Satellite signal strength- Time of Day?

UKCamaroSS

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Dreambox 7020
1.25 Meter Gibertini Dish
Stab HH 120 Motor.. soon to be replaced by??.. any idea's
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Peterborough, Cambs
Hi,

I have finally managed to get Sky UK in Milan, Italy. I was not able to do it personally. The building owners required the use of their contractor.

I am able to receive all channels, including Astra 2D (BBC, ITV etc), however the signal strength changes depending on the time of day. Yesterday afternoon was when everything was connected... the signal was perfect, by 8pm in Italy, some jumping occured on a few channels. The weather (here anyways) was perfect.

My question is why does the strength change due to the time of day?

Thanks,
UKCamaroSS
 

PoloMint

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Fife, Scotland
This is a well noted, and quite controversial topic. If you search the forums you'll find some replies and discussion. Most of the focus around gravity, realignment of satellite, solar/battery power switching or atmospheric conditions. Probably some others I have forgotten - I don't think anyone knows for sure. :)
 

dxsat

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skyinmadrid.com
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Snap's setup: (In Spain) Humax HDR, Prodelin 1.8m dish + Invacom QDF-031 + CM feed, (In UK) CallFlow VDSL + EE 4G, Sky Q, YouView HD, Mac OSX, iOS
My Location
UK: Tonbridge, Kent. Spain: Madrid.
The most likely explanation is an eccentric orbit (the earth is not a perfect sphere) on top of a small daily variation in the attitude of the solar panels, leading to a slight drop in power.
It's also possible that it's because the satellite is 44000 miles further from the sun at night. It can't be battery running (this is only at eqinoxes) or atmosphere (there is the same pattern every day)
But.. as Polomint says, no-one really knows. Any rocket scientists out there?
 

patmos

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STRONG SRT-4910+,SunRay4HDse,TBS5922, 2.4M P.F Apstar7(76.5 DEGE), 120cm dish PAS 10 Ku( 68.5 DEGE),3.0M Mesh Motorised dish on arc (AM44 (11DEGW) to AM33(96.5 DEGE),150 cm dish W3C(16 DeG E)+ side LNB Ew2A(10 DEGE),90cm W4/W7 (36 DEGE)
My Location
Mauritius
Sorry but i'm receiving PAS 10 (out of footprint) in Mauritius on a 1.2m dish. we all doing this here have noted that the signal is poor or completely down from 4PM -8PM(12-16 UTC). I asked this question on many forums and seem to get no valid answer. We noted also that we lost the verticals more easily. I understand that weather also plays a role in it but at times with big clouds signal is ok. The 4-8 window is critical here.
 
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