Superdish setup

[Dimmy007]

IF your standing behind a superdish and looking at the lnbs from left to right. THe first two lnbs are in a casing. THe third one which is a dish plus pro is out by itself. Which lnb is which sat. How do I know if I have a 105 or 121 superdish. The real problem I am having is I get signal but its on the wrong sat. Thanks

 

[Van]

If the lnbf that is outside of the casing is on the right ( asuming your behind the dish, and this is a dish pro dual not a plus ) then you have a 121 superdish. The middle lnbf is the 119 and the left lnbf is the fss stacked or 121 lnbf, on the 105 superdish the out side dish pro dual is the 119, the middle dish pro dual is the 110, and the 105 is dead nuts center and is another fss stacked lnbf.

 

[Dimmy007]

so the 121 is located inside the casing to the left of the 119 lnb which means 110 is on the outside to the right of the casing by itself?

 

[Van]

That is correct, the 121 superdish has only one external ( outside of the shroud ) lnbf and it is a dish pro dual or singal depending on how old it is. If your receiving signal from the wrong sat then its probable that your dish has moved out of alignment, this happens when the dish moves on its horizontal axis or its elevation falls or raises. If it has moved on the horizontal then that means the sleeve bolts arent tight enough and the wind or another hazzard has turned it. If the elevation has changed its due either to a bad mount location that isnt sturdy and the dish's weight is pulling it down or the ground if its on a pole is soft or the pole wasnt cemented in, wasnt deep enough, or your in a hurricane location. Take a magnetic carpenters level, the small type and place it on the side of the pole if its on a pole and check for level on all sides.

If you take the casing off, just the top half, you will see 2 lnbfs without their own casing's, one will say dbs stacked, and the other will say fss stacked.

 

[Dimmy007]

Things to do

I just started to install Dish network for my business and truthfully its been nothing but problems. First off Dish does not give you enough money fo installation. With two guys to install a superdish it takes longer than two hours. Plus having two guys there it is actually 4 hours. This is non stop working hard not to metion in the freezing WI weather. This install seems pretty straight forward. Mount the dish run three rg6 coax to the multi switch and then run the wries to each box. The problem is we can get this done but as soon as we sart looking for the signal everything goes to hell. We can get 110 to lock on to Echostar 110 but then 121 is wrong sat. 119 we can get to lock on to echostar 119 but sometimes it goes to 110. Is there something I am doing wrong that trying to get a signal is so hard. I have done hundreds of DirecTV and never really had the problems I am with the Superdish. Any thoughts on what I could be doing wrong.
Thanks

 

[Dimmy007]

lnbf

Thanks for the reply, another question is with the multi switch we should be running the fss stacked(121 to the number 3 input and the 110 and 119 should go to the 1 and 2 inputs. Or does it not matter were any of them go?

 

[Stargazer]

Dimmy007 it sounds like you are picking up the wrong satellite for the lnbf that it is intended. For example you may be picking up 119 on the 110 lnbf or 110 on the 119 lnbf. If that happens you will not pickup the 105/121 satellite.

It does not matter where 105/121, 110, 119 satellites go in the satellite inputs. It is a good idea to install it the same for all of the customers though so that way you know for when you go out to do service calls or try to troubleshoot issues on the phone.

 

[Van]

I always tune off the 119 on the 121 super dish, its best to use a battery operated signal meter such as a channel master and do it right at the dish. What I would suggest is to take a look at a superdish that you havent installed and see what the settings are on it. When I first started putting these in I was mistaken in using the zipcode settings in the book that came with the system, it would require vast and drastic changes in settings from one side of the city to the other.

Hopefully this will help,

In southern michigan and northern ohio we set our dish 500's to elevation 32 and skew 119, the superdish is set to elevation of 31 and skew of 123, look in the zipcode book and find one that has settings that are close to what your dish 500's are set at and go with that. Also try sending a pm to iceberg, he is in Min and may have some insite he can offer you.

 

[Dimmy007]

ongoing

So it seems that when it comes down to it is just a matter of trying to get the signal. The area code were in is 53146 and the skew is 120 an the elevation is 31. The azimuth is 224. As long as my wires are ok and the dish is level and the multiswitch is good it just needs to be a matter of locating the right signals. Do you thing it is better if I try to get the 119 sat first by bypassing the multiswitch and going directly into the receiver? Then as soon as I can get it to lock on the correct sat. I should be able to get 110 and 121 theoretically. ANother quick question if I have a dish 500 and I am getting 119 locked and a good signal and 110 has no signal am I missing any sort of programming or anything?

 

[KE4EST]

Welcome to satguys first of all.
Ok you really need a satellite meter like van said, if you are going to install these things. If not assuming mast is plumb, set your skew to 120 and don't touch it again. Then set your elev. on 31 and hook your 119 sat lnb straight to the receiver set it on the point screen and set it for transponder 11. Then with your compass get the dish close as you can to 224 azimuth. Have your buddy watch the screen as you slowly move your dish back and forth in that direction till you get as high a signal as you can get. Then adjust your elevation up and down real slow till you get that as high as you can get. Finally run all through the dp34 and do a check switch. You should have all three at this time, if not start over. Get you a meter and you can save a lot of time. Once you get used to doing a superdish they do get easier.....hang in there.

 

[HCI]

http://www.satelliteguys.us/showthread.php?t=47434

Dimmy007
Try this link for choosing a signal meter.

 

[Liquidforce88]

Quit wasting your time and get a meter. A Channel Master 1008 will save you a ton of time. It's worth everybit of the $150.00 (you can find off brand names for about $120)

All you have to do is get your mast or your pole plumb. Set your dish to the right settings (you will learn what they are quick). Hook up the meter to the 119 and 121, spin the dish untill you hit the sats. I can peak a 121 Superdish in less than 2 min.

Just worked in WI not to long ago. Was in the Madison area for a week and the Green Bay the next. I could swear we set the skew at 118, and 31 for elev. sounds about right.

 

[SimpleSimon]

Dimmy007 it sounds like you are picking up the wrong satellite for the lnbf that it is intended. For example you may be picking up 119 on the 110 lnbf or 110 on the 119 lnbf. If that happens you will not pickup the 105/121 satellite.

It does not matter where 105/121, 110, 119 satellites go in the satellite inputs. It is a good idea to install it the same for all of the customers though so that way you know for when you go out to do service calls or try to troubleshoot issues on the phone.

I MUST disagree, and point you to the SuperDish installation manual.

The final DP34 setup should ALWAYS, without exception, be 119=1, 110=2, and FSS=3.

Also, Dimmy, a SuperDish is NOT how you should be starting to learn multi-sat installs. :yikes
Thse problems you're seeing are more to do with technique and (lack of) experience. It'll get better.

Yes, it can be a good idea to bypass the switch and lock in 119 directly to start off.

As for the Dish 500, properly set, if you have 119, you should ALSO have 110. IF you are seeing 119 in column TWO f the switch matrix, you're 9 degrees off.

Remember - until you have a REAL good handle on the angles, you MUST ensure that mast is always dead plumb or you're gonna drive yourself crazy.

Finally, 110 IS there for a reason - a lot of channels.

 

[HCI]

I MUST disagree, and point you to the SuperDish installation manual.
The final DP34 setup should ALWAYS, without exception, be 119=1, 110=2, and FSS=3.
Also, Dimmy, a SuperDish is NOT how you should be starting to learn multi-sat installs. :yikes
Thse problems you're seeing are more to do with technique and (lack of) experience. It'll get better.
Yes, it can be a good idea to bypass the switch and lock in 119 directly to start off.
As for the Dish 500, properly set, if you have 119, you should ALSO have 110. IF you are seeing 119 in column TWO f the switch matrix, you're 9 degrees off.
Remember - until you have a REAL good handle on the angles, you MUST ensure that mast is always dead plumb or you're gonna drive yourself crazy.
Finally, 110 IS there for a reason - a lot of channels.

Sorry but I must now disagree with you. Stargazer is right on this one it does not matter which satellite is connected to which port on a 34 switch, it does however on a 44 switch as the 4th slot is desiged for the fss signal. I have done lots of superdishes with the 105 or 121 in differant places. I will mainly put the backwards to what you say, 105-1 110-2 119-3.

 

[Van]

Sorry but I must now disagree with you. Stargazer is right on this one it does not matter which satellite is connected to which port on a 34 switch, it does however on a 44 switch as the 4th slot is desiged for the fss signal. I have done lots of superdishes with the 105 or 121 in differant places. I will mainly put the backwards to what you say, 105-1 110-2 119-3.

Sorry but Im going with Simple on this one, I to disagrea'd until I ran into a situation where there was a reception problem with the fss signal and no amount of replacing anything in the system resolved the problem until the fss was put in its correct port on the switch. The problem ( Im starting to hear others run into it on service calls ) wont show up probably at the initial install but does stand a chance to show up down the road as with other installation errors like this.

 

[SimpleSimon]

it does however on a 44 switch as the 4th slot is desiged for the fss signal.

Actually, the 4th slot of a DPP44 is NO different than the others. Ditto for the DP34 - all 3 inputs are the same. The issue is in receiver SOFTWARE.

In the case of the DPP44 / FSS issue, the idea is that some old legacy boxes will not recognize a 4th bird, and they also will not recognize an FSS bird, so match it up.

The general issue is where receivers want to see the birds. Van has identified when the problem will get ya - typically after a software upgrade.

I won't argue whether it SHOULD be this way, but it IS.

ALWAYS put 119 into slot 1 so it appears in the receiver's matrix at Column 1.

Is it critical for 110 to be in column 2? Probably not, but come on, let's help each other out and do it by the book - at least when the book's not wrong.