110 and one for 119. There is a coax cable from the international dish going to the national. From the national dish there is one coaxial cable going to the house.

My first concern is that of connection: when it is not raining the signal strength is between 10 and 25 (usually 16) and even when its barely raining it goes to 0 and I can't watch anything. This is after a professional guy drove an hour and a half to get here, was very angry (like all the people who come here) and 'fixed' the dishes in 10 min. I've tried to increase the signal before but its just very sensitive and I'm afraid of losing my good weather signal cause at the moment thats all i have. (zip code btw is 12501). Is there a way of using my international dish to help increase the signal? This is really annoying since one of things I like to do when it rains is watch tv.

My second concern is of programming: currently these are the monthly fees I see

Digital Home Advantage with America's Top 100 and local - 37.99
Programming Access Fee - 5.00


besides getting cinemax is there anything I should be aware of? is the dish hd system much more expensive? I'm interested in keeping my price around 40 bucks a month, would like to have access to hd channels, and am not interested in any DVR's as I can just make one out of a computer and not pay any monthly fees

My third concern is of splitting the line:

There are 2 HDTV's and 2 standard tv's in the house that I'd like to make use of. unfortunately I have to watch the same channel on 2 tv's, is there anyway around this by splitting the line and getting a second receiver? and if I do would dish network find out? given the information I gave at the top is it possible for me to even do this? If I get a new system (the HD one) what type of setup should I ask for so that I can split the lines on my own?

 

[WiCkeDuDe]

First off your signal strength is way to low. Are there trees in the way or something else blocking the signal? If it is peaked correctly it should be much much higher even with a standard dish. Is the mast plumb?

HD can be as a little as $10 more a month onto your existing bill. Dish offers dishin it up deals which includes a new HD dish which might be good in your case.

You can never split a sat feed line. The new HD dish offers more connections if it is a dish 1000.2 dish. Each receiver needs a rg6 line run from it to the dish with no splitters.

Dish takes care of the install as well if you go to the HD setup.

 

[subway]

It is correctly plumbed as the dish was placed on a newly built deck, I also just checked it myself and it is plumbed and level. There are no trees in the way, it seems like there are but the guy who came for the installation said there was no problem with any of the trees (the trees are more then 400 feet away). It is very annoying to have someone come here, since we live in a remote area and they have to drive an hour and a half each way, as everybody who comes here seems pissed off about their commute. I don't see anything else blocking any incoming signal, its a straight shoot to the sky. Would it be of any use to try to mess with the international dish, as we don't use it for international channels anymore, to aim it in a direction as to supplement the other dish? or would that just not work? I don't want to try to mess with the other dish as some channels are better then none (if i mess it up itll take about 3 weeks for someone to get out here)

 

[boba]

It is correctly plumbed as the dish was placed on a newly built deck, I also just checked it myself and it is plumbed and level. There are no trees in the way, it seems like there are but the guy who came for the installation said there was no problem with any of the trees (the trees are more then 400 feet away). It is very annoying to have someone come here, since we live in a remote area and they have to drive an hour and a half each way, as everybody who comes here seems pissed off about their commute. I don't see anything else blocking any incoming signal, its a straight shoot to the sky. Would it be of any use to try to mess with the international dish, as we don't use it for international channels anymore, to aim it in a direction as to supplement the other dish? or would that just not work? I don't want to try to mess with the other dish as some channels are better then none (if i mess it up itll take about 3 weeks for someone to get out here)

I would suggest that you do a lot of reading on satellite adjusting and setting up systems so you can work on your own equipment seeing you seem to be unhappy with the service that you have received so far. No you can not combine the signals from 2 dishes to create a stronger signal, but you can use your extra dish as a learning aid. First find out by searching forums what you actually have for a dish. Secondly if it is a dish 300 or 500 try setting up the dish using your existing receiver. As long as you don't move your existing dish you should be able to disconnect the cable from the back of the receiver and then reconnect it without problems.

 

[WiCkeDuDe]

Yeah dont mess with a different or bigger dish until you get this figured out. Something is not right with your current setup. Your signal should be much higher. If there are no line of sight problems I would check all your cable and connectors. All lines need to be RG6 cable to the receiver and ground block and barrels rated to 3 ghz. You could try running a temp cable to see if it is any different in strength.
Are you getting low strengths on 110 or 119? What are the strengths of the other side?

 

[subway]

I do have RG6 cables running from the dish, unfortunately one of the kids moved the dish a couple days ago clearing out everything. After a full day of moving the dish I can now get a 71 signal strength on satellite 110 (transponder 20), 51 on satellite 61.5 (transponder 8) but 0 signal strength on satellite 119. I've tried moving it down and to the right as was stated somewhere but still no luck. I disconnected the coax from the satellite ran check switch to clear everything, powered down the system and turned it off, connected the cable and powered up and reran check switch. The only thing that did was take the channels from sat 119 off the guide. I've contacted dish network several times now and they keep wanting to send someone out to my house for $99, which i don't want to do at all. Is there anything I can do to pick up 119????

I have dish 500+

 

[WiCkeDuDe]

If yo have no obstructions in the way then your dish is not pointed properly. When I say the mast must be plumb I mean plumb, not just close. If not your settings will not be correct. I would recheck your mast, even pull the dish off. Make sure it doesnt move when the dish is placed on it. Then use your receiver to get the settings for a dish 500 using your area code. Set the dish to those specs then fine tune it. If things are right then the settings the receiver puts out will get a signal, you just need to fine tune.

 

[Jim5506]

How is your dish attached to the deck? Is it firmly mounted or setting in a 5 gallon bucket of concrete?

If you are dealing with a 2 lnb head, and have found one satellite already, the other is nearby.

First cover the lnb eye for 119 (the one on the left when looking from behind the dish). If you lose 110, it means you are seeing 110 with the 119 lnb and you are pointed about 8 degrees too far east. From where you are 119 is to the right and 5 degrees below 110 in the sky, so drop the elevation 5 degrees and turn the dish 8 degrees west. After uncovering the 119 lnb, you might just see both.

If covering the 119 lnb does not effect 110, then you are seeing 110 with the correct lnb, and you need to check mast plumb, skew and whether or not you have lost the 119 lnb.

Settings for Dish 500 in your zip code are:

Azimuth - 246 (almost perfectly WSW - sight up the lnb arm)
Elevation - 26 (on back of the dish)
Skew - 126 (also on back of the dish - rotated clockwise)

Here are the exact locations for 110 and 119 from your location, if you were seeing each with a 1 lnb dish:

110 - Azimuth - 242, elevation 29
119 - Azimuth - 250, elevation 24

This is where I go the 8 degree right and 5 degrees down numbers to try, you see the Dish 500 numbers are almost exactly in the middle of these.

 

[headband]

if you plug in a phone line you can avoid the $5 a month programming access fee, if you do not have a phoneline the HD DVRs can use a broadband connection, I know you said that you don't want DVR but if you can do this going to DVR advantage for $39.99 (includes programming, DVR fee and Locals) will make it cheaper, and unlike a PC it will be able to record stuff in HD and you will not have to deal with setting up IR blasters like you would with a PC.

There is no way to get another reciever without paying a monthly fee for it. Your first HD reciever will provide seperate programming to 1 HDTV and 1 SDTV a second HD reciever will provide additional programming for 1 HDTV and 1 SDTV as well. It is $7 more a month, if you have a HD DVR hooked to broadband, or a phone line on an HD reciever you can use dish comm to avoid the $5 programming access fee on this reciever also. Or you can just get a single tuner reciever and forget the extra $5 fee if thats not possible.

As stated it is $10 a month to add HD to your package, you also might look into the $29.99 HD only package, you lose some channels from AT100 but you also gain a few and IMO all the best channels are already in HD.

 

[subway]

Jim5506
If covering the 119 lnb does not effect 110, then you are seeing 110 with the correct lnb, and you need to check mast plumb, skew and whether or not you have lost the 119 lnb.

The satellite is firmly mounted to the post of the deck that was just built (the post is set in concrete) moving the dish wildly and then putting in the correct coordinates I can immediately get a signal at 110. covering the 119 does not effect the 110 signal. I am thinking that the 119 lnb might be gone.

I finally broke down and called dish network on sunday and they set an appointment for Tuesday (yesterday) between 12pm and 5pm, I got the $5 a month extended warranty so the repair will cost me 29.99 (as apposed to the 79.99 fee without the warranty) I plan on canceling the warranty next month since its on a monthly basis and not a yearly contract and since the repair work the guy does is covered for 90 days.

so I took the day off yesterday and the guy just didn't show. The last couple times I needed a repairman they never show and I always have to reschedule an appointment, at which point they do finally come. I called to express my anger and rescheduled for this Friday, the explanation that they gave me was that the guy in new jersey (YES NEW JERSEY, which is about a 2-2.5hr drive one way) just didn't get the message, the guy coming this friday is coming from 2 county's south of me (about 1 hr and 40 min drive one way). There is a guy in the next town over who is a dish retailer and will fix it but for 99 bucks, I asked them to see about any reimbursement but they just won't do it.

I have checked out my two dishes and found that one dish has a twin lnb that looks like this (although i don't know how many connections there are inside) and the other lnb is single. Would it be possible for me to take the single lnb from the international dish and replace the 119 lnb on the twin by taking the twin apart and just swapping the two? I can't keep taking the day off and would rather just fix it myself.

headband
if you plug in a phone line you can avoid the $5 a month programming access fee, if you do not have a phoneline the HD DVRs can use a broadband connection, I know you said that you don't want DVR but if you can do this going to DVR advantage for $39.99 (includes programming, DVR fee and Locals) will make it cheaper

I currently have dsl since the ny cable company says my house is in Connecticut territory and the Conn cable company says im in ny territory. either way cable is not an option for the house. so when i plug in the phone line my dsl is disrupted. I may actually do either the dvr advantage setup or just the hd channel package. With just the hd package is there a receiver that has 2 hdtv outputs or is it just one hd and one sd? and its hdmi correct (one of the hdtv's is about 50 feet away and the other is about 100 ft away which could be a problem) does the receiver act as a dvr? and do they include hdmi cable with the install? Is it correct for me to assume that using a broadband connection means that I could connect an ethernet cord to the receiver and my lan and efficiently use the internet and avoid the extra fee? do you know if it'll disrupt the internet service? I could ask a dish rep but im so fed up with them right now.

I am getting very disgusted with dish network, and complaining to the csr won't help since they won't do anything/state they don't have any power to do anything. I don't mind paying 40-50 bucks a month for tv but if I can't watch tv for weeks at a time, and the representatives nullify an appointment without giving me 24 hours notice making me lose a day of work I won't be able to take it. You guys are way more helpful then anybody I've dealt with from dish network, they should pay you guys.


Although I will probably never do so I am researching the whole free to air route since then if somethings wrong I can research and fix it on my own time. I wont say more since everybody knows what im talking about and since its such an empty threat lol. Thanks alot for your help, you don't know how much you guys are keeping me from losing my sanity.

 

[boba]

You really haven't provided us much information on your equipment. What receiver do you have ? Is the LNBs on the dish Legacy or DP (Dish Pro)? Is the Twin exactly as picture or does it have 3 "F" fittins on it? Do you have an external switch on the deck where the international dish was joined to the national dish?

You should be able to connect the international dish directly to your receiver and using the 250 az and 24 elevation given earlier tune that dish to receive 119. Once you have gotten 119 you should be able to use the DPP Twin switch or the external switch to combine the 2 dishes to get you some reception.

 

[subway]

edit: someone came today and replaced the stuff, its fine now thanks