Ok…spent three hours today trying to get a signal for DirecTV and have so far failed miserably. While searching I did find a satellite signal in an area of the sky totally apart from where DirecTV says I should be pointing my antenna. It was indeed an unrelated satellite that helped me not at all but it did at least tell me my antenna (dish) and pickups are working (signal strength meter registered a signal so it is not a connection issue).
From where my antenna is presumably supposed to point it has a clear line in a straight line off of the dish. So (my main question) is what angle does the signal come to the dish at? If it from a high angle (coming more “down” on the dish) then I have issues with tree. If it is a straight shot in then I am flummoxed.
Other people in my neighborhood have it setup and they are apparently working and from seemingly worse positions than I have if the straight in method is the deal. The only difference I can see is if it is coming down from a high angle in which case their lack of trees by them see them through where I am foiled.
I thought all DirecTV satellites are on the low southern horizon (from Chicago) being in a geostationary orbit over the equator which lends to my belief it should be a straight in shot (for a high angle the satellites would need to be above Texas or something).
Also, if anyone has tips on how to do this please chime in with advice. Starting to get more than a little pissed off over all of this.
Humm. Well, my dish points south at what looks like the tops of the big trees in the next yard, and I get a signal, so that seems to say it’s coming down at a fairly sharp angle.
I seem to remember that Directv has some advice on their website about setting up the dish. Did you try there?
If worse comes to worst you might have to call Radio Shack to set it up.
By the way, if you get snow, make sure you can reach it to bang on it or wipe it out. Not like me, who has to hang out the upstairs window and bang on it with an extended pole. (I asked them to set it up lower but they said they couldn’t).
First, align the dish to the proper azimuth using your compass. You can do this with decent accuracy by aligning the LNB “arm” with the compass. Once you’ve got this set as accurately as you can, lock down the dish so that it can’t turn. Now you can adjust the elevation. Note that the LNB is offset from the center of the dish and points to the dish center at an angle. You’ll want to point the dish so the satellite is at the same angle above the centerline (in other words, the dish will appear to point below where the satellite actually is). Using their table as a guide, start just below the elevation angle they list for your location, and SLOWLY tilt the dish up, until someone watching the signal strength meter sees a signal. Now, you can fine-tune both the elevation and azimuth for maximum signal level.
Spray a little Pam cooking spray on it. The snow shouldn’t stick.
I used to sell satellites, and this is what we recommended to our customers. Some also can use a silicone spray, but if your signal is iffy, I wouldn’t use this method.
Too bad that you’re on DirecTV and in Chicago… I’m with Dish and in San Francisco. Othewise I might be able to work my magic again - About a year ago, I moved, and at the new place, plopped the semi-portable dish (mounted on about 100 pounds of concrete in a large plastic flower pot, since I wasn’t allowed to drill holes into the building) on the back deck, eyeballed it with the neighbors, and had a signal in the low 90’s without even trying to aim it.
Was this a move, or an entirely new installation? As for finding the angles, the satellite receiver has a menu item called “point dish” or something like that. If it’s like the Dish system, you plug in your zip code, and the thing displays the axis, (for multi-satellite pickup on a single dish) azimuth (compass heading) and elevation. (tilt from vertical) Set the axis rotation and forget it - if the receiver says to set it at 56, do just that and don’t touch it again. There ought to be a scale on the dish mounting bracket for elevation. Oh, be absolutely sure that the mounting pole is absolutely plumb (vertical) - if it’s tilted, you can wiggle the dish all day long at the southern sky and not find the satellites.
After they installed my system I got a signal for about a week then it started to go in and out.
I tried realigning it myself but I got nowhere. It also appeared that it was aiming over some tree tops.
When the company guys came out to adjust it they said it was the trees that were the problem.
They remounted it to a higher place on my roof with a tripod and the signal has been perfect ever since.