Signal Strength in Central Texas

[akoreneff]

I've done some searches, but the sheer number of results has made finding the information difficult. Please forgive me if I've asked a common question.

I just got an install done with a 722k on a dish 1000. Last night I was enthralled with the setup - gorgeous picture (winter olympics on satellite local), recording 2 channels at once while playing back from one of those recordings, and using the iphone and web interfaces to set things up. Phenomenal.

This morning, I got up to find that the box had lost its lock on the satellite at 129, and was refusing to do anything. When I checked connections (tight) and rebooted, it found 129 and loaded up. I checked strength, and saw it was moving between 25 and 45, spending most of its time at 34.

The dish didn't have any visible frost on it, there was nothing to block Line of Sight, and the sky was perfectly clear and cloudless.

What signal strength for various satellites should I expect for a dish 1000 near Austin, TX? (zip 78621 - I'm 15 miles east of Austin)

If this is normal, does anyone have any success stories about adding a wing dish for the bird?

 

[FitzAusTex]

I've done some searches, but the sheer number of results has made finding the information difficult. Please forgive me if I've asked a common question.

I just got an install done with a 722k on a dish 1000. Last night I was enthralled with the setup - gorgeous picture (winter olympics on satellite local), recording 2 channels at once while playing back from one of those recordings, and using the iphone and web interfaces to set things up. Phenomenal.

This morning, I got up to find that the box had lost its lock on the satellite at 129, and was refusing to do anything. When I checked connections (tight) and rebooted, it found 129 and loaded up. I checked strength, and saw it was moving between 25 and 45, spending most of its time at 34.

The dish didn't have any visible frost on it, there was nothing to block Line of Sight, and the sky was perfectly clear and cloudless.

What signal strength for various satellites should I expect for a dish 1000 near Austin, TX? (zip 78621 - I'm 15 miles east of Austin)

If this is normal, does anyone have any success stories about adding a wing dish for the bird?

Hey, I'm in Austin...depends on the transponder...there are like 16 of them for the national HD channels. I generally get 60+ on most of the 129 transponders.

 

[MikeD-C05]

Sounds like somebody needs a re-peaking of the dish. The 129 sat should come in in the 60s since it is brand new sat .

 

[boba]

Exactly what dish do you have? There is a DISH 1000 oldest of the 1000s and least desirable due to size and marginal reception.

There is the 1000+ much larger and designed to receive 4 satellites 1 being the 118.7 internationals.

1000.2 a larger replacement for the 1000. Receives 110/119 and 129 for Western Arc.

Lastly the 1000.4 designed for Eastern Arc least likely but possible here in TX.

 

[akoreneff]

I can't tell what Dish I have (it's up on the 2nd story roof and I'm ladderless). The installer did tell me it was a regular 1000, but I don't know what he means by 'regular'

The satellites I'm receiving are:
110: ~90% signal
119: ~90% signal
129: 25% signal on transponder 12.

If it helps, it seems that there's a multiswitch in it, just under the LNBs. I have 3 (i think, maybe 4) LNBs up there, one slightly off-spaced. There's a single cable running out of the dish, which goes into the splitter behind the receiver.

The installer was supposed to swing by yesterday to check the alignment and the tightness of the installation, but it appears he didnt do it.

Any suggestions?

In case anyone's interested, I installed the OTA tuner last night. I left a Winegard HD700R antenna poorly aimed, lying on the floor of an upstairs bedroom, and connected to that until I can get the install proper done on the roof. All the channels I'm interested in are in a 3-degree spread and under 40 miles away. The antenna got me 75-95% signal, with occasional momentary breakup (I think my LoS in that direction may shoot above a highway, with tall trucks breaking the signal - I have the same problem with cell phones).

 

[digiblur]

Sounds like the dish wasn't installed right or either you got a bad LNB. Check the transponders on 129 from 17-32. 1-16 are spotbeams which you will only receiver signal on some of them. Anything 17-32 should be 50+ in your area. As noted by others 60+ is also easily obtainable in your area.