intermittent signal

F

frogeye

Member
My Satellite Setup
Sky
My Location
Devon, UK
Greetings all,

We've just moved into a new (rented) house, and are having problems with satellite reception. We get 'no satellite signal is being received ' messages, primarily on BBC1 though other channels have been affected. ITV1 seems to be fine. BBC2 seems to come and go!

The dish looks fairly old (picture attached)

The dish is mounted on the end of the house at a height of about 2.3m and there is a fence about 4m from the dish on it's centre line. The top of the fence is about the same height as the centre of the dish.

Our location is Paignton in Devon Latitude: 50.4061° Longitude: -3.5618°

My question, bearing in mind it's a rental property, what is the most cost effective fix. I'm more than happy to replace the LNB or dish myself if that's the problem.
The receiver is a standard sky box that was working well before the move.
Final question, if the LNB or dish are to be replaced, what would be the recommended replacement.


Many thanks,
frogeye
 

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Welcome,

It's possible your dish could be slightly mis-aligned or you may have a faulty LNb. Either would show up as the symptoms you have mentioned :)
 
Also bear in mind the cable may not be in the best of nick!
 
Thanks for the info folks,
The LNB seems a bit 'wobbly' where it's mounted to the arm in front of the dish - are new LNB's a direct replacement or should I bite the bullet and replace both?

Cheers,
Frogeye
 
frogeye said:
Thanks for the info folks,
The LNB seems a bit 'wobbly' where it's mounted to the arm in front of the dish - are new LNB's a direct replacement or should I bite the bullet and replace both?

Cheers,
Frogeye
Click to expand...

If it's wobbly, it might already be a replacement: The design of the Dish Arm and of the LNB fitting has changed marginally over the years and a new LNB doesn't always fit tightly without a spot of "engineering".

Should be easy enough to pack it out if necessary.

Basically, you just push out a plastic pin that you'll see vertically through the arm near the LNB and then slide the LNB out backwards.

If the pin doesn't pop out easily, it may be more expedient to detach the arm from it's fixings to the dish and do the job on the ground, aided by a Manchester screwdriver.

That said, if you can stabilise the current LNB, things may improve anyway - worth a shot.
 
It could be an "f" connector problem check connections at rear of box and lnb, i,ve had this problem when the "SKYGUY" fitted the F connector with the central core too long this caused it to kink when tightened and gave the very same problem as you describe, don,t forget to power down before disconnecting

regards dave
 
frogeye said:
Thanks for the info folks,
The LNB seems a bit 'wobbly' where it's mounted to the arm in front of the dish - are new LNB's a direct replacement or should I bite the bullet and replace both?

Cheers,
Frogeye
Click to expand...

These do move about a bit if touched, shouldn't cause too many problems though; Astra2/Eb1 fires in. If you do replace the LNb just push it in as far as it will go and pop the pin back :)
 
Tivù said:
If the pin doesn't pop out easily, it may be more expedient to detach the arm from it's fixings to the dish and do the job on the ground, aided by a Manchester screwdriver.
Click to expand...

That must be the cross-head version of the Birmingham Screwdriver :)

Thanks for all the help. I'll order a new LNB, and sat finder and post back here with the outcome.
Cheers all,
Regards,
Frogeye
 
If you do need to take the arm of - and the Brum Screwdriver would be just fine - a good soaking of the retaining screws with WD40 is a good idea.
 
OK, Quick update,

Replaced the LNB and signal strength came upto 90-100%, and quality about 80%. Checked the dish alignment using the sat finder and got a marginal increase on signal strength by lifting the dish a tad.
Also 'reengineered' (bent!) the LNB arm to stop it floating arou
nd so much.
Didn't get much improvement with adjusting the LNB skew angle - tried the range of adjustment and didn't see much change in meter reading or signal strength/quality. Left at about 16deg.

Finally - took plastic cover off old LNB and found... two spiders nests on the front of the 'horn' and 10's of (baby?) spiders. I'm thinking that this hasn't helped, but unlikly to have caused the complete dropout of some channels... comments anyone??

Thanks again for everyones support and help - I'd much rather fix something myself than 'get in a man that can' so to speak!

Cheers,
Frogeye
 
Nice result there :-righton
 
Good stuff. Well done.

Those pesky spiders never pay rent. I'm not sure about the permeability and permittivity of spider's nests, though - If you were really keen, you could clear them out and refit it ........................ :-bash
 
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