Voom Install on 6/7 and WORRIED!

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randym431

SatelliteGuys Pro
Original poster
May 29, 2004
188
0
Voom is being installed on 6/7 and now I'm worried about that "line of sight" issue. Lots of tree in back, however, my directv does fine (80+ sig). Now, at my location, dtv sats are 200 degrees south. I think vooms sat is 133 degrees. I'm trying to figure out this angle as to dtv's 200 degrees, to get an idea of the diff in pointing. Also I hear vooms sat is much lower than dtv's sats? I guess the installer will figure all that out, but I guess I'm worried it wont go???
 
If the installer says theirs noway , to many tree's ,ask him to put it up anyway and try to get it . When I 1st had Direct tv installed I was told noway I could get a singal. I said fine I will get it myself and I did , I have 70 to 80 foot tree's all around me, when Voom was installed they said I dont know I said give it a try and I have a peak of 98% singal on my Voom , so dont let them just say noway without trying.
 
randym431 Welcome to the forum. Voom's current satellite is at 61.5 degrees, with a second satellite going up in the near future at 72 degrees. If your current dish is at 200 degrees, then the Voom dish will be oriented more toward direct East instead of current 200 which is nearly direct South.

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Or you can use a compass to get a general idea of where 61.5 and 72 are located. Your installer will determine the likliehood of getting a signal, but at least TRY like LOBO2999 advises.
 
Well...I understand the voom sat is near the dish net sat??? I now have directv and my neighbor has a dish net. They're dish net dish is pointed almost the same direction as my directv dish. Only a tad off to the east. So, if voom is in the same general location as dish net is, then it should be ok...? Directv is aimed around 200, a voom calculator says the voom dish should be aimed at 133. Are there a lot of dish net sat's scattered around the sky? Or is dish net and voom's sat's really next to each other?
 
randym431 said:
Well...I understand the voom sat is near the dish net sat??? I now have directv and my neighbor has a dish net. They're dish net dish is pointed almost the same direction as my directv dish. Only a tad off to the east. So, if voom is in the same general location as dish net is, then it should be ok...? Directv is aimed around 200, a voom calculator says the voom dish should be aimed at 133. Are there a lot of dish net sat's scattered around the sky? Or is dish net and voom's sat's really next to each other?

Voom is not pointed in the same direction as DirecTV. Dish has multiple satellites. I believe one points in close to the same direction as DirecTV and the other close to the same direction as Voom.
 
Well, as I guessed, no voom! Too many trees, no line of sight. Too bad voom put their sat in such a low and eastward location. I'd bet voom has a high % of non installs due to no line of sight. Oh well, guess I'll have to wait (and wait) for directv to come thru with much more hd offerings. What they have now is total lame.
 
I would do a double check myself. Use this utility to determine your LOS, and a compass and a protractor to get a fairly accurate picture of where your LOS is. I had to have a 2nd installer out to get installed. I'm surrounded by 200+ year old oak trees, but in my zip (30076) the elevation is 44 degreees which was plenty high enough to get over the trees.

http://www.satelliteguys.us/showpost.php?p=54432&postcount=193

Good luck!
 
Randy,

In May I had a Dish Network Installer come out to my apartment and within 10 seconds he said "nope, can't get Dish N. here, maybe DirectTV can help you". He said that my balcony faces a direction in which I won't be able to get Dish Network. Does this mean Voom won't work for me either? Someone told me that Dish and Voom's satellite was in the same position or direction.
 
Whats the longest length that the dish cable can be, to the receiver? After just walking along the side of my privacy fence, I noticed several "openings" towards open sky in the voom satellite direction. I think it could be mounted on one of the posts with clear view, but the cable would probably need to be 150-200 foot to find its way to the receiver. Just wondering if that length is do-able?
Also, I "KNOW" I could find a way and get the dish installed, thing is I doubt any installer would be as determined as I am. I'm wondering if voom would mail or drop off the equip, and let me install. Not only have I installed 3 directv dishes myself, I also have a sig meter for tweaking sat sig strength. Guess I'll give voom a call...
 
Update: 6/21
Well, the original "first" installer said no way (trees). So I thought I found an area 150' along a privacy fence that had a los. So I called voom and scheduled a new install.
This time I wanted to make it too easy for the guy. I got out an old dtv dish, my sat sig meter and using my dtv receiver to power the meter, I wanted to verifying the voom sat location (along the fence). My newer oval dtv dish is mounted on the roof. I just wanted to make sure this old round dtv dish (and the meter) still worked, and could pick up a sat sig, other than the dtv sat. So I took the dish, meter, and went up on the roof (connecting to my dtv receiver). Well, the dtv sat was hard to pin point (even though my oval dtv dish is on the roof and pointed at it), I was having a hard time getting the dtv sat sig on the test dish, but finally did. My neighbors have dish net, and from my roof, I could see their dish net dish was pointed just a tad to the east of dtv's sat. So (holding the dish in my hands, mind you) I swung a bit to the east and got another sat sig on the meter. That HAD to be dish net's sat. I was getting about an 80 meter strength from the dtv sat, and about the same from dish net's sat. Then, I "just" thought, I'd swing the dish in the voom sat's direction. Wow! Thru all the trees, I was getting a 95 (close to 100) reading on the meter. How could this be??? So (in shock), I readied a new rg6 cable from that location on the roof, inside to the tv (for the voom receiver). All was ready to go. So now this second installer comes out, I could see in his face he was thinking "no way, too many trees". Before he could speak, I told him I did most the work for him, and that I had an old dtv dish on the roof (next to the oval dtv dish), that was just temp mounted on a board just lying on the roof and pointing to the voom sat. The installer said that the dtv lbn was the same as the voom (which I knew). So (as I hoped) he went first right into installing the receiver to the tv, and it worked perfect. He had a 90-95 voom sig. He then suggested he just perm mount my old dtv dish on the roof, instead of the voom dish. It didn’t matter to me, so he went that way. ANyway, I'm voomed. Thru the trees. An install the first installer said wouldn’t work. All I can guess is the voom sat must be a lot stronger, powerful, than the dish and dtv sats? The worst part was the installer waiting on hold, calling voom, to activate my account. That took as long as the install. Voom's pretty neet. Its nice changing channels and getting so many in hd. Its the way tv should be in general, some day.
Btw, I did ask the installer to leave the voom dish with me (he didn’t use), just incase I needed a new dish to put up. Later I thought too, that if I were ever to cancel, voom would want the voom dish back and I would not have it. I'd have to convince voom that the installer used an old dtv dish instead. You can guess how that would go over!

PS..
Now I need to know how to make settings on the receiver (other than the basic settings in the on-screen setup menu. What other things can you get into to change, and how do you get into?
 
randym431--GOOD for you. Pretty smart to get up on the roof waving dishes around to test signal strength. I hope some installers read your story so that they will at least TRY to get a signal, even if it doesn't look possible.

There are some very good explanations of "hidden" settings menus in the "Important Voom Information - FAQ" section of the forum. There are explanations of what you can do with the 988 menu--but be careful. Again--way to go on getting the signal.
 
randym431, When you were told Dish Network has a satellite next to Voom, they are talking about the sat at 61.5 degree location. Dish Network also has sats next to Direct TV at 119 degrees. When you said you looked at where your neighbors Dish Network dish was pointing was the Dish pointing at the 119 location or the 61.5 degree location? 61.6 is where Voom is, not at the main location for Direct TV and Dish Network at 119 degrees.
 
Neighbors dish was at the 119 location (I guess). All I know is I picked up dtv's sat, then moving a tad to the left, I got another sat sig I assumed was dish. Then I just tried directing at the voom location (since I was testing) and couldnt believe when I got a sat sig in vooms location. If fact, the voom sat was so easy to pickup, and just by wavng the dish in that general location. I already knew the general location of the voom sat from the first installer, who told me "no way".
So far, from all the voom programming, I'm like the cartoon channel Animania most, which is strange since I never was really a cartoon watcher. Guess its just the HD quality that makes it so much enjoyable???
 
It still bugs me why voom put their sat at such a weird low location. It doesnt give very good coverage of the U.S. I wonder how they decided on that location? I also wonder if they would or could ever decide to move the sat to a better/diffrerent location? From what I read, people on the west coast have a very hard time with the low location. Not only do they have tree problems (los), but also roof tops and "mountians". Its like voom set their sat location for people living somewhere in the middle of the atlantic ocean on a boat??? Weird!
Dish net has/had a sat at the general voom location too, then also put one near the dtv's sat location. I bet I know why...
 

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