Winegard Trav'ler Directv

[ss573]

I'm currently in Alaska and my dish cannot lock onto any satellite. DW and I are traveling with another couple who have a Motosat dish that IS able to get most of the sats.

My question is:

Is there a special setting NOT shown in the manual specific to Alaska??

Thanks in advance.

[az99]

SCVJeff wrote:
Or tell em' about the Nickel trick.. 🙂

Yea then they can include it on their site as their solution like they did with the SWM fix. 🙂

[SCVJeff]

Or tell em' about the Nickel trick.. 🙂

[Bill_Satellite]

ss573 wrote:
Thanks for the suggestions. Watching the antenna search I was certain it was not searching low enough. The Motosat has no problem and since it's software controlled I was hoping for a solution using the controller but I guess it's just not possible.

I think I'll pose the question to Winegard and see what they say.

Thanks again !!

I'll be back in the lower 48 in a couple of weeks so its moot at this point.

Never hurts to ask 🙂

Happy Camping All !!

There's no real need to call Winegard. There is no software solution available with the Trav'ler to get it to search lower. You could call them and suggest they make this option available, however.

[pigman1]

Yeah, I'm the guy that started the nickle thread. We've been able to get DirecTV on the Trav'ler in Valdez and as far north as Glennallen as long as we can see the necessary satellites around the mountains. With a nickel in the antenna/LNB arm pinch point, we use a separate power switch to the Trav'ler controller to cut power when the antenna starts to ID the individual satellites. If it does not see all satellites the antenna will continue to search and cycle, so you need to cut it off when you get the satellites you can see. Going to a manual search to only see 101 works too. The Trav'ler will only tune to about 18 degrees above the horizon and even in Valdez the birds are 12 or so degrees, so the nickle is needed to allow the dish to get that low. We've use that trick with 2 Allegro Buses, and 3 separate trips up, so it's repeatable and not just a quirk that only worked once.

[ss573]

Thanks for the suggestions. Watching the antenna search I was certain it was not searching low enough. The Motosat has no problem and since it's software controlled I was hoping for a solution using the controller but I guess it's just not possible.

I think I'll pose the question to Winegard and see what they say.

Thanks again !!

I'll be back in the lower 48 in a couple of weeks so its moot at this point.

Never hurts to ask 🙂

Happy Camping All !!

[Bill_Satellite]

The idea is to tape 2 nickles to the base of the antenna where the arms contact the base (labeled pinch point) and then stow the antenna. This will "trick" the antenna into allowing it to point to a lower elevation. I have only heard this reported and have no idea of the actual results. If that works but it still won't point low enough you can try 2 nickles.
If the signal from the 101 satellite is blocked it will not lock even if other satellites can be found.
I would recommend that you go into the users setup menu and change the setting from Multi-Sat to 101. This will give you the best chance of receiving a strong signal from the primary satellite and you only lose the HD.

[nomad297]

docj wrote:
I can't speak to the the OP's Alaska issue, but by comparison we're in Halifax NS (44.6N 63.6W) and are able to get DirecTV with a Trav'ler without a problem. We're not nearly as far north, but we're way east of the satellite position so the dish is pointed quite low.

Where you are, the elevation should be around 27 degrees. Where the OP is, the elevation should be somewhere around 10 degrees. I'm surprised the dish doesn't go down to 10.

Bruce

[docj]

I can't speak to the the OP's Alaska issue, but by comparison we're in Halifax NS (44.6N 63.6W) and are able to get DirecTV with a Trav'ler without a problem. We're not nearly as far north, but we're way east of the satellite position so the dish is pointed quite low.

[SCVJeff]

Several years ago there was someone that had the same problem with a Travler and they decided that the mechanics were not able to tilt far enough into the horizon. So what they said they did was somehow affix a Nickel as a spacer to the LNB arm, so the arm is now the width of a Nickel from fully extended, and that supposedly gets the reflector high enough to work.. I don't remember how they held it in there because you need to let the dish do a full scan so you just can't place it up there, but he said it worked.

[diazr2]

You will find it very hard to get a Direct TV signal from Alaska specially if your in the Kenai Peninsula. I have seen some folks do it but their dish is pointed almost into the ground. Your just up so high that it is very hard to see the direct dish satellite from that hemisphere.