Travails of the Satellite Dish
Last night Brent from Ironwood came over, ostensibly to get TiVo working on my DirecTV connection, but really we need to get my dish working for both DirecTV and DirecWay. After five hours of replacing almost everything except the reflector on my dish we got things working better than they've ever been before.
Almost all of my connections were corroded, including the new stuff we got a year ago when we got my Internet connection working. Ground blocks and splitters were clearly shorted and ruined. The sidecar on my dish had corroded out. A wasp's nest was living under my weather cover. At least one of my satellite receivers was cooked (which was okay, we were replacing it).
The main take-away from the whole deal is that the installed from DBS (local installers, not the Direct Broadcast Satellite company) that came out to do my job last year did a crappy job. I'm not afraid to say it. I looked at the connections. There was water and brown corrosion inside the connectors when we pulled them off. The new stuff has dielectric compound and rubber grommets. At least we didn't have to replace any cabling.
On the other side of it, the pipe that my fifty-pound dish hangs on was also pretty darn bad. I could make the whole thing shake with my finger. Not a big deal for DirecTV reception, but my Internet transmission side is quite sensitive to being aimed correctly. I suspect my overall Internet experience will greatly improve.
So, thanks Brent from Ironwood. Jeers to DBS.
Josh Poulson
Posted Saturday, Jan 8 2005 10:07 AM
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