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View Full Version : 501 / 508 and grounding


jrbdmb
09-09-03, 07:22 PM
(Moved from Dish DVR forum to Tech. forum, seems to be more applicable here.)

I have a 508 that I RMAed yesterday because I was getting an intermittent signal loss / pixelation. It might work fine for a few hours, then the random "acquiring satellite" or pixelation would begin again. The signal strength would always indicate 100+, but would go from "locked" to "wrong sat" for several seconds at a time, at a rate anywhere from once per minute to once every 5 seconds. Replacing the 508 with a spare 301 eliminated the problem, so I figured it was a problem with the 508's tuner (and apparently the Dish CSR agreed).

Anyhow, I was checking the outside wiring last evening and noticed that the satellite feed wasn't secured very well at the ground block. I tightened everything up, and so far I have not seen a recurrence of the problem.

So ... could the loose ground cause the problem I was seeing? If so, why would a 508 be more susceptible to this problem than a 301?

No Ground God
09-21-03, 11:29 PM
don't even ground it, no one else ever does.

grounding does nothing anyway, plus all the new receivers out now have a 3-prong plug.

The reason the 508 is a piece of **** is because EchoStar makes crappy equipment!

Richard King
09-22-03, 09:34 PM
You could have had a voltage variation through the bad connection. Possibly the 301 was supplying a slightly different voltage than the 508, enough that it wasn't a problem, and that the 508 was supplying a marginal voltage, just barely in spec, and the bad connection at the ground block made the voltage appear to be a switching voltage at the LNB. Just a thought.