Loss of signal query

Pangea · 15-11-2020 1:36pm #1

Hi guys
In the past few weeks I seemed to have lost signal in a number of channels on freesat. The channel 5 channels , channel 4 and BBCs come and go.
Oddly ITV is okay but ITV HD has no signal at all.

I have included a signal check from my humax box, other rooms in the house are affected too
Just wondering have you any advice as to what I should do.
From what I can see the satellite seems to be okay on the outside
Thanks

Atlantic Dawn · 15-11-2020 2:06pm

Looks like dish has moved.

Pangea · 15-11-2020 2:45pm

Atlantic Dawn wrote: »

Looks like dish has moved.

Oh , thanks , perhaps the storms gone past.

godfrey · 15-11-2020 8:09pm

A new channel scan may help. Channels change slots occasionally.

g

The Cush · 15-11-2020 8:21pm

godfrey wrote: »

A new channel scan may help. Channels change slots occasionally.

Not in this case as the op says the channels come and go, signal issue. Dish slightly out of alignment, corroded connections to the LNB, damaged cable etc.

Pangea · 15-11-2020 8:50pm

Thanks, I guess Il have to call out a fella.
Il have a look at dish tomorrow first.

Pangea · 17-11-2020 4:40pm

Dish seems fine to my novice eyes. Apart from green algae growing in it which I gave a wipe. Looked at lnb too . Oddly now the signal has gone now pretty much for all channels

Went rooting around in the attic , could see nothing astray.

Out of curiosity what is this wee box for?

Also have this booster thing

The Cush · 17-11-2020 5:12pm

Pangea wrote: »

Out of curiosity what is this wee box for?

Also have this booster thing

All aerial related, the bottom one is a distribution amp. The top one appears to be an aerial combiner or mastead amp. How many aerials on the roof?

Your signal issue is likely to be dish alignment or LNB related.

Elvis Hammond · 17-11-2020 5:16pm

Pangea wrote: »

...Out of curiosity what is this wee box for?

Power supply for a masthead amplifier, by the looks of it. Nothing dish-related anyway, as already mentioned.

Pangea · 17-11-2020 6:08pm

The Cush wrote: »

All aerial related, the bottom one is a distribution amp. The top one appears to be an aerial combiner or mastead amp. How many aerials on the roof?

Your signal issue is likely to be dish alignment or LNB related.

Thanks
I don't have any aerials on the roof outside now at all. The tv guy said it wasn't needed a few years back and took it down.

There is a small aerial in the attic that goes into that uhf of the blue amplifier. See pic below
There was also a huge disused five foot aerial just lying idle up there , I took it down today

There is a bronze cable running from the masthead amp across the attic towards the attic of my converted garage , not sure why i need the amp but i switched it off at the plug that was near it and the Saorview channels turned off so looks like it's needed.
One of the the white cables on the amp is only a few inches long and disused the other white cable seems to trail over to the plug.

The Cush · 18-11-2020 1:11am

Pangea wrote: »

There is a small aerial in the attic that goes into that uhf of the blue amplifier. See pic below
There was also a huge disused five foot aerial just lying idle up there , I took it down today

There is a bronze cable running from the masthead amp across the attic towards the attic of my converted garage , not sure why i need the amp but i switched it off at the plug that was near it and the Saorview channels turned off so looks like it's needed.
One of the the white cables on the amp is only a few inches long and disused the other white cable seems to trail over to the plug.

Confusing setup.

You say that contract aerial is directly connected to Wolsey distribution amp, have you followed the cable all the way from one to the other?
Where is the power socket for that Wolsey amp? Is it plugged into the socket you switched off?

That Labgear amp/power supply(?), can you post a pic of the rear, model no. etc.?
That bronze/brown cable, is it a power cable or co-ax cable? Looks like that old brown, cheap and nasty ‘low loss’ analogue co-ax cable from a generation ago.

The large disused aerial could be an old VHF TV aerial, VHF was switched off back in 2012. That Labgear unit, be it a power supply or masthead amp or VHF/UHF combiner was probably associated with that old install but shouldn't be affecting the existing basic setup.

Elvis Hammond · 18-11-2020 10:08am

Pangea wrote: »

... There is a bronze cable running from the masthead amp across the attic towards the attic of my converted garage , not sure why i need the amp but i switched it off at the plug that was near it and the Saorview channels turned off so looks like it's needed.
One of the the white cables on the amp is only a few inches long and disused the other white cable seems to trail over to the plug.

That's not the amplifier, just its power supply, with the actual amp probably having been outside with the removed aerial.

Maybe what you switched off was the Wolsey distribution amp?

Pangea · 18-11-2020 6:34pm

The Cush wrote: »

Confusing setup.

You say that contract aerial is directly connected to Wolsey distribution amp, have you followed the cable all the way from one to the other?
Where is the power socket for that Wolsey amp? Is it plugged into the socket you switched off?

That Labgear amp/power supply(?), can you post a pic of the rear, model no. etc.?
That bronze/brown cable, is it a power cable or co-ax cable? Looks like that old brown, cheap and nasty ‘low loss’ analogue co-ax cable from a generation ago.

The large disused aerial could be an old VHF TV aerial, VHF was switched off back in 2012. That Labgear unit, be it a power supply or masthead amp or VHF/UHF combiner was probably associated with that old install but shouldn't be affecting the existing basic setup.

Thanks guys
So I went up the attic again today and had a closer look .
God i hate it il there , roof is quite low and there is new insulation from a few years ago lying over a lot of the cables in making it a nightmare for working in...

Just doubled checked Yes the aerial cable goes directly into the wosley distribution amp, it's only about three feet long.

There is a black cable running from the wosley amp and it does indeed come together with the main power flex cable from the plug I switched off that time. As already mentioned the labgear power supply has a white cable running to this point aswell , so there is three cables coming together and there is blue tape wrapped around them at the end point which appears to be connectors/junction box

In other words there is a mains power cable plugged into a socket this cable runs over into blue tape where the wosley cable and the labgear cable are also taped to into connectors.

See pic of cables coming together into connectors
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I didn't want to take this tape off incase it's dangerous or I'd mess something up. From what I could see as you can see from the photo below there is earth power and neutral from power cable.

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Pic of the end point of connectors box

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Regarding The labgear amp power supply, the bronze cable i mentioned appears to be a coaxial cable, it runs into the power supply where it says AE.
I assume this is the old coaxial cable you mentioned for the old aerial?

Pic of reverse of labgear power supply

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So I guess there is no need for this labgear at all now?
The labgear unit is warm to touch. So there must be power coming into it from where it meets up with the wosley and mains power cable.

Regarding the satellite issue i have called a guy out , i may ask him to disconnect the labgear unit while he's at it if it's not needed anymore as I don't like the thought of something getting power if it's not needed and potentially a fire risk.

Elvis Hammond · 18-11-2020 10:30pm

Yes, the power supply should have been removed when the other stuff was taken down.

Pangea · 18-11-2020 11:57pm

I assume the wolsey distribution amp is solely for terrisital cables? It takes the signal from the aerial and splits it into different cables.

Also what does the 'full' slot signify?

The Cush · 19-11-2020 12:03am

Pangea wrote: »

In other words there is a mains power cable plugged into a socket this cable runs over into blue tape where the wosley cable and the labgear cable are also taped to into connectors.

Just for clarity, is the Wolsey power cable plugged directly into the socket or is it connected into the terminal block connector? Very untidy and possibly dangerous if it's live.

The Cush · 19-11-2020 12:13am

Pangea wrote: »

I assume the wolsey distribution amp is solely for terrisital cables? It takes the signal from the aerial and splits it into different cables.

Also what does the 'full' slot signify?

Yes, terrestrial amplifier only. The equivalent for satellite/terrestrial combined would be a multiswitch.

The full probably means it's cascadable, it can feed another amplifier or multi-output splitter, in a multi-dwelling unit or apartment block for example, with a hi power feed for further splitting down the line.

Pangea · 19-11-2020 12:20pm

The Cush wrote: »

Just for clarity, is the Wolsey power cable plugged directly into the socket or is it connected into the terminal block connector? Very untidy and possibly dangerous if it's live.

No it's not plugged directly into the socket , it just goes into the block connector with a white power cable then going from block connector to the socket. (The same with the labgear power supply) I agree its a messy job. I guess the way forward would be to get this disconnected and just get a new distribution amp that plugs directly to the socket.

The Cush · 19-11-2020 2:08pm

Pangea wrote: »

No it's not plugged directly into the socket , it just goes into the block connector with a white power cable then going from block connector to the socket. (The same with the labgear power supply) I agree its a messy job. I guess the way forward would be to get this disconnected and just get a new distribution amp that plugs directly to the socket.

Unplug the connector from the socket, remove the Wolsey power cable from the connector and put a 3-pin plug on cable, plug it back in to the socket. Job done.

Pangea · 19-11-2020 10:39pm

The Cush wrote: »

Unplug the connector from the socket, remove the Wolsey power cable from the connector and put a 3-pin plug on cable, plug it back in to the socket. Job done.

Thanks , unfortunately the wolsey cable wouldn't reach the socket unless I use a plug extender , not sure would be practical to move the wosley as where it's situated now is ideal for incoming cables.

The Cush · 19-11-2020 10:56pm

Pangea wrote: »

Thanks , unfortunately the wolsey cable wouldn't reach the socket unless I use a plug extender , not sure would be practical to move the wosley as where it's situated now is ideal for incoming cables.

Use a short extension cable, the current setup isn't safe.

Pangea · 27-11-2020 4:34pm

Regarding the original post I Got the satellite signal back, turns out the LNB was corroded and had let in water. So the man put in a new Quad LNB.

As for the old terrisital set up, I removed the old analogie cable , the labgear power supply and the old connectors and put a new plug on the wolsey , it's all a lot tidier now ,thanks a million for the advice.

Pangea · 27-11-2020 4:40pm

Sometimes when I press into UTV HD or BBC one HD my LG tv shows a blank screen for about one second and says currently no signal searching for signal then it shows up, any idea why this happens?
I just tried it with BBv One HD now again and it showed up blank for a good 20 seconds then came on fine.
It only seems to happen with HD channel and the SD verison is okay so far.

See screenshot below

Loss of signal query

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