Ventured into the satellite world and so far a bit disappointed

JohnDar said:

How's that roof unit work if you're parked with tall trees to the south of you?

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I don't know - yet. But, I will still have the portable in the rig for times when the fixed dish can't see.

I did get a ladder mount for our portable, but with all the trees around here, it's still sitting in the box at home. There's one spot at the front of our site that I can set the antenna and pick up the satellite through a hole in the tree canopy.

If I recall correctly you are staying on site for the season. In that case, the automatic rooftop would be an expensive, little used item.

Yes, you are correct. Although I did consider it when we were exploring getting satellite TV for the rig. So, with the portable, I set it on its spot while we're here and put it in the basement when we go home. Just have to hope a fly isn't sitting on a certain tree branch when I'm hooking it back up and trying to lock on the signal.

Here is the back of my AM21.

Top to bottom

1) Fixed power in from outlet
2) Jumper power out to receiver (same connector on both ends)
3) USB out
4) Jumper power to receiver (from #2)
5) Antenna coax in

Here is my "meter kit"

1) All the parts in a waterproof box

2) Meter, LNB coax jumper, compass, 1/2" wrench, charger, DTV SWM splitter, spare coax fittings, adapters antenna wingnuts

3) DTV Splitter, pre rigged with double males, double females and quick connects

4) Put together and ready to aim

5) The settings you need to manually input for DTV's 103 satellite. Apparently this info is not readily available. Thanks to Jerry T on the forum for figuring this out.

I use quick connects on just about everything that gets set up and taken down.

4th pic
Black coax from the trailer goes into the bottom of the splitter on the left side. This port should be red. This will power the antenna and the meter if the internal battery is dead.
Splitter with pre made adapters slips onto the right side meter port (left not used)
Top of splitter has a jumper to the LNB. This is just long enough to go through the arm and leave a bit to connect to the meter.
Meter strap was shortened to allow hanging on the antenna for aiming.

It took about 4 times as long to take and edit the pics and write this then it usually takes for me to aim the antenna.

I have had no issues using quick connects. When they start to feel a little less secure I'll just replace them. For me the convenience is worth the little extra cost.

Having someone kick-trip over the coax on the ground with quick connects reduces the aggravation.

***** In the 4th picture below, the meter is only connected to one port of the splitter. The red pass through port is connected to coax from the RV (power to the LNB).
In the picture it might appear both meter ports are connected to the splitter, that is not the case.

Re: Ventured into the satellite world

Minor change. The Trav'ler antenna control box has a rather bright display, and ours was placed under the TV when it was installed.
I added a small shelf above the basement wall above my LevelUp control. Figured I am almost always using the LevelUp so having the antenna control there makes it simple to "level" then raise the antenna. Already have a AC outlet there for the DirecTV power inserter.

Had an interesting event this past week. My rooftop antenna searched in vain trying to find a signal. Finally parked it and got out the portable dish. We were in a heavily tree'd state park. I find a tiny hole in the canopy 200' away and set up to find a signal. After much searching I finally got a barely visible reading on the meter.

Out of 32 transponders on the signal strength display (DirecTV) I had 13 that were only in the mid 50's to mid 60's. The other 13 were all 0.

Surprisingly, we had every channel that we normally watch with no pixelation.

The location of the antenna was in an area that has some foot traffic, but the park host had no problem with it.
When the weekend warrior park host came in on Saturday he didn't like the location, so I moved it.
Actually found a spot much closer to the camper with a slightly bigger hole in the canopy. Much better signal according to the display. But we had no channels available - go figure.

Porthole, that's the exact setup I use. Including staking down the tripod I can have a signal in about 10 minutes.

JohnDar said:

Yes, you are correct. Although I did consider it when we were exploring getting satellite TV for the rig. So, with the portable, I set it on its spot while we're here and put it in the basement when we go home. Just have to hope a fly isn't sitting on a certain tree branch when I'm hooking it back up and trying to lock on the signal.

Click to expand...

John:
If you are having a problem with slight interference from trees, etc.,you might consider getting a new dish. I had been using mine on a tripod since 2009, and had it fallen over several times in winds (I use a 5 gallon water pail weight underneath the tripod) onto grass, and once recently onto asphalt and the utilities pedestal. (that left a small dent in the dish center). I was starting to have problems with my Dish HD signals. I ordered a new Dish 1000.2 antenna setup through E-Bay. My signal numbers for the 119 satellite, transponder 21, went from 41 with the old dish to 75 with the new dish.

BTW, when I am sure it is going to be pretty windy, I have 3 metal tent spikes I use to secure the feet of the tripod.

Exact same setup I have. I haven't played with it yet, too many other things to do and OTA available. This weekend is a lazy one and I plan on playing around with it.

Dewayne where do you get the low voltage needed from the RV if you hook both of the bottom spliitter connections to the meter. I also have the same meter and only connect one cable to the meter. The top of the splitter goes to the dish like you but I connect the other end of the through line on the splitter to my RV.

porthole said:

Here is my "meter kit"

1) All the parts in a waterproof box

2) Meter, LNB coax jumper, compass, 1/2" wrench, charger, DTV SWM splitter, spare coax fittings, adapters antenna wingnuts

3) DTV Splitter, pre rigged with double males, double females and quick connects

4) Put together and ready to aim

5) The settings you need to manually input for DTV's 103 satellite. Apparently this info is not readily available. Thanks to Jerry T on the forum for figuring this out.

I use quick connects on just about everything that gets set up and taken down.

4th pic
Black coax from the trailer goes into the bottom of the splitter on the left side. This port should be red. This will power the antenna and the meter if the internal battery is dead.
Splitter with pre made adapters slips onto the right side meter port (left not used)
Top of splitter has a jumper to the LNB. This is just long enough to go through the arm and leave a bit to connect to the meter.
Meter strap was shortened to allow hanging on the antenna for aiming.

It took about 4 times as long to take and edit the pics and write this then it usually takes for me to aim the antenna.

I have had no issues using quick connects. When they start to feel a little less secure I'll just replace them. For me the convenience is worth the little extra cost.

Having someone kick-trip over the coax on the ground with quick connects reduces the aggravation.

Click to expand...

2psnapod2 said:

Dewayne where do you get the low voltage needed from the RV if you hook both of the bottom spliitter connections to the meter. I also have the same meter and only connect one cable to the meter. The top of the splitter goes to the dish like you but I connect the other end of the through line on the splitter to my RV.

Click to expand...

Using a DTV splitter, the red colored port is the power pass through port.
So, coax from RV to the red port on the bottom passes through to the top red port to the LNB.

I think the picture I posted might be a bit deceiving. The black coax coming out of the bottom is a jumper and is not connected to the meter. The second port on the meter is unused.

I bought a, I guess, later version of the same meter. The ads indicated it could supply power to the LNB so the dish could be setup using no connections but the meter. WRONG it will not power the Directv HD setups only SD and the lower voltage stuff. GRRRR

avvidclif said:

I bought a, I guess, later version of the same meter. The ads indicated it could supply power to the LNB so the dish could be setup using no connections but the meter. WRONG it will not power the Directv HD setups only SD and the lower voltage stuff. GRRRR

Click to expand...

My Dish network, 3 satellite HD, dual tuner (VIP 722) receiver uses one coax cable to the Dish 1000.2 antenna. It sends the 12 volts DC out the coax to the dish, so I could use a 9 Volt battery with my meter to power the dish antenna, but I just use the coax hookup. I have become pretty proficient at aiming (for the western arc satellites) with the elevation not changing significantly, and swinging the dish from a point far East of the actual aiming azimuth, noting the first signal peak ( the 110 degree satellite) then aligning the dish on the second signal peak (the 119 degree middle satellite). I can usually hear the receiver antenna aiming audio tones through the window, but don't rely entirely on the tones, as software can confuse things, and there are 10 - 15 second delays in changing the aiming are the audio tones responding. Some times I even have to reboot with the aiming already correct to get things to go.

The new stuff requires 21 volts, the meter supplies 18 or 20 volts depending on the version.
I thought I read somewhere that the newest version does supply the needed voltage.

That's what I thought but when it didn't work I contacted them and they said NO.

avvidclif said:

That's what I thought but when it didn't work I contacted them and they said NO.

Click to expand...

The newest version on my meter the "SE" specs up to 20 volts. DTV HD has been out for awhile, you would think 1 or 2 extra volts would not be an issue anymore.

Re: Venturing into the satellite world trials and tribulations

Did it work ?


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Looks like it. Unsure why CLosed still showed up on my end. Cleared my cache too. Guess we're good?? We'll see