Another satellite television receiver question

[DrPizza]

When I'm at a campground that we go to, I've noticed that a couple of the people bring along a dish and pole - stick the pole into the ground and spend about 15 minutes aiming their dish. Can I just buy a used dish on ebay or at an auction or something and use it with my receiver? Or is the decoding by my receiver somehow related to the specific dish I have?

 

[Heisenberg]

The dish is just an antenna. As long as it's receives the right frequency range it should work.

 

[mobobuff]

You have DirecTV, which means you either have a D10, D11, H20 or R15 receiver. Not any dish will work. The dish would need to use an LNB capable of receiving broadcast from satellite 101º (at least). This is the satellite that DirecTV uses to transmit receiver configuration data and channel guide info. Without communication to that satellite your receiver will not show you anything. Your best bet is to find a DirecTV compatible Philips or WNC dish (any dish DirecTV has used in the last 6 years).

This dish is the triple-sat oval model DirecTV currently uses. It's probably very similar to the dish you have now, if you don't have a KA/KU dish (the larger + wider dish that uses 5 LNBs). Your best bet would be to get ahold of a DirecTV triple-sat dish like the one above. If you lived anywhere near me, I have 4 or 5 just sitting around that I could give you, along with the mounting hardware if you wanted to mount it to something.

If you plan on doing this often, I would recommend getting a signal meter to make installation MUCH easier. All you need is a $6 metal fence post from Home Depot. They are 1 5/8" outside-diameter. Idealy you would use quik-rete, but you could get away with just pounding the pole a good 2 feet into the ground. Use a level to make sure it's perfectly perpendicular to the ground.

Let me know if you have any other questions.

 

[DrPizza]

Just making sure, before I blow $40 or so on a second dish.
For what it's worth, the reason I asked was because I just had a wildblue dish installed. The guts component (whatever it's called) had a special number on it that was needed to complete the installation at the modem end of things. That's why I wondered.

 

[DrPizza]

Originally posted by: mobobuff
You have DirecTV, which means you either have a D10, D11, H20 or R15 receiver. Not any dish will work. The dish would need to use an LNB capable of receiving broadcast from satellite 101º (at least). This is the satellite that DirecTV uses to transmit receiver configuration data and channel guide info. Without communication to that satellite your receiver will not show you anything. Your best bet is to find a DirecTV compatible Philips or WNC dish (any dish DirecTV has used in the last 6 years).

This dish is the triple-sat oval model DirecTV currently uses. It's probably very similar to the dish you have now, if you don't have a KA/KU dish (the larger + wider dish that uses 5 LNBs). Your best bet would be to get ahold of a DirecTV triple-sat dish like the one above. If you lived anywhere near me, I have 4 or 5 just sitting around that I could give you, along with the mounting hardware if you wanted to mount it to something.

If you plan on doing this often, I would recommend getting a signal meter to make installation MUCH easier. All you need is a $6 metal fence post from Home Depot. They are 1 5/8" outside-diameter. Idealy you would use quik-rete, but you could get away with just pounding the pole a good 2 feet into the ground. Use a level to make sure it's perfectly perpendicular to the ground.

Let me know if you have any other questions.

Thanks!!

 

[mobobuff]

Originally posted by: DrPizza

Originally posted by: mobobuff
You have DirecTV, which means you either have a D10, D11, H20 or R15 receiver. Not any dish will work. The dish would need to use an LNB capable of receiving broadcast from satellite 101º (at least). This is the satellite that DirecTV uses to transmit receiver configuration data and channel guide info. Without communication to that satellite your receiver will not show you anything. Your best bet is to find a DirecTV compatible Philips or WNC dish (any dish DirecTV has used in the last 6 years).

This dish is the triple-sat oval model DirecTV currently uses. It's probably very similar to the dish you have now, if you don't have a KA/KU dish (the larger + wider dish that uses 5 LNBs). Your best bet would be to get ahold of a DirecTV triple-sat dish like the one above. If you lived anywhere near me, I have 4 or 5 just sitting around that I could give you, along with the mounting hardware if you wanted to mount it to something.

If you plan on doing this often, I would recommend getting a signal meter to make installation MUCH easier. All you need is a $6 metal fence post from Home Depot. They are 1 5/8" outside-diameter. Idealy you would use quik-rete, but you could get away with just pounding the pole a good 2 feet into the ground. Use a level to make sure it's perfectly perpendicular to the ground.

Let me know if you have any other questions.

Thanks!!

You're welcome! Don't forget there's a built-in signal meter on your receiver too, that would be useful. If you do the pole mount, be sure not to mangle the top of the pole too much or else the alignment assembly won't fit over it. You'll also need a 7/16" socket and ratchet, or just a 7/16" wrench, to set the tilt and elevation and to tighten it down on the pole. Just go into the satellite setup menu on your receiver and punch in the zip code of where you're going to be setting up camp, and it will tell you the settings for both the tilt and elevation. Everything else is pretty simple, you'll see the 4 coax connectors on the LNB. Thread your cable through the arm on the dish, connect it to the LNB, attach the LNB to the end of the arm, and connect the other end of your cable to your receiver.

Once you've acquired the best signal you can get, tighten the dish to the pole. (After you tigthen it, it will throw the elevation off a little, so you might need to re-adjust the elevation SLIGHTLY to peak the signal.