Trouble getting signal on Slimline

[huff360]

I am reinstalling a dish that has been out of service for some time. I am told last time it was setup it worked without any problem, but that was several months ago. The guy that used to deal with the company vacation property has since left, we sold that house, built a new one and are trying to get the dish back going.

I have a Slimline 5 legacy (no SMW) and a H24-700 receiver. I do have the B-Band converter connected as well. I have aimed single LNB dishes in the past, and felt like it would be no problem. I know how to dither. I don't think I am an idiot!

I set the post up plumb, I set elev and tilt and roughed the az. Went to signal meters and spent about 30 minutes trying to find anything. After no luck I went and bought a Winegard SF1000 signal meter.

I am able to peak the Winegard and I get nothing on the receiver. It continues to read 0 on every satellite. It seems that the receiver is working part way at least. When I change transponders the Winegard turns on and off as the Receiver is sending the signals to the LNB. I have swapped ports on the LNB. I have swapped coax. I have peaked the Winegard, then removed it from the line.


Does anyone have any idea on what may be going on? What can I try?

Thanks

 

[Jimbo]

I am reinstalling a dish that has been out of service for some time. I am told last time it was setup it worked without any problem, but that was several months ago. The guy that used to deal with the company vacation property has since left, we sold that house, built a new one and are trying to get the dish back going.

I have a Slimline 5 legacy (no SMW) and a H24-700 receiver. I do have the B-Band converter connected as well. I have aimed single LNB dishes in the past, and felt like it would be no problem. I know how to dither. I don't think I am an idiot!

I set the post up plumb, I set elev and tilt and roughed the az. Went to signal meters and spent about 30 minutes trying to find anything. After no luck I went and bought a Winegard SF1000 signal meter.

I am able to peak the Winegard and I get nothing on the receiver. It continues to read 0 on every satellite. It seems that the receiver is working part way at least. When I change transponders the Winegard turns on and off as the Receiver is sending the signals to the LNB. I have swapped ports on the LNB. I have swapped coax. I have peaked the Winegard, then removed it from the line.


Does anyone have any idea on what may be going on? What can I try?

Thanks

Yup,
When you bought the meter and set it up, your getting signal on the meter, but not the recvr ...
thats because the meter is picking up ANY Sat it finds out there, not just the D* Sat your looking for.
You should be looking for the 101 Sat.
IF/When you find the 101, the recvr will register.
You've mentioned that the mast it plumb, thats good, seeing the dish was previously used, guessing here in the same general area (city wise) you probably didn't need to mess with any of the settings other than the Left and Right, if the previously mentioned stuff is accurate.

You'll need a BBC on the back of the recvr and your Sat feed going into it so you can get your HD.
Is the recvr YOURS or did it come from where you got the Dais from ?

Your probably gonna want to run the Repeat Sat Set Up and make sure all the info is correct.

Menu/Settings/Sat and Antenna/ Repeat Sat Settings

When your adjusting the dish, make very slight adjustments, the Sats are 23,000 miles away, a very small movement here is BIG up there.

Give the meter a few seconds to pop in.

Patience ... Patience, Patience ... you'll get it.

Btw, what is your set up currently ?

Are you running coax directly from the LNB to the recvr ?
Thru existing coax ? Any possibility of a regular Splitter being in line from possible Cable TV ? If so, they need to be removed, no splitters allowed with D* between dish and recvrs.

 

[huff360]

Yup,
When you bought the meter and set it up, your getting signal on the meter, but not the recvr ...
thats because the meter is picking up ANY Sat it finds out there, not just the D* Sat your looking for.
You should be looking for the 101 Sat.
IF/When you find the 101, the recvr will register.
You've mentioned that the mast it plumb, thats good, seeing the dish was previously used, guessing here in the same general area (city wise) you probably didn't need to mess with any of the settings other than the Left and Right, if the previously mentioned stuff is accurate.

Nope. Moved about 250 miles. Had to adjust. If I am not getting the 101 on the meter, it is another satellite right in the immediate vicinity of the 101 and there isn't another one within 45 degrees E or W of it. I've slowly scanned the entire 180 to 270 and the only time the meter sings is right about where 101 should be... 208 or so.

You'll need a BBC on the back of the recvr and your Sat feed going into it so you can get your HD.

Yep. It's there.

Is the recvr YOURS or did it come from where you got the Dais from ?

No idea. I would have to call them to find out. I do know we own some of the receivers and some are leased. This is the only one at this location, I'm not sure if it is ours or theirs.

Your probably gonna want to run the Repeat Sat Set Up and make sure all the info is correct.

Menu/Settings/Sat and Antenna/ Repeat Sat Settings

Done. SL5 - multiswitch. Set zip to get aiming info. Verified aiming info with online tools.

When your adjusting the dish, make very slight adjustments, the Sats are 23,000 miles away, a very small movement here is BIG up there.

Give the meter a few seconds to pop in.

Patience ... Patience, Patience ... you'll get it.

Got that. Never had any trouble aiming Dish500's.

Btw, what is your set up currently ?

Are you running coax directly from the LNB to the recvr ?
Thru existing coax ? Any possibility of a regular Splitter being in line from possible Cable TV ? If so, they need to be removed, no splitters allowed with D* between dish and recvrs.

In order to eliminate any possibilities, I've got a 6' piece of coax from the LNB to the BBC, then BBC direct to H24. Absolutely no chance of any other devices being in line other than the Winegard. I have even peaked the Winegard and then removed it. Still nothing.

 

[Jimbo]

Nope. Moved about 250 miles. Had to adjust. If I am not getting the 101 on the meter, it is another satellite right in the immediate vicinity of the 101 and there isn't another one within 45 degrees E or W of it. I've slowly scanned the entire 180 to 270 and the only time the meter sings is right about where 101 should be... 208 or so.



Yep. It's there.



No idea. I would have to call them to find out. I do know we own some of the receivers and some are leased. This is the only one at this location, I'm not sure if it is ours or theirs.



Done. SL5 - multiswitch. Set zip to get aiming info. Verified aiming info with online tools.



Got that. Never had any trouble aiming Dish500's.



In order to eliminate any possibilities, I've got a 6' piece of coax from the LNB to the BBC, then BBC direct to H24. Absolutely no chance of any other devices being in line other than the Winegard. I have even peaked the Winegard and then removed it. Still nothing.

Sounds like you have everything covered already ...
I was only asking about where the recvr came from was I was thinking that maybe you wouldn't have to change settings, but you now mentioned that you've moved 250 miles.

Only thing I disagree with is the fact that there are alot of Sats up there within 45 degrees.

Once you hit the 101 and the tilt is there, everything should fall into place.

Remember the numbers posted for direction is only a starting point and the mast must be plumb.

When I was in Texas last, I found the signal was WAY off from a previous posting that we had the previous year, not sure how that happened, but it did. our Elevation was much higher than previously, even though we were in the same location and plumb.
So, weird things happen from time to time.

 

[jcrandall]

Try getting 101 without the BBC in line, in case it is a bad BBC, you would still be able to get 101 without it.

 

[raoul5788]

to Satelliteguys huff360!

Just to be sure you are using the right numbers, what is your zip code?

 

[huff360]

Thanks for all the input so far guys. I'm going to give it another shot and see what I come up with with. Maybe the 10'th time is a charm!

Jimbo, I wasn't sure if there were multiples up there in the same neighborhood or not. I'll keep poking around and see if maybe I am peaking the meter on the wrong satellite. I've also downloaded Satellite AR this morning to see if that gives me any more help. If nothing else, it will show me how many others are up there for me to be pointing at!

I'll pull the BBC and verify it's not at fault. I think I tried that before, but I've spent so much time on it I can't remember. I'll do it again and report back.

Zip is 36104. I'm using 49, 69, 208

 

[raoul5788]

Thanks for all the input so far guys. I'm going to give it another shot and see what I come up with with. Maybe the 10'th time is a charm!

Jimbo, I wasn't sure if there were multiples up there in the same neighborhood or not. I'll keep poking around and see if maybe I am peaking the meter on the wrong satellite. I've also downloaded Satellite AR this morning to see if that gives me any more help. If nothing else, it will show me how many others are up there for me to be pointing at!

I'll pull the BBC and verify it's not at fault. I think I tried that before, but I've spent so much time on it I can't remember. I'll do it again and report back.

Zip is 36104. I'm using 49, 69, 208

That's very close to the dishpointer numbers of 49.1, 68.2, and 209.1, close enough that you should be getting reasonable numbers on 101. Remember to get the best you can on 101 and then move to the other satellites.

 

[huff360]

Hmmmm - Okay. I've been at it for an hour and a half now. I have some progress to report.

I now have rock solid 100s on all 3 transponders on 110 according to the receiver, but I am getting nothing on any of the other sats. What's that tell me?

 

[raoul5788]

You may well have a bad lnb.

 

[texasbrit]

It tells me you are pointed at the wrong satellite.
First, it's virtually impossible to get signals at a level of 100 from 110.
Second, all that you are seeing is that when the dish switches to the 110 section of the LNB, it is getting signals at a 100 level on the three transponder slots it is expecting from 110. That is, it is seeing signals from a satellite. You don't actually know which one.

And there are many satellites close to 101, and your meter should detect all of those, even though it's pretty useless for aiming a dish. My guess is that you are setting the elevation incorrectly. What marking on the dish are you using to set the elevation number?

 

[huff360]

You may well have a bad lnb.

Lord I hope so, else I really suck at this!

It tells me you are pointed at the wrong satellite.
First, it's virtually impossible to get signals at a level of 100 from 110.
Second, all that you are seeing is that when the dish switches to the 110 section of the LNB, it is getting signals at a 100 level on the three transponder slots it is expecting from 110. That is, it is seeing signals from a satellite. You don't actually know which one.

And there are many satellites close to 101, and your meter should detect all of those, even though it's pretty useless for aiming a dish. My guess is that you are setting the elevation incorrectly. What marking on the dish are you using to set the elevation number?

So even the signal meters built into the receiver can't distinguish between satellites? I've chunked the Winegard into the scrap bin for now. I am just using the on-screen meters.

I am setting the elevation to 49 as indicated by the edge of the bracket that is attached to the dish. In the cutout where the mast bracket and the dish bracket cross each other, just below the elevation lock bolt, the edge of the dish bracket is painted red. I am using the edge of the dish bracket as the indicator to read the markings on the mast bracket.

 

[raoul5788]

Make sure you aren't getting too close to the dish when setting the azimuth. The metal of the dish will affect the compass reading.

 

[ZandarKoad]

I sent a PM yesterday. Give me a call.

 

[53jimc]

Once you find 101 most of the others will just fall in there with a slimline. You really need high 80s and 90s though, using the signal meter on the receiver. Anything less than 80s usually won't work. My son and I just used our cell phones to talk to each other, I tweaked, he watched to meter. Fine tuning usually results in very small movements of the dish.