Thinking about dropping Dish....

I've had Dish since March, when I bought an LCD tv and switched from DirectTV once I found out how expensive it would be to get an HD receiver from them.

Life was fine until I lost a satellite back in May (119) - Dish has come out twice - once to say that the dish itself hadn't been locked down, so the technician tightened it and we got most of the 119 back. Then I posted here how we had some of the 119s, but not others. The second Dish tech said it was the tree in the backyard causing interference and that we had to move the dish to the roof.

Getting in touch with my landlord to get permission has taken me well over a month (he's not that responsibe, but the rent is cheap,) only to have him say he doesn't want the dish on the roof. He's talking about cutting down the tree, anyhow, but he isn't known to move very swiftly. So I'm not expecting anything soon.

Someone here on the boards suggested just getting up on a ladder and re-positioning the dish to see if that would help. However, I don't own one, no one I know has one that they can get over to me, and I own a Neon, so renting one has it's own transportation problems. I've asked my landlord to bring one over, but I'm not holding my breath waiting for him to respond to the call.

What's really frustrating is that I'll get a channel - in this case Discovery (#182) switch to something else, and when I come back to 182, I get an 002 error, and it can't get to the channel. I have a 811 that has the new P289 code, and my switch sees both satellites without errors.

So now I'm left with paying for a service that I can't use. I never had this problem with Direct, mainly because the dish was pointing more directly ahead than this one is.

So, is it a lousy mounting job, or am I'm just unlucky?

I've taken some pictures, so please feel free to take a look and comment about whether it's my install or whether that tree is indeed the problem. http://photobucket.com/albums/b225/DMNightowl/

Any help would be appreciated! At this point, I'm tempted to just pull it off and have direct hook up my old dish, foregoing my HD, due to frustration. So any input would be helpful. Thanks!

I had a similar problem, I repositioned the dish and it was fine. Get one one of those little giant ladders. :D

Yeah, but 100 bucks for a ladder I'm only going to use once is a killer.

Let me ask this. I bought a SatAlign signal strength meter and put it in line between the receiver and the dish (in the original install, they didn't run a long enough cable, so they barrelled it over to the tv.) I'm getting a great signal reading from that meter, while looking at the peak levels, on the 119 satellite I'm getting great reading (90+) on some of the odd number transponders (ie, 1 & 3.) 2, 4 and a lot of the even numbered transponders are still locking, but at 40-50. 5, 7 9 give me nothing at all. Most of the channels on the 110 satellite are at 90+ or above (other than transponders 2, 8, and 10, which don't lock at all.)

This almost reminds me of an LNB problem I had with Direct a few years ago.

In the meantime, I'll hope the landlord actually brings over a ladder!

Can you mount the Dish in a pole(left side of you apart) away from the tree? When I have this kind of problem(tree) I use a pole(about 8-10 feet long) in to the ground with concret. That tree is big and is going to give you problem when the leaves grout again after you trimme it.

$100 on a ladder is much cheaper then $2000+ on an HDTV with only a stretched SD signal.

Mine did the same thing, some readings were low, 50s and 60, 90s and 100s int he bedrooms. I adjusted the dish over the the left and up a tad and now I get over 100s in the bedroom and 95+s in the living room.

Thats right!!!!
Then imagine the satisfying hours of entertainment watching
the Little Giant infomercials in GLORIOUS HI-DEF!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Thats right!!!!
Then imagine the satisfying hours of entertainment watching
the Little Giant infomercials in GLORIOUS HI-DEF!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Love to buy a dozen lil giants for $100 :eek:
I really just wanted to say I Love your Sweetmeat avatar. :D

Okay, I caved. Home Depot is now $103.00 richer.

It took 3 of us to do it (two on phones and one on the ladder) but we got it adjusted. The installer stripped one of the screws, so it wasn't the easiest thing to do, and we kept on fiddling, because we finally got a lock on the 119, and after checking the switch, lost the 110. So some more fiddling about and frustration (the suggestion of just pulling it and using it as a frisbee was bandied about at one point -) we finally got a halfway decent lock.

Still not getting as great a signal, but I'm now getting all the channels.

Thanks for the help. It did work!

Judging by the pictures, that tree is major problem.

When I used to install for Dish, alot of people had the misconception that the signal arrives at the dish along the axis of the LNB arm. They thought that whatever direction the LNB was pointed, thats where the satellites were. But the satellite is much higher up, and keep in mind that since you are receiving 2 signals with one dish, the dish is basically at the halfway point between the 2, not receiving 100% from either satellite (pretty close though). That tree is a major obstacle.

You could install 2 seperate dishes. Giving each satellite a better shot. The tree will still be an issue, but you'll be able to get a direct shot at the satellite, rather than the side view using the single dish.

Did you test your aim by pushing the dish left/right/up/down AFTER you tightened it... with the meter attached?

The landlord is actually talking about cutting it down, since with a spread that large, you can imagine the problems the roots are causing.

We'll see if it actually happens. I think dropping it onto a pole would probably be worse than where it is at present. So I'm going to cross my fingers that it will actually be cut down.

I wasn't the one up on the ladder, but interestingly enough, the settings don't match the recommended settings for our zip code, and were actually off a bit. It was changing the azimuth that brought the signal in enough to lock. But what a pain in the butt getting there!

You should return your ladder back to Home depot and get your money back. Say you didn't need it after all.

Much too lazy to do that. And besides, I'm thinking of getting one of those OTAs that sit on the dish. The question now is whether I'd get better reception than the indoor intenna that way. Though I'm close to the HD transmitters in Boston, I get lousy reception of those channels.

Anyone try one of these and is it worth the money?