Help diagnosing missing channels on Sky Digi

M

mopman

Member
My Satellite Setup
Cheap & Cheerful DVB-S Setup accessing FTA channels
My Location
England
Alright chaps :)

Would appreciate some help diagnosing "Satellite Signal is Not Being Received (28)" on my parents Sky Digital, hope this is an OK place to ask, I'll try and keep it short.

Ever since they moved into this house and installed it (themselves) they've had problems with certain channels giving an error 28, whereas some others will be fine. They somehow managed to rig it so that they at least had the channels they wanted (moving the dish around apparently changed which ones were broken) and left it like that.

Recently I got a FTA digital sat kit and set that up, with a new dish&lnb&cabling, completely new install and ran that to my room in their house. Works 100%, all channels available, couldn't be happier. Since the dish I'm using is a 60cm, they decided to get one of those and the LNB it comes with and replace their minidish with that to get their lost channels back. Upon replacing it however, they still have the same problem, except the channels having the issue changed.

We have tried their digibox on my dish&lnb&cable. Works 100%. It's presumably not the box. Then we tried running their cable into my LNB at the dish end (I have a dual LNB on my dish to feed two receivers) and the problem is there, but again happening on different channels.

Am I right to assume that it's something to do with the cable then? Is it likely to be interference or the cable itself? The signal strength and quality as reported by the sky box are both pretty good, though the strength goes up a bit when plugged into my setup - does this mean their cable is bad?

The cable does run quite close to the mains socket where it comes into the living room, that's the next culprit I'm thinking needs to be eliminated, though really I don't know if mains interferes...?

Sorry for the long as post, I'm just running out of stuff to try here :)
Thanks
 
Welcome to the forum.

Can you list the channels effected. Possible DECT interference which effects transponders frequencies 11630 to 11650 MHz and 12480 to 12500 Mhz.
 
hello, i saw this and sonce the box was checked at your system its not the box for sure.
your dish may not be 100% aligned or the scew may be off.

if the house is plum and the dish is aligned 100% then the scew could be off.
to check this the lnb can be twisted in the holder.
if the lnb in pointing down this is were the cable is screwed on at the bottom facing the dish from the front it needs to be twisted clockwise a bit
untill it is at 7 on the clock face.
now it is at the 6.
this scew adjustment is enough to loose the weeker channels.
if you look at the signal test and look at the signal strength and quality it will go up as well.
on this line there should be no slitters at all.
if you have a dual lnb one going to their decoder and a seperate line going to your system
you can not have a single lnb and run 2 boxes by splitting the signal.
this is because 2 boxes can not tell a single lnb different commands.
sone channels are horz. poler and others are vert polz.
the mains running close to the cable can not cause problems at all.
if you have a single lnb and have a good line run streight to the box without any taps or splitting the signal and the dish is aligned and the scew is set up
it should work.
keep us informed
ralph
 
Thanks for the replies. I'll try the screw adjustment tomorrow when its not dark. They do have a cordless phone (that's what DECT is, right?) but the base station is nowhere near anything, and I've tried unplugging all that and the problem is still there.

The broken setup doesn't have a dual LNB, it has a single with a cable going straight to the box, no joins or splits or anything like that. If the mains can't cause a problem then I can't imagine what else it could be other than the cable itself, although is it even possible for a bad cable to cause some channels to drop out and others to be fine?

I guess its also possible that the dish isn't fully aligned, although I've tried fiddling about with that and all it seems to do is change which channels have the problem. Usually I'd assume I just hadn't managed to get it quite there, but it seems impossible to get it to a position where everything wants to work, and when aligning my dish it was incredibly easy, took no time at all to get it set up. Are Sky channels any "harder" (as in needing more precise alignment) than the FTA stuff? :/

If it could possibly be the cable itself, it's not a huge problem to replace the cable I guess.
 
hello again,
the cable could be bad if its old and cracked or if the connector conecting to the lnb is rusted or is the shielding is gone as well.
if the cable outer rubber part is cracked were water got in it will cause problems.
we know the box is good you tested it on another dish.
that leaves alignment,scew,cable run or lnb bad and not switching.
ralph
 
What is the make and model of their digibox? Did you try your receiver on their connection? Although their digibox worked on your connection, it may be that your cable run is shorter and that their box is still on its way out.
 
Yep, I tried my box on their connection and it worked, although the quality meter did strange things (would drop to 0 momentarily every now and again, yet the picture was still working with no visible problems at all). I haven't tried this since replacing the cable...

...so today I replaced the cable, and somehow gained one of the channels that was having problems ("Body in Balance" or something). The rest are still missing, most "importantly" the Military channel.

As far as I can tell I'm only having trouble with the Eurobird channels, although I haven't compared what's missing to a list of what's where yet.
 
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