FTA Signal Strength -Problem

Burrk55

I recently purchased a Ferguson AF-3100CK FTA digital Satellite Receiver and connected it up to a Thompson Quad LNB Which is already aligned to receive Sky HD. I am only getting good picture Quality on Horizontal polarization (BBC1 BBC 2 etc..)while other stations on Vertical polarization like utv,itv2..etc are coming in very blocky. and it sometimes says on screen that there is a bad signal,but when I look at signal strength it says 90% and picture Quality at 82-85%. On the Sky box all channels are being received clearly on the same LNB.
Is there something I'm overlooking.

Thanks
Burrk

wil

Odd
2 things spring immediately to mind - Skew - try adjusting the lnb - it could be borderline for reception, just enough for the digibox but not quite for the FTA box.
and interference from wireless networks etc -

Burrk55 wrote: »

I recently purchased a Ferguson AF-3100CK FTA digital Satellite Receiver and connected it up to a Thompson Quad LNB Which is already aligned to receive Sky HD. I am only getting good picture Quality on Horizontal polarization (BBC1 BBC 2 etc..)while other stations on Vertical polarization like utv,itv2..etc are coming in very blocky. and it sometimes says on screen that there is a bad signal,but when I look at signal strength it says 90% and picture Quality at 82-85%. On the Sky box all channels are being received clearly on the same LNB.
Is there something I'm overlooking.

Thanks
Burrk

Burrk55

Thanks Wil

I will try adjusting the shrew and will let you know how I get on.

Burrk55

Adjusted shew and it made no difference still getting "Bad/No Signal" on screen with vertical polarization channels while signal strength and quality are reading very good for both digibox and FTA receiver.
It has me puzzled.
Any suggestions

wil

Still odd.
Try doing a rescan of the channels just in case you are missing the obvious. Some channels have moved around recently.
Are all the transponders details in correctly? All this is unlikely to be the cause though as you are getting some reception on the affected channels

My understanding is that any electronic failure in the horizontal/vertical reception is likely to be in the lnb. As the lnb is proven with the digibox I am not sure if a fault in the FTA box could give a similar result (other experts here might put us straight on that). There have been reported incidences of interference between horizontal and vertical on the same frequency but that would only be for individual transponders and not as you report. After that I'm stumped.

I presume you are using the same cable.

Try another FTA box and see what happens

watty

No, the PSU or switch in the Sat receivers on some models fails more often. You then typically only get V if it fails to 13V and H if it fails to 18V. A 5 Euro test meter and short cable will show. Use 20V DC range. Select different H & V channels and see if there are two voltages (11.5 to 14V for lower and 16V to 20V for higher, nominal 13V and 18V)

One model of Sky box had a slightly noisey PSU (They switch at 50kHz to 80kHz to use a small transformer). With some makes of LNB more sensitive to 22kHz, the 50KHz to 80kHz noise would keep the LNB in 22kHz mode after turning tone off (Moving from High channel above 11.7GHz to a lower channel). If the box was connected to LNB or turned on, on a low channel it would work till the next time you went Low -> High (OK) and then High -> Low (fail).

Also a Quad is powered by ANY receiver. If there is a bad coax connection the RF will pass, but NO DC will pass. This means only one polarity is received. To check if this is the case unplug mains (not Standby) of all other receivers in use.

Burrk55

Thanks Wil and Watty
I hope the problem is solved. I was short of coax cable on my cable run and had joined another short piece with an F connector,this F connector seems to have been the problem because when I connected the receiver directly to the longest run of cable all channels where received clearly.
I need to purchase a longer run of coax.

Thanks again
Burrk55:)

Heinz

Burrk55 wrote: »

I was short of coax cable on my cable run and had joined another short piece with an F connector,this F connector seems to have been the problem because when I connected the receiver directly to the longest run of cable all channels where received clearly.
I need to purchase a longer run of coax.

Coax joins are always bad news.