Reception problem Dish 500

[gary08]

Hello to all,

My neighbor had Direct TV and their CS dept was giving him a hard time, so I talked him into Dish and he went for it. That's when his nightmare began. The installer placed the dish on his roof, this worked for a day, then he lost one of the Sats, and the receiver (I don't remember the number but it is a low end dual tuner-tv1-tv2) would go into it's lockout mode when it cannot find reception. They came back and raised the dish with an extender (due to what they thought was a tree problem), good for a day, then back to the above problem.
As it stands now, his dish is on my house right next to mine (with permission from Dish) which I installed myself (I'm an engineer) which has perfect reception. Problem again is both sats lock in around 100, then a few hours later, one will drop to about 40 and the receiver locks up.
Dish has sent him a new box, which he installed and he gets the same problem.
Now I really feel bad for this guy, I talked him out of Direct TV and now he has these problems.
Any ideas would be greatly appreciated.
(I did notice on the front plastic cover of the LNB's a few minor scratches, they are on both LNB's)

Thanks,
Gary in northern New Jersey

 

[rnesky]

It sounds like a lnbf problem. If it is a Dish Pro lnbf that is a great possibility as they did have a problem with certain lots. If it is a new system I wonder why there are two lnbf's. We haven't used them for years.

 

[gary08]

Thanks for replying.
Yes it has dual LNB's and it says something on the side of the feedhorn, like commander series or some type of brand ID (I can't remember). The switch is built in to the receiver.
Maybe I will try to monitor which Sat goes out, then switch the LNB inputs to see if it is the LNB or not. Unfortunately that can be a two day process, and this guy is just about ready to go back to cable. He has been having this trouble for just about a month now, and the installers out of Totowa kept writing it off as a tree problem when it was not.
I can understand how he feels. I keep telling him Dish is a great company
but the ineptness of the contractors is giving Dish a black eye.

 

[Liquidforce88]

Sounds like an LNB problem to me as well. Change out to a Dish Pro Twin if that is not what is being used now.

 

[kevnt63]

What type of cable is run from the LNB to the Receiver?...is it RG6? Did they run new cable or use any existing lines? If there is RG59 anywhere between the LNB and the Receiver that can cause that type of problem also.

 

[gary08]

Cable run

It is brand new twin RG6 at about 120' going to a DISH 322.

 

[Dish Dude]

have they changed out the receiver yet? could be that, the lnbs, etc. Now when you say duals do you mean he physically has 2 separate lnbs, or 1 lnb with 2 outputs? That would be a twin

 

[gary08]

LNB's

It has two physical LNB's with 110 and 119 marked on the protective cover where the cables feed in to the LNB. He recieved his replacement box yesterday. He claims the same problem but until I get to check it out tonight myself, I can't be sure.

Again, thanks for all your help, this is very frustrating

 

[boba]

Connect him to your dish and connect yours to his and see where the problems go, if he continues to have problems it isn't the dish aiming or the electronics.

 

[gary08]

Swap Dishes

I was informed by the contractors that my LNB is not compatible with his system. I have the 811 Dish 500 with a switch in the basement and he has the 322 Dish 500.
So far the consensus here is it could be a LNB problem. As I stated before, their is some slight scratched on the plastic LNB cover (the clear part in front of the LNB). Can this be causing a Sat just to drop out after a day or so?
Tonight, I will check out the new reciever, make sure the alignment is still proper. If all is good, I will move on to it being a LNB problem.

 

[kevnt63]

Thanks for replying.
Yes it has dual LNB's and it says something on the side of the feedhorn, like commander series or some type of brand ID (I can't remember). The switch is built in to the receiver.

There is no switch built into the 322 receiver. If you are using Legacy dual LNB's you have to have a SW21 Switch to combine the signals from the two LNB's. Your problem is one input on the receiver is seeing 119 and the other is 110....both inputs need both sat feeds to work.

 

[gary08]

Switch needed?

OK let me get this straight.
The back of the 322 has two inputs that say sat in. The way it was originally connected by the contractors (and the way I installed it later) was the two feeds from the LNB were connected straight to these two inputs. This is not correct?

After I installed the dish on my house, I sat there and went through each channel to see if the signal would dissappear, and it didnt. I did notice that when I looked at the signal stregnth meter lets say for 110, the signal was 95+ across the transponders and the color green. When I switched to 119 and checked the meter, it would switch back to 110 (red) yet 95+, but I could still view all the channels.

The only reason I figured it had an internal switch was because the multiple contractors intalled it that way, and since I'm not familiar with that box, I assumed they were correct.

 

[kevnt63]

Have you ran a check switch test on the 322 Receiver? and if so, what was the results?....on the signal strength screen, when switching between 110 and 119 sat, if it does not turn green and say locked for 119 there is a problem with the sat feeds.

 

[gary08]

Check Switch

I just spoke to me neighbor, and he states he is now getting locks on both Sats when he does the check switch (he's getting very good at it , so it comes and it goes.
I checked the online manual and he has the Dish pro Twin LNB's, so no switch is needed.

I am going to do a re-alignment tonight when I get home. I've intalled numerous C-band, Direct, and Dish Systems, and so far this one has me stumped.

Ruled out so far:

Length of run
Cables
Connectors
Receiver

 

[Dish Dude]

that is not a dual that is a twin like i said. the channel master series (cs101) I believe were recalled due to not working all the time. What color are the barrels in the wall plates? They have to be swept test as well, if you have any white, clear barrels remove those. Check your ground block, dish pro operates at higher frequency than direct and if those aren't rated correctly they can give you trouble as well

 

[gary08]

Barrels

Hey, thanks for that info.
I will check tonight.

 

[gary08]

110 119 confusion

I think also the reciever might be confusing 110 for 119 (or visa/versa) which is causing it to lock.
I plan on removing 110 feed and aligning to 119, once I lock that, I will do a switch check to see if 110 pops in.

 

[Parlyle]

Removing lead...............

I think also the reciever might be confusing 110 for 119 (or visa/versa) which is causing it to lock.
I plan on removing 110 feed and aligning to 119, once I lock that, I will do a switch check to see if 110 pops in.

I'm quite sure you don't have to remove the lead. Just cover the 110 head with aluminum foil, site in for 119, and then check.
Good Luck:
Lyle

 

[gary08]

Foil

Thanks for the tip.

 

[boba]

The bad Channel Master DP Twins were CCS 9601. The 811 is compatible with the same LNBs as the 322 they are both Dish Pro receivers you just need to run switch tests to match the receiver to the system.