Getting harder to aim Slimline SWM

[2oldman]

I've been aiming my Slimline dish (SWM) for years without as much trouble as I'm having now. I can move maybe 50 miles, where the settings don't change that much, but it can take a half-hour or more to find the 101.

I use the "test signal strength" screen where it shows the 2 Tuners on horizontal parallel lines. I position a Swift hitch camera in front of the screen and take the little receiver with me to the dish. The beeps are really helpful, but I don't always get those. That seems weird.

The zip code locator on the TV screen shows an azimuth of 141°, but my smartphone Satfinder pro says it's 154.9. That's a big difference.

And what about this... which side of the red marker is the actual elevation? I suppose it would be the left...or the middle?



Is it possible that Direct has tightened up the angle at which you find the 101? Anyone else having more trouble?

[2oldman]

wires wrote:
LNB-less dish setups are cheap on the auction sites so I'd say give that a try.

I have. My dish (foldable arm) is brand-new from tv4rv.

[wires]

I had a similar issue a few months ago. I use a DirectV AIM 1.5 meter and it's usually a cinch to align the dish and get several 100s on the 101.

Something changed though since I'd need to make multiple attempts to get it aligned and even then it was only decent, nowhere near as good as normal. I had a spare LNB and swapped that and tried new cables and it wasn't any better.

The dish and arm looked fine but out of desperation I purchased new ones. After that it was easy to align, just like before.

The moral of the story (for me anyway) was that a minor bend or twist in the dish or LNB that isn't visible can have a significant impact. The new dish/lnb that I purchased had a different mounting than the old setup (2 tabs & 2 bolts versus 4 bolts) so I don't know if it was the dish or arm that was bent in the old one.

LNB-less dish setups are cheap on the auction sites so I'd say give that a try.

[2oldman]

Bill.Satellite wrote:
If something has changed, it has changed in your setup or procedure.

And nothing has, except my age. It's a puzzler.

[Bill_Satellite]

The satellites have not moved and the footprints of those satellites have not moved. If something has changed, it has changed in your setup or procedure.

[2oldman]

joebedford wrote:
Cable connectors going bad?

That's always a possibility. Thanks.

My dish is brand-new so the arm is not likely a problem.

[joebedford]

Cable connectors going bad?

[Belgique]

I had that issue and finally determined that the arm had a bend that was not obvious. I found it the hard way by buying a new arm. A long time ago it was the reflector that had distorted, also imperceptible. Just yesterday I was getting 772 and finally relaized that I had a bad coax connector that would intermittently not pass the signal.

[2oldman]

azrving wrote:
With all your money maybe you need an upgrade. ??

lol.. yeah maybe. I've always kind of enjoyed setting it up, especially those times when I put it up and it's on the signal already, just needing minor tweaking.

I don't understand why it's getting so much more fussy. I replaced the dish thinking the old one has taken too many falls. I guess the only other device it could be is the LNB.

It just seems like this stuff should either work or it doesn't.

[FlatBroke]

When the roofers screws my DirecTv dish up I went up and found It wasn’t leveled I fixed that. It would show 95 but would quit when it got a not too heavy rain. Seeing how I fell off my roof on the last voyage to adjust it I called the pro. Took him quite awhile to get all adjustments correct. Had no outages, even in a snowstorm, sense then.

[azrving]

Huumm. Mine just sits up there and goes Rrrrrrrr, Buuurrrrr, Whirrrrrr . With all your money maybe you need an upgrade. ??

[CA_Traveler]

I'd be surprised if anything changed with DTV in terms of aiming and reception, just way to many fixed dishes.

But DTV doesn't reveal very much. Apparently going to replace 103 and the SD 101 situation is clear as mud.

I would assume you would the center of the red mark and then fine tune? I'd go with the DTV azimuth. Any compass device like a smartphone is subject to magnetic variation and deviation let alone basic accuracy. A good compass might help but it's also subject to variation and deviation.

[CA_Traveler]

No change for my RF Mogul, power on to locked in 4 minutes. :B

Mayge time for a good meter.:@

Considered getting the TV4RV heavy duty combo package for $500. And then maybe the meter for $300, but couldn't justify if for a few trees. :S