Slimline-5 fine alignment

[Mark_R_G]

Hiya,
I've done a lot of skim reading on the subject, talking about apps and all the rough alignment procedures. I've done that, the mount is completely plumb, used a pipe level, no trees obstructing, and believe I'm getting decent signal. But.. I still get skips on channels that bring up signal loss on sat 2, so I'm doing something wrong, that's for sure.

The dish has been up there a long time, it's pre-swim, but I've since added the dtv swim converter/splitter, internet inserter, and added whole-home which has been working flawlessly. The whole hookup is fully to spec, down to the correct weathertight ends that you use that push tool to crimp.

I don't have any kind of extra meter to do the align and a lot on here seem to agree it isn't necessary. Where I am having problems is using the built-in tools on the box. Using the signal strength page, it doesn't seem to update very frequently(am I wrong on that?), but if I go to the meters page it is giving individual transponders. So what do I use to do the fine adjusting, do I have to go through all the transponders individually, are there some that are more in the 'center' than others. or just read the whole overall page on signal strength? I'm really baffled on this part.

And here's the basic data that seems to be asked all the time..
Zip code 60053
101:
96 97 96 0 95 99 94 99
95 96 96 0 95 100 93 98
86 100 90 24 95 99 96 98
95 100 95 88 97 100 96 100
99ca:
na
na na 0 na 95 0 95 0
90 88 89 89 0 na 0 na
na
99cb:
94 94 87 89 91 89 86 88
90 89 86 86 95 92 na na
na
na
99s:
0 54 0 58 27 100 36 0
na na na na na na 80 83
92 91 91 85 95 94 80 63
na
103s:
0 0 75 0 na na na na
na na na na na na 0 96
79 81 94 95 44 39 0 28
na
103ca:
na
91 95 94 92 93 94 92 94
92 94 94 94 92 94 95 95
na
103cb:
96 95 94 91 92 91 92 88
92 89 91 88 92 86 na na
na
na

Thanks for any info you can provide.

 

[raoul5788]

Your numbers look really good, the zeros and other really low numbers are spot beams or unused transponders so don't worry about those. You may have a bad tuner on your dvr.

 

[texasbrit]

..or you have an intermittent fault, bad/corroded connector most likely..

 

[Zashel]

theres two probable causes. first is one of the ports on the SL5 LNB is starting to go bad (the 99 satellites look like they're varying too much imo), second is corroded cable. distant third is the SWM8 or SWM16 your using. if its possible, pull off every connector between the multiswitch and the LNB and see if any of them are corroded/pinched/cut. if the cables look ok, i'd start at the lnb.

 

[Claude Greiner]

Get rid of the legacy LNB and go right to SWM.

your numbers look good. You got a faulty switch or Lnb in your setup sonewhere.

 

[peds48]

In order to troubleshoot correctly, we would need to know your complete system set up. We need to now what receivers you have, what LNB and what switch, how is all wired up, etc.

Without knowing any of this, we can just throw anything at the wall and see what sticks.

 

[Mark_R_G]

Thanks for the info so far. At least I know I have it aimed correctly. I did take my time using the fine screws while the wife watched the meters in the house.

And I was already thinking of upgrading the LNB to the SWM version as it is very old, I put that dish up in replacement of the old sd round when the SL5's first came out, yes, that many years ago, and it's all original.

The rest of the system:
HR21-200, HR22-100, H21-100
Deca 1MR0-01 on all three.
SWM8
All hardware is D* green label.
All cable is Perfect Vision RG6-4, all connectors are Digicon green. Drop from the roof is in a roomy conduit all by itself to the basement where I have all the distribution hardware wall mounted, and the power inserter is plugged into a ups that is also running the den entertainment center.

Thanks