Dtv dish alignment help

[Charly]

Hi....I'm hoping someone can kind of help walk me through some alignment issues. I have a Directv Slimline-5 (I believe this is an older model....18" round)

Storms knocked it out of alignment and I may have issues with neighboring property owners trees.

Here's what I know: Azimuth= 220°, Elevation= 43°, Tilt= 64°
The dish is on a post beside of house for easy access. I downloaded an app called Smart Compass that gives me the degrees as I turn...so I'm thinking this will help align Azimuth. At the base of dish and top of post is hash marks that I am assuming will align tilt. (however I don't know if I mark the 64 with the bolt or the sliding piece of metal behind it. makes a big difference which ever one I use)
I have a protractor....but I don't think that will work to check the elevation.

All suggestions and ideas welcomed....just bear in mind I'm not very versed in the lingo so you will have to break it down a little for me.

Thanks to all,
Charly

 

[raoul5788]

to Satelliteguys Charly!

Let's start with the dish, you have described two different ones. The Slimline is oval shaped and about 32" wide. It says Slimline on it. Is that the one you have?

 

[jcrandall]

Basic tips:

Make sure the mast is LEVEL - extremely important or all those numbers you listed are worthless, use the bubble level in the mast and a regular level too.

Use the signal strength meter working on Satellite 101. After 101 is in the 95 range, then you will work on 99/103.
99/103 (HD) require much more fine tuning than 101. You'll also need to check 119, but if you set the skew and get 101 it should come in fine. 110 is not very important but should have signal at least.

As crazy as it sounds, if you aren't sure which marking is used for elevation (usually its a red line), the protractor is a good way to eyeball it so you know which marking should be working on 43. As you have 45 degrees, it essentially is right between ground level and pointing straight up.

If you have a SWM setup remember you need the power inserter plugged in, if you move a TV and receiver to the area of the dish you'll need the PI too.

 

[Charly]

Thanks for jumping in with me...lol.
I ran through dish setup and found it more info on the dish. Here's what I found:
Dish type- 04:Slimline-5
Switch type- 02: multi switch
Tuners- Dual

Dish- 5LNBs
The dish is round, but I believe it to be from 2004-2005

There are no markings on the post to help identify elevation. Only markings on bottom to indicate Tilt

 

[obodo]

Hi....I'm hoping someone can kind of help walk me through some alignment issues. I have a Directv Slimline-5 (I believe this is an older model....18" round)

Storms knocked it out of alignment and I may have issues with neighboring property owners trees.

Here's what I know: Azimuth= 220°, Elevation= 43°, Tilt= 64°
The dish is on a post beside of house for easy access. I downloaded an app called Smart Compass that gives me the degrees as I turn...so I'm thinking this will help align Azimuth. At the base of dish and top of post is hash marks that I am assuming will align tilt. (however I don't know if I mark the 64 with the bolt or the sliding piece of metal behind it. makes a big difference which ever one I use)
I have a protractor....but I don't think that will work to check the elevation.

All suggestions and ideas welcomed....just bear in mind I'm not very versed in the lingo so you will have to break it down a little for me.

Thanks to all,
Charly

good work

 

[Charly]

Basic tips:

Make sure the mast is LEVEL - extremely important or all those numbers you listed are worthless, use the bubble level in the mast and a regular level too.

Use the signal strength meter working on Satellite 101. After 101 is in the 95 range, then you will work on 99/103.
99/103 (HD) require much more fine tuning than 101. You'll also need to check 119, but if you set the skew and get 101 it should come in fine. 110 is not very important but should have signal at least.

As crazy as it sounds, if you aren't sure which marking is used for elevation (usually its a red line), the protractor is a good way to eyeball it so you know which marking should be working on 43. As you have 45 degrees, it essentially is right between ground level and pointing straight up.

If you have a SWM setup remember you need the power inserter plugged in, if you move a TV and receiver to the area of the dish you'll need the PI too.

Hi JC....
If you could, please help me out with some words. What is mast and skew?
(it's been 30yrs since I've done any "real" math..lol) The post that the dish is mounted on doesn't have any markings of any kind so we're gonna have to do this old school. It will come back to me as we go along.

Thanks!!!

ps...upon further investigating...i found something that says B-Band Converters required. That's only if im using Dtv for internet correct?

 

[raoul5788]

Hi JC....
If you could, please help me out with some words. What is mast and skew?
(it's been 30yrs since I've done any "real" math..lol) The post that the dish is mounted on doesn't have any markings of any kind so we're gonna have to do this old school. It will come back to me as we go along.

Thanks!!!

ps...upon further investigating...i found something that says B-Band Converters required. That's only if im using Dtv for internet correct?

The mast is the pole the dish mounts to, skew is the tilt of the dish, a b band converter is used in a non swm setup, it has nothing to do with the internet. A swm setup either has one cable from the dish, or it uses a swm8/swm16 multiswitch.