[drill]

I have 1 HR20 and 2 HR22's. 5LNB slimline driving a zinwell multiswitch (Not SWM).

all even transponders on 103a, 103b, 110, and 119 were 0. all other sats and transponders looked ok.

directv tech came out, replaced my LNB with 3LNB, replaced the multiswitch, and said 1 of the 4 lines from the sat to the multiswitch was bad. He reran one dual run from dish to multiswitch. sat signal seemed to be ok when he left, though he couldn't get my HR20 to pass without switching the HR20 to an 18" dish and running the test. Then afterwards changed it back to 3LNB slimline with multiswitch.

now its the next day. some transponders on 103a are low (<40). It isn't just even's or odds. and it seems to change. If i check an hour later, the transponders that were low can be (but not always) higher, and others can be low. if i check the signal strength when both tuners are showing the same transponder, 1 tuner will be high (>95%, the other will be low <40%). If i switch the input wires at the back of the receiver, the strengths will sometimes follow the switch, and sometimes will not.

since the tuners get different values on the same transponder, i don't think it is a dish alignment problem.

since it doesn't follow the BBC's, or cables when i switch them, i don't think it is the bbc's or wires from multiswitch.

i have a suspicion that he didn't ground the new wire between the dish and multiswitch. would that cause problems like this?

any other ideas?

i am going to call directv back, but i was wondering if anyone has any ideas on what the problem is.

 

[veryoldschool]

The first problem was a coax between the switch and the LNB, and was the 18 volt 22 KHz tone line.

The problem you have now isn't so simple to diagnose.
Is it only the HR20, and have you tried a HR22 at this location?

 

[drill]

the problem is on all receivers.

given that everything except the 18volt 22KHz line was fine until he came out, logically the problem is in something he replaced. either a part is bad, or the install wasn't done correctly (grounding, etc).

but it seems very odd that only 103a seems to be affected.

 

[samrs]

If your in Raleigh and remember the Techs name I likely have his Supervisors number.

 

[veryoldschool]

the problem is on all receivers.

given that everything except the 18volt 22KHz line was fine until he came out, logically the problem is in something he replaced. either a part is bad, or the install wasn't done correctly (grounding, etc).

but it seems very odd that only 103a seems to be affected.

With all of them having this problem, either the dish hasn't been aligned well enough, or the LNB is weak.

My hardest SAT to align is the 99, but since you're on "the other coast", it makes sense yours would be 103.

 

[drill]

i don't think alignment is the issue. if alignment were the problem, i wouldn't think the receiver would get widely varying signal strengths for the tuners on the same receiver when on the same transponder.

another point of interest ...
i disconnected one of the HR22's.
On the other HR22, I selected the signal strength meter so both tuners were tuning the same sat/transponder. I selected 103a, transponder 20. Tuner 1 was 65%, Tuner 2 55%.

on the HR20 i selected the signal strength meter and set it to 103a also. When I chose an odd transponder on the HR20, the signal strengths on the HR22 would drop by 7-9%. when i selected an even transponder on the HR20, the HR22 would jump back up 7-9%.

changing the HR22 from even/odd did not seem to effect the HR20 signal meters.

I did the same experiment with the other HR22 and the HR20. results were the same (though the baseline signal strengths were different). changing the HR20 would effect the HR22, but changing the HR22 would not effect the HR20.

finally, i did the same experiment with both HR22's, with the HR20 disconnected. the HR22's would effect each other. if both were on even or both on odd, both would have a higher signal. if one on odd one on even, they would both be lower.

directv is sending another tech out tomorrow. will let you know what he finds.

 

[jimmie57]

I just checked my signal strength on 103ca on transponder 9 and 10 and they were both 95.
I do believe 55 and 65 are considered not acceptable. I believe to be acceptable they must be in the mid to high 80s or above.

 

[drill]

directv service guys came out and checked the signal strengths at the coax before going into the receiver(s). signal looked good, even though the HR22 receivers were reporting poor signal strength on 103a. the HR20 seemed fine, though it seemed to take a while for the tuners to lock in (several seconds).

They exchanged all my receivers for new HR24's. signals look great. no problems. so apparently i had 3 bad DVRs in addition to a bad wire. that seems really odd to me ... maybe the bad wire screwed up the tuners in all 3 receivers?

i had a bunch of shows on 2 of the dvr's that i didn't want to lose. the techs left them for me. I reactivated them last night so i can watch the shows, then i will deactivate.

i ***** at directv when they screw things up, but i also give credit when they do good. i have to say the tech guys (there were 2) that came out yesterday were awesome. i really wish there was a way to give feedback on them specifically as being awesome techs.

and the HR24's are SOOO much faster than the HR20/HR22's i had. they should replace every HR20/21/22 with HR24's just to improve the experience.

 

[jimmie57]

Glad they got you all fixed up and even upgraded to boot.
I have had 4 instances of techs being here. Only one of them was bad. The other 3 were very good. They work for a sub contractor. I got the name off their truck / van and sent the company an email telling them that this tech was definitely an asset to their company.
I agree that DirecTV should have a follow up of each install / vist to rate the visit. Just like you can leave a review for the items you buy online.

 

[fleckrj]

They exchanged all my receivers for new HR24's. signals look great. no problems. so apparently i had 3 bad DVRs in addition to a bad wire. that seems really odd to me ... maybe the bad wire screwed up the tuners in all 3 receivers?

I think it might be more likely that a power surge caused the problem if it affected all of your receivers.