Why might my signal have gone?

ramblingbob

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I have had a fairly reliable signal here in norway for some time, but two days ago it just completely disappeared.

Not just a weaker signal but nothing at all. All of my cables are still properly connected and the weather has been fairly clear for a while. It has faded before in heavy weather, but never really vanishes completely. I've tried re-aligning my dish, but nothing helps.

Can an LNB just suddenly become faulty? I'm not too clued up on how these things work and now I feel really clueless.

THanks for any help.
 

rolfw

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Yes, LNBs can suddenly go, as can the tuners in digiboxes. Is it possible to borrow a receiver off of a friend to test the dish?
 

ramblingbob

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Not easily, which is most likely? LNB is quite new but cheap, Pace box is good quality but second hand.

I put an antennae amplifier on the cable for a while to improve my antennae reception for norwegian telly (the antennae and dish signals are combined before they come into the house) then I took it off to use the satellite channels again (the signal was fine then). Can this do damage?
 

rolfw

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Not sure what you mean by the last bit, do you mean you put a masthead amplifier on the terresrial aerial?

If you can get hold of a new LNB easily, then by all means try that first, but it could just as easily be the receiver.
 

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What sort of amplifier,line or mast?
The combiner seperates the signal for tv(no voltage) and sat(14v or 18v) so if you had shorted out the cable you could damage the tuner of your digibox,or maybe you overloaded the voltage to the lnb.
 

ramblingbob

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zorba said:
What sort of amplifier,line or mast?
The combiner seperates the signal for tv(no voltage) and sat(14v or 18v) so if you had shorted out the cable you could damage the tuner of your digibox,or maybe you overloaded the voltage to the lnb.

Don't like the sound of that.

The terrestrial and satellite signals come in combined and there's a place where I can insert an amplifier for the terrestrial signal before it reaches the box on the wall. Obviously this means that the amplifier is also connected to the LNB and receiver as well. I didn't realise this could cause damage.

I suppose I'll just have to hope it's the LNB as it'd be very tricky for me to get a new Sky receiver out here.
 

rolfw

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So you have a UHF/IF diplexer outside and then inside a diplexed outlet plate?
 

ramblingbob

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I think you're talking about the right thing, but I've occasionally been putting an aerial amplifier on the cable between those two (when not using the satellite channels). I'm wondering if doing that would've damaged the LNB or the receiver.
 

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Well it will cause a dead short on the cable, so wouldn't do the digibox any good, as the digibox always powers the lnb, even when in standby. I can't see that it would affect the LNB.

As a matter of interest, have you tried unplugging the digibox, as that is sometimes necessary after a short.
 

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So you think I've probably damaged the receiver? That's very bad news. Anything I can do about it?
 

rolfw

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The digibox does have short protection, but it wouldn't like being shorted for a long period, have you tried disconnecting from the mains and rebooting?
 

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How old is your LNB?. If it's more than a couple of years, it may be worth replacing anyway. In my experience even the best start dropping off after three years at most.

Having done that, if the problem persists then change your digibox - there are plenty of them on Ebay, or a specialist used box dealer if you don't want to take the risk.
 

ramblingbob

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Thanks for all of the help, I tried by-passing the signal combiner and everything worked fine.

Probably one of the cheapest and easiest bits of the set-up to replace.
 
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