Superdish peaking questions

[mowog74]

Hi, newbie here switching from D* to E* to get newly-released local channels (Charlottesville, VA). I installed the D* dish myself and (possibly foolishly) decided I could install the new 105 Superdish as well to avoid the 2-week pro install delay. My problem is that I'm getting exactly zero signal from the new dish on 119, and no amount of tweaking has gotten me even one "point" of signal. I have two theories:

1) There are a few sparse tall trees about 50 yards away that *may* be in line of sight. Could trees reduce signal all the way to zero like this? I would think i'd still see some signal, if poor.

2) When I first connected the DP34 switch, I accidentally connected one of the receiver outputs to a drop that had a powered-up D* receiver attached. The switch started making a whining/beeping noise, and I quickly disconnected the D* receiver once I realized what I had done. Could this have damaged the switch? "Check switch" doesn't report any problems aside from the lack of signal.

Any help with this would be greatly appreciated!

Mike

 

[Hall]

1) It's almost an all or nothing thing when pointing. You can have ZERO signal and move the dish what appears to be a very small amount and get signal. And trees certainly can block the signal...

2) Doesn't matter how quickly you disconnected the cable, the damage could be done.

What signal levels do you get for 110 and 105 ??

 

[VOOMER]

edit

 

[SimpleSimon]

Try bypassing the DP34 and connecting to 119 directly, just to get it close. Then connect to the 105 LNBF to peak it. THEN put the DP34 back in the loop - with 119 in port 1, 110 in port 2, 105 in port 3.

 

[Stargazer]

105 can be tricky to hit especially if you have not done this before. I remember my first time trying to find it. If I am not mistaken wouldnt only the odd or even transponders work when you first hook it up before doing a check switch?

 

[mowog74]

Simon, I have tried bypassing the DP34 (thanks to your advice to a previous poster), but I still don't see any signal at all on 119. I'm generally going by the instructions that came with the Superdish (peak 119, then fine tune to bring 105 up), so I haven't looked at the 110 and 105 levels yet, although I did do one sweep with the 110 LNBF connected and wasn't able to find a signal on that one either.

Does anyone know whether hooking a D* receiver up to a DP34 switch can damage the switch? The D* receiver still works, for what that's worth. I'd hate to be spending hours on aiming if the switch is the problem!

 

[mowog74]

Oops, my post finger was quicker than my brain apparently. Clearly bypassing the switch is/was the way to eliminate the question about whether the switch is broken or not...

 

[SimpleSimon]

Well, even if the D* receiver damaged the switch, I doubt the damage would've gotten to the LNBFs (although it's possible).

I'm thinking it may be no more than an aiming or LOS problem?

Oh - of course, you do a Check Switch any time you change the configuration, but have you reset the switch matrix in the receiver? Disconnect sat feed, Check Switch, pull power plug, Check Switch again, hook up sat feed, Check Switch to get back to normal.

 

[mowog74]

First of all, thanks everyone for your suggestions! As it turns out, the problem was with the installer (me). I didn't notice that one edge of the elevation adjustment bracket was painted BRIGHT RED, and instead was trying to use the center of the locking nut as the elevation pointer. This resulted in about a 10 degree elevation error, which was well outside the range I was moving the dish around in. My signal still isn't very good (about 75 on 119W), but I'm pretty sure that's due to the trees.

 

[Hall]

I didn't notice that one edge of the elevation adjustment bracket was painted BRIGHT RED, and instead was trying to use the center of the locking nut as the elevation pointer.

Wait, I thought you said ... "going by the instructions that came with the Superdish" ??