low signal intensity and quality

king_of_inismac

Hi guys,

Had a free sat system installed a few weeks ago. All good except the picture breaks up intermittently. Tonight I checked the Intensity and quality. They are at 45% and 10% respectively.

Could I make adjustments to the satellite alignment to fix this (I'm pretty handy diy-wise) or could it be my dish is too small?

Cheers.

jjf1974

king_of_inismac wrote: »

Hi guys,

Had a free sat system installed a few weeks ago. All good except the picture breaks up intermittently. Tonight I checked the Intensity and quality. They are at 45% and 10% respectively.

Could I make adjustments to the satellite alignment to fix this (I'm pretty handy diy-wise) or could it be my dish is too small?

Cheers.

what size is your dish ? did you get somebody to install it and did they use a proper meter to align the dish.

Peter Rhea

king_of_inismac wrote: »

Had a free sat system installed a few weeks ago. All good except the picture breaks up intermittently.

How is that 'all good'? Would your installer not stand over his work for more than a few weeks?

king_of_inismac

Peter Rhea wrote: »

How is that 'all good'? Would your installer not stand over his work for more than a few weeks?

Well It was generally okay but has recently become worse. I bought the dish and box online. The dish is about the usual sky size and the box is a Ferguson 250.

I don't know how he aligned the dish but it seemed fine when he left.

Peter Rhea

Are there any channels in particular causing problems?

dharn

Did you check signal strength and quality when first installed ? If ok then dish has probably moved in the wind

king_of_inismac

I'm afraid I didn't check when initially installed. Since its at 45% now, I'd imagine only a small adjustment is required. Could I do this myself with someone providing live feedback on signal intensity levels?

dharn

Ya you could ,but it might need tilting up or down or moving right or left, only tiny movement needed to feck it all up

Peter Rhea

king_of_inismac wrote: »

I'm afraid I didn't check when initially installed. Since its at 45% now, I'd imagine only a small adjustment is required.

The Ferguson Ariva 250 is a satellite/terrestrial combi box. Do you only have it connected to a satellite dish? Are all channels breaking up?

radiowaves

Drudden92 wrote: »

My Friend showed me a website Called satking.co.uk and i bought a dreambox and i have it 6 months and its the best bit of money i spent never had any problems with signal or stations. check it out http://www.satking.co.uk/

Try connecting that box up to a misaligned dish.

The prices on your website are a joke btw - Sky Italia sports, are they really shipping for you at the price you're charging?

Tony

Surely the installer should be brought back to fix this ?

king_of_inismac wrote: »

Hi guys,

Had a free sat system installed a few weeks ago. All good except the picture breaks up intermittently. Tonight I checked the Intensity and quality. They are at 45% and 10% respectively.

Could I make adjustments to the satellite alignment to fix this (I'm pretty handy diy-wise) or could it be my dish is too small?

Cheers.

king_of_inismac

Peter Rhea wrote: »

The Ferguson Ariva 250 is a satellite/terrestrial combi box. Do you only have it connected to a satellite dish? Are all channels breaking up?

Hi,

Yes its a combi box. The terrestrial channels are breaking up a bit too (which doesn't make sense unless its a box issue). But the intensity and quality of the satelitte are also low so maybe there's two problems?

Tony

Could be a satellite/terrestrial combiner issue which the installer may have used to avoid running two cables.

king_of_inismac wrote: »

(which doesn't make sense unless its a box issue).

jjf1974

Could it be a loose cable or damage to a cable ?

king_of_inismac

Tony wrote: »

Could be a satellite/terrestrial combiner issue which the installer may have used to avoid running two cables.

No he ran two cables (maybe its worth updating the firmware on the box?)

Also, what's kind of quality/intensity figures should I be aiming at for a small dish?

Cheers for the info so far!

Tony

Ok if he ran two cables (which in itself is a little strange) and there are problems on both its either a problem with the box or two separate problems with the dish and aerial set up. Is the guy you got to help you a professional installer ?

If you had a friend who would let you borrow another set top box for testing purposes this would go a long way to identifying the problem . I'm wondering why you have not got the installer back to sort this out ?

king_of_inismac

Tony wrote: »

Ok if he ran two cables (which in itself is a little strange) and there are problems on both its either a problem with the box or two separate problems with the dish and aerial set up. Is the guy you got to help you a professional installer ?

If you had a friend who would let you borrow another set top box for testing purposes this would go a long way to identifying the problem . I'm wondering why you have not got the installer back to sort this out ?

The aerial cable was already there and he just fixed the dish (I hadn't a ladder long enough to do it myself). I bought the dish and box myself also so he didn't charge much, so I don't want to call him back if its something small. I've a technical background and do a lot of DIY so if its a small adjustment, I'd do it myself.

My plan is to 1. Update box firmware. 2. Adjust dish SLIGHTLY to maximise signal strength (borrowing a ladder)

I'd just like to get an idea of what signal strength is okay.

Tony

Updating firmware will not make any difference so I would advise against that. Above 70% is usually ok but I'd concentrate on maximizing signal quality

king_of_inismac wrote: »

The aerial cable was already there and he just fixed the dish (I hadn't a ladder long enough to do it myself). I bought the dish and box myself also so he didn't charge much, so I don't want to call him back if its something small. I've a technical background and do a lot of DIY so if its a small adjustment, I'd do it myself.

My plan is to 1. Update box firmware. 2. Adjust dish SLIGHTLY to maximise signal strength (borrowing a ladder)

I'd just like to get an idea of what signal strength is okay.

Peter Rhea

king_of_inismac wrote: »

The aerial cable was already there and he just fixed the dish (I hadn't a ladder long enough to do it myself).

A satellite dish doesn't have to be mounted high up, unless there is something blocking its view of the relevant part of the sky. Usually best to keep it above head height/out of reach of any passers-by though.

dermo2014

Don't go realigning your dish until you're sure that's the problem.
Check your cabling and borrow a box to test first.

Razr3D

Hi,
I inherited an old pre-2009 sky solid dish, I updated it with a quad lnb and tuned it in. No matter how much tweaking (with signal finder) I can't get a strong signal on the weaker channels, especially the kids ones which I really want! On BBC etc its 70% plus but below 30% on the weaker signal. another thing is the dish is pointing much lower than I expected. I thought it would be vertical, but it is a good 20 degree dip?? any ideas? Is the dish just not good enough?

Razr3D

Could it be that the LNB is suited to an oval dish and not a round one??

Storm 10

Question for Tony, I see where you commented about running two cables, would you not have to run a cable from the dish and another cable from the aerial on the roof. I got a Ferguson Ariva 250 box and ran a cable from the dish to the unit and a seperate cable from the aerial to the unit, its working perfect but just wondering by your comment if there is another way or did I do something wrong.

Thanks

Satellite.ie: Tony

Hi Storm, you have done nothing wrong at all its just that I would expect an installer to use combiners like these http://www.satellite.ie/acatalog/Satellite_UHF_VHF_Cable_Combiner.html to save running two cables . If an installer chooses to run two cables its entirely his/her choice and there is nothing technically wrong in doing that.

Razr3D

Got it sorted, changed the round dish to an oval and it went from 30% to 70+% on the weaker signal channels