# Dish aiming questions



## rmmcneil (Mar 9, 2006)

I currently have a dish 1000 installed and regularly experinece a LOS from satellite 129. I would like to leave the 1000 aimed at satellites 110/119 and install a dish 500 solely for satellite 129. Can anyone verify these aiming numbers are correct?

Zip = 30064 (Marietta, GA)

Dish 1000 for 110/119
Az = 226.0
El = 39.2
Sk = 36.6

Dish 500 for 129
Az = 240.6
El = 28.6
Sk = 46.3

Also, is the dish 1000 best for 110/119 or would a second dish 500 be better?


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## dave1234 (Oct 9, 2005)

rmmcneil said:


> I currently have a dish 1000 installed and regularly experinece a LOS from satellite 129. I would like to leave the 1000 aimed at satellites 110/119 and install a dish 500 solely for satellite 129. Can anyone verify these aiming numbers are correct?
> 
> Zip = 30064 (Marietta, GA)
> 
> ...


The dish 1000 will work fine for 110/119. 
As far as a separate dish for 129, don't count on much improvement. 129 has problems. If your locals aren't an issue you could get the second dish and point it a 61.5, you'll get all the same HD content as with 129, but some regions locals are on 129 not 61.5.


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## harsh (Jun 15, 2003)

rmmcneil said:


> I currently have a dish 1000 installed and regularly experinece a LOS from satellite 129.


If you had your dish installed, I'd call and see if you can't get them to re-peak the Dish1000 for 129. I've heard that this often helps.


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## rmmcneil (Mar 9, 2006)

Atlanta locals are on satellite 129, so if I go with 61.5 for my HD I'd have to get local HD via OTA... which I don't mind. Are there any disadvanges to going with 61.5 for my HD channels and get local HD via OTA? Is there a way to get the 622 to also recieve SD locals from the 110/119 satellites too?


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## KKlare (Sep 24, 2004)

If the SD locals (LIL) are on 110/119 you should be getting them independent of where the HD locals are. As of now IIRC, the HD are not required to be on the same satellite as the SD locals. If one of SD/HD is on 61.5 or 129 the other will be on the core 110/119 (usually only SD) or the same satellite. Only some of the NE US has SD on 61.5, IIRC. I would have to check http://www.dishchannelchart.com/ for any particular DMA as you can.

Aiming the 1000's center feed at 119 should give a great signal for it and a slightly weaker signal for 110 than a Dish 500 would have. If I were adjusting it I would set skew and elevation per the book, search for 119 and the tweak for best 129 and hope the 110 was usable.

You might have to compromise some on 119 to get the best for both 110 and 129 at the same time. Use the nudge method to find if you can improve any or all. That is, get a signal on all, lightly tighten, and press and pull with finger pressure on the rim to check that you are maximized, and when happy tighten it down.

-Ken


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## Mike D-CO5 (Mar 12, 2003)

I used my dish 1000 JUST For the 129 satellite and ran it into a dish 500 peaked for the 110/119 sats. I get great readings in the 100's on both 110/119 and I get readings in the low to mid 80's on most of the 129 transponders , some even peak to 90. I used the satellite meter to peak the dish on the 129 sat instead of the 119 sat as the instructions say in the manual. The elevation for the 500 dish is 48 and the elevation for the dish 1000 is 44 and the skew is different as well compared to the dish 500. This would explain why when you have just the dish 1000 for all three satellites you have to sacrifice strengths on all three satellites. More people should try it the way I outlined and see the numbers they can get. By the way, I am in southeast Texas about 90 miles from Houston.


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## Rodney (Aug 22, 2003)

For best reception install a dedicated dish for 129. I live in Atlanta and I installed a dish 500 specifically for 129 and it works great. I repeaked it last week and my signal strength ranges from 80 to 96 on a 622 receiver. 

The settings I started with were
Azimuth 245 magnetic
Skew 90 
Elevation 29

I used a Channel Master Satellite Signal meter to fine tune the initial settings.


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## tnsprin (Mar 16, 2003)

rmmcneil said:


> I currently have a dish 1000 installed and regularly experinece a LOS from satellite 129. I would like to leave the 1000 aimed at satellites 110/119 and install a dish 500 solely for satellite 129. Can anyone verify these aiming numbers are correct?
> 
> Zip = 30064 (Marietta, GA)
> 
> ...


Cannot verify the specific numbers as they don't show up using the normal point dish tools. However it is normally recommended that no skew be used on a dish that is being aimed at a single satellite. The skew is for trying to get multiple satellites to come in with a reasonable compromise of signal strength.


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## swissin (May 25, 2006)

129 is an old bird it is weak no matter what you point at it it will be weak 70to low 80's are good from 129 :grin:


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## olgeezer (Dec 5, 2003)

rmmcneil said:


> I currently have a dish 1000 installed and regularly experinece a LOS from satellite 129. I would like to leave the 1000 aimed at satellites 110/119 and install a dish 500 solely for satellite 129. Can anyone verify these aiming numbers are correct?
> 
> Zip = 30064 (Marietta, GA)
> 
> ...


Remember the skew should be 90 (not adjusted) for best signal when looking for a single satellite location.


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