# Dish Pointing Wrong? Perhaps...



## Datagg (May 17, 2009)

Had install a week or so ago... All has been fine, other than Signals at times being dropped for a second or so, odd messages on screen about my card (which I never have time to read) etc. Tonight, watching a movie I had recorded was enough to make me hit the roof. Skipping, stopping... All like the signal was going out. Problem is, we have had no bad weather since ive owned this and this is just unacceptable to me.

Some history, when the installer was here he wanted to point the dish west, which is the side wall of my brick wall. He expressed how that was the ideal position for it. Anyways, after a few minutes went buy, I ran out to tell him I have having a patio cover built soon. Would this interfere with the Dish direction. Reply was no.... Yet after awhile he decided it would, and placed the Dish pointing at a Southern direction

Anyways, i thought about this tonight and did some checking in the system and pointing. My signal although in the green, is only 53. odd thing is, it says at the satellite at 110 or 119. He has it set at 129. Which shows at that stage, Azimuth NA - Elevation at N/A and Skew at N/A

I switch it to 110 and the signal goes up to 58 and shows.. Azimuth 173 - Elevation 50 and Skew 94

I try 119 and it goes up more at 64 with all Azimuth, Elevation and skew the same as above.

So what am I looking at here. Did he set this up wrong? I set it to 119, yet it goes back to 129. So im lost to what is going on. But i wanted to ask you guys first, so i don't look like a moron if I need to call Dish to tell them this stuff or if im even right...

Thanks for reading. I hope you guys can help me out.

EDIT - My box is a VIP612 with Americas Everything Pack... HD Gold


----------



## peano (Feb 1, 2004)

What are your 129 signal strengths? 

It doesn't matter what satellite the point dish screen starts up on (it will be the satellite for the channel you were last watching).


----------



## Datagg (May 17, 2009)

peano said:


> What are your 129 signal strengths?
> 
> It doesn't matter what satellite the point dish screen starts up on (it will be the satellite for the channel you were last watching).


Oh i see.... So i wonder why my reception appears to be so bad.....


----------



## BattleZone (Nov 13, 2007)

Datagg said:


> So what am I looking at here. Did he set this up wrong? I set it to 119, yet it goes back to 129. So im lost to what is going on.


You need to have good signal from all three sats that your dish can see: 110/119/129. Most of the HD channels come from the 129 sat (with some on 110). The "Point Dish" screen always defaults to the satellite and transponder for the channel you were watching, so assuming you're watching an HD channel, it's usually going to show you a transponder on 129 when you go into the Point Dish screen.

Keep in mind that 129 has 32 transponders, but TP 1-16 are spot beams, most of which aren't aimed at you, so seeing 0 signal is normal. TP 17-32 are national beams, so you should see signal there.

There's only one direction you can aim the dish you have in order to pick up the sats, and that's (for you) just slightly west of due south.


----------



## peano (Feb 1, 2004)

Datagg said:


> Oh i see.... So i wonder why my reception appears to be so bad.....


Thats why I asked your 129 signal strengths. What are they?


----------



## aa4wp (Apr 17, 2009)

Datagg:

Your confusion probably stems from the fact that the az/el/skew readings are not results of a signal strength or source, merely only an informational provided for users of dish 500 antennae who use the dish which receives from satellites 110 and 119. It does not make any sense to those who have receivers which receive HD on 110 and 129 that the information only applies to the earlier SD receivers, such as the 311, 510 or 625. It does seem to me that the providers of said software could give information for a 1000.2 dish system, which is a three satellite system (110, 119 and 129). At the same time the as/el/skew info should then be applicable for the 1000.2, not the dish 500. Perhaps someday. As an additional informational, it would be nice to also have the az/el location for the satellites pertinent to the dish system in use.

Wendell


----------

