Replies to This Discussion

Permalink Reply by Bill McMurray on February 4, 2013 at 22:52

Hi Alistair,

We do sometimes experience a brief loss of signal on the satellite system during an extremely heavy rainstorm. It's often caused by a big black raincloud passing between the satellite and the Earth, stopping the signal from even reaching your dish. But this is normally only for a minute or two as the cloud passes over.

Very heavy rain does also dissipate the satellite signal, but not to the same extent that it affects the UHF signal.

So, if you lost transmission for about 25 minutes, I'd suggest it's either:-

1. A large cloud parked itself right over you for some time.

2. You had extremely heavy rain for all that time.

3. Your dish may not be perfectly aligned and therefore the signal is more susceptible to "rainfade" during, and just after, a storm.

4. Your LNB may be starting to break down and, once again, more likely to give trouble during and after a storm. 

4. Often, after a receiver has "dropped out" for some reason, some receivers take a while to come back up on their own. So you sometimes have to change channels to get the receiver to lock back on to the incoming signal again.

So go through that list and see if you think one of them might have been your problem.

Cheers,    Bill. 

Permalink Reply by Alistair Clarke on February 4, 2013 at 22:57

Thanks for your help. Bill

Bill McMurray said:

Hi Alistair,

We do sometimes experience a brief loss of signal on the satellite system during an extremely heavy rainstorm. It's often caused by a big black raincloud passing between the satellite and the Earth, stopping the signal from even reaching your dish. But this is normally only for a minute or two as the cloud passes over.

Very heavy rain does also dissipate the satellite signal, but not to the same extent that it affects the UHF signal.

So, if you lost transmission for about 25 minutes, I'd suggest it's either:-

1. A large cloud parked itself right over you for some time.

2. You had extremely heavy rain for all that time.

3. Your dish may not be perfectly aligned and therefore the signal is more susceptible to "rainfade" during, and just after, a storm.

4. Your LNB may be starting to break down and, once again, more likely to give trouble during and after a storm. 

4. Often, after a receiver has "dropped out" for some reason, some receivers take a while to come back up on their own. So you sometimes have to change channels to get the receiver to lock back on to the incoming signal again.

So go through that list and see if you think one of them might have been your problem.

Cheers,    Bill. 

Permalink Reply by Freeviewshop on March 25, 2013 at 12:09

Hi Alistair,

Yes Bill is right, to expand on one point Bill made:

"Your LNB may be starting to break down and, once again, more likely to give trouble during and after a storm."

We see a lot of problems with LNBs where the L.O. has drifted from its stated freq, there are a lot of Sharp dual throat LNBs that fail after about 5 years (STBs won't lock the signal anymore) but before they fail because the STBs tuner is looking for the signal at a slightly different freq from where it actually is. The STB will fail to lock it when there is actually enough signal to lock but it is not at the freq it should be, in this case you will get a lot more rainfade than you should. If you have a Sharp dual throat LNB, that is most likely the problem and you should replace the LNB, to use a normal 40mm throat LNB you will need a bracket like this one.

Permalink Reply by Alistair Clarke on March 25, 2013 at 12:29

Thank you Bill and Freeviewshop.

After a number of instances, I visited Mike at Supreme Antennas here in Levin. He referred me to Dave Collins a TV installer and said to me the same thing you both mentioned. When Dave came , he changed the LNB and it has been fine ever since.

Thanks again to you both.

Alistair

Levin

Permalink Reply by Steve J on April 26, 2013 at 8:06

Hiya. I'm a bit further down the coast. I tend to watch the UHF version of freeview rather than satellite due to the better pic quality .  Yes very heavy rain / hail can disrupt the Freeview Ku Band satellite signal.  I run the larger 100cm dish rather than the normal 64cm  so down time is much reduced , If its gets worse  you may have a faulty or poorly aligned LNBF  ( feedhorn ) on the dish . Poor alignment of the dish can also significantly reduce performance as well . 

S

Permalink Reply by Monique Rowley on April 28, 2013 at 23:11

I'm in rodney and tonight we have had no signal since 8.30pm getting a bit beyond a joke now

Permalink Reply by Alistair Clarke on April 28, 2013 at 23:18

Hi Monique.

I sympathise with you. However if you look at the replies everyone kindly made, shown above, you may get an idea of what might be causing your no signal. Good luck in sorting it out.

We sorted it out for about $70 and had a LNB replaced.  Ok?

Thanks.

Alistair

Levin.

I

Monique Rowley said:

I'm in rodney and tonight we have had no signal since 8.30pm getting a bit beyond a joke now

Permalink Reply by Monique Rowley on April 28, 2013 at 23:22

Our lnb is only a couple of years old & we have had no rain since early this morning so isn't either of those,  have tried turning box off and on again and also changing channels with no joy.
Alistair Clarke said:

Hi Monique.

I sympathise with you. However if you look at the replies everyone kindly made, shown above, you may get an idea of what might be causing your no signal. Good luck in sorting it out.

We sorted it out for about $70 and had a LNB replaced.  Ok?

Thanks.

Alistair

Levin.

I

Monique Rowley said:

I'm in rodney and tonight we have had no signal since 8.30pm getting a bit beyond a joke now

Permalink Reply by Alistair Clarke on April 28, 2013 at 23:27

Hi monique.

Have you had much sunlight there today as if it gets hot it can affect the LNB. if not here's hoping some of the very knowledgeable people on this forum reply direct to you. ok?

Alistair

Monique Rowley said:

Our lnb is only a couple of years old & we have had no rain since early this morning so isn't either of those,  have tried turning box off and on again and also changing channels with no joy.
Alistair Clarke said:

Hi Monique.

I sympathise with you. However if you look at the replies everyone kindly made, shown above, you may get an idea of what might be causing your no signal. Good luck in sorting it out.

We sorted it out for about $70 and had a LNB replaced.  Ok?

Thanks.

Alistair

Levin.

I

Monique Rowley said:

I'm in rodney and tonight we have had no signal since 8.30pm getting a bit beyond a joke now

Permalink Reply by Bill McMurray on April 28, 2013 at 23:30

Monique Rowley said:

I'm in rodney and tonight we have had no signal since 8.30pm getting a bit beyond a joke now

 

Hi Monique,

It definately sounds like it's something in your own installation.

Read through my explanation and five things to check earlier in this thread, and Freeviewshop's additional information. It will probably be No 4. or No 4 (should be 5 - my mistake!).

Unfortunately 2 1/2 year old LNBs do break down sometimes, otherwise it will be your receiver - or could some settings in your receiver have been changed?

Taking your receiver to someone else's place, or plugging in another receiver at your place, will isolate it. BUT don't forget that you may have to change the L.O. setting from 10750 to 11300 (or vice versa) to get your receiver working on another dish, or another receiver to operate on your dish.

Cheers,  Bill.

Permalink Reply by Steve J on April 29, 2013 at 8:57

I have struck several LNBF freuency in current use    most common 11300 and 10750  ,   but there is also some 10.700 and Universal LNBFs about  ,  if you have a universal and no setting for them  they can often be run at 10.600 with the 22khz tone  set to ON 

As to lnbf quality   I have struck some that fill with water due to the throat cover being poor design and disentagration of plastic from UV Light

S