signal loss on my dish?

ooter

It has been working fine for the last couple of years but all of a sudden last night the signal went.got up and had a look at the dish and some of the nuts were loose so I thought the dish had gone off course.got the signal strength bar up on my TV and started to move the dish around slightly but the bar wasn't budging.so then I thought the cable might be faulty so I changed the cable but still no change in the signal strength bar.
anyone any ideas,would it be worth my while replacing the LNB?

MrFrisp

ooter wrote: »

It has been working fine for the last couple of years but all of a sudden last night the signal went.got up and had a look at the dish and some of the nuts were loose so I thought the dish had gone off course.got the signal strength bar up on my TV and started to move the dish around slightly but the bar wasn't budging.so then I thought the cable might be faulty so I changed the cable but still no change in the signal strength bar.
anyone any ideas,would it be worth my while replacing the LNB?

Yes,,defo worth changing the LNB...More so if it's a few years old.

Make sure you get the dish spot on though..Even a few mm's off and you'll have no channels,,or may even be on the wrong Satellite.

Also make sure the quality signal is good as well,and not just the signal strength.
.

ooter

Thanks for the reply.
Can't understand why I'm not getting any change in signal strength whatsoever,surely if I was close to the correct satellite the bar would go up a bit?

Peter Rhea

Do you have the signal display within your view when you're moving the dish? As already mentioned, if you are only slightly off with your alignment, you won't get any quality improvement.

Don't forget the dish could be off in both its azimuth (side to side) & elevation (up/down).

ooter

Yeah,I have the dish just over the back door so the tv is in view.

Ger Roe

I would bet that you are still out of alignment - even tightening one screw, in isolation, by a few threads, could slightly pull the dish position out and result in loss of signal. The positioning is very specific - more than about 4mm out on the horizontal or vertical plane and you might as well be miles off.

If it seemed likely that the dish had moved, or was loose, I would try very carefully to align it again before spending time and money on replacing the LNB. Remember to move the dish very slowly and wait to see if there is any change in reception - there are a few seconds time delay between dish movement and picture display.

If there is any possibility that your LNB may have moved (twisted) in it's holder, you should also check it's 'skew' position (use google for details)

Good luck with it.

MrFrisp

If it was Me,,I'd replace the LNB anyway..

It's within easy reach,,plus he's had it a few years..Last thing you'd want is to go to all the trouble of getting it all sorted,only or the LNB to fail a few weeks down the line and have to do it all again.

And they are not that expensive anyway.
.

ooter

Thanks a lot for the replies lads.
Any good android apps to help with alignment?

MrFrisp

ooter wrote: »

Thanks a lot for the replies lads.
Any good android apps to help with alignment?

I don't use them,,but there's what I found on Google.



http://www.appszoom.com/android_applications/satellite+dish+alignment


https://www.google.ie/search?q=Android+apps+for+satellite+alighnment&ie=utf-8&oe=utf-8&aq=t&rls=org.mozilla:en-GB:official&client=firefox-a#hl=en&client=firefox-a&hs=fmL&tbo=d&rls=org.mozilla:en-GB:official&spell=1&q=Android+apps+for+satellite+alignment&sa=X&ei=Tr0bUYzzGMyBhQe3toEY&ved=0CCsQvwUoAA&bav=on.2,or.r_gc.r_pw.r_qf.&bvm=bv.42261806,d.ZG4&fp=2781a6cce9362dbc&biw=1006&bih=592
.

Ger Roe

Try www.dishpointer.com

input your address location and select satellite 28.2E - Astra 1N... etc

It will show you a site specific directional indication and the correct elevation (vertical alignment of dish - see the scale on the mounting bracket) for your specific latitude and and longitude position.

It's the most accurate indication you will get - then it's up to slow steady adjustment in and around the position indicated. If your problem was simply a loose dish, you shouldn't be too far off, but as I said, it has to be bang on, or nothing.

It's not like tv or radio reception where you have a wide 'swing' to pick up on a weak signal and then pan it in.

ooter

Thanks ger.

Liameter

See http://www.satcure.co.uk/tech/no_satellite_signal.htm

zg3409

If it's a Sky box you are using forget it. The signal bar on those boxes are too slow to use for any meaningful alignment. Ideally use a non Sky box, pre-tuned to a channel like Sky news.

If you must use a Sky box, turn it to Sky news, turn the volume up full, and slowly move the dish until you hear noise, or you see something on the screen. Even then you would probably need a cheap beeper for final peaking.

ooter

No,It's a fortec star dish and box.
Going to get one of those meters today and have a go at it over the weekend.

zg3409

Just beware those beepers will beep at any satellite, then are only really useful for final peaking. You need to get a picture first or signal and quality on the box.

They can sometimes be helpful to get a weak quality just high enough so a picture is found, so you can confirm you are on the right satellite.

ooter

No joy with the meter,wasn't picking up anything no matter where i moved the dish.:mad:
doing me head in at this stage.
It can only be the LNB.

ooter

Bought a new LNB and hooked it up to the dish,I'm getting 60% signal intensity but the signal quality is just not budging.
Lads,what am I doing wrong?

Ger Roe

I would still suspect dish alignment. If you have not done it before, it's hard to appreciate how critical it is and how a very small movement can make all the difference between everything, or nothing.

Assuming the receiver is OK and tuned to an active channel on 28.2E, the LNB is working and skewed correctly and the cable is OK - then it can really only be dish position.

It is possible that the receiver has gone faulty, but your description of a loose dish and then moving it (even slightly to tighten up) would still put my suspicion on the dish position.

See if you can borrow another receiver, if still no joy, then you still have a problem with the dish position - or bring your receiver to someone else's house and prove that it is working on a correctly aligned dish.

ooter

Thanks again Ger.
it's very frustrating,especially as I don't recall it being too difficult when I originally aligned it.I have 3 satellite receivers and it's the same with all 3 so I doubt that's the problem

zg3409

ooter wrote: »

Bought a new LNB and hooked it up to the dish,I'm getting 60% signal intensity but the signal quality is just not budging.
Lads,what am I doing wrong?

High signal with no quality means you are pointed at the wrong satellite.

iba

ooter wrote: »

Thanks again Ger.
it's very frustrating,especially as I don't recall it being too difficult when I originally aligned it.I have 3 satellite receivers and it's the same with all 3 so I doubt that's the problem

Did you use Dishpointer yet (somebody mentioned it earlier) to ensure you have the correct elevation etc.

Look around you at all the other houses and see which way their sky dishes are pointing - yours will be the same.

ooter

The houses on either side of me both have dishes,from what I can see my dish is pointed in the same direction.
The LNB I bought yesterday says universal sky LNB,it slightly oval shaped rather than fully round.I only copped the sky bit when I got home,never thought to ask the lad in the shop if it would do a fortec star dish.
Might that be the problem?

Ronnie Raygun

No point talking about looking at dishes on other houses. As has been pointed out a number of times in this thread, you need to be precise in your alignment.

You also need to know how to make connections properly; did you do this when you changed the cable?

The Sky lnb used with a round dish, is unlikely to have such a drastic effect on signal.

ooter

Ronnie Raygun wrote: »

No point talking about looking at dishes on other houses. As has been pointed out a number of times in this thread, you need to be precise in your alignment.


You also need to know how to make connections properly; did you do this when you changed the cable?

The Sky lnb used with a round dish, is unlikely to have such a drastic effect on signal.

Thanks Ronnie,thought I was going to have to buy another LNB.
I thought I was connecting the cable up correctly,I'll look in to it and make sure.

Irish Steve

Just a thought. if you have a multimeter, disconnect both ends, and then use the multimeter to check that there is no continuity between the outer and inner, depending on where the cable runs, and how it's anchored, the outer PVC sleeve may have been abraded by wind movement, and water could have got into the cable, which can cause all manner of aggravations.

Had it happen a few years ago here, (back in analog days, yeah, that long ago) we found the problem when I disconnected the downlead from the box, and water dripped out of the end. Had to replace the entire downlead, it had chewed a hole in it at the edge of the dish, and water filled the entire cable, eventually when it got down to the receiver, it was shorting out the cable, so the LNB switching signals were being lost.

reboot

ooter wrote: »

It has been working fine for the last couple of years but all of a sudden last night the signal went.got up and had a look at the dish and some of the nuts were loose so I thought the dish had gone off course.got the signal strength bar up on my TV and started to move the dish around slightly but the bar wasn't budging.so then I thought the cable might be faulty so I changed the cable but still no change in the signal strength bar.
anyone any ideas,would it be worth my while replacing the LNB?

I could be way off here,but a strange fault has appeared on two Sky HD boxes.
In both locations the picture breaks up.This is because the lower of the two sig strength and quality is either very low or not there at all,and the PVR function is not happy.
I will investigate in more depth soon,but an initial inspection of cable and f plug connections appear ok.I assume if the top sig/quality indication is 90% the its not likely to be the dish?
Here comes the,perhaps unfounded suspicions.I was told of recent software downloads,and read of rumors of new cards?Could it be Sky?
The majority of the time the pics are fine,and it may be that both set ups have LNB/box faults,but unlikely.
Should I be redirected to the UFO thread?

ooter

Back up and running now lads,Thanks for all the advice.
I've lost a few channels but I've got everything I want back so I'm happy.
Getting a really strong signal strength on channels like sky news but little or no signal on other channels.
Not that I'm complaining,just glad to be back in the game.