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dkperez · 06-30-2015, 05:02 PM

I know. Sounds like a silly question.......... Almost 3 years ago, when we got the 1518, it acted bizarre - locked on about 2/3 of the time. Winegard talked to me and decided the dome was possessed and sent me a new one.

The new one has worked perfectly - I even got satellites at times when I probably shouldn't 'cause of trees and such......

I had it hooked up at home THIS MORNING. And it worked perfectly.

This afternoon, I plugged the dome in with the 5th wheel at the campground, and an ABSOLUTELY CLEAR SKY to the south, and it just sat there like floof in a punchbowl.

So, I redid the satellite setup, consulting with the quick start. Set it to an 18x20, 3LNB, multiswitch, and dual. Again, BEFORE changing anything it worked perfectly at home - an hour away from the campground.

Still nothing - when I waited for the interminable "Verifying configuration", it came back and said there was no dish. Unplugged the primary and secondary cables on both ends. Plugged 'em back in. Restarted... Got the SAME result. MOVED the dome 10 feet to the left... Again, there's not a tree, house, building, hill, lake, airport, human, NOTHING anywhere for at least 150 degrees to the south. And YES, the dome sits there and buzzes, chirps, clunks, makes all the normal rattles, and whines as it's spinning or whatever, so power is getting to the dome and it's doing SOMETHING.

Pulled the plug on the HR24 DVR and restarted... Still nothing. Restarted the dome one more time. FINALLY... I said there was SOMETHING. Which leads me back to my question. When it DID connect, there was a grid on screen that (I THINK) showed 101 degrees, 110 degrees and 119 degrees for line 1 and line 2. 101 and 119 has RED Xs for both lines. 110 I don't THINK, had anything. No X, no check mark - but as I said I moved on past that... When it went back to the transponders screen EVERYTHING came up as zero. So, it KNOWS there's a dish, but there's no connection to a satellite? And when that screen and went to the one that shows signal for line 1 and line 2, it STILL show NO connection. OK, so it's not connecting...

BUT, when I exited that screen it went back to the transponders, and VOILA, suddenly I have signals... Bizarre, but it's sort-of working.

SO, my question(s):

Am I SUPPOSED to be an 18x20 3LNB dish? Winegard says so.
When I look at the transponders and I get a strength on everything except 4, 18, 26, and 28 does that mean everything is connecting correctly? The numbers are never huge, most b eing in the mid 70s with a few up between 85 and 90, but I presume that's "normal"
And if SO, how come when I go back to the signal meters it STILL says tuner 1 and tuner 2 have NOT acquired?
Am I SUPPOSED to be connected to a satellite at 110 degrees instead of 101? does it matter?

It's working, but can somebody 'splain what's going on and what is and isn't correct? And what I should be doing about whatever (if anything) isn't correct?

dkperez · 07-04-2015, 09:34 AM

Everybody off RVing for the holiday?

Don/Lou · 07-04-2015, 09:54 AM

Are you on direct or dish receiver??

pagosajoe · 07-04-2015, 10:08 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by dkperez

Everybody off RVing for the holiday?

Yup - probably so.

"101 degrees, 110 degrees and 119 degrees" are DISH sats. The antenna is compatible with DISH and DirecTV, with switches under the dome to select the appropriate service. My understanding is that it has 2 LNBs, so it will have to "move" to find the 3rd sat if the program you wish to watch is on the 3rd bird.

Hope that helps...

Jim A · 07-04-2015, 01:33 PM

Directv had satellites at 101, 110, and 119. The 110 satellite doesn't carry SD programming, so you are interested in 101 and 119. The HR24 is an HD receiver, and you won't get HD as you know with a carryout dish.

For starters I would check that the main and the aux lines are correct and not swapped. Connect main to the #1 input. They are not identical.

dkperez · 07-04-2015, 07:56 PM

We're on Directv. And the dish NORMALLY works fine. I"m just trying to figure out how to TELL what's not working when it acts as it did this weekend.

Winegard says ti tell the dvr it's an 18x20 3lnb dish. When I did it came up with 101, 110, and 119, and told me 101 and 119 had red Xx for both tuners. Is it 101, 110, and 119 or something else?

The problem this weekend MAY have been me not understanding which way is south... I"m not sure why, but the compass in my cell doesn't appear to work very accurately. I generally use Satfinder to figure out if I have a clear shot at the satellite, but now I'm not sure what satellite I should be using...

I don't THINK the lines are switched, but I'll check 'em tomorrow.

Yes, I know the 1518 doesn't do HD on Directv - yet ANOTHER good reason to go to Dish when we can.

So, what satellite SHOULD I be using to make sure I have a clear path for the dome?

shiggs68 · 07-04-2015, 08:18 PM

Not a DirecTV user but am a Dish subscriber with a 1518. Satellite 110 is DirecTV HD and can not be viewed by the LNB in the 1518.

In my case, the receiver must be set for SWM or Multiswitch.

Here is a link to the 1518 manual http://www.winegard.com/kbase/uploads/2452172.pdf

Hope this helps.

Sent from my iPad using iRV2 - RV Forum
TravellingRVDoctor, LLC

dkperez · 07-05-2015, 04:50 PM

Ours is set to multiswitch in the RV since we don't have a SWM thing...

I checked to make sure primary is primary and secondary is secondary and all that's happy...

I'm going to figure I was just looking the wrong direction 'cause once I moved the dome to a spot I didn't think I'd need to be, it's been working fine.

I"ve currently got the satfinder app set to use Directv 4S at 101.2 degrees, which I presume is what I'm actually picking up.

I"m not gonna worry about it 'til it happens again.