Tweaking my 1000.4 for better signal

[JonUrban]

Guys,

I have had a 1000.4 for a while now, since it first came out.

Recently, I am having more and more rain fade, and my signal levels have sunk into the 30's and 40's. I think that maybe my dish got hit with a branch or something in a wind storm. No matter, I need to go up and tweak the thing.

It's been a while since I set it up, and I've been reading the threads about setup and all, and just have a quick question.

What's the best way to do this? I currently have two coax's coming in from the dish. I don't remember which inputs they're on, but I did run 3 coaxs down from the dish (it's on the roof) and I capped the one I'm not using off (just in case I needed to use it in the future.

Do I need to use the foil method and cover the two outer units, run check switch with it all disconencted, and start over? Or should I just go to 19 and 72.7 and try and get the highest signal.

Do I disconnect the other two coax's while I do this, or can I leave everything the way it is?

I've been doing my own Dish installs since the 4000/5000 receivers, so I know how to aim a dish and wait for the receiver to catch up. I have a little sat meter, but I hear it does not work with the 1000.4 and the 72.7 and 77 satellites.

Am I looking at a minor touch up, or should I start all over?

Any help is appreciated. THANKS

 

[MikeD-C05]

It is very hard to aim and peak a 1000.4 sat dish. I spent hours over a few days to get mine to peak as high as I could using a cheap sat meter. The 72.7 and 77 sats are next to each other ,almost the same lnb and are very hard to separate. You try to peak on port 2 for the 72.7 sat and you sometimes get 77 instead. Also it is very hard to get a high enough signal on the 61.5 sat that doesn't sacrifice the 77 strength. But if you get your skew and elevation right, like they say in the manual , you should get it as close to possible peaked. In southeast Texas I get between 60 - 70 on the 72.7 sat, 45- 50 on 77 sat, and 41-70 on 61.5 sat. I ended up using a 1000.2 sat dish with a single lnb adapter just for 61.5 and tin foiled the 61.5 lnb on my 1000.4 sat dish. I got my signal strength up to 45-75 and my locals on spotbeam came up from 45- 62. I will be glad when they get the conus beam sat replace at 61.5 next month. It should help the weak reception on the 1000.4 sat dish for the 61.5 sat.

 

[JonUrban]

Thanks Mike!

 

[MikeD-C05]

Did you get it peaked? What are you signal strengths for each sat?

 

[hubze]

Guys,

I have had a 1000.4 for a while now, since it first came out.

Recently, I am having more and more rain fade, and my signal levels have sunk into the 30's and 40's. I think that maybe my dish got hit with a branch or something in a wind storm. No matter, I need to go up and tweak the thing.

It's been a while since I set it up, and I've been reading the threads about setup and all, and just have a quick question.

What's the best way to do this? I currently have two coax's coming in from the dish. I don't remember which inputs they're on, but I did run 3 coaxs down from the dish (it's on the roof) and I capped the one I'm not using off (just in case I needed to use it in the future.

Do I need to use the foil method and cover the two outer units, run check switch with it all disconencted, and start over? Or should I just go to 19 and 72.7 and try and get the highest signal.

Do I disconnect the other two coax's while I do this, or can I leave everything the way it is?

I've been doing my own Dish installs since the 4000/5000 receivers, so I know how to aim a dish and wait for the receiver to catch up. I have a little sat meter, but I hear it does not work with the 1000.4 and the 72.7 and 77 satellites.

Am I looking at a minor touch up, or should I start all over?

Any help is appreciated. THANKS

Wow,I just back into installing dishes and a buddy meter makes the job easy.Great job your doing (without a good meter that sees all 3 birds}.Make sure your mast level and skew is right .I would tune to 61.5,it needs the most help for peaking.(MY opinion for what i have seen on the east coast. success2u

 

[sca]

since its already aimed and only needs peaking, its should be just as simple as hooking onto any port, and rasing the tone you get. do a push/pull test. if move it too much, and then maybe you are screwed if you didnt mark the previous settings with a sharpie.

 

[digital echo]

I have had to use this in the KC Metro a few times, i can say it is not my fav dish at all. I peak 61.5 on transponder 9, then i fine tune to get most of the transponders around 40 to 50's. This area shouldn't even be using this dish if you ask most of the techs i work with. They really need to up the signals, and add dish Latino channels on one of them.

A tech should never have to settle for a transponder in the upper 30's.

 

[MikeD-C05]

The 61.5 sat will be upgraded next month and by Sept. the signals should be vastly improved. The 77 sat will be upgraded next year in the summer. I am betting that DISH Latino will be added to the 77 sat next year. The 61.5 will most likely get the rest of the international channels added to it as well, so they can stop adding a second dish for 118 in the install, for subs who want both international channels and regular programming on eastern arc.