DM 7020 loses signal - it comes and goes

nuncio_33

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Hello guys,

I am having a tuning problem with my DM 7020.

I will describe the symptoms and maybe somebody can offer some wisdom:

I have a dish that is pointed at the Hotbird Satellite – it has been on its mount for years and I have not had any problems with it. It is actually on a “STRONG” motor which sadly does not move (but that’s another story) and therefore I just keep it stuck on 13 degrees. I generally have a good reception of around 85% in signal strength and quality and no BER errors.

In the past month or so the following has been happening on an on and off basis:

CASE 1: I will be watching a channel, and then all of a sudden the signal strength and quality both drop to below 50% and I get errors in the hundreds. Once the problem occurs it affects most of the channels except 2 or 3. The channels that continue to work are one the same frequency (same transponder). Channels on all other transponders are lost.

CASE 2: I will be watching one of the “problem channels” without any issues, and then if I switch to one of the non-problematic channels, when I switch back to the “problem channels” the signal is now lost.

Sometimes the issue is resolved by a restart, and sometimes after flicking through the channels going back and forth between the problematic and non problematic channels the problem is solved temporarily. But this is never a permanent solution.

A couple of days ago the problem happened again and nothing I did worked, when all of a sudden I thought about fumbling about with the cable that comes from the dish and goes into the decoder. After I moved it around and wiggled it for a bit it worked and I was back in business. The problem still occurs, although I seem to have found a more “reliable” solution to it :)

My question is what you think might be causing this problem? Is it my lnb? Is it my tuner? Is it my power supply? I did borrow a friend’s DM500 which seemed to work a bit better, although the problem did occur with this decoder as well, but maybe not as often as it did with mine.

Any suggestion would be much appreciated.

Thanks very much.
 

Lazarus

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My Satellite Setup
80cm Motorised.
Several small Dishes.
Much else.
My Location
North York Moors
Odds on it's cable (moisture ingress) and/or F connector issues.

The clues all point that way.

If I were you, I'd fit a new cable run, remove (replace if you want) the dead Motor and tweak the dish.

Bunging on an Inverto Black Ultra LNB would top-off a decent refurbishment exercise!
 

nuncio_33

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Hi Tivu,

Thanks for responding so quickly.

The cable has been there for the past 2+ years and it is on the ground (dish is in the garden), exposed to frequent rain and the occasional snowfall. Could this be the source of my problems?

About the motor, while it moves when i press the buttons on the motor itself (i.e. it receives power) if I try and move it from inside the house, it only goes from Hobird to Astra 19 and vice versa but not beyond (like to Astra 28.2).

Could a cable change sort this problem too?

Thanks for your time.
 

Lazarus

Retired Moderator
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My Satellite Setup
80cm Motorised.
Several small Dishes.
Much else.
My Location
North York Moors
I'm not au fait with Dreamboxes other than to know some models are fickle with motors, so can't really give you a satisfactory answer on that one.
 
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