Winegard Travler Owners Manual 72 Sat

[az99]

I have the SK3005 Travler and can't get the 72º sat in manual mode. I can get 61 and 82. Either of those locks in within 10 minutes. There ABSOLUTELY/POSITIVELY in nothing blocking the view. I have let it run up to 50 minutes.

Has anyone ever been able to pickup the 72 sat? Which one is it? AMC6 at 72 or Nimiq 5 at 72.7? I know they only use whole numbers in the manual search.

Thanx

[Bill_Satellite]

I have that understanding of the situation as I have asked the question previously of Winegard and told that the 72 setting for 72.7 and the Trav'ler would not work. Up until a few days ago I worked for Winegard and was one of their tech. trainers.

[az99]

Bill.Satellite wrote:
The way I understand it, the 72 in the menu is not 72.7 and that's why it might see 72 but cannot identify it or lock to it.

Don't ask Winegard. They don't know either. I asked that question to the tech that represented himself as an expert with the Travler. He did not know there is a 72º sat and a72.7º sat.

After the amount of time I have spent trying to get a real answer from them, I don't believe the 72 menu option ever worked from the day they released the Travler. It never came up until recently when people started to want the 72.7 sat for Dish HD. They just won't admit it.

[az99]

TechWriter wrote:

az99 wrote:
is there any way to manually move the dish? I was wondering if there is anything in the diagnostics?

Do yourself a favor -- if you really want to receive sat 72.7, buy a portable open-faced dish or an automatic like a Pathway X2.

Pathway does not support a Hopper. And I was looking for an automatic solution.

[TechWriter]

Bill.Satellite wrote:
The way I understand it, the 72 in the menu is not 72.7 and that's why it might see 72 but cannot identify it or lock to it.

I don't think so because the Traveler manual also refers to sat 61.5 as just "61".

[Bill_Satellite]

The way I understand it, the 72 in the menu is not 72.7 and that's why it might see 72 but cannot identify it or lock to it.

[TechWriter]

az99 wrote:
is there any way to manually move the dish? I was wondering if there is anything in the diagnostics?

Do yourself a favor -- if you really want to receive sat 72.7, buy a portable open-faced dish or an automatic like a Pathway X2.

[Bill_Satellite]

No, there are no manual adjustments available in the controller. There is a manual raise or manual lower option but without any ability to control how much. It would move too far in either direction before you could pull the plug to stop it.

[az99]

Bill- Once it is locked on a sat, lets say 82, is there any way to manually move the dish? I was wondering if there is anything in the diagnostics?

[Bill_Satellite]

This particular case, the OP has a DirecTV antenna and is trying to lock onto a Dish satellite.
Otherwise, the most likely reason would be a blockage of some kind or if you are traveling to the extremes of the satellite footprint where have one LNB focused directly to one particular satellite might give better results. It might also be able to be used for the reception of some FTA programming available in special instances. Mostly, it is an unused option.

[Belgique]

Serious question and not trying to be a wise guy: when would one want to do a manual search in normal usage? Eg, if in trees would doing this help bring in some channels, maybe? Just curious if it is a tool that can be used in certain situations.

[Bill_Satellite]

The center LNB is used for all manual pointing options. The LNB to the right of center picks up the satellites to the left and the left LNB picks up the satellites to the right. So, if you are looking at the lens of the LNB itself (perspective from the behind the dish looking toward the LNB), the center is 119, the right is 110 and the left is 129. If you point to 82 with the center 72.7 would come in on the right LNB which has a 10 degree offset when it needs 10.7 but it might get you close. You would then likely need to cover the 2 unused LNB's and do a check switch in hopes it would actually pull in the 72.7 without seeing 82.

[az99]

Bill.Satellite wrote:
No one makes an auto pointing open faced antenna that will lock to the EA satellites. I don't know why but I suspect it's due to a lack of demand.

I realize that. That is why I and obviously others are trying to use the manual mode to connect to the 72 sat to at least get all the HD programming except locals.

I believe it is just a glitch in the software as the antenna gets to where 72 should be and hangs on "Identify Sat" for a while and then just starts spinning again.

Do you know which of the 3 LNBFs on the SK-1000 they use to lock onto the manually entered locations? If you manually go to 82 and they use the center LNBF (119), would it not be pretty close for the outer LNBF (normally the 129) to be on 72.
I know it would not work everywhere but around here we only use 3º of skew. I would try it but I don't have the conversion parts yet.

[Bill_Satellite]

No one makes an auto pointing open faced antenna that will lock to the EA satellites. I don't know why but I suspect it's due to a lack of demand.

[az99]

Bill.Satellite wrote:

Thank You very much for that link. That is exactly what I was trying to accomplish.

Really? That's all you want to do? Use an auto-pointing antenna to manually lock onto a satellite? If so, I profusely apologize!

No. I want the auto-pointing antenna to automatically lock onto a satellite that is part of their standard menu in the unit.

It was explained in detail at the beginning of this thread. It is just a band aid solution since Winegard is so far behind the times as to what Dish is doing with the EA sats. But maybe they can't find the 72 sat otherwise it is just an EA LNBF and program change.

I will post what Winegard says if they ever respond to either of my emails.