GRRRRR----Dish guy was here for TWO hours setting up satellite. he drives away and took the signal with him - RV-Dreams Community Forum

suse1023 · RV-Dreams Family Member

GRRRRR----Dish guy was here for TWO hours setting up satellite. he drives away and took the signal with him

GENECOP · RV-Dreams Family Member

Welcome to our world....TV struggles continue here for us and it seems like no one knows about AV Stuff....Sounds like what just happened to us...

Talensnana · RV-Dreams Family Member

Depending on what receiver you have, you need to go into the menu and find setup and signal strength and see if you have any signal coming down. If you have signal it is a "Receiver Problem." If you don't have signal then it is a loose cable or the satellite dish has moved.

suse1023 · RV-Dreams Family Member

it appears it is a satellite issue, as we are not able to get a signal from the satellite.
it's a brand new out of the box today winegard pathway x2 and naturally they are closed. no 24 hour tech support.
so tomorrow I will call them and see if they can help me reset the damn thing.
and maybe the tech guy will be able to fit us into his schedule this week, though he left here at almost seven pm to go do his fourth job of the day.
at 175 per service all and 4 calls a day I think I should have spent my money on tech classes!

Talensnana · RV-Dreams Family Member

we looked up the receiver and it is fully automatic. So one of two things probally happened- 1. The dish broke, or 2. Something is blocking the dish (such as a tree) from getting a signal. unplug the single coax cable to the dish. This will power it down and then try moving the dish towards the southern sky, and plug it back in. See if that works.

suse1023 · RV-Dreams Family Member

this morning I spoke with a service tech from winegard who had me unplug the cables from the outside of the camper and route them through the open door directly to the boxes.

we also moved the satellite dish in front of the camper to achieve this, and after ten minutes of satellite movement we had a picture and sound---YAY!!!!!!

I asked the service man what he thought and he said it could be the wiring in the camper is intermittent, in which case we need to run cables directly form the dome through a window, which I am loathe to do.

or it could be that we are in a slight hollow and the dome is having trouble finding the satellite.

so we managed to get the dome secured to the top of the rig so it has ultimate clearance to the south and replugged the cables back into the camper.
so far the satellite is still searching, but earlier it took a good ten minutes for it to lock on, so i'll wait a bit longer.

if it doesn't lock on i'll unplug from the rig and try the direct cable route again. if that works we'll know it's the camper wiring and go from there.

maybe I should go to tech school, lol!

Talensnana · RV-Dreams Family Member

If you need more help let me know. My DH is a tech engineer.

suse1023 · RV-Dreams Family Member

thanks, that's very generous of you!

with the dome on the camper roof and using the camper cable hookups we kept getting connection for ten seconds then gone, so now we have unplugged from the camper and are feeding cables directly through windows to the receiver boxes.
main box in living room is done, the cable to the bedroom is too short so dh is looking for a longer cable, he says he has one in a box in the basement. damn, he found another cable but had to connect the two together for the bedroom receiver box.

now I'm waiting another fifteen minutes to see what happens.

suse1023 · RV-Dreams Family Member

ok, I am officially stymied.

the satellite dome is on the roof, the cables run directly from it to the receiver boxes and I get ten seconds of tv and then signal loss again. it takes up to 30 minutes to regain the signal.

conditions here are howling wind and dirt, could that be the problem?

Talensnana · RV-Dreams Family Member

DH says the wind and dirt is most likely not the problem, unless it is moving the antenna. Usually the only weather condition that affects the dishes is heavy rain.

From the limited information he thinks that there is something in the dish antenna that is malfunctioning as it heats up.

Unhook the dish so it reboots. Before you reconnect it, put the receiver into the setup menu. Watch as you are searching for a signal, as the strength will go up and down. Once you get satellite back continue to watch the signal strength meter to see what it is doing. If it goes out again then when you call tech service be specific And say something like....

it took xxxx minutes to lock onto Sat #.... Once it did, the signal strength (stayed the same, went up and down, etc) for xxx # of minutes and then lost signal again.

good luck.

Patti

-- Edited by Talensnana on Wednesday 7th of May 2014 11:43:34 AM

suse1023 · RV-Dreams Family Member

YAY!!!!!!!!!!

two hours on the telephone with Dish service technicians, ultimately led to a Dish Doctor who eventually realized that I needed to upgrade to HD programming in order to access most of the channels we want.
additionally, we had to go to one receiver instead of two in order to access satellites 110, 119 and 129 in order to get local channels.
we can live without the secondary bedroom tv but if we want it we'll use the antenna for that tv and maybe get at least local channels on that. but honestly I'd prefer to use that space for towel storage, lol.

whew--dh is so happy and watching ncis already!

Talensnana · RV-Dreams Family Member

DH has a Channel 3 Demogulator which will send the satellite to your bedroom tv. You can buy one at RAdio Shack. he would be happy to help with any more info.

I am so glad you got it fixed....

Joe_Camper · RV-Dreams Family Member

OK, I'm soooo confused. What do we have to do to get service like we have in our S&B? While on the road, we want to be able to record two HD shows while watching another one live. I can do it now. Can I do it when I am FT?

Talensnana · RV-Dreams Family Member

not sure about with dish tv. We have direct tv and we have the genie. This allows us to record 5 shows and it works in motion also.

Joe_Camper · RV-Dreams Family Member

Talensnana wrote:
not sure about with dish tv. We have direct tv and we have the genie. This allows us to record 5 shows and it works in motion also.

Thanks. I see you are still not full timers so you are using that Genie in your S&B home, right? You mention that it works "in motion" so perhaps you take it with you? With Dish, we have the Hopper and can record several shows while watching another show live. However, when you go full time, can you take it with you? I haven't heard of anyone using a Genie or Hopper when full timers talk satellite. I guess I need to talk directly to the satellite providers. I'm guessing here, but I believe whatever you do, you will have to buy the receiver because they won't want one of their rental units in a house that is always on the move!

Talensnana · RV-Dreams Family Member

Yes we take out genie out of the house and we can take it on the road when we fulltime. We just had to have a address for their records. Once we go fulltime we will probally just use one of our kids address. The in motion uses a different satellite dish than some rvs have. It means as we go down the road we can have the tv on for the feathered kids to watch their Disney channel. We do not own our genie and have talked to them about when we travel. The biggest hassle is getting the locals when traveling.

Joe_Camper · RV-Dreams Family Member

Talensnana wrote:
Yes we take out genie out of the house and we can take it on the road when we fulltime. We just had to have a address for their records. Once we go fulltime we will probally just use one of our kids address. The in motion uses a different satellite dish than some rvs have. It means as we go down the road we can have the tv on for the feathered kids to watch their Disney channel. We do not own our genie and have talked to them about when we travel. The biggest hassle is getting the locals when traveling.

Kewl! I was thinking that we would be less than happy with the satellite arrangements on the road. Since we have a 5th wheel, we won't be trying to watch TV while in motion. However, there are times throughout the year when we want to record two shows at a time and watch a third show.

Joe_Camper · RV-Dreams Family Member

BTW, suse1023, I apologize for highjacking your thread. I should have started a new one, but was not thinking.

suse1023 · RV-Dreams Family Member

oh please don't worry, it's good to have all the info in one place I suspect.

am still having problems and we have an rv serviceman here now who is setting up the old fashioned antenna to see if that will work or not.

meanwhile I've been trying to get winegard tech support but I have to start from scratch each and every time I ask for help. I may just return the original satellite dome and try with a new one--I suspect the problem is with the satellite dome itself.