DTV reception

[Tom Snyder]

You should be able to get better than a 45 signal strength. I can get a 58. It may give you good consistent picture now, but when the snow and rain comes you want to have the strongest signal you can get to avoid drop outs...

[Gregg Lengling]

You should strive to have over 70 on all lnb's to reduce the amount of washout in the rain ect.  I have 85 to 95 on all 3 lnbs.

[MesaV]

Each of the lnb's points to a satellite, but there are many transponders per satellite.  If you have a signal strength of 85 - 95 on each transponder, I'll pay you good money to adjust my dish.

[Gregg Lengling]

I've probably checked about 20 transponders and the lowest I've found on my dish is around 77.

[MesaV]

My oval dish has been up for about 2 years now and I have more than just a couple readings around 70.  Before that, my readings were all above 80 on my round dish.  I just figured it was the inaccuracy of the oval dish; trying to lineup on two different satellites.  Do you have any suggestions aside from the obvious, or recommendations of a tried and true method?

[Gregg Lengling]

I have the triple lnb and it becomes very critical that you have all "3" alignments proper.  Azimuth, elevation and tilt.  I did it with my wife twice...she stays in the family room with a cordless phone and me with another one on the tower.  The first time we got it pretty good then I went through and found the weakest transponders and did another alignment.  It's just a bit of time and work..of course the biggest work was training my wife to switch transponders and look at the readings without getting lost in the screen.

[Tom Snyder]

I have the double lnb...

I'm a bit wary of mucking with all 3 alignments... When we moved, I did the install myself, being careful to make sure the new pole I mounted the dish on was prefectly plumb... that way the elevatioon and tilt was still good from the previous install, and I just had to adjust the azimuth till I got a good signal on both lnb's.

My dish is right outside a living room window, so I just remove the screen and can actually watch my signal strength on my TV myself as I'm leaning out the window and adjusting the dish... pretty cool...

[MesaV]

Been there... done that...  My son-in-law, who has his own home theater, helped me using walkie-talkies.  I think the real problem is the inability to fine-tune (adjust) the dish.  Does anyone make a fine-tooth rack and pinion device to adjust dishes?  Does anyone have a digital signal strength meter that can read both lnb's at the same time?  So many questions...

[Todd Wiedemann]

I've got a dish that has a 'fine-tuning' arm for the tilt only. Worked great. I was on the ladder 'fine-tuning' and my 9-year-old was watching the set calling the signal strength to me. She got quite the kick out if it, too. When we were at 35, I told her the goal was 100 ... she literally was jumping up and down as we went 70 ... 80, etc. I capped at about 85. It needs re-adjustment now.

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Todd.
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Mitsubishi 55819
Panasonic TU-HDS20
Apex AD-600A

[KmiT]

They have Direct TV signal meters on Ebay. This ones from Channel Master.
 http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=1391720507

[Matt Heebner]

I also did my own triple LNB oval dish. It does take some adjusting....I initially had great signal strength on 101 at all transponders about mid-90's, but my 119 was only in the 60's. I tried on three seperate 2-3 hour "minor tweaking" adventures, but could not get 119 above low 70's. But....DirecTv recently (about 4 mo. ago or so) boosted signal on 119. Now the lowest I get on 119 is about 77, 101 is still mid 90's. and 110 is a solid high 80's. I really dont think I can get any better than this, and I am not even going to try anymore.
Ive read that due to the fact that we are pretty far north, this is about as good as you can hope for. Farther south and west have even higher signal strengths due to the location of the satellites.
The trick I used to maximize signal strength for all three was this:
I maximized the 101 sat. I got the highest reading I possible could. It should be in the mid 90's. I've done numerous sat. hook-ups now, and I can get a pretty good signal just by "knowing" where to point in the sky. Anyways, maximize this, and then work on the 119, but always keeping 101 relatively high. With a lot of patience, and a little luck you should be able to do it.

Matt

[MesaV]

I can buy into that Matt.  I basically took the same approach, but haven't tried any minor adjustments in about a year.  Maybe I'll give it a try this weekend.
Hey KmiT, thanks...  Maybe the club could buy one of those things and rent it out.  Twenty dollar deposit and ten bucks for the day!

[gobble]

I had the same problem and it went away after switching from the DTC100 to the E86.  I think its hardware related.