Signal Problems in the Summer

LorcIE

For the 3rd summer in a row I am being plagued with signal problems and finally got round to seeking some advice.

I have a Sky HD Box which works fine until the hot and humid weather kicks in. Then following then happens.

"No Sat Signal Received 25" for anything between 10mins and a couple of hours. It affects all channels, none can be viewed.

When checking the signal menu both streams show "not locked" No signal at all.

The baffling thing is that it only seems to go belly up around dusk. During the day and before and after the outage, the signal quality and strength for both streams is 80/90%, great picture with no pixelating. Can't be misalignment.

Checked the DECT phone scenario and it doesn't seem to be the problem; if it was I would have the same issues in the winter. Have tried 3 different boxes the the problem remains. The dish and LNB are only 2-3 yr old and stands up well with all other sorts of other weather.

I'd be grateful for any ideas on what it could be.

PogMoThoin

You got line of sight to the satellite, leaves on trees maybe?

LorcIE

Thanks PogMoThoin, no trees, the dish is erected high up on the roof. It really is a bizarre one. A couple of suggestions from lads on another board have suggested a thermal fault with the LNB. If that was the case why then do I have a perfect signal most of the day with only some intermittent outages?

SalteeDog

Nocturnal animals disturbing the cabling or connections in the attic perhaps?

Ronnie Raygun

Bats flying around the dish? (not completely joking, had them where I used to live, though they didn't cause this kind of problem).

bulbs2010

did you try changing the cable might be poor quality cable,had a service call one time with same thing happening turned out to be a floresent light in a sign of a bank next door, the choke was stuck on floresent tube and the sign was on a timer used to come on at the same time every nite then the decoder would lose signal

Rotating Egg

That wouldn't explain why it only happens in hot weather.

zg3409

Just swap the LNB and see if it fixes the problem. They are cheap on ebay and amazon. Just get the right type for your dish. a quad is less than 15 euro delivered.

You could spend all day attempting to find the cause of an intermittant fault. Most installers would replace the dish, LNB and cable just to be sure of no callbacks.

If it is temperature related it's most likely the LNB.

bulbs2010

Rotating Egg wrote: »

That wouldn't explain why it only happens in hot weather.

he said it happens at dusk.By explaining the service call I was just demonstrating it could be something you would never think of,sorry I didnt make it more clear,it may be something on a timer that is only used in hot weather? any sugestions? ,air conditioning?

muffler

Any "dusk to dawn" lights mounted externally close to the dish?

montgolfiere

i would try the 'cheapest' option suggested above ie change the LNB. If that doesn't work i would definitely try a different cable, maybe just a temp cable direct from Dish to Box (even thru open window )to see if it cures the problem.

bulbs2010

`thats the best thing to do

LorcIE

I'll get up on the roof over the weekend to check for evidence of birds! if not it's an LNB swap. Cheers

steveon

Id change the lnb definetly sounds like the problem otherwise make sure the lnb is skewed to no 2 if there is a number on it. Other things that can cause problems like that is a dish located too close to a flat roof that is covered in the silver paint that can reflect heat onto the lnb..

Liameter

Sometimes this type of "temperature sensitivity" is caused by a bad connection at the LNB output - usually caused by (sometimes invisible) corrosion. Unplug the Digibox power plug at the wall. Disconnect the cable at the LNB, clean up the centre wire, push it in and out of the LNB connector a few times then apply a generous glop of silicone grease to the wire and screw up the 'F' plug. Make sure the connection is weatherproof.

LorcIE

Problem solved! The roof flat a couple of floors above us has an almost hidden skylight and when opened FULLY it blocked out the signal, all makes sense now! To look at the dish fron groud level you wouldn't have thought the tracjectory could have been an issue and was well out of the way, but hey. Now to get on to the original installer to get them to move the dish higher up the chimmney brest. They were the ones up there and could see the skylight, can't believe they wouldn't have had a bit of common sense. :mad: Thanks for all your help.

Ronnie Raygun

At least those of us who suspected a physical blockage were on the right track. You should have mentioned nearby higher buildings.