Eternia

I just got in my DirecTV and I bought the RCA install kit with the video and all the stuff. I read everything and watched the video. I found where I should be pointing the dish and everything, I connected the cable in the install kit from the dish thru a window to a receiver. Then we tried to get a signal and we can;'t get anything at all "0". There are no trees blocking and the sky is clear and sunny. Anyone know what I should do?

gtr986

sounds like you are able to see the signal strength screen, and it's reading 0 (zero)? if that's the case, just keep making small adjustments to the dish. it only take a minute shift to go from a reading of zero to a reading of 95. i recently moved into a new house and had to reinstall my dish. i had the compass out and had it pointing in the right direction but i got a zero signal. when i stood away from the dish and looked at the compass again it was in a slightly different direction. i made the adjustment and boom. just keep wiggling it, sounds like you're almost there. good luck....

SS

Pay particullar attention to the latitute adjustment. Make sure your mounting is perfectly flat and straight and then use the scale on the bracket. Other wise it is nearly imposible to get lined up. It takes only a very small move to get out of range.

Yellow Hammer

Since you've never gotten it to work it could be anything. The cabling, LNB, connections into the receiver, the receiver itself all could be problems. Since it's brand new, we can probably rule out the LNB and the receiver. The cabling should be RG6.

Assuming that your zip is something like 15215, the elevation marker should be between 38 and 39 (38.4 to be exact) and your azimuth is around 210 degrees. From the little experience that I have, you don't have to be totally precise with this, just in the ballpark should get you a lock-on signal, then you make minute adjustments until you get a constant signal above 80. Hope this helps.

broadwayblue

from my experience (I have installed 6 directv systems) you have to be very precise in where you are aiming the dish, as gtr986 says. since you have the rca system and no led on the lnb then installation is probably going to take two people. It's gennerally easier to adjust one axis at a time so I would reccommend that you start by locking the dish's ability to move up and down and focus on lateral tracking. Begin by aiming the dish several degrees to the left or right of where you think it should be aimed and slowly move the dish towards the spot and then past it. Do this very slowly. If you don't get any signal then raise the dish up a few degrees and then repeat the horizontal movement. When you get a signal then prevent the dish from moving horizontally and adjust it vertically until you maximize the signal. Any signal over 70 is acceptable and they will all provide the same picture quality...the only difference being that a system receiving a signal strength of 95 will tolerate more disturbances (foul weather) before giving you the dreaded "searching for satellite signal" screen then will one with a signal strength of 75. Good luck!

[This message has been edited by broadwayblue (edited June 26, 2000).]