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Signal Question

2369 Views 57 Replies 12 Participants Last post by  erict
How do my numbers look? I don't have any picture or channel issues. I even had a good storm blow thru wed and the sat stayed on during a good rain but finally went out during one hell of a downpour. Also is the signal meters inside these receivers as accurate as the meter the tech uses.

I live in the Detroit area if that makes a difference.

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erict said:
How do my numbers look? I don't have any picture or channel issues. I even had a good storm blow thru wed and the sat stayed on during a good rain but finally went out during one hell of a downpour. Also is the signal meters inside these receivers as accurate as the meter the tech uses.

I live in the Detroit area if that makes a difference.

View attachment 14460
IMO, not very good. You're in need of an alignment.

The meters on the receiver are not as accurate as the meter a tech uses.

What kind of receiver did you take those measurements on?
2
I just took another look, I think you might want to check your tilt as your 119 and 110 numbers are pretty low.

When was the dish installed and what model is it?

AT9 or AU9? Pictures Attaced. :)

AU9


AT9
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Those are very peculiar numbers. It would be hard to imagine how you could have 103(c)'s in the 80's, 110's in the 60's, and 119's in the 80's, even if the tilt is out, which I agree with RE is the first thing I would check, because your 119's don't match your 101's.

I would also check the 110's again with the BBC('s) removed to see if that might explain the really low 110 signals. BBC's do strange things to the 110's sometimes. That might explain why they're in the 60's. I would have expected them to be a little down with those 119's, but not that much.
I agree to check the tilt of the dish first to try to bring up the 110 and 119 signals and go from there...
He has no channel issues, not even with a rainstorm. Stop trying to fix something thats not broken and leave it alone.
I have a AU9 dish and a HR21(black) receiver for my main tv


Now after I read your responses I went and checked my other hd receiver I have (just a standard hd receiver) and here are those numbers


101
94 to 100

110
94 to 96

119
94 to 98

99b
94

103a
94

103b
94 to 96

Like I said I’m not having any problems on any channels.
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erict said:
I have a AU9 dish and a HR21(black) receiver for my main tv
Were the original numbers in your spreadsheet for both tuners on the HR21? Sounds like either a cabling problem or a tuner problem on the HR21.

:flag:
mcbeevee said:
Were the original numbers in your spreadsheet for both tuners on the HR21? Sounds like either a cabling problem or a tuner problem on the HR21.

:flag:
Yes the numbers from the pdf are from my hr21. Both tuners are pretty close so I only posted one set. I'm not having any issues with my hr21. Not sure if I should mess with it.
erict said:
Yes the numbers from the pdf are from my hr21. Both tuners are pretty close so I only posted one set. I'm not having any issues with my hr21. Not sure if I should mess with it.
Your other receiver looks spot on. How long are your cable runs between the dish to your HR21?

Do you have a multi-switch of some flavor or SWM?

To the poster that commented that we shouldn't fix something that's not broken. It's not broken today but that doesn't change the fact that somethings not working as designed. Why wouldn't you want the OP to contact DirecTV for a service call before a minor problem becomes a major one?
Radio Enginerd said:
Your other receiver looks spot on. How long are your cable runs between the dish to your HR21?

Do you have a multi-switch of some flavor or SWM?

To the poster that commented that we shouldn't fix something that's not broken. It's not broken today but that doesn't change the fact that somethings not working as designed. Why wouldn't you want the OP to contact DirecTV for a service call before a minor problem becomes a major one?
I don't have a multi switch. The cable run is about 40 to 50 feet. It's the shortest run of them all. I don't think it's a dish out of alignment. Do you?

I did check my 110 three times again and the second time the numbers were in the upper 80's then the third time they were back to the previous time.
So it’s probably safe to say that it doesn’t look like a satellite out of adjustment, right? Also why does my hr21 have bbc’s connected to it and my standard hd box doesn’t? What are bbc’s and why do I need them?
Radio Enginerd said:
Your other receiver looks spot on. How long are your cable runs between the dish to your HR21?

To the poster that commented that we shouldn't fix something that's not broken. It's not broken today but that doesn't change the fact that somethings not working as designed. Why wouldn't you want the OP to contact DirecTV for a service call before a minor problem becomes a major one?
What's he gonna tell them--my system is working fine--come fix it?????
erict said:
So it's probably safe to say that it doesn't look like a satellite out of adjustment, right? Also why does my hr21 have bbc's connected to it and my standard hd box doesn't? What are bbc's and why do I need them?
What make and model is your other HD receiver?
Radio Enginerd said:
What make and model is your other HD receiver?
H23-600

Does this still seam like a sat signal issue? Or could it be the bbc's on the HR21
erict said:
H23-600

Does this still seam like a sat signal issue? Or could it be the bbc's on the HR21
The H23-600 has BBC's built in. It could be bad BBC's.

Try this, remove the BBC's on the HR21 and then check the signal strength on 110 several times and see if your numbers come close to what you see on the H23? I suppose you could also swap the 2 boxes and see if the problem follows.

Just don't forget to put the BBC's back. :)
Radio Enginerd said:
The H23-600 has BBC's built in. It very well could be bad BBC's

Try this, remove the BBC's on the HR21 and then check the signal strength on 110 several times and see if your numbers come close to what you see on the H23?

Just don't forget to put the BBC's back. :)
I will check and report back. Also what are the bbc's for?
erict said:
I will check and report back. Also what are the bbc's for?
BBC stands for B-Band Converter.

The high level explanation: They're needed to receive all the new MPEG-4 based HD content from 103c (DirecTV10) and 99c (when live next month DirecTV 11).

The more detailed explanation: Since the 500 MHz frequency block (18.3-18.8 GHz) used by DirecTV-10 and DirecTV-11 on downlink were not intended for DBS broadcasting, existing equipment cannot receive them without a B-Band Converter (BBC). DirecTV supplies BBCs with all 5-LNB Ku/Ka-band dish systems.

The satellite signal from DirecTV-10 is downconverted at the dish to the frequency range of 250-750 MHz, called "Ka-lo". At the receiver when necessary, the BBC in response to a control signal from the receiver blocks any original "Ka-hi" signals between 1650-2150 MHz. Then up-converts the 250-750 MHz signals to this range which is expected by current receivers.[4][5] Because this frequency range conflicts with terrestrial broadcast frequencies. Any off-the-air (OTA) diplexors.[6] must be placed at some point after the BBC.
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When I take the bbc's off do I need to restart the receiver?
Also I did do the test on channel 480&481 and it said bbc's are confirmed working.
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