[pgfitzgerald]

I was watching something from MyVOD last night and started getting the "Searching for Satellite" message. When I switched to House (On MPEG4 Local), it was completely unwatchable.

When I checked the signal strength, I noticed it was nowhere near what it was when the new dish and HR20 were installed in September.

When the installer got done with the installation, we were both very pleased to see the signal strength on almost all transponders of all satellites were in the mid to high 90s.

I've attached a PDF of the values right now. I have very similar signal strength on my other receivers (Sony DirecTiVo and old RCA). The cable is all new Belden 7915A with T&B Snap-n-Seal compression connectors.

Seems kinda weird to me that I'm just now starting to get picture breakup on my receivers. No bad weather, no trees in the way, no reason for a sudden drop in signal.

Anybody have any ideas?

Paul

 

[bwaldron]

I was watching something from MyVOD last night and started getting the "Searching for Satellite" message. When I switched to House (On MPEG4 Local), it was completely unwatchable.

When I checked the signal strength, I noticed it was nowhere near what it was when the new dish and HR20 were installed in September.

When the installer got done with the installation, we were both very pleased to see the signal strength on almost all transponders of all satellites were in the mid to high 90s.

I've attached a PDF of the values right now. I have very similar signal strength on my other receivers (Sony DirecTiVo and old RCA). The cable is all new Belden 7915A with T&B Snap-n-Seal compression connectors.

Seems kinda weird to me that I'm just now starting to get picture breakup on my receivers. No bad weather, no trees in the way, no reason for a sudden drop in signal.

Anybody have any ideas?

Paul

Could something have cause the dish to move slightly? It doesn't take much.

 

[matto]

multiswitch?

 

[litzdog911]

Looks like only the 99/101/103-deg satellite signals are affected. Could be a defective main LNB assembly, or something blocking your dish's view of those satellites (they're close together in the sky). I would think dish misalignment would also affect your 110/119-deg readings (which are received by the secondary LNB attached to the main LNB assembly). I suppose a defective multiswitch could cause similar problems.

 

[pgfitzgerald]

Could something have cause the dish to move slightly? It doesn't take much.

We haven't had much wind recently... and I can't think of anything else that would have caused the dish to move.

multiswitch?

I have a WB68. Is this problem indicative of a multiswitch issue?

Looks like only the 99/101/103-deg satellite signals are affected.

I noticed that too. But the funny thing is that even 110/119 readings used to be higher.

Could be a defective main LNB assembly, or something blocking your dish's view of those satellites (they're close together in the sky).

I've got extremely clear line of sight to the sats. There are no trees or other obstructions anywhere close to being in the way.

I would think dish misalignment would also affect your 110/119-deg readings (which are received by the secondary LNB attached to the main LNB assembly).

I would agree. That makes sense.

...

So possible culprits are:

1. Dish out of alignment
2. Defective 99/101/103 LNB assembly
3. Defective multiswitch

I can remove the multiswitch from the equation temporarily to see if the signals pop back up to where they were before. That should rule out or implicate the multiswitch.

Are there any other troubleshooting measures I can take before calling someone?

Thanks for the help,

Paul

 

[bwaldron]

Looks like only the 99/101/103-deg satellite signals are affected. Could be a defective main LNB assembly, or something blocking your dish's view of those satellites (they're close together in the sky). I would think dish misalignment would also affect your 110/119-deg readings (which are received by the secondary LNB attached to the main LNB assembly). I suppose a defective multiswitch could cause similar problems.

Yes, you're right of course. My bad for not looking at the details in the attachment.

 

[topprospect]

pgfitzgerald,

I had a similar problem that ended up being caused by bad RG6 cable connectors on the lines going into the multiswitch from the dish. Try reordering the RG6 cables going into the multiswitch from the dish. Does your problem change any? If so, one or more of the connectors is bad, (hopefully not on the dish side). If not, you can at least rule out bad cabling.

For instance, my problem was that my 103/99 numbers were very low or 0. After rearranging, all the odd transponders on 101/119 went to 0. That allowed me to identify which cable was bad and replace the offending connector.

 

[pgfitzgerald]

I've done some more troubleshooting.

I removed the WB68 Multiswitch and connected the four lines from the dish to my HR-20 and my SAT-T60. All four tuners exhibit the same behaviour. There has been no noticable change in what I posted in the PDF at the beginning of this thread.

I'm pretty sure the inside wiring is fine. I can't find any problems with the cable or connectors. Now I've ruled out the multiswitch as the source of the problem.

That just leaves the dish itself and/or the LNB assemblies. Is there any way I can perform further testing on my own? Or is it time to call DirecTV to send someone out to fix the problem?

Paul

 

[litzdog911]

You could try very slightly tweaking the dish alignment to see if the numbers change for the better or worse. That would help determine if it's a "simple" misalignment issue. And help you decide if you want to realign the dish yourself or call DirecTV.

 

[pgfitzgerald]

You could try very slightly tweaking the dish alignment to see if the numbers change for the better or worse. That would help determine if it's a "simple" misalignment issue. And help you decide if you want to realign the dish yourself or call DirecTV.

That's just a bit out of my comfort zone, so I contacted DirecTV and scheduled a service call.

Thanks everyone for the help!

Paul

 

[uteotw]

Question:

Had a small rainstorm here (Chicago) last night and for quite some time I had no D* HD picture. Local HDs were fine. Now, the D* picture is back, normal as far as I can tell, but signal strength seems messed up:

--On 101 they're all in the 80s (were mid 90s or more before).
--On 110 I have 3 transponders (not sure if this is normal): 8, 91; 10, 95 and 12, 95.
--On 119 I have 22, 88; 23, 0; 24, 86; and 25-32 are between 79 and 95 (with 31 being 0).
--On 99(b) I have 1-8: 26 76 38 82 34 73 NA NA (and the rest NA)
--On 103(a) I have 1-8: 96 0 96 95 0 NA NA (rest NA)

So, did something go wrong that needs to be fixed? I called D* and got "Brittney" in "Level 2" tech. support who, no offense, didn't sound like she knew a thing and could only set up a service call.

Any input would be appreciated. Thanks...

 

[w6fxj]

That's just a bit out of my comfort zone, so I contacted DirecTV and scheduled a service call.

Thanks everyone for the help!

Paul

Paul - Many 5-LNB dishes were installed on roodtops withOUT the recommended two extra braces (called monopoles). These are needed on most installations to stiffen the main support mast by making it a tripod mount instead of a single mount. If you do NOT have these installed, it takes very little wind to move the dish slightly off point. And the much narrower Ka-band beamwidth causes signal dropoff faster than the Ku-band beamwidth does.

The dish needs the tripod support and needs to be aligned using the dither method spelled out in the installation videos here: http://www.solidsignal.com/dtvkuka/ So make sure the technician has the necessary monopoles and can realign the dish correctly.

 

[pgfitzgerald]

Paul - Many 5-LNB dishes were installed on roodtops withOUT the recommended two extra braces (called monopoles). These are needed on most installations to stiffen the main support mast by making it a tripod mount instead of a single mount. If you do NOT have these installed, it takes very little wind to move the dish slightly off point. And the much narrower Ka-band beamwidth causes signal dropoff faster than the Ku-band beamwidth does.

The dish needs the tripod support and needs to be aligned using the dither method spelled out in the installation videos here: http://www.solidsignal.com/dtvkuka/ So make sure the technician has the necessary monopoles and can realign the dish correctly.

Thanks for the reply. My AT9 was properly installed, but the LNB assembly went bad on me. Once it was replaced, everything went back to normal.

Paul

 

[Tyrod]

That's just a bit out of my comfort zone, so I contacted DirecTV and scheduled a service call.

Thanks everyone for the help!

Paul

I suspect an alignment issue as well. Sometimes just putting a finger on the dish and giving it a slight pull without loosening the adjustment nuts while someones watches the meter on the receiver can tell you a bunch. Try all four sides of the dish. You really don't need to move it much if you're locked on but have low signal level.

 

[JonFo]

Thanks for the reply. My AT9 was properly installed, but the LNB assembly went bad on me. Once it was replaced, everything went back to normal.

Paul

Same here. For the secod time in two months, the 103 sat signal goes away. All other signals are fine.
last time, replacing the LNB assembly fixed it.

This week I went right back through the same debugging process and sure enough, it's the LNB again.

Anyone else losing LNB's on the AT9 dish (the one with the sidecar)?

Any slimline issues?