Can't tune transponder

bmaxi

Any ideas as to why one particular transponder would have a weak signal on my Silvercrest Sl 65. It is 11642, the one with Tiny Pop, Bliss, Flaunt etc. It comes in loud and clear on my Sky box, so presumably not a dish or cabling problem and all the other Eurobird channels are OK.

biologikal

Not all transponders are transmitting at the same power, and at 28E, to be precise, there are several satellites in the cluster at 28.2E and 28.5E. It might be that your dish may be pointing less to the satellite with the transponder you mention (on EuroBird-1 Steerable1), so the tiniest of adjustment may get your transponder to increase the signal quality (some satellites may also have different "beams" or "spots" resulting in different footprints - http://www.flysat.com/28east.php).

Adjusting the LNB skew slightly might also improve the signal, and I'd try this first, before trying to adjust the dish.

biologikal

Also, if you go to that transponder in the menus (Menu button on remote->Installation->TP Scan), and then select Astra 28E at the top, and then find the transponder below that, at the bottom of the page you will see percentages for signal intensity and quality. Quality is the more important one, and you may find it useful to call up this info for the TP you're interested in when carrying out any fine adjustments to your LNB/dish.

snaps

Is there a cordless phone nearby? I think i had a problem with that transponder once and it was my BT freestyle cordless phone causing problems.

watty

Check dish alignment
Those channels may be on Eurobird which is MUCH weaker signal here in Ireland than Astra 2D.

bmaxi

Thanks for the replies lads, much as I love my kids I won't be getting up to mess around with dishes or lnb's for the sake of these channels. What really intrigues me is why, if I swap with the Sky Digibox, I have no reception problems. Does the Sky box have an amplifier or something?

biologikal

Down to different tuners and how they handle the data coming in, I guess.

Someone here (http://www.heyrick.co.uk/ricksworld/digibox/sl65d.html) tries to explain difference between SL65 and Digibox with respect to reception (scoot down past half-way to paragraph "Reception").

It could be that the Digibox is just the right side of good reception threshold that it doesn't start to complain and "throw a wobbly".

watty

Try update the firmware via PC (Over the Air isn't possible on a Sky Dish).

The SL65 is really old.