Dish Network Setup

Dinostop · 06-12-2016, 08:22 PM

I was helping another camper setup for the first time his Dish Network 1000.2 Dish. He had it working at his house about 20 miles away and brought it as was to the campground. I have been setting up Directv dishes for 20 years with no issues.

I can get satalite 110 after 5 hours hut cannot pickup 119 no matter what I do. Could my elevation or skew be off? I'm using the numbers I found from Dish Networks site the best I could hit have found a couple different set of numbers. The zip code is 44685. We used:

Elevation: 29
Skew: 125

Eastlake, Ohio
2013 F-350 Turbo Diesel
2016 Heritage Glen 368rlbh

BandJCarm · 06-12-2016, 08:28 PM

Trees? When I had DISH, it was far less forgiving of even one limb, than Direct is.

Dinostop · 06-12-2016, 08:35 PM

Wide open field.

Eastlake, Ohio
2013 F-350 Turbo Diesel
2016 Heritage Glen 368rlbh

BandJCarm · 06-12-2016, 08:40 PM

Then it has to be pointed slightly off somehow.

Do you have a smartphone and the DishPointer Pro app? Pricey ($20) but invaluable.

Oregon · 06-12-2016, 09:59 PM

Satellite Director is free and works great (at least here in the NW)

Mr Havercamp · 06-13-2016, 03:51 AM

you'll hit 3 sats with a 1000.2, 110/119/129

You need to have the coax connected to the far right connector on the LNB when facing the dish / far left facing the LNB standing behind the dish. That sounds like the problem to me. If you are connected to the correct port, have cleared the receiver by running check switch with no dish connected, and while aiming you are still finding 110 try lowering elevation about 5 degrees and turning a little to the right. You're aiming for 119

30 elevation, 236 Az, 124 skew

The 1000.2 is tough as you can be in a wide open field but the sats are low in the sky. 129 is tough to get and thats what your locals and a lot of the HD is on. What works much better is the 1000.4 Eastern Arc if you can find one. Then you would be aiming at 72.7 @ 42 elevation (61.5 72.7 77) and you can take a 1000.2 LNB, cut the tab off, then have a choice of what way to setup depending on where you're at.

jerryliving · 06-13-2016, 07:05 AM

We have been traveling cross country for almost 4 months and I have been sitting up my portable Dish antenna numerous times across the country. Couple of things that I have to do is make sure the stand is perfectly vertical and i have good connections and the lead to the antenna eyes is to the 119 satellite. I also use the Satellite Finder attachment I purchased at CW in addition to an APP on the smartphone called SATFINDER. Generally can get both 110 and 119 very quickly. Going to attempt to attach a pic of my antenna setup.

jk510 · 06-13-2016, 10:27 AM

What I found when I started taking my dish with me was that the wrong lnb would lock on to the satellite. To stop this I put a piece of tinfoil over the 2 lnbs on the sides, leaving the one in the middle clear. Now you aim at 119 and when that is locked in remove the tinfoil and you should be pretty close on the other 2.

Mr Havercamp · 06-13-2016, 08:36 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by jk510

What I found when I started taking my dish with me was that the wrong lnb would lock on to the satellite. To stop this I put a piece of tinfoil over the 2 lnbs on the sides, leaving the one in the middle clear. Now you aim at 119 and when that is locked in remove the tinfoil and you should be pretty close on the other 2.

Thats the reason behind running check switch on the receiver without the dish connected on a 1000.2 before attempting alignment. The LNB is a switch in itself and once you clear check switch it will not operate as a switch until you are aligned and check switch is run again with signal. Once its clear the only LNB that will work is the one you are connected to, which is why being connected to the correct port is important. 99% of the time when someone is having a problem aligning a 1000.2 they have the coax connected to the port for the 110 LNB and end up aiming the 110 LNB at 119........It needs to be connected like this, to the 119 LNB, when aligning. The ports are not in the same order as the LNB's are.

Once your aligned, run check switch, and all 3 sats show up as green in check switch, then it matters not what one of the ports your connected to because its a switch. That is as long as you don't connect to LNB in.

I have aligned a dish once or twice and usually not in ideal locations.

The top picture is a 1000.4 Eastern Arc and the 2nd and 3rd are 1000.2

Dinostop · 06-13-2016, 08:48 PM

I was thinking I was connected to the wrong port so I changed which port I was connected to and the receiver told me I was connected to the wrong port and to connect to port 1. When I connected back to port 1 the error went away. I won't be back to the campground until this weekend to try more items so I am making a list of possible fixes.

Eastlake, Ohio
2013 F-350 Turbo Diesel
2016 Heritage Glen 368rlbh

jk510 · 06-14-2016, 12:51 PM

You don't need to run the check switch test every time you set up, only when you change equipment. It will take a really long time to run if you're not on the satellites. I haven't run it in a very long time and I full time so I move around a lot.
Using the tin foil I get it aimed at 119 then maybe play with the skew to peak out the others (after removing the foil).
I should add that I am using an upside down dish so the usual aiming numbers aren't quite the same.

Jimmerinwi · 06-14-2016, 06:15 PM

If you get a 1000.2 triple yoke and a DPP single LNB, you swap the bracket on the dish, put on triple, insert LNB in the center spot, tune sat 119. Easy peasy! Both available relatively cheap on eBay.

Somedays I wake up Grumpy, somedays I just let her sleep......(Ray Scott)

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