Intermittent signal drop

Hello all, its lurker Ross back again

Bit of a strange one

I recently moved into a house with a existing dish, LNB and cable. I
connected up my ex contract original pace STB and rejoiced at my free
channels with roughly 75% on both strength and quality signal meters.

After a while I started suffering from intermittent signal dropping,
everything would be fine for a while then suddenly I get “No satellite
signal is being received” for anything from a couple of hours to a
couple of days.

Initially I thought my steam powered pace box had given up the ghost so
I swapped it for my spare Thompson but this did nothing to resolve the
problem

I have obviously power cycled both boxes, tried the 4 0 1 New Install
and trawled through the FAQ to find a solution to no avail.

Sometimes during my signal outage the box will lock onto the wrong
transponder if that’s of any significance.

Do we think the problem is alignment, if so does anyone know where I can
find a cheap meter?? or could it be Cable or LNB.

Any help would be greatly appreciated

Thanks all

Ross

On 4-Apr-2007, Ross wrote:

Do we think the problem is alignment, if so does anyone know where I can
find a cheap meter?? or could it be Cable or LNB.

Could be cable, LNB, or alignment.
A meter would be useful, Lidl were doing some analog movement
pointer ones for 5.99 quid recently, othewise try eBay.

Connect meter, gently press edge of dish, does the meter
rise or fall? If it rises slightly, then what you need to do
is obvious.

Without altering gain, move meter from LNB to STB end,
is the signal level the same, or only slightly less?
A big difference implies a long cable run, or a lossy cable.

If you can get someone to watch the STB display of
signal strength and quality, and call the results to you,
if necessary by cellphone to you up a ladder, you
can see if pressing the dish has any effect, bearing
in mind that the on screen display take 5-10 secs to
repond.

There is a lot to be said for a patio mount with everything
at around waist height where you can get at it.

On Wed, 04 Apr 2007 16:08:17 +0100, Ross wrote:

I recently moved into a house with a existing dish, LNB and cable. I
connected up my ex contract original pace STB and rejoiced at my free
channels with roughly 75% on both strength and quality signal meters.

After a while I started suffering from intermittent signal dropping,
everything would be fine for a while then suddenly I get ?No satellite
signal is being received? for anything from a couple of hours to a
couple of days.

Sometimes during my signal outage the box will lock onto the wrong
transponder if that?s of any significance.

Do we think the problem is alignment,

No, it sounds like the local oscillator in the LNB is drifting rather
wildly to me. Assuming the volts fed up the wire from the box are OK, I
would suggest you try a different LNB.

On Apr 4, 8:06 pm, Paul Ratcliffe
wrote:
On Wed, 04 Apr 2007 16:08:17 +0100, Ross wrote:
I recently moved into a house with a existing dish, LNB and cable. I
connected up my ex contract original pace STB and rejoiced at my free
channels with roughly 75% on both strength and quality signal meters.

After a while I started suffering from intermittent signal dropping,
everything would be fine for a while then suddenly I get ?No satellite
signal is being received? for anything from a couple of hours to a
couple of days.

Sometimes during my signal outage the box will lock onto the wrong
transponder if that?s of any significance.

Do we think the problem is alignment,

No, it sounds like the local oscillator in the LNB is drifting rather
wildly to me. Assuming the volts fed up the wire from the box are OK, I
would suggest you try a different LNB.

Sounds like the LNB skew has changed, so you are getting interference
from transponders on the opposite polarisation. Try rotating the LNB
slightly in each direction to see if it improves reception.

UKM

On 5 Apr 2007 03:14:04 -0700,
wrote:

After a while I started suffering from intermittent signal dropping,
everything would be fine for a while then suddenly I get ?No satellite
signal is being received? for anything from a couple of hours to a
couple of days.

Sometimes during my signal outage the box will lock onto the wrong
transponder if that?s of any significance.

No, it sounds like the local oscillator in the LNB is drifting rather
wildly to me. Assuming the volts fed up the wire from the box are OK, I
would suggest you try a different LNB.

Sounds like the LNB skew has changed, so you are getting interference
from transponders on the opposite polarisation. Try rotating the LNB
slightly in each direction to see if it improves reception.

I very much doubt it. If that were the case, it would be rather unlikely to
vary with time like the OP reported.

On 5-Apr-2007, Paul Ratcliffe wrote:

After a while I started suffering from intermittent signal dropping,
everything would be fine for a while then suddenly I get ?No satellite
signal is being received? for anything from a couple of hours to a
couple of days.

People will try to diagnose without basic test equipment,
satellite finders (signal strength meters) are quite cheap
and readily available.
Put one on the LNB during the "No satellite signal being
received condition" and see if there is a signal, and confirm
this by placing your hand in front of the LNB, when any
reading should drop.
If you get a signal at the LNB leave the gain the same
and test again at the receiver end.
If you have an apparent but small signal, and "No satellite
signal being received" then it may only be a matter
of realigning the dish,
DC voltmeters are around 4 quid and will tell you if
the LNB is getting its DC supply, a flaky receiver
power supply can cause intermittent signal loss.

Diagnosis needs to be methodical rather than
speculative.
Step by step you home in on whether its the
LNB, a coax (water/bad joint), dish alignment,
or a receiver problem.

We had similar problem but it turned out to be a loose F connector.
Mike

"Ross" wrote in message
...
Hello all, its lurker Ross back again

Bit of a strange one

I recently moved into a house with a existing dish, LNB and cable. I
connected up my ex contract original pace STB and rejoiced at my free
channels with roughly 75% on both strength and quality signal meters.

After a while I started suffering from intermittent signal dropping,
everything would be fine for a while then suddenly I get “No satellite
signal is being received” for anything from a couple of hours to a couple
of days.

Initially I thought my steam powered pace box had given up the ghost so I
swapped it for my spare Thompson but this did nothing to resolve the
problem

I have obviously power cycled both boxes, tried the 4 0 1 New Install and
trawled through the FAQ to find a solution to no avail.

Sometimes during my signal outage the box will lock onto the wrong
transponder if that’s of any significance.

Do we think the problem is alignment, if so does anyone know where I can
find a cheap meter?? or could it be Cable or LNB.

Any help would be greatly appreciated

Thanks all

Ross