An SW44, does need all 4 inputs, 91 odd, 91 even, 82 odd & 82 even. These are always the same polarity, the SW44, takes the request from the recer for say, 82 odd, coming in on port #3 and routes it to input port 2a, etc. This way, all 4 receivers can get the same, or different polarity, when required.

An SW21, because it only has 1 output can switch, internaly, to get 91 odd or 91 even, from the line attached to the 91 LNBF. Likewaise for the 82 side.

When an installer puts up the 20" (51cm) Dish, the instructions are, to set the skew, even if the customer is only getting 91 degree signals. This results in exactly what you found, adding the second LNBF and lines to a switch, gets you 82. It shows that the installer followed the procedures set out by Bell.

Anyway in this situation I did not have an installer since we are kind of in the boonies. So what would you recommend my best option is so I can get my 6000 ird and 2700 running? Am i going to have to run the 4 wires or can I install this SW44 by the dish, have the 4 going in, 2 out and have one wire go directly to the HD ird and the other go to the 2700,and if i decide to add a basic ird in the future couldn't have a small splitter from the one going to the 2700 and take 2 outs in the future? Originally that is what |I had here was 2 2700 models and one cable in from 91 and went to a little plain splitter with 2 out 1 in and they bothe worked fine...with no connection problems ever. I will call today to the source to see if they can get me a SW21. If they do will i beable to do the following:

keep the 2 cables coming in one from the 82 and one from the 91 and in my mech room band run the 91 through a 1 in 2 out plain old splitter and have one come out to one in on the SW21 and the other go straight to the 2700. Then the cable from the 82 inn the other input of the SW22 and then the out of the SW22 to my 6000 HD ird?

Any help on this would be excellent.Thanks in advance.

Cheers

You cannot do what you are describing. "Plain" splitters do not work with satellite. You may get it working for a short time, but as soon as you have more than one receiver on the same LNB, you will have issues.

If you need more than 2 inputs for receivers, you will have to use the SW44.

If you have a 6000 receiver, you will not get HD on it anyway, so don't worry about that one.

is there a name on the dish? as a general rule, you want the the lnb's on the dish to match the type of dish they were made for. for example lnb's made for an oval dish will have an oval shaped opening on the feedhorn. if the mounting is not the same the lnb may not be pointing into the center of the dish and is instead "seeing" the wall behind the dish

What a great forum. I've read all of the posts in this thread and gained a lot of knowledge. I'm currently getting steady 82 signal (80-90) and low unstable 91 signal (0-50). I'll attempt to move my dish to the right and slightly down like somebody suggested.

My question is to do with my skew angle. Most dish alignment calculators are telling me to use a skew of 12deg. That's a crazy angle and I read here somebody said to use 96.4 for the GTA. I'll be trying 96.4 first...but is this 12deg referring to something else? If it is, why don't these calcs reference proper dish skew angles?

96 is what I set my dishes sku to, and the elevation at about 42, to start. I search for 91 first, get it to about 95-100% on t11, 82 is always 100% at that point. Remember, SSW and make sure the top part of the arm that the dish sits on is at 90 degrees, use a level.

So as far as 6000 I meant 6000 series and it is a 6131 and does have HD. I ended up running a couple more cables fro the mech room up a interior wall into the attic and out to the dish. Hooked the wires up and the power inserter all in the mech room and am watching highlights from the Edmonton/Calgary game as we speak. It is finally working beautiful and yes the 4 cables definbately help from the dih..LOL. All good now.Thanks guys.

Cheers

chrischris; As manualj43 says, for the GTA, a skew between 96 and 100 is fine.

bluearc74; Glad to hear it. Now sit back and enjoy, hopefully.....

My question is to do with my skew angle. Most dish alignment calculators are telling me to use a skew of 12deg. That's a crazy angle and I read here somebody said to use 96.4 for the GTA. I'll be trying 96.4 first...but is this 12deg referring to something else? If it is, why don't these calcs reference proper dish skew angles?

The calculator is probably telling you to skew 12 degrees from 90. In other words, 12+90 = 102 degrees.

After a few hours, I finally hit 91...but cant get it passed 60 strength. My 82 is above 90 which is great.

Is 60 signal strength on 91 good enough to download whatever firmware/software I need from Bell? How long will the download take? I know 60 str will be susceptible to drop because of rain/snow/etc...but will my image be clean if it stays at 60 strength? One last question, is sat 82 for HD channels only?

Sorry for all the questions. Thanks again for the replies.

60 should get you a picture. It is digital, so if you get a picture at 60, it will be just as good as at 90.

60 is still too low for consistant reception.

82 has International, some West Coast locals and HD.

Actually, some transponders come in at a little lower signal, i think 6,7 and/or 8 are the lowest, on 91. So if you're at 60 on t11, then you're probably gonna miss channels that come in with 6, 7, and/or 8.

I dont remember if it was all 3 or which two of t6, 7 and 8 that appear the lowest.

but i think you're still good to download firmware.

Sorry, that doesn't match my experience. I can't see that as being relevant to the issue.

A LNB with a square connection fits fine in the D-shaped bracket and works just fine as well as the physical aspects are the same. The issue you really are talking about is the arm the LNB mounts onto. The 20" oval dish is designed for a y-adapter which extends the arm length to place the LNB in the correct focal point for that dish. This has nothing to do with the connector shape on teh arm or LNB.

I tried again to fine tune my 91 signal with no luck. Still stuck at 60. I guess I'll pay somebody to do it. I gave it 4 days of hard work (in rain and the dark) to attempt this.

Thanks again everyone for your help.

IIRC my 6131 gave low signal strength readings until it downloaded the firmware and was authorized. Maybe try that first chrischris.

Authorization has zero effect on signal strength. Likewise for a firmware update, although they could alter the displayed value as that is firmware controlled but have never done so to my knowledge.

Interceptor actually raises a valid point. I just downloaded 8 x 6131's a week ago, they were connected to my "spare" Dish, the signal strength was in the high 60's. I never even thought about it until now, I just thought the Dish had moved slightly since I last used it, some 2 years ago.

I just connected a 4100 to a feed from it and the stremgth is 85%, now I do not have the 6131's to try them again but I think he could be correct.

Different receiver models report the strength differently. This is either due to chipset differences or display differences based on firmware changes.

The best example of this is the DishNet units (the 301 I believe) that the signal scale goes to 110%.

I have a 3100 and a 5900 on the same dish/lnb and using 2 cables of the same length and quality. When viewing the signal strength on the same sat and transponder the % is different.

Signal strength as indicated via the receiver can be used as a reference only. i.e. it is not an "official" value. So 85% for example is menaingless other than being a relatively strong signal.

A firmware update can change the way this information is displayed for example changing the scale from 100% to 110% but the actual signal strength received by the tuner chip/hardware remains constant.

Here's someone else who ran into the same problem and had the same solution from the 6131 thread, just to show I'm not completely talking out of my hat.

bcowboy7
Rookie

Join Date: Nov 2008
Posts: 1

Default Old Firmware
I had exactly the same problem with a new 6131 last week. The problem is the firmware is not up to date. The firmware should be V166. My 6131 had 65%, locked name not acquired even though I was getting 100% on both satelites using my older 6141 on the same connection. Speaking with Bell Tech Support, my 6131 managed to download the new firmware even with 65% signal strength. So I suspect yours will do the same even with only 45%. Once the new firmware was in, the signal strenght went to 98% and 100% on the 2 satelites.

and I agree it probably doesn't increase the signal strength, just the reading but it may lead people to think they have a problem, when they maybe don't.