Question about HD channels on Western Arc

[Donegan]

Hi everyone, im back with an update, i had made a post back on April 1st :

Need some help with DishTV sat. install

Hi everyone, Im new here and i hope this is the right place to post this, i have some questions and i hope you nice folks can help me get some answers! This past week our roof was re-done, new shingles and decking in some places. Originally our sat. dish was bolted into the roof with lag...

www.satelliteguys.us

About having our sat. dish moved to a pole mount due to having a new roof installed, well finally after almost three weeks of no service, due to waiting on more trim and paint to be done, i finally got a Dish tech. out today to do the pole mount install, which after 4 hours of work he got done and he did a good job on it, he was very friendly and worked his butt off, im happy with what he did, however, he informed me that, due to us having very tall trees in our backyard, he would have to realign the dish to the western arc, because the eastern arc was blocked by trees, and he told me we would lose our local HD channels but all other channels would still be HD/SD, so i let him go with it, since a roof mount was not an option, and he said he could not mount the dish in the wood under the roof line, i said "ok, whatever you gotta do, lets do it" and so now it looks like we are pointed at the 110, 119 and 129 birds, but , we are missing a lot of our HD channels, (we have the Americas Top 250 package) i asked him about this since he told me before we would only lose our locals in HD (2,4,7,11,16,38,42,etc.) and that we needed to wait 24 hours for something to update and they would all be working, so, does this sound right to anyone? Or, have we lost a bunch of our HD channels due to the new Western arc realign? I want to believe the guy but im no expert, it sounds kinda like B.S. but he gave me his number and told me to call if there was any problems, i really hope something can be tweaked or fine tuned, losing our local HDs is one thing but more than that will be a big disappointment, hoping someone can give me some clues, and sorry for the long ass post! thank you

 

[NYDutch]

You shouldn't lose any HD channels other than the locals, although it make take overnight for the receiver to fully update. I switch arcs fairly often as we move our RV from place to place, but running a "Test Installation" from the Diagnostics menu usually updates everything. There are times though, that it doesn't get it all straight until after the overnight guide update.

 

[Donegan]

You shouldn't lose any HD channels other than the locals, although it make take overnight for the receiver to fully update. I switch arcs fairly often as we move our RV from place to place, but running a "Test Installation" from the Diagnostics menu usually updates everything. There are times though, that it doesn't get it all straight until after the overnight guide update.

That would be most awesome, i hate doing downgrades! i will let the receiver do its nightly shutdown (i have it set to power down at 5 a.m. cst) and check it in the morning to see if the missing channels are in fact back, i looked for the "Test Installation" button under the Diagnostics menu but im not seeing it, we are on a VIP722k, not sure if that matters, also , i noticed the 110 and 119 birds only have a signal strength at 30, the 129 bird is pegged out at 125 signal strength! Not sure if this is a problem or not, ill be patient and see what it looks like tomorrow, thanks for the info!

 

[NYDutch]

That would be most awesome, i hate doing downgrades! i will let the receiver do its nightly shutdown (i have it set to power down at 5 a.m. cst) and check it in the morning to see if the missing channels are in fact back, i looked for the "Test Installation" button under the Diagnostics menu but im not seeing it, we are on a VIP722k, not sure if that matters, also , i noticed the 110 and 119 birds only have a signal strength at 30, the 129 bird is pegged out at 125 signal strength! Not sure if this is a problem or not, ill be patient and see what it looks like tomorrow, thanks for the info!

Ahh! Ok, on a VIP series it's labeled as "Check Switch":

DISH Network Check Switch Procedure

www.dishformyrv.com

 

[Bobby]

Your dish needs to be repeaked. Those 110 & 119 numbers are terrible and I have never seen 129 with those numbers.

 

[Donegan]

Ahh! Ok, on a VIP series it's labeled as "Check Switch":

DISH Network Check Switch Procedure

www.dishformyrv.com

Thanks, ill give it a try!

 

[Donegan]

Your dish needs to be repeaked. Those 110 & 119 numbers are terrible and I have never seen 129 with those numbers.

Well, i thought they were kinda off myself, im used to these numbers being in the 70's , but im no expert, if things dont clear up after tonights update, I'll be calling this guy to come back and figure it out, not to knock on him, but he said he had only been on the job a month, im willing to give him a chance to get it right tho

 

[Donegan]

So the nightly update came and went, still missing a lot of HD channels, getting the "signal loss on HD channel, tuning to SD equivalent " when selecting an HD channel thru the Guide, looking at the signal strength numbers this is what im seeing :
110 - 33 signal strength
119 - 22 signal strength
129 - 23 signal strength
These numbers vary depending on what transponder is being used, but these seem like very poor numbers to my untrained eye, is this why im not getting all my HD channels? Im even missing some SD ones too, im hoping that its a simple fix by re-aligning the dish like user Bobby commented, that the dish needs to be repeaked, hopefully that will fix the problem

 

[zippyfrog]

So the nightly update came and went, still missing a lot of HD channels, getting the "signal loss on HD channel, tuning to SD equivalent " when selecting an HD channel thru the Guide, looking at the signal strength numbers this is what im seeing :
110 - 33 signal strength
119 - 22 signal strength
129 - 23 signal strength
These numbers vary depending on what transponder is being used, but these seem like very poor numbers to my untrained eye, is this why im not getting all my HD channels? Im even missing some SD ones too, im hoping that its a simple fix by re-aligning the dish like user Bobby commented, that the dish needs to be repeaked, hopefully that will fix the problem

Are those the signal strength numbers that you had when the Dish tech left? Those to me are awfully low. I just did a quick scan of some signal strength numbers, and for me 110 is around 70, 119 is around 69, and 129 is around 51.

 

[Donegan]

Are those the signal strength numbers that you had when the Dish tech left? Those to me are awfully low. I just did a quick scan of some signal strength numbers, and for me 110 is around 70, 119 is around 69, and 129 is around 51.

Before the receiver did its power down at 5am, 110 and 119 were in the low 30's and 129 was pegged out at 125, that all changed when i got up later in the day and looked at them again, they are still very low, nothing above 37, and 129 has been as low as 3 and 8

 

[NYDutch]

Before the receiver did its power down at 5am, 110 and 119 were in the low 30's and 129 was pegged out at 125, that all changed when i got up later in the day and looked at them again, they are still very low, nothing above 37, and 129 has been as low as 3 and 8

You definitely need to get the tech back to repeak your dish. Those numbers are way to low for either arc. The only time I accept a mid 30's level on a sat is when I set up our portable dish for a short 1-3 day stay in good weather and I don't feel like fussing with it.

 

[Donegan]

You definitely need to get the tech back to repeak your dish. Those numbers are way to low for either arc. The only time I accept a mid 30's level on a sat is when I set up our portable dish for a short 1-3 day stay in good weather and I don't feel like fussing with it.

Yep, im gonna call him Monday and ask him to come back and hopefully he will be able to improve those numbers and that will fix the problem, I'll report back on what happens!

 

[HipKat]

So the nightly update came and went, still missing a lot of HD channels, getting the "signal loss on HD channel, tuning to SD equivalent " when selecting an HD channel thru the Guide, looking at the signal strength numbers this is what im seeing :
110 - 33 signal strength
119 - 22 signal strength
129 - 23 signal strength
These numbers vary depending on what transponder is being used, but these seem like very poor numbers to my untrained eye, is this why im not getting all my HD channels? Im even missing some SD ones too, im hoping that its a simple fix by re-aligning the dish like user Bobby commented, that the dish needs to be repeaked, hopefully that will fix the problem

You want to use Transponder 21 when checking your signals. That's our go-to. And 110/119 should be in the 70's, 129 in the 50's.
In the meantime, go out and look at the dish (if you can get to it). Is the mast plumb? Is it loose? Are there any trees even close by to the south/southwest??

 

[Donegan]

You want to use Transponder 21 when checking your signals. That's our go-to. And 110/119 should be in the 70's, 129 in the 50's.
In the meantime, go out and look at the dish (if you can get to it). Is the mast plumb? Is it loose? Are there any trees even close by to the south/southwest??

So here are the signal strength numbers I'm seeing when tuned to Transponder 21:
110 - 32 to 33 s.s.
119 - 35 to 36 s.s.
129 - 20 to 21 s.s.
I can get to the dish since it is now on the ground and i will check to see if the mast is loose or not, also, i will be getting a level to check if the pole itself is plumb, i just read an older thread here about how a pole being spot on level is very important, is this correct? And, as far as trees , yes we do have tall trees around us, trees are blocking LOS to the eastern arc from the ground, which is why we are now pointed at the western arc, but still there are trees but im not sure how much they are blocking the signal, still hoping the tech can repeak the dish and get those numbers up, will have to wait and see

 

[HipKat]

So here are the signal strength numbers I'm seeing when tuned to Transponder 21:
110 - 32 to 33 s.s.
119 - 35 to 36 s.s.
129 - 20 to 21 s.s.
I can get to the dish since it is now on the ground and i will check to see if the mast is loose or not, also, i will be getting a level to check if the pole itself is plumb, i just read an older thread here about how a pole being spot on level is very important, is this correct? And, as far as trees , yes we do have tall trees around us, trees are blocking LOS to the eastern arc from the ground, which is why we are now pointed at the western arc, but still there are trees but im not sure how much they are blocking the signal, still hoping the tech can repeak the dish and get those numbers up, will have to wait and see

Those numbers are evenly low across the board which normally would point to a poorly aligned dish, BUT, I have seen techs put a job in with barely passing signals because trees didn't have leaves on them yet just to get the job in and get paid. As FUBAR'd as that sounds....

 

[Donegan]

Those numbers are evenly low across the board which normally would point to a poorly aligned dish, BUT, I have seen techs put a job in with barely passing signals because trees didn't have leaves on them yet just to get the job in and get paid. As FUBAR'd as that sounds....

I can believe that, i want to give the tech a chance to come back and try again, but, if he won't after a reasonable amount of time, I'll have no choice but to call Dish and request another tech to come out, those numbers are just too low and for what it costs each month to only have half our HD channels and some SD channels missing, nope, it's not acceptable, imo

 

[joewhite57]

Those numbers are evenly low across the board which normally would point to a poorly aligned dish, BUT, I have seen techs put a job in with barely passing signals because trees didn't have leaves on them yet just to get the job in and get paid. As FUBAR'd as that sounds....

Love the term FUBAR just because it’s an acronym few people know it’s meaning, like SNAFU.

 

[HipKat]

Love the term FUBAR just because it’s an acronym few people know it’s meaning, like SNAFU.

Both take me back to my Military days!!