Must Know Information For Dish Installation

Installing the dishnetwork system yourself can be very frustrating if you do not know what dish you need, and once you figure that out what the skew and elevation is. When you overcome this obstacle you will need to understand the three different generations of Dishnetwork (Legacy,Dishpro,and Dishpro Plus), and how they can work together so you do not miss that ever important show you must watch. There are many factors to think of when putting this system together that most people do not even realize and usually never figure out.
First you must know what cable is needed for the system. RG-6 is the cable of choice for the Dishnetwork system due to the fact that it can carry the frequency the system requires to carry the signal from the dish to the receiver. Some people will use RG-59, which is a big problem with dishnetwork systems, because it cannot carry the frequency and will eventually burn out. RG-59 cable is typically for cable television and over-the-air television. The cable can be identified by looking along the side, there will be all kinds of nonsense numbers on it, but the important ones to look for is RG-59 or RG-6.
The next thing to look for is location the dish system uses the 119 satellite which carries the bulk of the programming, then there is the 110 satellite which will carry local stations and some music channels, 61.5 satellite which carries some religious and high-definition programming, 118 satellite for international channels, and 129 satellite for high-definition. The location of these satellites is dependant upon your location, but generally are south by southwest. If you go into your menu settings of your receiver it will generally tell you where the satellite is just by telling it your zip code. To get to this screen you will need to put the buttons MENU-6-1-1 on your satellite remote.
Know you know what cable to use and where to aim the dish now you need to know which dish is appropriate for your system. Dish network is currently installing the Dish 500, Dish 1000.2, and the Dish 500 plus. The Dish 1000.2 is for high definition systems and the Dish 500 plus is for international channels, but the dish most people are concerned with is the Dish 500 for just normal everyday programming. The receiver will tell you the skew,elevation, and azimuth by following the directions I gave you earlier in this article. Now your asking what does all that mean, let me tell you. The skew is the angle your dish is sitting at. Just look on the back side of the dish and you will notice two nuts on either side, a bunch of numbers, and tick marks. Remember getting the skew off the receiver, you just need to loosen these nuts and line up the tick mark(tick marks are in increments of two)that corresponds to the amount of skew you need to the line on the outside of the tick marks. The elevation is also on the back of the dish with two nuts holding it in place and the same process applies to this as well. Last is your azimuth, you will need a compass for this, because it is telling you where the satellite needs to point. Make sure where you mount the dish is clear of any obstructions and the mast is perfectly level, this will greatly affect your signal strength on your satellites. The azimuth is just a general idea of where the satellite is and you will have to adjust for good signal. I would get a friend to help in this process to listen for you while you fine tune the dish. As you may have already realized the MENU-6-1-1 you pushed on your satellite remote is also the signal screen. When you do this make you will have to put the SAT on 119 and the TRANSPONDER on 11 in your screen settings.
Last is your equipment and this is what really messes with your head. I will start by talking about Legacy equipment. Your LNB or EYE of your dish(on the dish where cable attaches) can cause you problems when you do not use the proper one. You will know it is Legacy when on the side facing away from the dish it either says Dishnetwork or it says nothing at all. This LNB will work with all of the recievers with no problem, but there is a catch. When you have a "dual Tuner" which is a 622,722,322, or the most popular 625 you will have to run two cables in from the dish. You can tell if they are dual tuners by looking at the back of the reciever, if it has satellite1 and satellite2 input on the back it is a dual tuner.
Dishpro is the next generation and it cannot be connected to a legacy reciever unless that reciever has a Dish Pro Adapter. I would rather not use this adapter if I can help it, I would just use a Legacy or DishPro Plus LNB if at all possible. It would be much more dependable.
Last is DishPro Plus, the newest generation and will work with anything dishnetwork makes and the plus is when you are hooking up a dual tuner you will be able to use a seperator that comes in the box with the reciever. It is usually in a clear plastic bag and has two short wires coming from it. This will enable you to run one wire to the receiver instead of two.
When you complete your installation and have good signal strength you will need to run what is called a check switch to ensure the system knows what it is attached to and make the appropriate adjustments. You do this from the MENU-6-1-1 screen and you will see the checkswitch option on the right side of the screen. Once in that screen you will just highlight the test option and push select. When the test is complete you should see green ok's on your screen. If you see a red x or a conn. this means something is wrong(probably signal) and you will need to check yourself.
I hope this article helped with any questions you might have had with the dish network system and I hope to be writing more information on this subject soon(I could go for days).

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