Dish 24" for 129 success

[LJALLEN97]

Today as promised the Dish installer from (Dish Network Service Corporation, 7370 SW Durham Rd, Tigard,Oregon arrived) (503-670-4665 - 800-799-3246) From his truck he pulled a 24" dish antenna logo and all. It took him about 5 minutes to remove the old 500 and place the 24" on the mount. Hooked the meter up and in another 5 had it tuned and secured.

Now the big test. We went in and check the signal strength on 129, the 31 spot beam was 96, TP 27-85, TP-6 the worst one - low of 60 high of 76. I was satisfied and he left. I placed the TV on Rave SP-6 for 3 hours and never once did the signal drop. Location N/W Oregon, rainy day with lots of clouds, whats new here. He mentioned that dish announced this problem for the N/W about 2 months ago. So if you have troubles with the signal on 129 their is a possible fix with the 24" antenna. I asked him who makes it and he didn't know as they receive them from Dish. He also said: "tune the 129 on TP-6 usually the lowest one." Their was a post yesterday about which TP to use. I will watch with hope and expectations. More to follow if problems arise.

Larry N/W Oregon where it never rains::

 

[RandallA]

Congratulations. Glad you were taken care of.

So they use TP6 to peak?

 

[kstuart]

My 24-inch with Dish Network logo is clearly the same as the Winegard 24-inch, and is undoubtedly made by Winegard.

 

[downriver]

you will be a lot happier with 129 now. I am.

 

[ralfyguy]

Today as promised the Dish installer from (Dish Network Service Corporation, 7370 SW Durham Rd, Tigard,Oregon arrived) (503-670-4665 - 800-799-3246) From his truck he pulled a 24" dish antenna logo and all. It took him about 5 minutes to remove the old 500 and place the 24" on the mount. Hooked the meter up and in another 5 had it tuned and secured.

Now the big test. We went in and check the signal strength on 129, the 31 spot beam was 96, TP 27-85, TP-6 the worst one - low of 60 high of 76. I was satisfied and he left. I placed the TV on Rave SP-6 for 3 hours and never once did the signal drop. Location N/W Oregon, rainy day with lots of clouds, whats new here. He mentioned that dish announced this problem for the N/W about 2 months ago. So if you have troubles with the signal on 129 their is a possible fix with the 24" antenna. I asked him who makes it and he didn't know as they receive them from Dish. He also said: "tune the 129 on TP-6 usually the lowest one." Their was a post yesterday about which TP to use. I will watch with hope and expectations. More to follow if problems arise.

Larry N/W Oregon where it never rains::

I got exactly the same readings with an old D1000. I am in Oklahoma. I wonder what I could pull with a 24" dish...

 

[Stan Sherman]

I ordered, and payed for a 24" dish. It arrives on Tuesday. Thanks for the heads up, i will peak it to TP 6. I tried to get dish to do it, but got tired of the runaround.
I even had an installer from Tigard, but he did not have any info on the 24' dish. It was worth 70 dollars not to have to make numerous phone calls.

 

[digiblur]

I got exactly the same readings with an old D1000. I am in Oklahoma. I wonder what I could pull with a 24" dish...

I remember hooking up a 301 to my 90cm and almost hitting over 115 on some TP's on 129W.

 

[RandallA]

I remember hooking up a 301 to my 90cm and almost hitting over 115 on some TP's on 129W.

The 301s read higher signal strength. I'm getting 100 on TP 31 on a 311 but 91 on the 622 and 211. But yeah, a bigger dish always help and the location makes a big difference too. We on the West coast and specially the Pacific Northwest are screwed with 129 and the only solution is a bigger dish.

 

[RoyW]

The 301s read higher signal strength. I'm getting 100 on TP 31 on a 311 but 91 on the 622 and 211. But yeah, a bigger dish always help and the location makes a big difference too. We on the West coast and specially the Pacific Northwest are screwed with 129 and the only solution is a bigger dish.

Although I'm further south then you after reading the posts from one of the Texas members I decided to give our 1000.2 one more shot. Initially I tweaked off 119 and was able to raise its average signal strength by about 8 points. To my dismay this dropped TP6 off 129 from around 53 to about 44.

Since I'd marked up my dish with bench marks I was able to place it back in its original position and again had about 53 off TP6 on 129. Next I tried shifting the dish slightly to the left and then right while on TP6 off 129 without loosening the bolts, in each case it dropped the signal strength. I also tried tilting and lowering the elevation by hand, again without loosening the bolts only to have the signal strength drop.

At this point I reviewed my skew for about the fifth time and its set exactly on 93 as prescribed for my zip code. To be fair since our area rarely gets any rain we are fairly insulated from problems associated with fade but its the principle of the thing that bothers me. Should I start having problems it appears my alternatives are to try a single dish option for 129 and a DPP44 switch. I subscribe to a foreign channel off 148 and because of neighbors trees can no longer pick up 61.5.

 

[RandallA]

Believe me, I tried peaking the 1000.2 as much as I can. I tweaked the skew, elevation and azimuth and nothing will give me anything better than 60 on TP6. I do get 91-94 on TP 31 and 119 and 110 come at 100s and 90s. So that tells me the dish is pretty much peaked to the max but because of our location certain TPs on 129 will not get better signals.

For my location the manual says, Azim=160, Elev=45, Skew=87. I have it at Azim=160, Elev=46, Skew=86 and I get the best readings. So yes, the manual is off in some of the numbers so playing with the angles may give you better results but will not get you decent readings on some TPs. And yes my dish is perfectly leveled.

Another thing that bugs me is that TP31 and TP30 have good readings, 90s but most of the other TPs are in the 60s. E* should raise the power level on all TPs but wait, E5 is crippled and they CAN'T. They need to conserve power so it lasts them another 2 years.

 

[digiblur]

Another thing that bugs me is that TP31 and TP30 have good readings, 90s but most of the other TPs are in the 60s. E* should raise the power level on all TPs but wait, E5 is crippled and they CAN'T. They need to conserve power so it lasts them another 2 years.

They are trying to conserve fuel as much as possible....not battery/solar power. The battery/solar power is a whole additional issue with the bird.

 

[RoyW]

Believe me, I tried peaking the 1000.2 as much as I can. I tweaked the skew, elevation and azimuth and nothing will give me anything better than 60 on TP6. I do get 91-94 on TP 31 and 119 and 110 come at 100s and 90s. So that tells me the dish is pretty much peaked to the max but because of our location certain TPs on 129 will not get better signals.

For my location the manual says, Azim=160, Elev=45, Skew=87. I have it at Azim=160, Elev=46, Skew=86 and I get the best readings. So yes, the manual is off in some of the numbers so playing with the angles may give you better results but will not get you decent readings on some TPs. And yes my dish is perfectly leveled.

Another thing that bugs me is that TP31 and TP30 have good readings, 90s but most of the other TPs are in the 60s. E* should raise the power level on all TPs but wait, E5 is crippled and they CAN'T. They need to conserve power so it lasts them another 2 years.

My TP31 and TP30 readings are only in the lower eighties so maybe the next time I feel like wasting some time I'll try tweaking my Skew slightly and see if that helps. Thank you for pointing out the fact that it had helped further north.

 

[Stan Sherman]

Great signal strength increase!

Installed my new 24" dish today. I live in Western Oregon and have had occasional loss of signal. The new dish added 10 pts to some of the TP's.
TP 24 Old
6 65 78
27 67 82
30 85 94
31 90 101

It was definitely worthy the investment!