Learned Something About My Winegard Slimline Travlr

[RickO]

Bottom line here is that I learned today that "restarting" my Winegard 3005 solved a problem I was having receiving a sat signal.

Yesterday I lost my DNS east HD feeds. They had even disappeared from my guide. Today I called DirecTv. The first agent had me reset my receiver (even though I told here I had done it twice already) and told me her notes indicated I had requested it be removed. I assured her that was not the case and she transferred me to someone in the DNS dept.

Paul, in DNS, reinstated my services but I asked him to stay on the line until I verified that the channels would return. They returned to the guide but wouldn't display. He had me reset my receiver. I performed a sat signal strength test and saw that nothing was coming in on the 103 bird which is where my DNS is supplied.

Paul and I had a discussion. Paul told me it was on my end and I needed to contact Winegard... I told Paul I was doing fine until DTV turned off my DNS service by mistake. We reached a stalemate but it was clear I was on my own.

After ending the call with Paul, it occured to me that I should try to "reset" my Winegard so I powered it down and stowed it... then turned it on again to do a new seek.

Yep, the 103 sat came in loud and clear and I have my NY channels back.

So, Paul, if you're listening.....

Rick

But... if he is a DNS specialist he should know to suggest this kind of thing. It's not like there's that many different HD capable RV automatic dishes.

[Izzyblueye]

None of this should have happened if you, as you said, did not request cessation of your service. I have had similar problems with internet providers. Maddening.

[LindaH]

Quote:

Originally Posted by RickO I performed a sat signal strength test and saw that nothing was coming in on the 103 bird which is where my DNS is supplied.

I'm curious about this statement.

When we were DirecTV customers (up until just a few months ago), our DNS stations were on the 101 satellite...it was the only satellite we viewed because we didn't have HD programming, only SD.

So, has DirecTV moved the DNS stations to another satellite? If we were still with DirecTV, I'd be really pissed if we could no longer receive them because of this.

[RickO]

Hi Linda... not to worry. Only the east coast HD DNS feeds are on the 103. West coast HD DNS I'm told is on the 99. I don't know about SD.

Rick

[Stormseeker]

"But... if he is a DNS specialist he should know to suggest this kind of thing. It's not like there's that many different HD capable RV automatic dishes."

The content providers and dish installers generally don't have a clue about mobile applications and equipment. The few times I've been forced to deal with them, I've had to hold their hands and provide the RV half of the equation. Admittedly, they know about their actual systems usually.

[RickO]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Stormseeker "But... if he is a DNS specialist he should know to suggest this kind of thing. It's not like there's that many different HD capable RV automatic dishes." The content providers and dish installers generally don't have a clue about mobile applications and equipment. The few times I've been forced to deal with them, I've had to hold their hands and provide the RV half of the equation. Admittedly, they know about their actual systems usually.

I think we're saying the same thing. Isn't a big portion of DNS tech support for mobile applications? DirecTv Mobile HD DNS can only be received on a limited number of hardware configurations (I only know of two but there may be more) and it doesn't seem that out of line to me to think that their second level tech support specialists would be familiar with them and their characteristics. But, I should have thought of it too while I still had him on the phone. Bottom line is that I'm a happy camper now but would like to provide DTV with feedback on the fix... but this isn't a closed loop process so I probably can't so it won't get into their scripted trouble shooting tree.

BTW; in a previous life I had management responsibility for several technical suport call centers and fully understand the pressures they're under. My monthly DTV bill is now >$140 and has been nearly that high for the 10 years I've been a customer. My agent Paul was clearly trying to get me off of the phone as quickly as possible and when I insisted that he stay with me until we could see if his propsed changes had fixed my problem... which they didn't... he threw the problem over the wall and said it wasn't on his end. Their measures are minutes per call and cost per call minute.

[SCVJeff]

Being a DNS expert wouldn't necessarily qualify him to be familiar with any hardware but his own, and in the end he was correct.

Rick: Did your antenna tell you it was locked on 103 or did you have it powered down?

[RickO]

Quote:

Originally Posted by SCVJeff Being a DNS expert wouldn't necessarily qualify him to be familiar with any hardware but his own, and in the end he was correct. Rick: Did your antenna tell you it was locked on 103 or did you have it powered down?

Hi Jeff... yep I was locked on to 103 and had good signal strength. My DNS is beamed on the 99 however and that's where the problem was. It was powered up until I performed a stow and reconnect operation.

I agree that being a DNS expert wouldn't necessarily qualify him to be familiar with any hardware but his own... that was obviously the case. My point was that it would be nice, as a long term DTV customer, to have second level tech support available who were more knowledgeable about how their customers used their products. Specifically, if one is a DNS HD mobile customer you have to get it via either a Winegard or Motosat... there may be another one or two that I'm not aware of but it's not a long list. But, I'm just wishing out loud here that things were better than they really are.

I also agree that the tech was right in the end... that's why I made a peace offering of flowers in my OP.

Take Care,

Rick

[SCVJeff]

Very strange.. I have somewhat of a similar problem with only KCBS out of LA. The transponder that carries that stream shows dead, but only sometimes, and it only affects this one channel :( . I have a friend that runs the primary DirecTV uplink in Marina Del Rey. Just out of curiosity, I'll ask what he knows about the experience of those folks in a pretty specialized niche. DNS BTW is not exclusive to the RV and on-road market. There is a suprisingly large number of fixed installs that need East and/or West coast feeds ( and even out of market locals within their footprints) for all kinds of things like broadcasters needing to see various feeds, emergency receivers at TV transmitter sites, etc. I had both East and West SD feeds at the house for almost 10 years... This is all paperwork and permission for these folks and it wouldn't surprise me at all if these commercial needs were most of their business.


Btw- the CEO of DirecTV is going to be on Undercover Boss on CBS next Sunday

[JBroadaway]

DTV CEO on Undercover Boss---------------probably won't be able to watch it; still don't have DNS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

[jackrobinryan]

Sitting here wondering if DNS service wasn't originally intended to support mobile folks like us, but for govt/security/military types of mostly fixed location folks who needed or wanted to see what is going on at the coasts....