I have two HR20s and one HR21. Sunday I could not get any locals or several other channels, such as espn. I could get many channels including espn news. I looked at the signal strengths, and I had all 0s on 99c and 99s. All three receivers were the same. The information in troubleshooting indicated the dish may not be adjusted correctly. I RBRd all the receivers, no change. I called DTV and they are sending a tech out Wednesday. I came home Monday night and now everything is working again. One thing I did Sunday before the problem started was trace all my coax in the house using a tester where you put different color adapters on the end of each line and then check at the junction box with the tester. It lights up the color you have on the other end. I know I put the tester on a line that goes to the multiswitch. Could this have caused the problem? What else could have caused the problem? Should I keep the appointment to have the dish positioning checked?
Strange Reception Issue
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If everything is working properly now, there isn't much the tech can do for you. Dish alignment does not appear to be the problem and he is not likely to replace anything if he doesn't see a problem.jkbs4208 said:
Re-check all of your signal strengths. You should have high 80's or 90's on all of the active 99c and 103c transponders, as well as all of the active 101 transponders (101 will have a few zero's for spot beams). 99s and 103s may have a lot of zeros.
There are four coax coming from the dish. Each carries a specific sub-set of various channels. There are four pairs of signals: 13V no tone, 13V 22KHz tone, 18V no tone and 18V 22KHz tone. The fact that you were missing only 99 (and not 103) suggests a problem on the two non-toned lines. But all of the SD channels also come on those two coax. You may have an intermittent connection on one or more of the coax from the dish to the multiswitch.
The tester you used should not have caused a problem. But the very fact that you removed and reconnected coax can either cause, or fix, an intermittent problem or poorly installed connector.
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Try swapping this "bad" Receiver with one of your good Receivers. If the problem stays with the "bad" Receiver, you can be pretty sure it's defective. If the problem stays in its room, then something is wrong with the satellite feed into that room. Let us know what you find.
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The "tester" sounds like a DC continuity tester. While better than nothing, it will not find problems like flattened cable or damaged shield, so may not be the total story on whether a cable has RF integrity or not. Still probably worth doing. But if the problem is intermittent it is usually not the cables, especially if you have inspected and retightened the connectors.
You also may not be out of the woods; if this problem comes and goes, temperature (ambient) can be an issue; water infiltration can be an issue. There is also the possibility of an intermittent switch or LNBF/switch, or DC output from a DVR/STB returning to a switch.
I'd keep the appointment, but tell the guy your story if the alignment is not the culprit (never a bad idea to have it checked), which it sounds like it actually will not be. Bottom line, you may still have a problem. With both of you there to dig further, you could get lucky and find the intermittent issue. Have him bend and reposition the cables slowly at the connectors at the dish and switch while you watch the signal meters on screen (we found an intermittent data cable just the other day that way); if you have what looks to be a good connector but is intermittent in certain positions, that might find that problem. Worth a shot.
You also may not be out of the woods; if this problem comes and goes, temperature (ambient) can be an issue; water infiltration can be an issue. There is also the possibility of an intermittent switch or LNBF/switch, or DC output from a DVR/STB returning to a switch.
I'd keep the appointment, but tell the guy your story if the alignment is not the culprit (never a bad idea to have it checked), which it sounds like it actually will not be. Bottom line, you may still have a problem. With both of you there to dig further, you could get lucky and find the intermittent issue. Have him bend and reposition the cables slowly at the connectors at the dish and switch while you watch the signal meters on screen (we found an intermittent data cable just the other day that way); if you have what looks to be a good connector but is intermittent in certain positions, that might find that problem. Worth a shot.
The problem is gone. Got home in the evening and had no issue. Signal strength in the mid-90 acroos the board. I guess I have some concern it could be a moisture issue, as it was windy and raining the night before, but dry by that evening. I will have to keep an eye on it.
Well, they were supposed to come between 8 and 12. Got an automated call at 8 saying they would not make it until the afternoon. Pissed me off some, so I told them to forget it and left and went to work. The problem only happened once, I will see if it happens again.TomCat said:
Just wanted to close out my portion of this. I found the problem it was a bad BBC. I had to be able to reproduce the issue, which i finally did. After a reset tuner 2 would go to the 771 message for about 2-5 minutes, and then function normally. After swapping the cables the problem did in fact move to Tuner 1. A new BBC was added and have not had the issue since. I just find it odd that the problem seems to self correct itself after a few minutes with the bad BBC.
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I think I got sent a bad BBC with my new (preowned) HR22-100 that arrived yesterday. Getting the 771 error on tuner 2, swapped BBCs, 771 error on tuner 1, swapped input cables just to be sure and it still follows the same BBC. Calling DTV here in a bit, will they send me a new one or send out a tech?
Will that possibly work on an HR22? I only have 2 HR2x hooked up using 4 tuners to a slimline 5.
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Hard to say, but they are active devices running on the receiver-provided DC. Since we are talking relatively-low DC voltages, no power supply, non-hostile environment, they should last indefinitely, probably outlasting DVRs. They are really just a filtered heterodyne converter and an electronic relay, so not much to them, no moving parts.allenn said:
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Failures are probably more related to cable bends than anything else...I've seen some stuffed behind a receiver on a shelf that was apparently 2 inches too shallow, but the owner could not be bothered to make room for the cabling behind the unit.
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