Pointing and Peaking

If your dish isn't aimed at the right satellite, you're not going to have much to watch. You'll find a signal meter comes in handy. I have a Super Buddy meter that powers the LNB and lets me send DiSEqC commands to switch inputs. If you don't want to spend $500 on a meter, you can buy an inexpensive signal meter from Radio Shack or a variety of online retailers for under $30. If you're using a cheapie signal meter, use port 1 for a multiple LNB setup - in the absense of DiSEqC commands this port will default to 119° for the twin and 1000.2 western arc, and 72°. If you're using a DiSEqC capable meter or your receiver, set it for 119°, transponder 7 or 72°, transponder 14.

Pointing

There are two steps to properly setting up a dish. First, lookup the azimuth, elevation, and dish skew for your location and specific antenna. Azimuth refers to the direction in which you point the dish, measured in degrees from north, use a compass to get a general sense of where this is. Dish 1000 and Dish 500 has a "skew plate" at the back of the dish. This is what allows a multiple beam antenna to pick up more than one location. Line up your skew setting with the (red colored, in new dishes) notch in the backing plate, bolt it down tight and don't change it. This will give you the best signal for all orbital locations provided you got your mast plumb. Adjust the elevation to the proper setting and loosely tighten the bolts.

Peaking

Place the dish on the mast and connect your signal meter, or go to your receiver's dish pointing screen. Aim the dish about twenty degrees west of the proper azimuth. Start to slowly rotate the dish eastward until the signal meter peaks, keep going until the signal disappears. Rotate the dish slowly back to the west until the signal meter peaks again, then tighten the dish to the mast until both sides of the collar touch. Slowly tilt the dish upward until the signal disappears, then tilt it downward until the signal disappears, making note of the highest level. Slowly tilt the dish back up until it reaches the peak and tighten all of the bolts. If you want, you can do a push-pull test by gently tugging the edge of the dish reflector in each direction. The signal level should go down every time you do this.

Signal Levels

Newer Dish receivers use a proprietary, logarithmic scale that takes into account the encoding and modulation, so signal level will vary for different satellites and transponders. Signal levels will also vary depending on what part of the country you're in. Don't bother trying to get it to 125, since I don't think the new scale actually goes that high even though it says it does on screen. It's confusing and doesn't make sense, but nothing in the pay TV industry ever does. In general, here are the numbers you want to look for: