Dish network service without physical address...

Ross · July 17, 2006, 07:14:43 PM

I have Dish Network service in the house and in the bus. Problem is that once my house sells, I won't have a physical address for a little while. I put the Dish Network bill on autopay and changed the address to my PO box, but what happens when the new owners try to get Dish Network service at this address? Dish will show service already at this address in thier system. How have others handled this?

Thanks...Ross

jjrbus · July 17, 2006, 08:00:00 PM

Who is to say it is not a two family house? From my experience if you pay the bill they will not question it.
Work?/Play safely Jim

Ross · July 17, 2006, 08:52:59 PM

Quote from: jjrbus on July 17, 2006, 08:00:00 PM
From my experience if you pay the bill they will not question it.

That's what I was hoping to here. I'll keep my fingers crossed.

Dave Siegel · July 18, 2006, 05:10:03 AM

Hi Ross,
I am happy to see that you have Dish for your bus, maybe you can answer or solve my Dish Network problem?

We had Direct TV in the house and in the bus. It worked fine but dish offered more digital stations so I changed the service over to Dish Network. It was also a little cheaper. The Dish Network works fine in the house , but I can not get it to work in the bus. When I call they refuse to tell me how to do it, they say "Go to a retailer like Circuit City and they will tell you, but they won't say a word." Finally I got a tech from Dish on the phone and he walked me thru setting up the reciever in the bus and what a pain. I know I can't remember all that stuff.

I have a universal sattalite dish on a tri-pod. I have a small sattelite finder.

What do you do, How do you handle that problem? How do you get it to work?

I hope you can help.

Dave Siegel 1948 Silversides
Naples, Florida

Hartley · July 18, 2006, 05:57:28 AM

Dave,
It's an ART, Easy to do if you know the basics, But hard if you get stumped.

The trick is to know where you are and which way is true north and south. ( Compass sure helps! )

If your portable dish is the dual offset feed, There is a trick to getting them aligned properly
due to a twist in the offset settings. With those you need to find the happy spot between the two
satellites where both LNB's each see their targets. This takes practice. and Lots of it.

One item that I always found handy was a small portable TV with a some extra coax that
could be run out a window from the receiver to the portable TV. Then you can see and hear
the signal strength on-screen. Using a compass to get your bearings, The sat finder tuning meter
and then final adjustments to peak signals is much easier.

If you only have a single dish setup, There are tricks to that also. You need to know which satellite
to aim at for which group of channels. Most of the movie services and good stuff is on 119 West
while the balance is on 110 West. A tuning meter dos not distinguish between satellites it only shows
if there is a signal there.. * Any Signal , Even one from the wrong satellite.

My King Dome on the roof of my MC9 is a manual type and sometimes even though I have remote
control it has taken me up to 45 minutes searching for signal. Mainly due to human error, I don't
have a tuning meter yet so I have to guestimate where I am and where the signals should be. I have
many times locked onto the wrong satellite and had to keep searching when the receiver told me
which one it saw on the install menu. Generally speaking of you can find 119 West then finding 110 West
is a simple twist to the left a few degrees and up on the angle a couple of degree's.

On the next rally that we both get to I would be happy to help you learn the tricks if we are
both up to it. Finding a 6 foot diameter target at a distance of 22,500 miles away with a 2 foot
aiming device can be a royal pain. What we do for TV exceeds making sense sometimes....

Dave....

Dave Siegel · July 18, 2006, 06:32:04 AM

Thanks Dave,
I have a single LNB dish. I do have a compass and a small signal finder. would a better signal finder help more?

Dave S

jjrbus · July 18, 2006, 06:14:54 PM

I am not sure what you mean by a small signal finder, I have one that looks like the one in the camping world catalog, I have used it for several years and it works just fine. With a single LNB you will not be able to get all the channels available just the ones that are on the satellite you lock on to.
Finding a signal is not rocket science, once you find one they are 5 degrees apart. If everything is working right you should have a signal in less than 5 min!
Now here is the rub, over the years I have had every problem that you can have and none of it is Dish networks fault. I have had 2 recievers with intermitent problems, I've had bad LNB's. Also if you leave the receiver set unused for a month, you miss downloads from dish, the only recourse for this is to call them and explaine what happened and they will send you the downloads you need.
I cannot cover everything here but will give you as much info as I can. If you can find and lock onto a satellite but nothing works right, push the menu button and select system setup #6, #1 installation and then #1 point dish/signal then. On the screen that shows signal strenth go to check switch and run a switch test it rights a lot of wrongs.
Next turn off the reciever, and then unplug it for a least 5 min. Plug it back in, if stillnot right, If your reciever has a card pull the card, leave it out for 1 minute. OPP's do you have a reset switch? If you do skip the unplug pull card part.
Still not working? If you are around other campers try exchangeing recievers, plugging your cord into thier dish, to try to isolate the problem. Intermitent problems with this equipment can be very frustrating. I've even taken a reciever in and had it tested, it tested ok, but after going through everthing the only thing left was the reciever, so I bought a new one and problem solved. Sounds easy, well it took about 6 weeks of trail and error.
I'm sure I have missed alot but given you as much as I can.
Work?/Play safely Jim

busnut104 · July 18, 2006, 07:05:55 PM

I had the same problem and all we had to do is when the program set up came up is take off the super dish. I have the super dish in the house and a windgate in the bus. you have to hit the menu button, hit system set up and go to installation then to point dish, under point dish go to check switch and then press up and if super dish is selected take off. if super dish is not selected this is not your problem. If you made the change run the test on the same screen. At this time you may have to refind you salt. I hope that this helps.

Ross · July 18, 2006, 08:16:40 PM

Quote from: Dave Siegel on July 18, 2006, 05:10:03 AM
Hi Ross,
I am happy to see that you have Dish for your bus, maybe you can answer or solve my Dish Network problem?

We had Direct TV in the house and in the bus. It worked fine but dish offered more digital stations so I changed the service over to Dish Network. It was also a little cheaper. The Dish Network works fine in the house , but I can not get it to work in the bus. When I call they refuse to tell me how to do it, they say "Go to a retailer like Circuit City and they will tell you, but they won't say a word." Finally I got a tech from Dish on the phone and he walked me thru setting up the reciever in the bus and what a pain. I know I can't remember all that stuff.

I have a universal sattalite dish on a tri-pod. I have a small sattelite finder.

What do you do, How do you handle that problem? How do you get it to work?

I hope you can help.

Dave Siegel 1948 Silversides
Naples, Florida

I have a crank up dish on the bus with the digial magic elevation sensor. After I park I call up the setup screen on the TV and enter the zipcode for where ever I am. Make sure you tell it you have a Dish300 system if you're using a single LNB dish. It will give you elevation and azimuth values for each satellite. 110 and 119 in my case. I have a sigle LNB so I can only point to one satellite at a time. Most of what I watch comes over 119, so that's the one I always point to.

Next, take your compass and alighn the inside azimuth ring to magnetic north, then raise the dish to the elevation you read from the receiver. Rotate the dish to the azimuth you read from the reciever and readjust the elevation. You should be close now. You now just move the dish up and doen, back and forth slightly while wathing the signal strength on the TV. The whole thing take about a minute or so.

I can't comment on tripod setup other than to say that it would be A LOT more difficult. The roof mounted dish with elevation sensor just makes it so easy. You can use the elevation sensor even on your tripod, That would make things easier. It is battery powered, so it will still work even on a tripod mounted dish. I'm thinking about putting one on my internet dish, which is on a Dustyfoot tripod.

The reason you can't get any info out of Circuit City is because they don't know. The employess know very little about what they sell, never mind actual technical info.

wrench · July 19, 2006, 04:10:52 AM

Quote from: Dave Siegel on July 18, 2006, 05:10:03 AM
Hi Ross,
I am happy to see that you have Dish for your bus, maybe you can answer or solve my Dish Network problem?

We had Direct TV in the house and in the bus. It worked fine but dish offered more digital stations so I changed the service over to Dish Network. It was also a little cheaper. The Dish Network works fine in the house , but I can not get it to work in the bus. When I call they refuse to tell me how to do it, they say "Go to a retailer like Circuit City and they will tell you, but they won't say a word." Finally I got a tech from Dish on the phone and he walked me thru setting up the reciever in the bus and what a pain. I know I can't remember all that stuff.

I have a universal sattalite dish on a tri-pod. I have a small sattelite finder.

What do you do, How do you handle that problem? How do you get it to work?

I hope you can help.

Dave Siegel 1948 Silversides
Naples, Florida

This guy will teach you how to with all the coordination: http://www.sadoun.com/Sat/Installation/Satellite-Heading-Calculator.htm
& this one will tell you when the sun match the sat azimuth & elevation, then a shaving mirror(convect) holded again the inside middle of the dish will reflect the light in the middle of the LNB when you're aimed at the right azimut, & that is accurated: http://perso.numericable.fr/~gjullien/satellite.htm
wrench

JackConrad · July 19, 2006, 03:09:47 PM

I was visiting with Jack and am using his computer to send this post. Juist a thoiught, If you took your reciever from your house and then picked up the dish antenna somewhere else, they may not be compatibal. Old LNB's will not work probperly with new recievers. It should be a simple matter to call a satellite service place and find out if yours are compatible.
Work?/Play safely Jim

NJT5047 · July 19, 2006, 09:02:34 PM

Since you're using a tripod, you can buy whatever sort of new style dish you need off Ebay for almost nothing...I just bought two new DirectTV dual LNB dishes for $9 and $12 each...plus shipping $17. If you buy another dish, be sure that the dish is for your type of service. And when setting up, be sure to select the type dish you are using in the setup screen. You'll only have to do this once as long as you use the same dish.
Something I found out setting up my Direct service on a portable dish is that the elevation is critical...but the elevation can be preset by using the data on the setup screen for the zip code you're anchored in. Once the elevation for the area is established, set the dish using the mast edge, not the bolt centerline, on the stamped elevation scale...
Then level the tripod. Use a small level of some sort, level the tripod and then either weight the tripod or anchor it to the ground. Once the elevation is set, and the tripod's level (mast vertical), use the compass for the azimuth. The azimuth can be off several degrees and still you'll find the satellite...and if the elevation is set correctly, you'll have the right satellite.
I installed plastic thumb nuts on my dish for the elevation and mast clamps so that it can be easily set and then locked in place with no tools. I also bought a little cheapo satellite finder off Ebay for $8 bucks. It works fine.
I recently went with Direct TV due to the one satellite (101) for most non HDTV broadcasting....this covers what I'm gonna watch...and the Direct TV satellite is higher in the sky...at least it is in North Carolina. 41* for DirectTV vs 33* for Dish Network.
Don't try to pick up the dish and just "aim" it. You must go at aiming in an organized manner. You'll find that locating the satellite is easy if basic steps are done correctly. You gotta have the elevation set correctly, and the mast must be level. Then use a compass, set the approx azimuth and look for the satellite. The nice thing about a sat finder at the dish is that it is instant...when the dish "sees" the satellite, the meter responds instantly...both with a noise and an analog meter. I set it by the noise. You can leave a jumper in the LNB so that the finder can be wired in next to the dish. Keep a barrel connector handy to hook the dish directly to the RG6 once the dish is aimed.
The sat receiver must be connected and on for a sat finder to work...it's powered by the receiver.
Hope this doesn't muddy things up too badly $:-\$ ! JR

NJT5047 · July 19, 2006, 09:13:27 PM

Dave, I got a better idea...bring that dish and your coach up to Dallas' Timmonsville GettoGetHer the first weekend in October and we'll have a satellite dish setup workshop!
Garuntee!
JR

Dave Siegel · July 20, 2006, 05:25:00 AM

Now that sounds like a deal. I've been wanting to go to Dallas's rally any how.

Thanks,
Dave Siegel

NJT5047 · July 20, 2006, 11:34:05 AM

Great Dave! Jack Conrad will conduct the dish setup seminar!

See ya'll at Timmonsville! JR