Losing my Locals from 119...

1743 Views 16 Replies 7 Participants Last post by newsposter, Jul 28, 2008

paulman182

Discussion Starter · Jul 8, 2008

My wife was watching the local news yesterday afternoon when she got a "searching for satellite" message. All our locals, which come from the 119 satellite, were gone. I checked another receiver, same thing.

When I looked at the signal strength for 119, I noticed that most of the transponders looked normal! Some of the spotbeams I always get nothing from, but I got one spotbeam at 100 and a few others in the 80s and 90s.

However, the one I believe my locals come from--transponder 25--showed zero signal. No, it was not a case of all the odds being down, just transponder 25. Several minutes later, transponder 25 came back to 100 and my locals returned.

I don't see how my system could cause only one transponder to be gone, but I don't know what could make this happen on DirecTV's end, either. My wife says it happens "all the time" (which shows you how much I watch my locals, never.)

The locals, by the way, are the Huntington-Charleston stations. Any ideas?

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mcbeevee

· #2 · Jul 8, 2008

I've been having the same problem with sat 119/tp 25 for Knoxville SD locals. Hopefully, replacing the WB68 will correct my problem.

http://www.dbstalk.com/showthread.php?p=1667056#post1667056

paulman182

Discussion Starter · #3 · Jul 8, 2008

mcbeevee said:
I've been having the same problem with sat 119/tp 25 for Knoxville SD locals. Hopefully, replacing the WB68 will correct my problem.

http://www.dbstalk.com/showthread.php?p=1667056#post1667056

After reading your thread, I see it is the identical time of day that affects me.

I'm thinking it is a DirecTV issue. Remember that our signal meters don't really read signal strength, but actually amount of error correction. The signal could be arriving in corrupt form from DirecTV for some reason. Maybe even an uplink issue.

I'm just theorizing here, but for you and I to both have problems at the same time of day with just one or two of the same transponders on the same satellite, and everything else work fine, is a huge conicidence.

mcbeevee

· #4 · Jul 8, 2008

Read on another board that someone else in Knoxville was having the same problem. This past Sunday, my SD locals were working ok, but my HD signals on 119 were dropping. Have you tested if the signals improved by bypassing the multiswitch?

paulman182

Discussion Starter · #5 · Jul 8, 2008

No, I have not. Most of the time I'm not home when it happens.

I don't see what could go wrong with the switch that would knock out one transponder on one satellite.

I don't have HD locals, but get HD DNS from NY.

MikeR7

· #6 · Jul 8, 2008

I have heard from my brother that this is happening with Mpls-StPaul locals. It is happening only with the SD analog versions, not anything digital or HD.

MikeR7

· #7 · Jul 8, 2008

I just checked Lyng Sat and my brother gets those locals from 101 though, so it has nothing to do with 119.

mcbeevee

· #8 · Jul 8, 2008

paulman182 said:
No, I have not. Most of the time I'm not home when it happens.
I don't see what could go wrong with the switch that would knock out one transponder on one satellite.
I don't have HD locals, but get HD DNS from NY.

Mine started out with only tp25, then tp24 had problems, then tp27 & tp28 (HD Net). Maybe there was a bad batch of Zinwell WB68's being used when my Slimline was installed (Apr-2007).

mcbeevee

· #9 · Jul 8, 2008

The poster in another board who had the same problem is not even using the WB68 (4 wires straight from the built-in switch on the dish). I don't know what is going on now.

mcbeevee

· #10 · Jul 21, 2008

I replaced my Zinwell WB68 with a new one, and a couple of the 119 transponders are still dropping to 0's in the afternoons. Oh well, once Directv11 fires up (soon!) and the SD locals go away in Feb-09, I will not have to worry about the 119 (or 110) signals.

dgordo

· #11 · Jul 21, 2008

LNB failure?

paulman182

Discussion Starter · #12 · Jul 21, 2008

mcbeevee said:
I replaced my Zinwell WB68 with a new one, and a couple of the 119 transponders are still dropping to 0's in the afternoons. Oh well, once Directv11 fires up (soon!) and the SD locals go away in Feb-09, I will not have to worry about the 119 (or 110) signals.

Too bad it didn't fix the problem. I haven't asked my wife lately if it is still happening here.

By the way, just because all full-power TV stations go digital next year, does not necessarily mean that DirecTV will carry them in HD, just that DirecTV will be receiving a digital signal from the broadcaster instead of analog. DirecTV can still provide it to us in SD only, if they want...

newsposter

· #13 · Jul 22, 2008

hmmm i just assumed my 119 issues were because a neighbors tree was growing. but ow after reading this....i wonder?

cbyrd

· #14 · Jul 22, 2008

newsposter said:
hmmm i just assumed my 119 issues were because a neighbors tree was growing. but ow after reading this....i wonder?

I've been having issues with 119 also. The tech they sent out said it was trees, but I eyeballed it and I don't believe it's the case. I'll have signals in the 80-90 range that will drop all the way to 0 then jump back again. Sometimes it will do this every few seconds...but then it will go for days and never drop. No wind and clear skies in both scenarios.

David MacLeod

· #15 · Jul 25, 2008

very similar issue here on my end too. bypassing switch did not help. only seems to affect 1 or 2 channels though (for me) so I don't really notice it as much.

newsposter

· #16 · Jul 27, 2008

well since the only 119 i care about is hdnet, i guess i dont have to worry so much. And once they all move to the new bird, i guess this will all be moot

newsposter

· #17 · Jul 28, 2008

so is this issue moot now?

now get me more than 50SLs!

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