Sky reception problems

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alanwaddle72

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hello, i recently acquired sky digital on a 105cm dish in helsinki, finland. there should be no problems with the reception (a mate of mine has had it for 2yrs with no problems), but after about a mnth i have run into problems with receiving sky sports 1,2 and 3, and channel 5 (all these are frequency 11758H). the picture cuts off between 7-9pm every day, other than that it is usually perfect. the mate who also has sky digital has totally lost reception of these channels (he has the same size dish but a slightly weaker LN:cool:. we asked the fella who installed the dishes, and he said it could be they have weakened the frequency most probably for maintenance work, but possibly permanently. he also said increasing the dish size to 120cm would not help (which we tend to disagree with), and we would need to increase to 180cm (not possible for us). any help on this would be greatly appreciated - anyone any idea if maintenance work is taking place (and for how long), does a 120cm dish help? are there stronger LNB's in the market (i have .6Mhz i think) and would that help? in short - what can we do?? ta for help in advance!
 

Old Satellite

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This is interesting! (If)the transponder output has been lowerered it is normally through either a loss of power as a result of the solar cell effeciency or changing the transponders footprint,solar flare activity since this is limited to a single potential transponder the last is highly unlikely.

I have checked on my system (3.7 mtr + 1.8 mtr Belgium) and I currently do not see a power reduction for the transponder. I have measured the Transponder on a promax where the C/N and is within approx 0.2 db of other Astra 2A horizontal transponders.

Could you check the other Horizontal transponders at your location such as 11.836H MHZ this is also on the northern Astra 2A transponder footprint.

Also check out 12.070H MHZ this is on the north transponder but from Astra 2b.

The dish size increase from 1.05 to 1.2mtr benefits are dependent upon the quality of the dish and hence its effeciency and range from approx 39.0db - 40.5 db for the 1.05mtr and 40.50db to 42.3db for the 1.2mtr.

It will help but depends upon how much your signal has been degraded,

Do you have the before and current location signal strength and quality?

Then maybe I can help you futher

Old Satellite
 

PoloMint

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My Satellite Setup
1200cc with 100,000,000,000 neurons and 100,000,000,000,000 connections
My Location
Fife, Scotland
Channel 5, Sky Sports 1,2 & 3 are currently on both transponders 11.758 H and 12.110 H, both H SR 27500 FEC 2/3

Try the other one and see if it is any better.
 
A

alanwaddle72

Guest
thanks for your reply "old satellite"!
unfortunately we don't know of the strength of the signal before or after.

also, we have had no problems with other channels from 2A North.

we think it could be the reception is weaker on the fringe of the footprint, like finland, and you probably have no problems in belgium, which is better reception in any case?

we would be interested if you have a view on what would be the best way to try and fix the problem:
we have been told we might get better reception with an "offset" dish as opposed to aerial, which we have now?
seeing as me having a 0.6dB LNB as compared to my mate having 0.5dB, would a 0.7dB LNB help?
 

koolclub

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Ayia Napa, Cyprus
I am picking up in Cyprus which is far East of Europe and on the brink of middle east.
I'm using 2.8m prime focus with Panasonic 30 box which is one of the most powerful ones built, and ideal for better reception. I had a Genesis 3 lnb which is supposedly a .3db but could not recieve ch4, e4 and various other channels (only got family package subscription). I had my system checked over recently and had the dish realigned and lnb changed to a Strong .6db lnb and i can now get them channels perfectly.
Yes an offset dish normally works better. and you don't have to go as big.
I'm not an expert like some of the guys here in fact nowhere near as clued up, but this is just what i had to use and do to increase reception here.
 
A

alanwaddle72

Guest
thanks to everyone who replied.
we have now figured out what has happened. they have changed the sky sports beam from 2A North to 2B South (the new frequency is 12110), this resulting in a weaker beam in helsinki, because helsinki is very much on the edge of the 2B footprint.
the only thing we can do is get a bigger dish, unfortunately the chances for this are very limited.
i currently have a 115x105cm dish, and the fella who installed this claimed a 120cm dish would probably not help, and a 150cm dish would not fit in my balcony. between this, there are no options, as it seems only Triax and Nokia dishes are sold in finland - apart from poor quality russian dishes which probably would not help at all.
the question is - seeing as it must be a very close call (we can receive the channels ok 75% of the time), would it still be worth it investing in a slightly bigger dish?
is it really true there are no quality offset dishes available between the sizes of 120cm and 150cm? is there somewhere in the net i could look for these?
 
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