dishappointed

[TDR76er]

I have tried everything suggested on the web & from technicians, but I still can't get a signal on my satellite system in my 2007 fourwinds motorhome. I have tried dishnet, direct tv, (all active accounts), different dishes, different locations & still no signal. I have voltage to the dish, I have a picture with info telling me what azimuth & degrees etc. But nothing works. I have all the splitters required also. Listened to everybodies blog advice to no avail. Can anybody help me! Any & all advice will be greatly appreciated. Thanks all.

[hoppers4]

Some systematic troubleshooting is in order. Sounds like you've already swapped out the dish. So now the cabling (to include connectors) from the dish to the receiver needs to be verified. From there, on to the receiver and the only way to verify it would be to take it to a shop, borrow another one, or hook it in to another system where the rest of the system has been proven to be operational.

[TDR76er]

Awesome, what would you like to know?

2007 fourwinds 31' class c

[PizzaGuy]

I am not sure where you are in your troubleshooting or what you have done so far. I can tell you that when I bought my 07 Monaco I had the same problems you described. No one really knew what needed to be done. After many seek and destroy missions, here is what I found out. As I stated earlier this is a Monaco Diplomat.

First, is finding a satellite. On mine there are two switches. One you hold down for 3 seconds and your dish will start to find a satellite. I can hear it moving. There is a light that flashes from red to green and then a steady green. When it gets to steady green the satellite has been found. The other switch changes the asmuth. I don't mess with that.
Now I turn on the receiver and TV. I use the menu function on my tv remote and perform a channel search. I have a sharp HGTV.
I have direct tv and and occasionally I will need to hit the reset button. This searches for available stations from your programing giude.
So, find the satellite
program your tv for channels
reset your receiver.

You have probably done every one of these steps a hundred times. But good luck

Don

[TDR76er]

Thanks for the reply but I am past that point already. thanks partner, maybe next time.

[MonacoMama]

TDR76er....
Welcome to iRV2!! This is a great forum with many folks willing to help you out as best they can! As a matter of fact...We have someone who is less than 15 miles from you that will help you figure out your problem if you want to drive your rig up to him and you spend some time tracking down the problem. Please PM me if you are interested.

Again...welcome to the Forum..we hope you visit & post often!!


PS-Thanks to the Moderator who moved this post to the proper forum...the location you posted in originally was for the website help area!

[Bill Adams]

Quote:

Originally Posted by TDR76er I have tried everything suggested on the web & from technicians, but I still can't get a signal on my satellite system in my 2007 fourwinds motorhome. I have tried dishnet, direct tv, (all active accounts), different dishes, different locations & still no signal. I have voltage to the dish, I have a picture with info telling me what azimuth & degrees etc. But nothing works. I have all the splitters required also. Listened to everybodies blog advice to no avail. Can anybody help me! Any & all advice will be greatly appreciated. Thanks all.

Can you tell us what you are trying to setup? Is this an automatic roof mounted antenna or a tripod based manual ground mount?
If this is a ground dish, is there more than one LNB? What account do you want to use, Dish or Direct? If this is a ground unit you should run the cable directly from the back of the receiver to one LNB with no splitters or other connections of any kind (no use of coach wiring).

[chasfm11]

I spent a lot of years troubleshooting large, complex mainframe computer systems. We'd occasionally run across a problem like yours that didn't make sense. The solution was always something simple. It is easy to get balled up in troubleshooting and miss the forest for the trees. Were I faced with a problem like yours, here is what I would do.

1. Forget about the RV and get a good working system some place else. I have DirecTV so I'd find someone, someplace that had a good working setup for that and would be willing to work with you.
2. Assuming that you are using a tripod mounted dish, I would swap the receiver that I planned to use in your RV and a 75' cable into the working setup. It is easy enough to remove the LNB and temporarily attach the cable. I have a small, portable TV that I connect. So you are replacing the components of the working system, except for the correctly aimed dish with the components that you plan to use for the RV. It works or you figure out why.
2. With that same setup, introduce your own dish. The only things that can be wrong are a bad LNB or incorrect aiming. Since you have the existing (and correctly aimed)dish to go by, you should be able to get yours close. The key is to make sure that your mast holding the dish is plumb and that the tripod is stable. LNBs seldom go bad so the first suspected culprit should be the aiming.
3.Assuming that you were able to get your tripod mounted dish working with the setup, it is now time to move everything to your RV. If it doesn't work, it is definitely something in the wiring. Sometimes, splitters can be added in hidden places.

If you have some sort of roof mounted dish, manual or automatic, you need to let us know what kind. The list of possible failures it too long for us to help you without that information.

You can say "been there, done that" but if you really want to get to the root of your problem, you have to eliminate the possibility of multiple failure points. The outlined procedure does that.

[wa8yxm]

When you are having problems there are 4 areas where you can have problems

1: Bad receiver
2: Bad antenna
3: Cable issues
4: Aiming issues

That covers it, it's got to be one of the above.. So here is what you do

First; Let's elminate cable faults. Run a length of RG-6 cable DIRECT from the antenna (Dish, LNB) to the receiver, NO splitters, NO switches, DIRECTLY connect them.. If the receiver is a dual input DVR, use two cables, one off each port on the LNB, and then post the response.

To test the antenna, and receiver. swap one out. (either one) with one known to be working.

To test the aiming.. Well. that is a bit harder, Takes a person who knows how to aim on site

I will, however, tell you how I do it

First I go to antenna pointing (or run software on this computer) and enter the zip code. get the angles and then go out and eyeball to see if I have a clear shot at the sky.. TREE IN THE WAY, don't set up there.

Next I pre-set the elevation to the suggested setting, likewise SKEW if it is a skewable (DISH-500) dish.

I "Eyeball" the azimuth, usually 20-40 degrees east of suggestion, hook up a portable TV to the receiver and watch the Ant-Pointing screen as I SLOWLY swing west.

Finally I'll touch up elevation (I do not normally play with skew on a TV dish)

OH, this works best if the mast is VERTICAL, as in use a level to make sure.

Now if I"m setting up the internet dish.. Then I touch up SKEW as well, plus go over all 3 settings to be sure.

[hamguy]

I bought a sat. detector from Radio Shack. About 25 bux. I can find the bird in most instances in less than 2 minutes using a compass for reference.

[TDR76er]

Thanks all, I'm going to a wide open area 1st thing monday morning & try all suggestions. If that doesn't work then I will get a hold of monacomama & hook up with that guy close to my location & go from there. I will let you all know how it turns out. Once again, thanks for all your suggestions.

[TDR76er]

Well the wide open spaces didn't change things. the signal finder on the receiver didn't catch anything. I moved dish everywhere to no avail. Pm'd Monacomoma & see if her friend can help. Thanks all.

[chasfm11]

Quote:

Originally Posted by TDR76er Well the wide open spaces didn't change things. the signal finder on the receiver didn't catch anything. I moved dish everywhere to no avail. Pm'd Monacomoma & see if her friend can help. Thanks all.

IF your problem is an aiming one, the most important factors are:
1. The mast must be plumb as I included in my previous post.
2. You have to get the azimuth close with a compass. I have a hand held that I put on the ground in front of the tripod (far enough that the metal in the dish/tripod doesn't affect it) and line up the azimuth from there.
3. When you move the azimuth adjustment looking for a signal, it has to be done in micro inches and in a start and stop manner. Move a fraction of an inch, wait, move another fraction of an inch and wait again. Give the receiver time to catch up. Many people get impatient and move too far and too fast. Very slow is very good.
4. If you swing more than 10 degrees on either side of where the signal is supposed to be and haven't found it, move the elevation a couple of degrees, center the azimuth where you started and try slowly again.

I've put my tripod on the ground after others were out trying to aim. In many cases, I was finished before they were. I noticed they were making wide swings repeatedly back and forth. That just doesn't get the job done.

[Old Snipe]

Just a thot, based onsome serious boating time. I've seen many boaters read the compass 180 degrees out (backwards). I'm not trying to be insulting, just trying to offer a suggestion. It seems that it might be an aiming issue.

Best Regards!