Inoperable satellite

I've been out of the country all summer and didn't see your post. I removed my working Winegard Pinnacle RD9900 in preparation for installing a new Traveler dish. Still haven't removed the old dish from the MH roof though. I have never used it, just know it works. Does this only work on DirectTV or will it also work with Dish Network?

Bill
I think you’re right. You talk with a half dozen phone tech’s and you get a half dozen different answers. Actually the Pinnacle worked great for me for 12 years until I got rid of the old Hughes receiver. It appears to be working now but who knows what will happen when I move the Motorhome. At any rate I received the Pinnacle 9900 today from the link you sent me so I have a spare. My Pinnacle usually grabbed the satellite on the second try, sometimes a third with the Hughes and always worked if I wasn’t in the trees. Thanks again for the tip, I wouldn’t have found that.
Stan

The fact that the Pinnacle antenna works at all is pretty close to a miracle! If it takes 4-5 tries to lock I would consider that a complete success. You can use any setting in the receiver you like but I assure you that no one from DirecTV has even the slightest clue what a Pinnacle is.

Bill
I left the TV on all night again and this morning it was still on so that is different than a couple days ago. I then turned the receiver and the TV off and parked the dish. An hour later I set it to search and again on the fourth try it found the satellite and hooked up. I didn’t change any of the settings from session with the Direct TV tech. and it worked OK. I don’t know why he had me set it to slimline but it seems to work with that receiver the way he has it set. Also there are different slimline settings and he had me leave it set to multi-switch. Right now the Pinnacle positioner is working so maybe the earlier problem was with the receiver? Also as I have had disconnected all the cables at one time or another while running tests, maybe there was a problem that got rectified by removing and reconnecting the fittings. The Pinnacle positioner always worked with the old Hughes receiver. The only reason I changed it out is that it didn’t want to turn on till it was plugged in for about a half hour and time to warm up.

You will want to change back to 18" round. He did not disable HD but he did "hide" the HD channels so the receiver does not confuse channels. There are 2 programs available on the HD channels. As an example, Food Channel 231 is broadcast from 101 in SD. Food Channel HD 231 is broadcast from 99 or 103 in HD and cannot be received by your antenna.

I thought I probably could. When I went back out and plugged everything back in I got an error message to re-boot. I did that and while the TV continued to do nothing I called the number on the screen. I got hold of a guy in SC and as I was talking with him the darn thing came back on. I explained the whole situation to him and he ran me through a whole bunch of stuff that I don’t pretend to understand and won’t be able to remember. One thing I will remember is he had me set it to Slimline instead of 18” round and he disabled the HD in the receiver. Then had me remove the HD channels in the guide. He said by disabling the HD the receiver wouldn’t get confused? I have no idea why he changed from 18” round to slimline but it’ now working. I’ll see how long. Still have another positioner on the way so we’ll see what happens. Could just be an accident that my existing positioner locked on to the satellite.
Stan

You can run the coax directly without issue.

Bill
I contacted the seller from the link you provided and he still had the positioner. We agreed on a price and it is in the mail. He obtained it from a friend so he really doesn’t know if it works; however, yesterday I went out to the motorhome and hooked up the old box again and on the fourth search it locked onto the satellite and the TV came on. I left it on over night and this morning it had the blue screen with searching for signal. It has been a calm 24 hours, no wind and no storm. I’m pretty sure the problem is with the positioner and not the receiver. The receiver I have is a model H23 from Direct TV. It may not be 100% compatible with the old Winegard 9946 antenna. So I’m wondering , as a check, can I connect the coax from the antenna directly to the receiver? The dish is still at the same position where I obtained signal yesterday so will this work or does the signal have to pass through the positioner and then to the receiver? Is there any possibility of damage to the receiver by doing this?
Stan

Thanks Bill, I know it's a long shot as I have spent a bit of time on the internet searching but you never know. I removed a Magnetec converter years ago which I kept just in case someone might need it. Sure enough several years later I ran into a guy boondocking in a free area that needed one. Bingo, he was happy and I got it out of my garage.
Stan

Wow! Good luck with that. The Pinnacle went out of production around 1999 or so. Try e-bay or craig's list as well as these forums. Maybe even an RV salvage yard or RV surplus. It's a model RD-9900.
Hey, look what I found. It's an old listing but it does not appear that it sold. Maybe you can contact the seller.
http://www.ebay.com/itm/satellite-dish-positioner-Winegard-Pinnacle-Model-RD-9900-/171239875757?nma=true&si=gAUvc2JJ0jYd4HajFMOKcR5uKlY%253D&orig_cvip=true&rt=nc&_trksid=p2047675.l2557