Question regarding Moving View MV3500A & Dish network

[mavarick]

I have the MV3500A that was orig inst in my 2003 MH. I recently inst Dish network at home and am now trying to get it to work in the MH using a VIP211K. I usually have no problem finding both 119 & 110, I can get a program guide most of the time and even a really good picture. The problem is I can’t keep the picture, meaning it keeps dropping out or losing the signal as if something is passing in front of the dish. It does this at least every 1-2 minutes. Sometimes the picture just freezes then returns, sometimes it is an error code that gets diplayed then it returns to the picture. The codes are different but usually 122 or 15. My satellite signals are usually 40 or better and even when up in the 60’s I still have the same problem. It does not matter how many times I move to different locations, the problem remains. I have tried calling Dish and talking with others with no solution. This is my first experience with satellite tv but I know it shouldn’t be this difficult. Are there any adjustments or tests that I can do to check the dish operation or narrow down the problem?
One other thing I did notice is that the receiver does not use cable going to the Tv, it is using RCA jacks, would this cause a problem?
Thanks for any help or suggestions.

[Winegard Tech Help]

mavarick,

If the point screen is consistently showing you a signal of higher than 40 (or even 60), the antenna is doing exactly what it should be doing.

If the signal on the screen is dropping out, you could have an issue with a connection or bad cable that is intermittently dropping voltage, the LNB could be intermittent (unlikely), or the receiver could be dropping the voltage intermittently.

If you do have signal consistently above 40 with no drop, something is wrong with the receiver box.

[mavarick]

Thanks for the reply. I usually have either 119 or 110 between 40 and 60 but not always both. It doesn’t seem to matter as I drop the signal (on the Tv) in all cases. The receiver is new in March.
When the signal at the Tv drops out it always freezes or shows an error code. I have never had an instance where dropping the signal was not happening, no matter the signal strength.
From what you are saying my guess would be a bad cable then from the dish to the receiver.
I will look at changing that cable and see what happens. Again, thanks for the help.

[Winegard Tech Help]

mavarick,

What I was getting at there is if the white blocks on the signal bar of the point dish screen are going from 40 to zero or dropping heavily at any point, then we may have an issue with the cable from the receiver to the antenna.

If the complete screen is dropping out, then it's either the receiver RCA outputs, the TV RCA inputs or the RCA cables themselves.

[mavarick]

I think we are talking about the same thing and I know I am probably not describing it very well. When I go to the point dish screen I can usually stay there long enough to lock onto one satellite (about a minute or so). Then the signal drops and gives me an error message which means I have to hit the buttons again 6,1,1 to get back to the point dish screen. Then it looks again and I have to wait for it to lock onto 119 or 110 again. I cannot stay on any one screen for longer than a minute or so without getting an error message.
I finally just let it search and do what it wants and usually in about 15 minutes the Tv will have something on. Then I go thru the same thing when trying to watch Tv. About every minute it drops the signal (by freezing or an error message), then returns to the Tv picture as if nothing is wrong.
Because it is displaying error messages and I cannot seem to stay on the point dish screen for very long I think it might be a bad cable as you suggested. It would be an easy test to just remove the cover and hook a temporary cable from the dish, down thru a window and into the receiver input to see if makes a difference.
The second attempt will be replacing the RCA jacks from the receiver to the Tv but that is harder to do because the Tv is boxed in. I’ll give this a shot and let you know, thanks.

[mavarick]

I took off the dome cover and replaced the coax going from the control box (not sure if that’s the correct name) to the VIP 211K receiver in jack, no difference. I left that hooked up and removed the RCA cables from the receiver out terminal to the Tv. I hooked up a coax cable from the receiver out and put it directly on the Tv input jack. That made no difference either. It seems my cabling is Ok so I hooked everything back up the way it was.
The only other test I can think of is to remove the receiver from the MH and bring it back into the house. I will do another check switch test and test it on the dish in the house. If it works in the house then I would have to assume the MV3500A has a problem.
Any other suggestions for tests I might do to the MV3500A?

[Winegard Tech Help]

mavarick,

Get the antenna locked on signal and run a coax directly from the LNB (sticks out on the arms in front of the reflector) to the receiver, bypassing the antenna's internal wire and electronics.

Hooking up the receiver to a house dish may not tell the whole story, especially if there are other receivers hooked up. The LNB of your house dish only needs power from one receiver to function, so another receiver could be providing the power necessary to maintain signal and we see no difference on the 211k.

[mavarick]

So after my last post I brought the receiver in the house again for another test and it displayed the same thing as it was doing in the MH. All I can say is it failed between taking it from the house (where it worked fine) to the MH the very first time.
I called Dish to explain the problems and once I describe one of the error messages as being 122, internal comm. error, the tech said it was a bad receiver. Not sure why but they can trace all the error messages except that one. When it comes up they have to replace the unit.
So now I have to wait 3-5 days for another receiver to be delivered and go through the install again to see what I have. I hope the new receiver takes care of the problem but I will definitely post the results after the install. Thanks again for the help.

[Winegard Tech Help]

mavarick,

Sounds good. Hopefully the new receiver will resolve your problems, but if you're still experiencing issues please post and I'd be glad to try and help you get it running.

[mavarick]

I received the new receiver and installed it today. That seems to have taken care of all the problems immediately! I don’t have a great signal (in 50’s) but it set up, went thru check switch and downloaded the program guide pretty much on its own. All I can say is the receiver went bad right off the bat in the MH.
I really appreciate all the tech help I received here. I didn’t count on getting much considering the unit is 9 yrs old but new to me. A nice surprise and another reason most folks stick with Winegard! Thanks again & I hope this info helps someone else in the future.