Are the birds in the sky moving??

[rcdallas]

Yesterday I installed a 1000+, I had the actual 4 room job done in about 4 hours or so after installing the pole and trenching about 80 of burial cable.

It took me over 4 hours to tune the dish. I've installed about 5 or 6 of them so far and it usually took me about 10 minutes or so to do it.

I was going crazy, I had a FSM come out and he could not tune the dish either.

My elevation that I have always set before was 30.5 degrees. I talked with other techs that were installing 1000+ and they all had problems trying to tune one yesterday. Yes my poles are dead on plumb.

Apparently something is going on in the atmosphere, propagation issues or the birds in the sky have moved because now for some reason the elevation needs to be set at 32 degrees in my area, that is a significant change.

It makes me wonder if the dishes I tuned in before are now out of alignment.

Has anyone else noticed that settings are changing?

I even been noticing that with my Dish 500's the elevation is changing as well, typically I set it at 34 degrees in my area, now it seems to be peaking at about 35 degrees. Other techs at my shop are noticing stuff as well.

Some of the senior techs were saying that back in the day the Dish 500's used to be 32 degrees and since I've been there I've been using 34 degrees, now it's changing again??

Have I lost it or has others around the CONUS been noticing any of this as well.

 

[webbydude]

Not sure if your problem lays with elevation. Perhaps adjusting your skew PLUS or MINUS a degree may help?

*knock on wood* I have yet to install a 1000+, but I have installed a few 500+'s and found the 118 signal to be about 10 points stronger than the comparable 121; usually will get my signal around 90 - 92.

 

[Stargazer]

Most of the time I can tune in a satellite dish right on but sometimes I just cant quite get as good of a signal at some people's houses. I am not sure why. Sometimes its just one satellite and sometimes its all of them that are down. There is no bad weather or trees to interfere either. Its odd.

 

[RandallA]

Could it be that some dishes have some kind of defect or are bent slightly enough to cause these issues?

 

[Smith P.]

Most likely last one suggestion; there is no way to move satellite ( what about other 10 mil dishes ?), especially that far as require correction for 2 degree.

 

[Roadwarrior]

Then there are quite a few bad dishes out there. This otherwise invisible defect has presented a problem for me a few times. I agree with the other guys. Sometimes it is harder to tune a dish, under what should be favorable circumstances. I just thought maybe I was just in a hurry, but I really think there is something to it.

But when I think about it, I really never tweek the skew when I'm tuning. I just set it while i'm putting the dish together and call it good. Is it possible that being off even slightly on the skew could cause that?

 

[Jared Twomey]

Is it possible that being off even slightly on the skew could cause that?

nope... an to the original posters problem... id say the reflector was a little bent. If the satellites had moved that would have screwed up everyones dish and you would know about it.....

 

[rcdallas]

nope... an to the original posters problem... id say the reflector was a little bent. If the satellites had moved that would have screwed up everyones dish and you would know about it.....

I did put on a new reflector and still couldn't get signal. Perhaps a new batch of reflectors came out and it's throwing everything off? I didn't replace the skew plate itself, maybe that was off?

I'm not sure but I tell ya, it definately put me on my toes.

 

[rcdallas]

Most of the time I can tune in a satellite dish right on but sometimes I just cant quite get as good of a signal at some people's houses. I am not sure why. Sometimes its just one satellite and sometimes its all of them that are down. There is no bad weather or trees to interfere either. Its odd.

Not that it's a good thing, but I'm glad to see I'm not the only who's ran into this.

 

[pcbelize]

I installed my own 1000+ this weekend and still can't get a lock on the 118 sat. Any tricks that you guys who have done a few of these can pass along would be greatly appreciated.

 

[rcdallas]

I installed my own 1000+ this weekend and still can't get a lock on the 118 sat. Any tricks that you guys who have done a few of these can pass along would be greatly appreciated.

I can't think of any special tricks besides the 118 sat should be plugged into port 4 of the DPP44.

So your getting the 110/119/129? What signal strengths are you getting?

The only thing I could think of is your dish needs to be brought just a hair to the left. I'm thinking the 119 is probably being fed in thru the 118.7 side of the LNB.

 

[pcbelize]

I'm getting good numbers on the other 3 sats:

119* 100-110
110 80-90
120 75-85

I was really surprised to get that good a number on the 129 since it is suppose to be hard to get here in DC.

I started a thread about it yesterday and based on feedback I've gotten I'm going to try to point 118 by dropping the switch and going directly to the receiver.

This should tell me if I've got a bad port on the switch. I'm hoping that I don't have a bad lnb.

 

[HDTVFanAtic]

What did you use for elevation? The numbers on the Dish itself?

It would not surprise me in the least if different manufacturing runs of Dishes had several degree variations on the scale engraved in their mount. I suspect they contract them out in bulk quantity at whoever can produce to their spec at the time.

Just as the D* AT9 has quietly changed to Andrews, E* probably changes around as well.

 

[Roadwarrior]

I do see variety in the polar plates that I get from the shop. They are not all made in the same place. But that should really have nothing to do with not getting as good of a signal as I should when pointing a dish. Once it's set I still turn down the gain on my meter and tweek it in til I just cant tweek it in any more. The elevation is not always exactly the same on the dish, even in the same town. I noticed that some time ago.
I suppose I should say, the numbers on the dish are not always exactly where they should be, but I don't just set it to spec and throw it up there.

It is definitely strange.

 

[pcbelize]

I've got the elevation set to 29 which is one degree higher than is listed in the book. The dish does seem to be more sensitive to elevation adjustments than either az or skew. I guess that would make sense since it is a lot wider than it is tall. Maybe all focus on that when I get back up there this weekend.

I'm hoping that since it was a cloudy & rainy when I tried last time that I will have better luck this weekend and that I don't have a bad lnb or switch.

 

[diu.steve]

The dish 500 skew plates that we have had for the past month have changed slightly. The finish is less abrasive, smoother. The nuts & bolts don't stay on the dish as well when loosened. The quality is not quite as good either. In fact, I had the welds at the arm / skew plate junction break loose the other day on one straight out of the box. Some techs in my office report slight changes in elevation / skew due to this. Either a different manufacturing method or supplier as of late.

 

[ZandarKoad]

I can assure you that the birds haven't moved. If they did, even by one degree, we'd all being doing service calls for the next 3 years. Or rather, satellite companies would be folding up and going out of business.

I've had some freaky stuff of late too, but it couldn't be solved by changing the elevation, skew, or asmuth. Totally different problems. I think mine have to do with off air antennas near the LOS...

 

[rcdallas]

Actually the thought has crossed my mind with the manufacture of some of the skews with the elevation settings. As mentioned with the new release of the 500 skews, I can say costs have definately been cut for sure with the new batch.

I recall a trouble call back from a few months ago and I remember the elevation according to the skew was like 3 degrees off from normal, didn't seem bent or anything, mast was plumb......

That's the most logical explanation I'll say... I haven't seen a rash amount of trouble calls with signal issues so I'll leave it at that.