# Slimline with single output dish aligning



## amoco (Feb 10, 2011)

I purchased a slim line dish SL3-SWM. It has a single coaxial cable that connects to the SWM that leads to a 4 output Splitter…. I set up the new dish on Friday night and was able to get all the non-HD channels perfectly and the HD channels came in but would intermittently search for signal. For the last couple of nights I have been unable to get any signal and the receiver says satellite signal could not be detected. My receiver is HR22-100. Any help at all would be greatly appreciated! I have spent a few hours the last few nights trying everything with no luck. DTV cannot come out for 2 weeks and with a pregnant wife this is getting to be a hostel environment without the tv as the mediator.

1.	I live in Farmington, MN with zip 55024 and the receiver tells me to use a tilt of 82 an Azim of 190 & an Elev of 38. Could anyone verify these coordinates for me?

2.	Also when I use the receiver to check satellite signals which satellite should I put it on while I am adjusting the dish(101,99©,103(ca),103(cb), or SWM)?

3.	which tuner should it be on 1 or 2?


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## Luftwaffles (Feb 4, 2011)

You should first tune to 101W. Once you've peaked the signal there, then you can continue on with 99 and 103.

Are you familiar with the concept of "dithering"? If you keep losing your signals and your dish wasn't professionally installed, I'll bet your dish is not positioned optimally. You need to fine-tune the signal strength and alignment with the two dials on the back of the mount to get the best signal.


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## thewallfisher (Feb 1, 2011)

The Slimline is more dificult to align than a standard non HD D* dish so you will need to be much more precise. 

First of all make sure your dish is mounted very stable and use the monopoles to stabilize it further if it is mounted on the roof. The monopoles need to be mounted in a way that the main mast and the 2 monopoles form a tripod. 

Your mast (main tube) must be plumb and level.

Like mentioned peak out the dish at 101. Having the dish at the correct skew is critical. 

You will not be able to fine tune the dish very well by looking at your meter or your TV.

From this point you will need to dither the dish to peak out your 99 and 103


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## matt (Jan 12, 2010)

Follow the link below and watch video #3 to get an idea of what you need to do. Since you probably don't have a handheld meter, you can use the one in the receiver and that will work fine.

http://www.solidsignal.com/p/?p=2699&d=directv-ka-ku-dish-installation-videos&mc=02


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## thewallfisher (Feb 1, 2011)

matt said:


> Follow the link below and watch video #3 to get an idea of what you need to do. Since you probably don't have a handheld meter, you can use the one in the receiver and that will work fine.
> 
> http://www.solidsignal.com/p/?p=2699&d=directv-ka-ku-dish-installation-videos&mc=02


This video is for the Slimline 5 but the same concept applies and it will not matter what tuner you are looking at. Both tuners will have almost identical signal strength.


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## matt (Jan 12, 2010)

Really the video isn't even for the slimline but it does a better job of explaining dither than trying to type it out! :lol:


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## amoco (Feb 10, 2011)

I have the dish mounted to the side of the house so Should I also attach the two monopoles for extra support or are those poles just for the roof mounting? Any information on the pointing cordinates for farmington mn, 55024? A site mentioned in another posts gave me Satellite data for direcTV 3 LNB (101W,110W, 119W) Elevation: 35.9,Azimuth 203.3 and Skew 73.6. but when I put in my zip code my DVR gives me Elevation 38, Tilt 82, & Azimuth 190.


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## matt (Jan 12, 2010)

I would go ahead and put the monopoles up on the side of the house.

dishpointer.com says:
Elevation: 35.8°
Azimuth (true): 203.5°
Azimuth (magn.): 203.0°
Dish Skew [?]: 73.5°

superbuddy meter says:
Elevation: 37.6°
Azimuth (true): 191.5°
Azimuth (magn.): 190.7°
Dish Skew [?]: 81.9°

Both of those should get you close enough to finding something you can work with, but I'd try the one from your receiver or the super buddy first, they are pretty close to each other. Skew isn't super important here, and azimuth is just turning the dish left to right. Elevation will be your most important factor here, second to your pole being plumb. If you can't get a signal with one of those, set the tilt somewhere in the range of that, probably about 80° then crank the elevation a few degrees before the lowest, in this case say 30°. Swing the whole dish slowly from the left to the right. If you don't pick something up, raise the elevation by one degree, then swing it slowly back to the left. If nothing picks up, raise it another degree and swing it slowly back right. If you get all the way to 45 something is probably wrong. I had one that was 8° off of what it "should" have been, others have been closer but still off.

My guess is two things as to why. People can't agree on what the settings should be and/or the gauge on the mount is not very accurate.


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