Astra 2d Cyprus

[MikeO]

Hi everyone,
I was wondering whether the Beeb have reduced their signal at all on 2D at 10773H. I am asking as usually in Cyprus we have a bad reception window in the evening, usually for around an hour (typically 9-9.30 until 10 ish). Because this has been frustrating me badly, I swapped my feedhorn to a large type, which did make a bit of an improvement. ITV on 10714H is much better (still not perfect though), but the beeb is still quite bad, and is pretty unwatchable during this period.
I wonder what contributes to this hour break up period...any ideas, and any further ideas on how we may combat this? Looking at signal strengths, 10773 recently always looks lower than 10714, although they used to be pretty similar all the time. It seems strange that by changing the feed horn, ITV improved, but not the Beeb. I can only conclude that the strength on 10773 may have diminished a little recently. Its alway this damn signal quality which is suffering, and hence giving the pixelation!
Anyone else having similar probs in Cyprus?
Nice to see the frequency shuffle on Eurobird1 giving us a few more channels which we can get here though (True Movies1&2, and some music channels).
Cheers
Mike

[Analoguesat]

Ah its about time this old chestnut reappeared again. (This turns up at least once a year!)

Could be caused by anything from spiders in the feedhorn to high levels of humidity and any one of two dozen other reasons.

[snap]

High humidity can reduce marginal 2D signals quite considerably, as can air pollution, and radar.
LNBs can deteriorate in time, after a year or two it's best to replace it if your summertime temperatures are high. A dish on a roof in a mediterranean country can easily suffer temperatures of 45- 50 degrees in full sun.
In this part of Europe 10773 is good at the moment, much better than earlier in August. 10714 has always been slightly stronger here. Seeing weakness on some 2D frequencies and not others can be a sign of poor cabling or a receiver in decline.

[billiam]

Hi,I have been experiencing problems with my reception in Polemi and at the moment I cannot receive ch4 at all,I note that you have fitted an invacom c120 lnb,has this helped and would i be better off with the pace 2600 rather than my pace Sky+ box, and any other tips would be apreciated,cheers Graham.

[billnot]

10773 may be good in Madrid, snap, but down here it's "fatal" at the moment.

It has to be remembered that there are many factors that can influence a fringe signal - everything mentioned here is a possibility.

Billiam, if your Pace Sky+ is a 3100, then a 2600 is only going to be very marginally better; the 3100 has the same tuner as the DS430N.

If it's anything other than a 3100, then the 2600 will be better. I always recommend the 3100 as the Sky Plus box for fringe areas.

[snap]

I've noticed quite a big difference in reception between very dry air (which we have almost always) and very humid. Reception is always a good deal worse in the latter, which I believe you have in bucketloads in the Spanish coast at this time of year.

[MikeO]

I take on board what you say about humidity, spiders etc etc, but my observation is that the signal only gets crappy for around an hour. Its always the same time of the day as well and for approx the same period (1 hour). And when the signal recovers it goes from terrible to almost perfect within about 10 minutes. The same when I lose it....great one minute and almost unwatchable within about 10 minutes. So its like a blackout period, same time every night. If the problem was down to something like humidty, radar etc, I would expect it not to be so regular. You can almost set your watch by it and predict exactly when this hour of frustration will be.
Anyway, I guess we just have to be thankful for anything out here on the fringe, cos lets face it 23/7 is alot better than nothing at all.
Cheers for the comments though.

[MikeO]

Hi Billiam,
You gotta have a quad LNB here for trouble free recption, and the large feedhorn is much better as well. I have heard that Sky+ boxes dont have the best tuners for fringe reception. With my setup, I get everything, C4 including 24/7, so you may want to think about replacing bits of your setup.
The only prob I get is this damn hour of terrible recption every evening as I said above. IN Paphos you shouldnt have any problems at all as far as I have heard. What size dish have you got?

[billiam]

Mike,I have a 2.7m dish,you say that you can receive ch4 24/7 and that I should not have a problem with the other channels in Paphos,but as i say no ch4 and loads of probs with ITV BBC,Is the invacom c120 lnb available in Cyprus and which feedhorn would you recommend,also does the lnb need to be skewed on a prime focus dish and which is the best frequency to tune the box to(i am now on 11778)

[billnot]

I've noticed quite a big difference in reception between very dry air (which we have almost always) and very humid. Reception is always a good deal worse in the latter, which I believe you have in bucketloads in the Spanish coast at this time of year.

Not only has it been humid, it has also been very wet!
I think you could well be right about the dry / humid aspect, as our best reception is during dry days in the winter.