Top Tip LONG TIME SYSTEM REACTION when reception down to 10%/90%

[rodscha]

My reception of Astra 2 went down terribly yesterday march 5th ,only the pan- european signal was watchable with 10% reception(top blue line) but 90% signal(bottom green line) how surprising...cnn hd full blast,but on 10%//94%,but no bbc itv etc!
I started fiddling with the receiver 's out cable connection,unscrewed,cut a bit,reshaped the cable,rescrewed it on and re-connected to no result.
Then,thought the LNB had lost skew,but it was still tightly screwn as before;
did the cable/lnb connection,it was quite wet,and somewhat loose...wiped it clean,screwed it back tight into the LNB,went downstairs....gggrrr nothing still 10%/90% and no bbc!
Got online to this website,saw there was nothing wrong about astra 2...fiddled around my tools,started thinking about a new cable...
Finally after some time,Iput the tv back on(30 miniutes after my last fiddling) and found reception Back to normal.... so it took the cable like 25 minutes to send the idea that signal was back to normal !!
Saved me a "new cable" operation!
So sometimes the system takes time to retune....

 

[Analoguesat]

That sounds like a sun outage. We are a bit past the peak for the spring outages but if you are trying to watch weak channels I guess it might still be a factor.

 

[Lazarus]

It's possible that short-circuit protection at the LNB In socket had been triggered.

Turning off and waiting a while might have reset it.

 

[sonnetpete]

Don't know what time your Astra 2 reception went down, but according to the link below you might have had an outage today between 11:41 and 12:37 CET

Sun Outage Visualizer Simulator for Geostationary Satellites - Projects area affected by potential Sun outage - Jens T. Sætre - http://www.satellite-calculations.com

 

[rodscha]

no definitely not,as my prob took place yesterday night,due night .
and i tried several times i alwaus had
-nothing on bbc/itv
10%//90% on the pan-european(show case community channel etc..)
and it worked again this morning until 5 minutes ago when it went back to
-zero on bbc etc
10%/90% on pan-european
so,it s back to the previous situation despite all my fiddling

 

[rodscha]

and back it went again,looks like something is slowly rotting along my line

 

[Channel Hopper]

no definitely not,as my prob took place yesterday night,due night .

A large bird, spider/insect in feedhorn. Somebody's laundry on a clothes-line ?

 

[rodscha]

my "outage" took place approx 2:05 and 2:14 CET

 

[rodscha]

got an inverto black and no feedhorn that I know of...
unless there 's a hole somewhere? ..;no I saw it intact 2 hours ago
now working on Ch 4 HD which I get 89%(blue) and 75%(Green)

 

[davemurgtroyd]

You say lnb connector was wet - so very likely water in cable

 

[Lazarus]

and back it went again,looks like something is slowly rotting along my line

It's possible that short-circuit protection at the LNB In socket had been triggered.

Turning off and waiting a while might have reset it.

Time to replace the entire cable.

 

[rodscha]

My setup has worked fine until tonight 8-ish ,
when it went back to yesternight s situation,pretty troubling ,same 10%/94% on "talking picture" part of the pan-european bunch
and no bbc,itv or c4
this Astra2 dish (which has the reception problem) has a black Inverto only 2 years old,can it be guilty
I have another dish with a pretty old monoblock for Astra1 & Hotbird,works fine on a separate entry to the receiver;

will cut off some of the cable tomorrow see what happens...
could it be the lnb?
if so will i change it or just re- tighten the cable into it...
But....How can it work "just a little" and then normally?
Meanwhile I missed "masterchef another time,had to do with quite an interesting Aznavour show instead...

 

[Topper]

Do not forget the time of year, sun outages may be the issue

These sun outages start with a signal loss of only a few minutes. The outages start small—when the sun is very near alignment with the satellite and the earth station.

The sun’s thermal energy is strong enough to temporarily interfere with the satellite signal and cause an outage as it approaches direct alignment. Each day as the sun moves further north, the sun’s alignment with the satellite and earth station move ever so slightly. As the sun becomes more aligned with the satellite and the earth station on the ground, the outage duration increases.

Peak outage time occurs when the sun, satellite and the earth station are exactly aligned with each other. The interference declines gradually as the sun starts moving away from the satellite and earth station alignment, until it is no longer a factor—until the next interference season when the sun starts heading south (northern hemispheric in autumn).

 

[rodscha]

But,one simple question,can this happen when it s dead night,as happens here at 9PM or 11PM?
Yesternight,reception went back to normal around midnight

 

[rodscha]

and,btw,right now at 9:26CET it...WORKS!!! ggrrrrr

 

[rodscha]

so,as a conclusion,on 2 successive nights,i have lost the UK beam 8PM-ish to midnigh-ish and got it at other times

 

[Lazarus]

Check the connections at each end of the cable again ..... thermal expansion and contraction on a less than perfect fit could cause this intermittent behaviour.

That said, you indicated earlier that there's moisture in the cable, so I'd change the whole run anyway.

 

[Topper]

my "outage" took place approx 2:05 and 2:14 CET

Could have been either day or night based upon your post,hence my post
02:05 would have clarified it
2.05am would have clarified it
2.05 does not

 

[rodscha]

Re my outage,I wrote it wrong
I lost the UK beam on two successive occasions in the 8pm to 11 59pm period,evening,when most peoiple watch TV,on the 6th & 7th of april
..I checked TV round half past midnight yesterday 7th/8th's overnight(this very early morning)
and again this morning 9:26AM
and right now,11 AM CET it works fine...seems to be a "cold night" prob,yet it has been much clder before without affecting it
At one point the cable runs near(almost against) a zinc gutter would that be a cause for a signal leak?

 

[william-1]

Satellite Sun Interference | Intelsat