Sounds good to me, the skew was set and I found 82. Im lookin forward to just get back and hooking it up for the 91!

Thank you for alllll your help EVERYONE!!

Brandon

I cant remember 100% but isnt the 81 bird a couple of degrees lower than the 91 bird?

-I have a 2700 receiver
-18 inch dish on my house. LNB has two coax lines coming out, but from what I read, it is still a single LNB and can only be tuned to one satellite. Correct?
-It's currently locked into 91 at about 80%
-Check switch says there is no switch detected


-I bought another 18 inch dish to put up at the lake. Same idea, one LMB, but two coax connections.
-Took the receiver up to the lake
-I cannot get signal from 91.
-I can get 93% signal on 82, but receiver says "wrong satellite"
-Can only get a couple of channels when it is on 82

I read that 91 is close to 82, but I messed around with it for hours with no success. I brought the receiver back home , connected it and it works fine.
Am I doing something fundamentaly wrong?? Looking for advice, I want to watch football when I'm on holidays!! :confused::confused:

When you are hitting 82, you need to move the Dish to the right and slightly down. Mark the mast and collar where you get 82, then rotate about 1/8". (Standing behind the Dish). This is of course if the mast is perfectly plumb.

Thanks. I read it was supposed to be to the right and down just a little. I did try it that several times, but didn't have any luck. I wasn't being too picky with how plumb my post was though. Also, I'm very limited where I can put it because of trees, so I might have to get the chainsaw out and do some trimming. When we go up next time, I'll make sure to set the post plumb where I was able to get the good 82 signal and try it again.

I just wanted to make sure I wasn't doing something wrong from a hardware standpoint.

if you get the elevation, and compass direction and set those ahead of time you can look from the bottom edge of the dish up through the white plastic cap of the lnb ( as though you could see through it ) and that should be close to where the satellite is in the sky. if you see blue sky you should be good to try aiming. if you see leaves and limbs, get out the chainsaw.

Yammerhead,

I think you will find that the process goes much easier if you ensure that your mounting tube is both plumb and level.

I firstly lag bolt the bracket to the house in the top hole and use a level on the side of the mounting pole to get it plumb. I then mark this position and install the second lag bolt.

I now bring he pole up to level (by the eye) and then use a level on the top of the pole to make sure it is, in fact level. Now you can tighten the bolts on the side of the tube near the base, to lock it in.

A double check is to put the level on the top of the pole and rotate it 90 degrees to check the side to side level and for/aft level. if the bubble is in the middle in both directions, you are good to move onto the next step.

The above sounds a bit complicated, but it isn't and it will save you allot of time when tuning the dish.

To find 91W first, install the dish with the correct azimuth (elevation) and skew (check for the correct settings for your location) connect the cables to the 91W lnb) and tune the satellite in.

In my experience, I have found it very easy to tune in the Bell satellites if the mounting pole is level and plumb.

I wouldn't take the chainsaw out until you have completed the above steps without success. Keep in mind that the signal comes down from a higher angle than the angle described by lnb arm extending from the dish. In other words, if you stand behind the dish and look along the arm and just barely see the tops of trees, you are OK, because the signal is coming down from a higher angle. If you are looking into the side of a tree, you either need to move the dish or cut down the tree.

grover

Lonnie, I think your advise re looking through the lnb is sound with the old large C band dishes as the signal came directly to the dish and was concentrated on the lnb in the center. In the case of dtv dishes, the signal is offset, hitting the dish from a higher angle than the lnb and being directed down to it.

I think you are part correct though; if you know the correct elevation, in degrees and have a tool to measure the elevation, you can follow this line to see if you are in the clear.

it works for most offset dishes, it will be within a few degrees but that's about all you need since you want a bit of elbow room around the trees anyhow to account for the fresnel zone and you don't want to be installing the dish with only a few inches clearance above the trees, they will be over that height next spring.

i should mention a trick that some of us installers sometimes use. if you know the offset angle of your dish, you can subtract that from the elevation setting for the satellite and then set an angle meter ( available at most any hardware store ) on the arm of the dish and set the elevation for that angle you calculated. for example where i live a 20cm bell dish with lnbs for 91 and 82 would be set at 25 degrees elevation. the offset angle for that dish is about 16 degrees if i remember correctly. so you would take 25 minus 16 and get 9 degrees. you could set an angle meter on the arm of the dish and then adjust the elevation setting until you read 9 degrees on the meter. this is great for those masts that aren't perfectly plumb because no matter how far off level the mast is, the arm of the dish will always be at 9 degrees. it's a little more difficult if you have a skew angle set off from 90. the angle meter might have a magnetic base but with it leaning forward the weighted pointer in the meter might get stuck against the side, so you might have to hold the meter on top of one edge of the arm. if you don't know the offset angle of your dish or even what the elevation should be you could just set the angle meter on someone else's dish ( as long as they didn't live more than about 25 miles away ) and then go home and set your dish for the same angle.

So, I set the post and made sure it was very, very close to plumb. I then mounted the arm and then used a level to it to make sure it was perfectly vertical on both axis. Put the dish on and I could instantly dial in 82 with 95%. It is very strong and stays strong through quite a bit of adjustment. If I go down a couple of degrees and to the right (west) a little, 92 never shows up at all. Doh! When I am on 82, I get 119, 207, 254, 260, 516, 919, 925, 927, 935, 937. I noticed that the dish seems to be turned to the east much more than my neighbors. Is it possible I'm on another satellite? The only other signal I seem to pick up on that is a long ways over to the west and it is very weak. It won't register on the reciever, but my satellite finder needle will jump whe I hit it.

So, I set the post and made sure it was very, very close to plumb. I then mounted the arm and then used a level to it to make sure it was perfectly vertical on both axis. Put the dish on and I could instantly dial in 82 with 95%. It is very strong and stays strong through quite a bit of adjustment. If I go down a couple of degrees and to the right (west) a little, 92 never shows up at all.
Since 91 was the first Bell sat, most of the "how do you get a sat signal" instructions are based on finding 91 first, i.e.:
1. Make sure post is plumb;
2. Set skew on dish for your location;
3. Put ONE LNB ONLY in the 91 slot of the LNB holder (if you're behind the dish, the 91 LNB holder is the one on the left).
4. Run "check switch" on receiver with no cable attached (this clears internal settings) then connect receiver directly to LNB, i.e. no switches.
5. Set elevation for your area according to installation manual, then put dish on post and slowly pan left to right until you get a signal for 91.
6. Peak signal by panning left/right, then up/down, then tighten dish down.
7. Install second LNB in the 82 slot, then connect cables from both LNBs to whatever switch you're using (SW21, SW44, etc), and connect the receiver to the switch.
8. Run "check switch" again and you should have signal for both sats if you've done all of the above properly.

If I go down a couple of degrees and to the right (west) a little,

There is a problem straight off the bat. You need to go UP, not down.

Hi I brought my old receiver (4100 I think) up to the cottage (Pembroke area) on my vacation and proceded to setup a new BEV dual head dish (with a single LNBF in the 91 socket). Clear line of sight. Mast was plumb. Azimuth set to 206-210 from magnetic North. Elevation set to 36 as per guide. I didn't set the skew, just left it at 90 initially but later set it to 100 as part of my troubleshooting. For the life of me I simply could not get even 1% signal after hours of frustrating adjustments. I had no problem locking on to a satelite with the elevation set at 45 however the receiver always reported "unknown satellite". I brought my receiver over to my neighbour and hooked it up to his dish..no problem, it downloaded new software and started pulling channels immediately.

I gave up after 2 days of fiddling as this exercise in futility was ruining my vacation. When I got home I hooked up just my LNBF to my neighbours dish (his is the exact same as the one I bought for the cottage) and bingo it works fine so now I can rule that piece out. However, I noticed that his elevation setting was at 45 which should be wrong (according to the lookup angle calcs it should be 36) assuming his mast is plumb. So I got a tiny level and sure enough his mast IS plumb....what's up with that I ask myself...now I'm just annoyed...does anyone have any sage advice? much apprecated.
Ken

In my experience, the elevation angles in the Bell manuals are completely off. What has always worked for me is to find another Bell dish nearby and find out the elevation setting on the dish (bring binoculars if you can't get close ;)). Set your dish for the same elevation and try to get the signal by panning left and right. Once you (hopefully) get the signal, you can then try to dial it in by making slight adjustments to elevation.

Couple of other things:

- you still need to set skew even if you're only using a single LNB at the 91 slot.
- you should try clearing the receiver's memory before each attempt to find the satellite by running "check switch" with no cables attached. I have found that this will often resolve the high signal strength, but "wrong satellite" issue.
- also on the "wrong satellite" issue - make sure that the "91 satellite" box on the satellite signal strength menu page is checked, not the "82 satellite" box.

thank you...

Anyone live in northwest calgary want to come over and help me find 82? Or know someone who will do it for money? I have 91 at 85%, can't get 82. Tried everything.

As a new customer why not pay the $99 for the installation.?

Otherwise there is lots of info on this forum.

If you would care to explain what you have connected right now, I am sure myself and others will try to help before you throw the Dish as a giant frisbee.

How many LNBF's?
Switch's, if any.?
Type of receiver.?

I too can't find 82 !
I've got 85% on 91 skew set elevation set using an inline signal meter coming up 0 %
I've tried a SW21 SW 44 I've run check switch a dozen times.
It keeps showing an error on 82.
I don't know where to go from here!
John

If you follow these steps, you should not have an issue finding 82:

1) Ensure that your mast is plumb - if it isn't, you will have problems, guaranteed.

2) Set the skew for your location

3) Using only one LNB in the 91 slot, find the 91 satellite and fine tune it.

4) Add the second LNB, you should automatically have 82 if you have followed the above steps.

5) Then, and only then, add your switch and run a check switch on your receiver.

If you can't get a signal, you could have a dead LNB or you do not have line of sight for the 82 satellite.

Also, remember that most transponders on 82 are now 8PSK ... only the HD receivers (not 6000) can pick up those signals.