What you'll notice
A dish that never quite peaks: an installer can get a picture but never a strong, stable signal, and it drops out at the first sign of weather.
Why it happens
The vertical section of the mount is not truly plumb. When the pole is off vertical, azimuth and elevation adjustments interact with each other and the dish cannot be properly peaked at all.
This is an installer's fault rather than a failure, and it is the reason some dishes have never worked properly since the day they went up.
Why plumb matters so much
Dish alignment assumes the mount is vertical. Elevation is set relative to that vertical, and azimuth rotates around it. If the pole leans, the two adjustments stop being independent: correcting azimuth changes effective elevation and vice versa. You can chase the peak around indefinitely and never find it, ending up somewhere "good enough" with no margin left for weather.
How to spot it
A spirit level against the vertical section, checked on two faces ninety degrees apart. It takes thirty seconds. An installation that has always been marginal, and that no amount of realignment has ever fixed, is very often this.
Correcting it
Depending on the mount, shimming, re-drilling or replacing. On a wall mount it usually means new fixing points. It is extra work compared with simply re-aiming, and it is the only thing that turns a permanently marginal installation into a solid one.
Why some installers skip it
Because you can get a picture without it, and the customer cannot see the difference on installation day. The difference shows up in the first storm — and then in every storm after that.
How we fix it
We plumb the mount correctly — shimming, re-fixing or replacing as needed — and only then align. It is the step that makes alignment straightforward instead of impossible.
Still not working?
If the checks above haven't restored your dish mount & bracket, this usually needs a technician. Our Satellite Dish Installation service covers exactly this fault — from R850, quoted upfront.