Sky Signal Issue no matter what the weather.

[cliffy101]

Hi,

I have a standard SKY receiver (white amstrad) and it plays up sporadically.
Keep getting the No Satellite Signal Being Received message and when i go into the settings and signal check I have noticed the following:
Signal is 80-90% however Signal Quality keeps going down to 0% and i receive the error message or the picture becomes too pixellated to watch. Then it shoots up to 50% and picture comes back before two minutes later it goes back to 0% again and vice versa.
This happens whatever the weather, for example last week it's been lovely and sunny with not a cloud in the sky and it was doing this on every channel on and off all day and night for 3 days. Then suddenly it's fine.... it can be fine for a few weeks with no issues then suddenly it's back to no signal for a few days again.

If there was an issue with the cable/dish then surely the signal quality would be constantly dodgy. It's almost like we have a decent signal for one or two weeks on the trot and someone has a little button pressing it for a few days or sometimes a week just to annoy us.
It's get so annoying i nearly lost my temper with it yesterday.
This morning it was absolutely fine again and funnily enough its raining and low cloud outside so definitely not weather related.
I am using the SKY dish with the Sky free channels as I fell out with Sky over an issue a few years ago with piss poor service.
Any help appreciated.

 

[Captain Jack]

The first simple thing to check is the connections from the dish (LN to the back of the receiver. The F plugs screw on connections should be tight and play free. If that checks out, try a new run of cable from the dish to the receiver. It could also be the LNB itself that's faulty (not unheard of). If there's more than one output on the LNB, try plugging the cable into a different one.

These are the first things to check and would cost very little to put right.

It could also be the dish being loose on its bracket and a short gust of wind takes it out of alignment. 50% quality isn't particularly strong, which suggests that the dish might be slightly misaligned.

It could, of course, be the receiver itself but it doesn't sound like it at this stage.

 

[TJExcalibur]

My first guess would be the dish has been moved, probably by the wind. Second guess is poor connection(s), probably at the lnb with water ingress or at the sat box where its been moved about. Third guess is a iffy lnb but that's usually permanent.

 

[gibertini]

fixed a similar issue yesterday on a slybox f3s and zone1 were water had gotten into the cable... even though the join at the lnb was sealed with amalgamating tape. no/intermittent signal at the stb but fine at the dish with meter, removed the cable with a fresh run and it is all good again

 

[archive10]

This morning it was absolutely fine again and funnily enough its raining and low cloud outside so definitely not weather related.
I am using the SKY dish with the Sky free channels as I fell out with Sky over an issue a few years ago with piss poor service.
Any help appreciated.

I had this 10 years ago in the UK.
On-off reception, not immediately linked to rain.
After much head-scratching and two installers (I was not as enlightened back then...), the third installer found the problem...

The terraced house we were in had a recent loft-conversion.
The builders who did the conversion changed the slanted roof at the back to a straight roof for the conversion.
The coax cable pre-dated the loft conversion, and just "thrown" over the roof.
So when the conversion went in, the builders just cut the cable, and put an extension in.
Four more F-connectors, and two junction pieces.
No water protection whatsoever.
... and one of the junctions was lying in the middle of the flat roof, where a puddle would build up every time it rained.
It took some hours for the water to come into the cable, so the drop in signal was not immediately connected with rain.

Third installer put in new cables, and everything worked.
(The second installer was actually there to convert the single 28.2E feed to a dual-feed for Sky+ when that came. He didn't spot the junctions. Amateur.)

 

[Analoguesat]

Pop the top off the receiver & see if there are bulging or leaking capacitors especially around the power supply section of the motherboard.

Keep your fingers well clear - theres enough power stored in the caps to give you a nasty jolt even well after its been unplugged!

 

[Terryl]

All the signal indication means that you have an LNB connected to the system, the dish could be pointing at the ground and you would still have an indication on the "S" (Signal), loss of the "S" would indicate a problem with the coax, the connections or the LNB.

The Quality signal however (Q) is a different matter, it could mean the dish is out of alignment for the satellite your tuned to, you can check on dishpointer.com, to see if your elevation and direction are correct, just enter your location and select the satellite from the list, then zoom into your location and click on it, this will give you a map with a line on it pointing to the satellite your tying to receive, it also has a terrain blockage function, this will tell you if something is in the way, like hills or tall trees.

To realign the dish all you do is pick a transponder on that satellite and tweak the dish for max "Q", you can test the dish to see if it's out of alignment, but first put some witness marks on the dish mount and the elevation adjust met so you wont totally loose the satellite.

Some tape and a dark pencil will do this.

To test the dish have someone watch the "Q" indicator, then slightly push up on the dish or if you behind it pull back on it, but not too hard, if the dish has dropped due to a loose bolt then you should be able to get the "Q" to go up.

The same for the direction, push or pull left or right (slightly) to see if the "Q" changes.

The dish may have dropped due to the hardware loosening up, over time with heating and cooling the bolts can get loose by them selves, this can cause the dish to drop, or if there was some wind it could have swung out of alignment.

 

[davemurgtroyd]

Amstrad Sky+ (SD) boxes do suffer from failure of the electrolytic capacitors in the power supply which causes wildly variable symptoms suchas the ones you have. Open up the box and check for any bulging or leaking electrolytic capacitors in the power supply area (near where mains power socket is on rear). If you are capable of soldering repair kits are available BUT is worth the effort and expensive as second hand HD+ boxes can be picked up for around £20