Should I upgrade my Dish 1000 for travelling?

[Andyjunction]

Like it says, I have an old Dish 1000 (on western arc I guess?) in my RV for travelling. I have to set it up at every stop for the night using a modified surveyor's tripod. Sometimes it can be a pain to get 110, 119 and 129 all zeroed in and, if it takes too long, sometimes I'll give up and just settle for two signals for a night or two. It gets especially bad on the east coast. My home is Colorado.

It looks like the 1000.2 and 1000.4 are both slightly larger and space is an issue for me. I have to use wingnuts to attach the arm and lnb to the dish just so I can disassemble it for storage.

But if I could get a reliably better signal from all three satellites and save myself that frustration it would be worth it for sure. So, would it make a difference in how quickly I can get signals if I upgraded to one of the newer dishes? And, if so, which would be better for coast to coast use?

 

[vash1090]

If you get a 1k4 the arm easily detaches with two bolts to take up less space than when assembled. It also has fine-tune adjustments to make pointing easier

 

[Andyjunction]

Two bolts would be two less than four. I like that. Is the fine tune adjustment that long bolt I've seen in pics on the back of the assembly? I was guessing that was for elevation. If it is that would be a huge improvement. Getting the elevation just right is usually the problem I think.

 

[HIFI]

Two bolts would be two less than four. I like that. Is the fine tune adjustment that long bolt I've seen in pics on the back of the assembly? I was guessing that was for elevation. If it is that would be a huge improvement. Getting the elevation just right is usually the problem I think.

yep!

 

[Brussam]

I have been using a 1000 for 4 years now. Since you have a surveyor tripod, you have a good base for a vertical mast.

Check out TV4RV.com. He has a kit for adding an adjusting bolt for the elevation. Makes tweaking elevation a whole lot easier.

I have an Align-a-Sight on my dish. It is a pricy addition but is has one real value. If you should lock in on 110 or 129 instead of 119, it is a lot easier to swing that 9-10 degrees to get back into the ball park.

I use an Acutrac 22 Pro Meter because it has the 22 KHz tone that insures I am aiming with the 119 LNBF. That way you don't need the receiver set to satellite selection. But the receiver is a good source of power for the meter.

With the mast vertical, set the skew on the dish and mount it. I set the compass on the Align-a-Sight for the azimuth adding about 10 degrees. Depending where you are in the US, you add between 0 and up to 20 degrees to the azimuth to compensate for the Deviation caused by the metal dish. I set the Align-a-Sight for the Elevation. Set the 22KHz tone on the meter and swing the dish for best signal. Tweak the elevation for best signal. Go and run the Switch Check.

I always run the Switch Check because you can be off one satellite. If you are, swing the dish and repeak. Lately I am missing the satellite about 1 in 20 times. Otherwise I spend more time setting up the tripod than aiming the dish.

A 1000 is fine.

 

[Andyjunction]

My tripod is from TV4RV, the heavy duty one. I'd never noticed the conversion kit before but that looks really nice. Thanks, I'm going to order one of those. $12.95 will be a lot cheaper than replacing the whole dish.

 

[john tn]

this is a change in subject, does dish network use different dish designs for different locations in the states, this I was told by a installer. tks

 

[Brussam]

Is this in regard to RVing or homes.? For RVing, you pretty much use the Western Arc satellites (119,110,129) for the whole country with some marginal reception on the upper East coast.

For homes there is a dish for the Western Arc for Central and Western US and a different dish for the Eastern Arc (61.5, 72.7 and 77) for the East Coast

 

[Mark_AR]

I used the Western Arc dish with my RV all last winter. I use a small 6" magnetic hand level to make sure my mast is pretty close to level. The base is just bolted to an old brake drum I found. It is heavy enough except for when it is really windy and makes it easy to reorient or shim to make it level and it fits in storage quite nicely.

To point, I just use a keychain compass to point in the general direction & a cheapo tone signal meter to align the dish to 119. I can tell if I am off on 110 or 129 by looking at the meter peak signal strength because 129 is lower power than 110 or 119. If I am off, I know if it either peaks lower, higher or goes away, then I know which way to swing the dish. I always do a Check switch like the above post says to make sure I am on the money.

I'd get an Align-as-sight that clips on the dish if I had the extra money, it looks like it would make things a lot easier. If you set your point dish screen 6-1-1 and tell it you have a Dish 500, you can put in your location zip code and get an arbitrary azimuth/elevation setting to get you close. Unless you travel from east coast to west coast without setting up in between, the skew doesn't have to be changed every time. You can usually tell cuz 129 will start dropping out when it is time to readjust skew.

 

[Brussam]

If you are using a 1000 then you need to use the manual for the initial settings. I cut and pasted the values from the manual into a spreadsheet.so that I can use a lookup function to get the settings by entering a zipcode. I also record the Deviations (the difference between Magnetic and the direction the satellite was) in the spreadsheet so that I start closer to where the Azimuth should be. Deviation varies across the country but there is some consistency with the Longitude.

I know there are online applications for getting satellite settings but my spreadsheet works offline.

The skew does change as you go across the county. It is a lot easier to set before you put the dish on the mast.

We go to places where a base mount like a brake drum wouldn't work, like on a slope. We use the TV4RV tripod and water ballast in the form of two 5 gallon buckets. That way we don't have to carry the weight and the buckets stack and I can put other stuff in them for traveling. Ballast works on concrete and blacktop where ground ahchors don't work.

When I first started I had one of those low cost meters and a 500 Pro. I would go crazy trying to get the dish aligned. Then I learned about the built-in multiswitch in the 500 Pro head and how either LNBF could be logically attached to either coax cable. With the tone meter you can be aiming with the 110 LNBF. That is when I get the Acutrac 22 Pro so I didn't have to set the receiver to insure I was aiming with 119 LNBF. The second best investment after the tripod.

 

[martha]

I used to do all that stuff. I sprang for a Wingard traveler for Dish network thru camping world $1800. It works as if by magic, completely automatic. Ends storage problems as just lives on roof of RV. I have had on rare occations not been able to use the 1000 because of blocked view. I drag out my single dish mounted on disk brake drum and tough it out with the 110 as easy to set up.

 

[Brussam]

I got a Trav'ler SK-1000 this year too. Great when it is raining out.

So far this year I have had to put the 1000 Pro tripod up twice though.