Setup Problems

[dbbent]

Thank you so much for your help. I now realize most of my troubleshooting headaches are self inflicted.

Okay. I have voltage from the receiver.
I have voltage coming out of the electronics box
I don't have any voltage coming out of the thin coax cable going to the LNB.

Am I right in assuming the cable is bad?. I did check both cables going to the LNB, no voltage

If there is nothing left to check, where do I buy the small cable from the electronics box to the LNB and what do you call it. Since it is a mobile satellite, i assume regular coax is too stiff to use as a replacement.

Thanks again for your help.

Dave

[Winegard Tech Help]

Dave,

If you have power coming off the "To LNBF" jack of the electronics but are missing power at the LNB on the same cable, then yes, I would say that minicoax has failed.

You can order that cable from our sales department. The part number is 3753259 and I believe it retails for $9.99.

[dbbent]

I installed the new electronics box to LNB cable. The dish located the satellite right away and worked just like it was supposed. Thank you all for walking me through experience, I know understand how this dish wros. thank you again.

Last question, after the satellite setup was all done and working fine, the "washing machine" sound continued for about 5 minutes. I thought something was wrong so I turned off the power to the dish. The dish continued to work fine the rest of the weekend. I think I didn't wait long enough. Am I right that the after the setup, the washing machine continues for 6 minutes and if there are no changes in the setup (the vehicle is not moving), the dish then stops fine tuning (washing machine sound), and all is quiet.

After the dish locks on the satellite, should I turn off the electricity to the dish to save power?

Is that the way it works?

Thanks again for all your help.

Dave

[Winegard Tech Help]

dbbent,

Glad to hear that cable solved your problems.

In the case of turning your power off, it's up to you, but you will want to keep in mind if you turn it off once it locks to satellite 101 (it's primary satellite) you will not be able to toggle over to satellite 119. This won't cause too many issues but may cause you to not receive local programming if DirecTV is broadcasting it from 119 in your area.

The "washing machine" experience you are talking about is completely normal. That is what we call the conical search, which allows the satellite to track as you are driving down the road.

If you need anything else, please let me know.

[dbbent]

I want to thank you for walking me through the problems. It really is simple. It is working fine. I cannot emphasize enough the procedure setup is linear and until you have it up and running the first time, you must always start from over from the beginning when troubleshooting. In other words, if you set it to multiswitch and don't complete the setup procedure, you have to go to square one. I park the dish under a big tree, so I would have to run it out on the street with the generator running. When I couldn't get it to work, I would turn off the generator and park it under the tree. So, when I would go to trouble shoot again by bringing the Rv onto the street and starting the generator, I figured that since I had already set the receiver to multiswitch, I should be getting power to the LNB. Wrong, I had to start all over again. Painful lesson. Once I replaced the LNB cable and completed the receiver setup and actually got it working, it stayed on multiswitch. Like I said, it is linear and you have to go the route as specified or nothing works.

One last question, if I leave the dish on, after the washing machine stops (6 minutes) how much pwoer does the dish draw. that is, how many amps is it drawing from the battery?

thanks again

Dave

[Bill Adams]

The antenna will not draw enough power to speak of while locked on, but if you are a Dish customer, every time you change channels requiring a satellite change the antenna will draw a bit of power to make that move. Mostly the antenna will remain stationary but you would not want to have the unit connected to a small battery like an engine starting battery but should have no issues at all with a standard house battery setup.