dslreports logo
 
    All Forums Hot Topics Gallery
spc
Search similar:


uniqs
2147
brawney
Premium Member
join:2002-03-02
Frederick, MD

brawney

Premium Member

[DIRECTV] Dish alignment issues?

I'm hoping someone can help diagnose a signal strength issue I've had for a few years, but seems to be getting worse.

I've had DirecTV for about 10 years now. Several years ago we upgraded from the round dish to the oval dish so we could get High Definition TV. I believe my dish is out of alignment now, because we lose signal far more often than ever before. For the many years that we had the round dish we had excellent signals and rarely lost signal. Snow, ice and heavy rain were no issue. The dish was on the roof at that time.

When we upgraded to HD we had the new dish installed on the ground at the same corner of the house where the round dish had been on the roof. The round dish was on the roof of a 1 story section of the house. Maybe 6 months after the oval dish was installed on the ground the nuts came loose and I tightened them. Now I believe the dish may be out of alignment. Of course this was several years ago and we have had signal fade issues but I believe they seem to be getting a little worse. I don't know, maybe the weather is worse?

My issue is that we lose signal more frequently now than ever before. The cable from the dish into the house is probably only about 25 feet long. All TVs in the house lose the signal at the same time, so I don't think it's a wiring issue to any particular TV.

I realize that moving the dish to the ground may have reduced signal because of some trees. I also believe that the oval dish is more sensitive to alignment issues than the round dish because it's trying to see 3 satellites.

I have the CHOICE EXTRA CLASSIC (210+ channel) package and local channels. I don't have any premium, sports channels or Latino channel packages. I have 3 HD DVRs in the house and 2 standard HD boxes. I also have whole home networking.

Info can be seen here: »1drv.ms/1kszRrR

The screen shots were taken on one of the standard HD boxes (not a DVR). I also have pictures of the dish and it's installation, the demarc point in the house as well as a snapshot of the sky using one of those Android satellite finder apps that shows the general location of satellites in the sky. I'm at zip code 21793 (Maryland). All these photos were taken around 9am on Nov 4, 2015, at the same time, and you can see the sky is clear. I'm not having signal issues this second (when the pics were taken). I have signal issues in heavy rain, way more than I have ever had in the past. It's getting annoying and we love DirecTV and would hate to have to switch to Comcast, but we may not have a lot of choice if this is the normal expected function of the oval dish.

Do my signals look bad, like I need the dish realigned? Does anything else look like an issue? Are the TVs configured correctly for the dish I have? Sorry for the lengthy post but I wanted to get as much info as possible for diagnosis. Thanks.
comp
Premium Member
join:2001-08-16
Evans City, PA
·Armstrong

comp

Premium Member

The HD Channels are prone to go out more than the SD ones. This is due to the frequency they are on. That said, your levels are not bad.. but as long as there is no obstructions the dish could be tweaked to get everything in the 90's One thing to note the 103S and 99S are spot beams and only certain ones will be higher

Corehhi
join:2002-01-28
Bluffton, SC

Corehhi to brawney

Member

to brawney
Look for trees that have gotten bigger and may now be in the way of the signal especially if it's windy. I had that problem.

I did my own install way back when and once I got the sat dish about right I used the built in signal meter to fine tune it. Pain in the ass, I was at the dish with my wife at the tv. She relayed the signal changes to me as I moved the dish a little bit at a time. It didn't take much to go from 50 to 80% signal strength.

DJ
Premium Member
join:2001-06-13
Opelika, AL

DJ to brawney

Premium Member

to brawney
Due to the size and weight of the Ka/Ku dish, eventually it will fall out of alignment. Just a couple mm's off and the signals will drop and rain fade will be much more bothersome.

Your signal readings on the 99 and 103 satellites are below optimal. Disregard the 99s & 103s readings, those are used for local channels for different regions of the country.

Schedule a service call for a dish realignment.

trparky
Premium Member
join:2000-05-24
Cleveland, OH
·AT&T U-Verse

trparky

Premium Member

To repeat what DJ See Profile said, your numbers for 99 and 103 are way off. I just had my dish installed and my numbers for all three satellites are in the 90+ range, none of satellite signal numbers on any of the satellites on my installation are below 90.

Hayward0
K A R - 1 2 0 C
Premium Member
join:2000-07-13
Key West, FL

Hayward0 to brawney

Premium Member

to brawney
The oval dish has a much wider look angle that the round ones, so as others have suggest see if any trees are stsrting to grow into the path.
Also with the wider arc alingment is a lot more critical especially the rotation setting.