urban

iTrader: (1)

Guys

I have sky HD and the dish is mounted on the garage wall.

Now a neighbour had a tree which is about 12 foot high, but its a really skinny tree with sparse branches and leaves

Said tree is maybe 20 foot away from the dish, but if the wind is blowing it around is this likely to interfere with my signal?
Tree resembles this
http://www.robinwood.com/Catalog/Tec...48a1Branch.jpg

I'm not convinced it is the tree as for example viewing has been fine for a few months
How would I know if it is the LNB?
Last time I had viewing issues I found some instructions about powering off LNB and on again.

This did actually appear to fix it.

PS - weather in N.Ireland today is lovely - clear sky etc, however a bit windy.

I've tried calling sky, but the boy I talked to in Bangalore is a tad useless.

Ant

Without seeing it's hard to tell but safe bet would be it is the tree.

urban

iTrader: (1)

Really?
It went "funny" last time it it really lashed down you see and basically fixed itself?
The tree in question has been there for at least a year.
And it really lashed down here yesterday.
Prior to that it had been fine.

And put it this way, there have been no problems in the last 2 weeks and the tree can't have a lot during that time.

The Zohan

if it rains or snows hard enough we do sometimes loose the signal

deepy

iTrader: (1)

If its been fine and this has suddenly happened then it points to something other than the tree and you might have put your finger on it when you said it lashed down

Possibly water ingress, I'd be inclined to check the state of the cable and connector where it attaches to the LNB, if there's any sign that water has got into the cable then its probably best to replace the whole run rather than chance it finding its way into the receiver.

Alternatively it could just be that the dish has moved slightly in the bad weather, in which case putting a little pressure on an edge of it should bring the picture back, then slacken the botls and move it very gently to get the best signal in that direction.

Or, could be just a you say that the atmospherics are messing it around and it will eventually clear itself.

If you do decide to check the cable joins then have some amalgamating tape ready to reseal them.

Leslie

Anything in front of a dish can affect its reception. The dish should ideally have a clear look at the satellite at all times. The tree is very likely to affect your picture.

You can mount a dish at ground level if you want, as long as it has a clear look at the satellite it will work just as well as one high on the chimney.

The reception can be affected by heavy rain and a slight movement due to strong wind can also cause a loss of the signal. If you are aligning a dish it is amazing how the slightest movement of the dish can affect the signal considerably.

Sounds like the tree is causing your problem.

Les

urban

iTrader: (1)

Thanks

I rang a local crowd and talked to him.
He asked me a couple of questions about cables and he may have hit the nail on the head.
One of the cables (the original sky cable from many many years ago) is basically flung over the roof.
The other newer sky+ cable is tacked around the side of the house.
Satellite bloke is going to call round to see if dish needs realigned or if the LNB is infact faulty.
Maybe the best thing is to replace that really old cable.
It is at least 10 years old, so maybe its fcuked.

Looking at the signal strength, input 1 (old cable) is at maximum of 90/95%
Input 2 is full in comparison, but still has quality drops on it.

Weather was very bad yesterday - torrential rain and gale force winds.
I guess you guys on the mainland will receive said weather soon.

Ant

I was going by you saying when it's windy it plays up. Which will be the tree moving.

It's hard to diagnose with out bring there with my meter. Atmospherics don't really affect satellite. Check both ends of the cable for signs of water. A LNB fault is unlikely.

Ant

It could be the cable over the roof then, not properly fastened down rubbing across the roof and cracking the cable (letting water in) this is a very common problem

urban

iTrader: (1)

So he said.

I also just looked at the LNB there - the two cables do not appear to have any insulation where they enter the LNB
I'd have expected to see rubber grommets there?

Ant

Depends quad LNB have a slide down cover , so are the f plugs exposed ? If they are ask him sort it for you

urban

iTrader: (1)

Slide down - yes I think so.
Are the plug exposed - pass
Looks like this
http://www.avforums.com/forums/attac...b-quad-lnb.jpg

Ant

Yeah thats fine then they don't need sealing if they have the slide down sleeve.

urban

iTrader: (1)

We'll an update

Guy came round, plugged in a meter of some sort into the sky cables and eventually said problem is dish or LNB.
Went out and looked and immediately said tree is the problem.
So - under the cover of darkness said tree was how shall I say realigned

SkyHD fine now

And a bonus - he didn't even want a penny for the visit

Ant

That's good for him not to charge, we charge £69+vat to do what he just did

Glad it's sorted though

Leslie

I always lather the outside of aerial connectors with Vaseline. It goes semi solid after a while and resists the rain washing it off and never lets water into the conection.

Les

ScoobySteve69

iTrader: (13)

My cable from the dish, sits in the guttering. Not the best route I wouldn`t have thought

Ant

Believe it or not that's actually ok to do , as the cable is sealed

ALi-B

iTrader: (1)

Signal issues are pain to diagnose on troublesome recievers.

For example we have a dish in Spain that needs adjustment every 6 months due to being in a fringe area and seasonal drift to keep a good lock on the south beam transponder, in addition to the daily drift where signal is lost from the 2D transponder late at night (apparently it drifts by +/-50km every day). Considering that with a 1.9 metre dish, only 0.25mm of adjustment can make the difference between full signal and zero signal, one starts to appreciate that it is a bit of an art to perfect (well, when compared to using a mini dish in a strong signal area).

Having said that, the fig tree that is growing directly infront of it hasn't apperaed to affect the system's (un)reliability. Although the spiders inside the LNB feed horn have

The white Pace box's (430) current firmware is not helping as it "forgets" its default transponder is on 12.129v and any channels that maybe stored in "other channels". It also likes to say "no signal" or "technical faut" when if I put the channel's actual frequency into manual tuning its perfectly fine

Think I'll get a new box and LNB one day as its doing my fruit. Failing that, an even bigger dish. Although I don't appreciate having a minature Jodrell bank in the garden

Glowplug

iTrader: (8)

Fitted Sky+ for my mum last weekend. No sat finder or specilist tools, lined the dish up with next doors. No signal on input 2, no matter what i did. Tried evereything, swapped cables and LNB, even called Sky, still sweet FA.


Spoke to the nieghbour, who laughed. His is looking at Hotbird he says!

I turned the dish slightly to the east (i think) and hey presto, 95% on one and two.

Live and learn.

Ant

that makes no sense at all, if input one was showing a signal input 2 would whether on hotbird or not.

Glowplug

iTrader: (8)

Made absolutly no sense to me either. Thought it would only take me a couple of hours, 2 f'ing days .

That was only my assumption of the problem antc, i'm no Sky fitter. As, as soon as i turned the dish to Astra, both input 1 and 2 immediatly showed signal and locked. Strange but true.

As a side. Do you not have to change the 'H' and 'V' and **** about with other settings in the box to be able to view 'other' sat programs??

Ant

You can't get any other or "free" channels through a sky box so there should be no reason to adjust the polarities or frequencies.what you see is what you get

Glowplug

iTrader: (8)

I don't know. I just thought that would be the reason it was not locking input 2, as the polarities and frequecies would be different.

It is all tip top now, so happy mummy, ergo, happy me.

ScoobySteve69

iTrader: (13)

Yeah, I`ve had no problems, just looks odd covered in rain water lol.

Will

The LNB went last night for me!!!! Sky man came round today, gave me a new dish. Had to get a new top box too as that got it too!!

Hecc's

Did you give him a bum ?

Leslie

Glad its sorted, can be really annoying.

Les

Will

I'm affraid he was in a bit of a rush! Could tell really, the way he dropped the old dish from he top of the ladder on to the pavement!

Leslie

I noticed that Sky dishes seem to go rusty pretty easily. I gave mine a coat of Finnegan's Waxoil which wont affect the signal at all but my dish looks as good as new.

Les