TECH SUPPORT
TV4RV.com
has always offered Tech Support by either phone or email to its
customers. Over the years of giving this support, we have noticed
a few very common problems that we address on a regular basis.
We would like to cover some of these more common problems in this
newsletter in the hope of helping some users who may not have called
for help.
One
of the most common questions we receive is . . . "I've followed
the directions and aimed my tripod but I can't seem to get any
signal. What's wrong?" In answering this question we
usually go through a checklist of possible problems.
1.
Are you using the correct coordinates (azimuth, elevation and skew /
tilt) for your area? In some cases, the coordinates built into
the receiver have been found to be incorrect. You can always
doublecheck online, using a website like www.dishpointer.com.
2.
Are the cable connection to your dish and receiver good? Frequent
coupling and uncoupling of the cable connections take their toll on the
connection fittings and can cause a bad connection. Check your
cables from time to time and replace with good quality cables when
needed. One bad or weak connection is all that is needed for
signal loss. Insure that the line to the dish is a dedicated
line with no antenna power supplies or splitters, etc.
3.
Are any tree limbs blocking the signal. Remember that the angle
of the signal from the satellite is actuall ABOVE the perpendicular
line to the dish face, so "look up". Our Satellite
Dish Aiming Scope is a very helpful tool in these situations.
4.
If you are setting up a DirecTV SWM dish is the PI21 Power Inserter
plugged in and connected to the dish? The SWM LNB will not
produce a signal unless powered by the PI21.
Another
question we get is: "I have a signal strength of 95% but get an
error message when I try to connect to the TV.
1.
Insure that the 95% signal strength is on the primary satellite of your
system (ie: 101 for DirecTV, 119 for Dish, etc.)
2.
If you have moved to a new spot beam area, insure that your receiver is
not tuned to a local station that it won't receive. That can
cause an error message. Tune the receiver to a station like CNN
or FOX News, etc.
3.
Check the cable connections to the receiver.
One
other frequently asked question concerns using a satellite finder with
a DirecTV SWM dish. The question is usually: "I've aimed my
dish and have a signal on the screen but the needle on the meter
doesn't move. What is wrong?"
The
DirecTV SWM LNB uses different techknology than other satellite
dishes. You can't simply run the cable from the PI21 through the
meter to the LNB as with other dishes. Our work-around uses a SWM
splitter and a battery pack to power the finder. The cable from
the PI21 goes to one power-pass connection of the splitter and the
cable to the LNB connects to the other power-pass connection. Use
a remaining port of the splitter to run a cable to the LNB input of the
finder and connect the 18v battery pack to the REC side of the
finder. Turn the dish off the mark, so it is NOT pointing at a
satellite. Turn the dB gain knob of the meter so the needle is
mid scale. Now, move the dish back to the index mark. As
you get close to the mark the needle should move higher, indicating you
are hitting the satellite. If you are on the mark and don't have
a signal, move the elevation up or down a bit to get a signal.
Make sure any unused ports of the splitter have their caps on or you
will not get and signal.
|