Best Tip For Satellite Dish Aiming

[wdk450]

Gang:
I have been taking my Dish Network home receiver on the road in by Bighorn for several years now. Getting a satellite signal locked in has been a PITA. I have taken as long as 2 hours trying to align the dish with the given co-ordinates and lock in the 3 satellite signals.

I decided to work on this and learn as I made my 10 day trip North up the Pacific coast to the Anacortes, Wa. rally starting today. I bought a digital signal strength meter for about $30 before this trip as reviews said it worked much better than the old, cheap, analog ones. That helped some. But the biggest improvement came from an old boy scout trick that came to me - TAP THE MAGNETIC COMPASS AS YOU TAKE BEARING READINGS!!! Also be aware of the quirks in the Dish Network receiver. Due to compass sticking problems, a lot of my difficulty was due to aiming to wrong bearings. Tapping the compass helped get rid of these wrong bearings.
Yesterday's satellite dish aiming took less than 5 minutes. Levelling of the dish tripod, pail of water weight, hookup cable, installing dish on the tripod, bringing out and setting up the bedroom TV in the storage compartment for aiming feedback, then taking the bedroom TV back into the bedroom, took about 20 minutes.

 

[cookie]

Sounds like you have finally mastered the set-up. I have DTV and the only time it takes me a few hours or sometimes days to get set up is when I am gabbing with friends. But the key is to have the mast plumb and tripod level. If I find one satellite I know I am close to the other four. I get the best signal I can with my cheapo analog signal meter by tweaking the dish. Then I go inside and check the signal meters. If I need more fine tuning the wife will open a window and let me know which way the signal meters are going as I tweak the dish. Sometimes I have a really good signal and no further adjustments are needed.
Glad you finally got it figured out and you may find a way to not have to move the BR TV outside. Save a little more time.

Peace
Dave

 

[kakampers]

Best thing we' be found was Align-a-sight...

 

[Bob&Patty]

Never could get it right. SOOOOOOOOOOOO.....one day I threw all the junk in trash (Patty Would not let me flatten it with the Chebby) and bought one of these. Best $900 I ever spent. Put on the ladder mount ran the cables to the cables in the underbelly. Installed the 12V switch in the entry closet. Now we plug into 120V...turn on the switch and VOILA...we satellite. BTW, if you have a tree problem, you can remove them from the ladder and place it anywhere and they work with DTV and Dish.

http://www.solidsignal.com/pview.asp?mc=06&p=OBO-GM-1518&d=OPEN-BOX-ITEM--Winegard-GM1518-Carryout-Automatic-Portable-Satellite-Dish-Antenna-(GM1518)&c=RV%20Satellite%20Dishes&sku=

 

[nscaler2]

Bought one of these tripod and and one of these finder. With these two items I can get reception in approximately 15 minutes, including assembling the tripod and running the wire to the UDC. Last time I set up I didn't even have to tweak anything. I worked straight out. Best money I have ever spent.

 

[TXBobcat]

The TV4RV Tripod is great, so is a Birdog Satellite Meter.

BC

 

[Jcullipher]

Another helpful tool in setting up, regardless of whether you use an auto-antenna or tripod with dish, android app. named Satellite AR, it shows the position of your birds in phone camera viewer, comes in real handy when you are trying to find a "hole" in trees. It is a free app, there are some others that are not free and probably more accurate, but I have no complaints on this one so far.

 

[Ray LeTourneau]

Another helpful tool in setting up, regardless of whether you use an auto-antenna or tripod with dish, android app. named Satellite AR, it shows the position of your birds in phone camera viewer, comes in real handy when you are trying to find a "hole" in trees. It is a free app, there are some others that are not free and probably more accurate, but I have no complaints on this one so far.

I just downloaded this one. I entered Direct TV in the search database and in seconds, I pointed the camera towards the south and found them. Very Cool! I'll have an opportunity to try it this weekend. The campground we're going to has lots of trees. Thanks J

 

[Geonkat]

That app sounds really useful, especially around trees. As others have noted, getting the mast plum is the first step. I have a Dish 1000.2 (3 LNB for 3 sat). After fighting with a Dish 500 and a cheap meter, I knew there had to be a better way with a 3 sat system. Dish recommends pointing the antenna using sat 119. The problem with this is 1) how do you know you are looking at 119, and 2) 119 has a stronger signal than 129, so 129 may not be at optimum. I have found a dual analog meter http://www.a1components.com/Products/Advantage-Dual-Satellite-Signal-Meter__ADV1000.aspx
is very useful and not very expensive. I connect the LNB port for 110 to one side of the meter and the 129 port to the other. As I move the dish azmuth, I know I am looking at the correct group when both meters move together. Now, just peak these 2 for best signal on both and 119 ( which is between) will be good. Disconnect the meter, connect the cable from the UDC to the 119 port, and go watch TV.

To make the temporary meter hookup easy, I ran a short cable from each of the 3 LNB ports out to a disconnect bracket mounted on the backside of the dish. Mark each one (110, 119, and 129) and the hookup is quick.

I'm sure this procedure would work with Dish 500 as well as Direct systems.

Happy Camping,
George

 

[Ray LeTourneau]

I just downloaded this one. I entered Direct TV in the search database and in seconds, I pointed the camera towards the south and found them. Very Cool! I'll have an opportunity to try it this weekend. The campground we're going to has lots of trees. Thanks J

The satelliteAR app on the Droid worked like a charm in the wooded area we were in over the weekend. I knew in advance, the compass heading, so I used the droid app to find a hole in the trees where the DTV satellites were in clear view. I set the tri pod and in minutes locked in. Very Cool application.

 

[wdk450]

George:
I was having some problems last night with some quirky symptoms. I had the 110 and 119 satellites locked in but did not have the 129. I ASSUMED (uh Oh) that if I am getting the 110 and 119, I MUST have the 129. Symptom??? Some channels would say "Complete signal loss, while others were OK. Since I had the main and bedroom TV's tuned to different channels, and got this error message on only 1 TV, I ASSUMED (there's that word again) that there was something wrong with the receiver, since one TV seemed to work OK and one seemed to not work, this with a dual receiver unit. Well, I finally figured things out, got online searching about getting 2 but not 3 satellites on Dish network, and came up with the following advice:

1) Cover the outside 2 LMB's with foil (110 and 129).
2) Tune up and peak the dish signal on the 119 satellite.
3) Remove the foil covers on the two outer LMB's.
4) Make tiny adjustments to the Skew of the dish watching the signal strength on the "missing" satellite (129 for me) until it is locked in
5) Recheck the other other LMB satellite strength (110 for me) is still locked in. Readjust skew, if it is not locked in.
6) Go to "Switch Test" and complete startup normally.

BTW, I found that tightening down the Skew wingnuts tight lost me the 129 signal. Snug still worked.

Hope this helps.

 

[Birchwood]

Have 3 different dish setups that I use depending on the RV orientation to the satellite.
I have a ladder mount,tripod and a 2 by 8 that extends out with the landing gear as anchor.
Having the mounting pole plumb is THE most important part of the setup. An $80
analog sat finder(probably buy it for $25 in US)locates the satellite.Setup time varies between
15 minutes and 2 hours but normally its 30 min.We use Star Choice.

 

[Geonkat]

Bill,
When I have had had similar problems, it has been a tree blocking one sat and the other 2 are good. Sometimes a little wind can move tree branches enough to cause problems which did not exist the day before. Using the reciever and its signal strength meter to align the dish is VERY frustrating. The response of the meter is so slow that you will miss the peak alignment. That's why I like the analog meters. They give a real time reading of what you are doing, right at the dish. I have found that setting the skew per the zip code settings works OK. The elevation settings marked on the dish are not super accurate and a little tweaking will usually improve signal. After I have peaked my azmuth settings and with the mount bolts snugged ( I use wing nuts also), I push or pull slightly at the top of the dish to see if my elevation settings are good. If I can get a higher peak, I will readjust the elevation.
If you have a single analog meter, try running a cable out from each LNB port (110, 119, 129). When you think you are pointed in the right direction, hook up your meter to each one and see if you are at or near peak for each one. The levels will be different, but the main thing is to see that you are near optimum for each one. You'll have to move the dish slightly up and down and side to side using only a little finger pressure to see the meter move. Adjusting for 119 will get you in the ball park, but 129 is a lot more sensitive to get good signal.
The picture I uploaded is my old Dish 500 showing the 2 LNB outputs that I used for meter hookup and connection to the UDC. I'll try to get a picture of my current dish.
Hope this helps.
Good luck,
George

 

[Geonkat]

Here is the photo of my Dish 1000.2 showing 3 LNB outputs. As I mentioned before, these give the ability to see the signal strength with a meter for each sat. Hope this will help.

George

 

[jpdoggett]

I had a dish for a year or so and it was abigger pain than it was worth. I think it was a dish 500. If I was to get another one I would look into the auto Carry Out

 

[Chainsaw]

In 2003 I had enough of bugs, trees, rain rolling out cable rolling in cable back and forth in to the trailer. I invested in an explorer satilite system. Once the trailer is level and mostly before we unhook, I go inside push a button and know within 1 minute if I have a signal and the sat is locked on. All automatic, no more no way will I pack all the stuff in and out etc.