1. Tune to a DCII channel on G9 (say G9,780) and use [Options,6,4,4,Enter] to repeak dish position and skew for *maximum quality*. If you use autopeak, double check manually with one click in each direction.

2. Record the repeaked dish position and skew for G9. The dish position should be near 5000, unless you've had a problem. The skew may not be representative of all satellites (mine is not -- more on this later).

3. Record these other critical pieces of information:

East and west dish limits from [Options,6,4,3],

Dish positions of the eastern-most and western-most satellites from [Options,6,4,4,<sat>,Enter,Line-1], and

The most representative peaked skew for all satellites. Mine is (+35/-55) for most satellites, but G9 is a little different.

4. If G9 did not peak exactly at exactly dish position 5000, recalculate all recorded dish positions as if G9 were at exactly 5000. (So, if G9=5021 and C1=5330, recalculate C1=5309.)

5. Take three deep breaths, avert your eyes (away from the TV screen, toward the face of the receiver), and press the dreaded [Options,6,7,7,8,7,Enter]. Don't be alarmed if nothing happens on the [7,7] because it's waiting for you press the [8].

6. Watch the face of the receiver and verify that it goes through warmup ("wmup") and displays a time (not necessarilly the correct time).

7. Reprogram G9 in [Options,6,4,4,Enter] at the present dish position (which should be exactly 5000), and at the recorded *representative* skew settings., (If necessary, repeak G9 later.)

8. Tune to a DCII download tranponder (say G9,10), verify a high quality level in [Options,5], repeak only if absolutely necessary, and go to lunch (or wait at least 10 minutes).

9. Verify receiving a good download by checking that T6 appears on the Program Satellites screen [Options,6,4,4].

10. Configure all installation settings, including:

[Options,6,4,1] to set Yes, and

[Options,6,4,2] to set actuator, LNB and feedhorn specs.

11. In [Options,6,4,3] reprogram the east and west limits at their recorded positions. This is tedious and scarry -- I can't do it without watching the dish move.

12. Re-Program the eastern-most and western-most satellites the hard way:

[Options 6,4,4,<west-most-sat>,<arrow-buttons-to-the-recorded-position>,GoBack,Save].
Repeat for <east-most-sat>.

This is even more tedious because you must release the arrow-button to find out where you are.

13. Reprogram the satellite that carries your programming provider's hit link (in my case that's G1 for HBO Direct) using EZ-Sat at [Options,6,4,4,<sat>,1].

14. Call your programming provider and request a 4DTV rehit to reauthorize digital channels. Tune to the channel they specifiy and watch the trip counter in [Options,6,5] to verify the hit. If nothing happens immediately and they say "call back in 10 minutes if it hasn't hit yet", politely tell them that you don't have anything more important to do today, so you'll stay on the line until the hit arrives. Thank them politely for their help and ask if there are any programming specials available today.

15.-52. Repeat step 13 for all remaining satellites and generics. Resist the temptation to repeak any satellite until all satellites have been reprogrammed. Otherwise, if you do something like change skew, that skew will propagate to all the remaining satellites and it will be necessary to repeak most of them. This is the reason for using the representative skew on G9, even if you must repeak G9 later.

Memorial Day: Repeak all satellites before the race.

Have fun!

Charley Harp