Question about a failed experiment

[GoWulfpack919]

Tonight for the heck of it I thought I would try an experiment and it failed miserably. What better place to find out why than here?

On my roof, I have the "western arc" (110, 118,119 and 129) with a DPP44 switch mounted on the back of the house. I also have a spare Dish 500 that I use for tailgating and camping. Upstairs I have the ViP211 HD receiver and downstairs I have the 625 dual tuner DVR for the master and living room. My goal was to replace 118 input with my aux. Dish 500 pointed at 61.5. I know 129 and 61.5 are the same but there are reasons why I'm trying this ...just bear with me.

Alright, via trial and error I was able to determine which coax on the switch was on the 118 input so I swapped it out with the coax coming from my spare Dish 500 I positioned on a tripod.

On my downstairs 625 dual receiver, I went to "point dish" screen and tried to find 61.5 just like I have done dozens of times successfully. I raised the window on the back of the house and jacked up the volume on the master TV so I would know when I closing in on the signal. I figured as soon as I found the signal, all I would need to do is "check switch" and then I would have HD off 61.5 and 129 along with 110 and 119 on my Vip211.


As previously mentioned, I have pointed my tailgating Dish for a couple years now so I'd like to think I'm pretty good at it by now. Result? Nothing. I even double checked dishpointer.com to make sure the azimuth and elevation were correct. The mast was plumb.

My question is.....is there something I forgot to check, switch or connect or did I just not find the signal for the first time in years?

 

[Dah-Henny]

Protocol woulb be to unhook the coax from the stb, then run check switch to clear the matrix, then reconnect the coax and peak the dish, then run check switch again. Then..SAVE.

 

[GoWulfpack919]

Stb = the 625 receiver?

 

[Dah-Henny]

Yes, and make sure to save when prompted both times you ck switch.

 

[GoWulfpack919]

Great...thanks. I will try that.

 

[n0qcu]

I think it woulld work better to hook up your 500 directly to the receiver and find 61.5 first then connect to the DPP 44 and run the check switch.

 

[Pepper]

Yep, if a satellite is not already in the receiver's matrix then it has no idea what switch port to look for it on if you select it. So any signal readings you happen to get while on the "unknown" satellite will likely register as "wrong sat" for whatever is on port 1. So as others have suggested, run the line directly from the new LNBF position to the receiver, select it in the matrix and go from there. With no switch in the way you should be able to get a signal.

 

[GoWulfpack919]

Thanks. I will do that.

Once I do that and it works, will 61.5 be in the matrix and I can go back to finding the signal as I did tonight?

 

[KKlare]

61.5W and 129W are not identical, anymore. Many/most of the HD signals have been moved to 72.7 but public service is still there, IIRC. I have had both and 110 119 before on a DPP44 (back from the VOOM days) but after they replaced 129 and I found the 4:12 MST/MDT stopping problem that I had was due to 61.5, I have given up on that. I might try for 72.7 as I record only locals (129) and HD and it would be nice to have a backup and an interesting experiment for a few hours.
-Ken

 

[Voyager6]

I am currently using this exact set-up. I had a SD105 that I converted to a 500+ with 61.5 on a DPP44 switch. When the new HD was added to 72.7 and 129, I disconnected the 118 input and added the 129 LNB to the 500+ making it a 1000+. You definitely have to clear the switch matrix first to see the new sat inputs. Being on the east coast, 129 SS is somewhat low due to the low angle. I will be using this set-up until I can convert to EA. I need to replace an aging 522 first.

 

[digiblur]

Yep, if a satellite is not already in the receiver's matrix then it has no idea what switch port to look for it on if you select it. So any signal readings you happen to get while on the "unknown" satellite will likely register as "wrong sat" for whatever is on port 1. So as others have suggested, run the line directly from the new LNBF position to the receiver, select it in the matrix and go from there. With no switch in the way you should be able to get a signal.

Bingo.... I was about the say the same thing until I saw your post. Same exact issue I had with pointing my 1000.2, it didn't know which port 129 was on so I could never find it when I was sitting on the 129 signal page. I second your suggestion!

 

[whatchel1]

625?

Will a 625 see 61.5 anymore?

 

[GoWulfpack919]

Will a 625 see 61.5 anymore?

It sees 129... would that mean it does?

 

[TheKrell]

A 625 is an 8PSK receiver, so you could use it to peak the dish. But it's SD only and almost all channels on 61.5 are HD.

 

[GoWulfpack919]

A 625 is an 8PSK receiver, so you could use it to peak the dish. But it's SD only and almost all channels on 61.5 are HD.

As long as I can peak it with that receiver, I'm fine with that. I'll be watching the HD upstairs on the 211 anyhow.

Thanks for all the responses.

 

[GoWulfpack919]

Just hooked it up and it worked as suggested. Thanks again.