Shaw Service in Oregon

[docvinney]

Hello members I sure would appreciate some help. I've had service in Ontario and in Oregon for the last 5 years and everything was fine. I recently changed out my LNB in Oregon and now I can't get anywhere close to a signal. When I first set up the dish, 5 years ago, it was a piece of cake. I have been struggling with this for two weeks now and can't seem to get anywhere. From reading a lot of the comments, it seems the best approach I could have taken would have been to leave the dish in place and just change the LNB. Too late for that now. I do have an HDPVR630 and one Shaw person said I would have to use channels 306 or 396 to set up the system. I went to dishpointer.com for the co-ordinates for my house and have been using the Sat B numbers. I am seeing no lock on tuner 1 and 2 and a red light on the front of the PVR. I should add that I have a 60 cm dish and a xKu LNB. Any suggestions for something I might have missed, or things that I might try, would be greatly appreciated.
DocVinney

 

[showtime]

Oh Boy, where to start?? I guess if you did not move the pipe and it is still Level on both sides it would have been just sliding dish east or west. But if you changed any of the setting on the back of the dish then at dishpointer you should have chose "Multi-sat setup"
Address: oregon
Latitude: 43.8041°
Longitude: -120.5542°

Satellite: Starchoice 107W & 111W
Elevation: 38.2°
Azimuth (true): 163.8°
Azimuth (magn.): 149.6°
a 60cm will be harder to lock down there as it is, a 75cm is recommended for better signal strength.
Those channels should be fine if your V code is 4321. At some point this year everyone will get the new channel guide (4378) then it will be different channel numbers.
I presume you are in the dishpointer section of the menu, so just go very slow when turning the dish while you watch for a signal.
Cheers and Good Luck

 

[harshness]

Using the numbers appropriate to the dish (as showtime recommends) should get you very close. It is important to distinguish between magnetic and true readings of the azimuth. Magnetic readings are easier as you don't have to calibrate your compass for magnetic declination (the difference in degrees between True North and magnetic North -- currently around 15 degrees in Oregon).

Make sure your mast is still plumb so you don't have to fuss with the problems that a tipped mast brings (elevation and/or skew won't line up).

Next time you do something like this, scribe (or use a permanent ink marker) a line from the sleeve to the mast so you have an idea where the azimuth was. You might want to make the line at a right angle to the dish mount so you can use it as a reference for a new, larger dish. Never change elevation or skew once dialed in unless you've moved many miles away.

 

[docvinney]

Many thanks to Showtime and Harshness for taking the time to reply to my post and offer some good suggestions

 

[docvinney]

Oh Boy, where to start?? I guess if you did not move the pipe and it is still Level on both sides it would have been just sliding dish east or west. But if you changed any of the setting on the back of the dish then at dishpointer you should have chose "Multi-sat setup"
Address: oregon
Latitude: 43.8041°
Longitude: -120.5542°

Satellite: Starchoice 107W & 111W
Elevation: 38.2°
Azimuth (true): 163.8°
Azimuth (magn.): 149.6°
a 60cm will be harder to lock down there as it is, a 75cm is recommended for better signal strength.
Those channels should be fine if your V code is 4321. At some point this year everyone will get the new channel guide (4378) then it will be different channel numbers.
I presume you are in the dishpointer section of the menu, so just go very slow when turning the dish while you watch for a signal.
Cheers and Good Luck

 

[docvinney]

I guess the only thing I did right was to leave the mast in place and it is plumb. Given that fact I should be able to move the dish east or west, as you pointed out, and grab a signal that way. You didn't mention skew and I noticed that dish pointer doesn't seem to have skew either. You mentioned a V code of 4321. Is that line V on the system status window? On the same menu I see lines N and O that say signal power T1 of 32 and T2 of 35. Does that mean I'm getting closer to a signal?

Thanks again for your help

 

[harshness]

You didn't mention skew and I noticed that dish pointer doesn't seem to have skew either.

If you choose a multi-satellite dish as showtime recommended, dishpointer will show the appropriate dish skew (not to be confused with LNB skew). If you use only one satellite (such as Sat B), dish skew doesn't make sense as you aren't trying to hit multiple satellites.

The rotation arrow points counter-clockwise (as viewed from the scale side of the dish).

 

[showtime]

No Doc, line F is Map Status., Helps determine which Guide you have and then which channels are best to tune in on.
ie 4321 = 396
4378 = 212
also when you are in this screen if you press the Red A button, the tuning bar appears. better to see your signal

I guess the only thing I did right was to leave the mast in place and it is plumb. Given that fact I should be able to move the dish east or west, as you pointed out, and grab a signal that way. You didn't mention skew and I noticed that dish pointer doesn't seem to have skew either. You mentioned a V code of 4321. Is that line V on the system status window? On the same menu I see lines N and O that say signal power T1 of 32 and T2 of 35. Does that mean I'm getting closer to a signal?

Thanks again for your help

 

[docvinney]

Thanks again to both of you again for educating me.