Problem with Sky satellite

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4F

Active member of Helmets Are Sh*t Lobby
Location
Suffolk.
OK as today appears to be problem day, here's mine.

I am connected up at home with a sky dish to receive the "free to air" channels via a bog standard amstrad receiver and do not have an ariel.

All has been working well for the past 3 years however just recently I keep getting the message "no satellite signal being received" for sometimes up to 10 hours at a time before it just starts to magically work again. Several times I have powered down everything, disconnected and reconnected all cables but this does not seem to make any difference.

However this is the strange thing, when I go to the menu screen to check signal strength It goes from 75 percent to nothing repeatedly for hours at a time.

Has anyone ever had this problem or got any pointers on what I can try
to resolve this before having to call out an engineer ?
 

TheDoctor

Europe Endless
Moderator
Location
The TerrorVortex
Have you checked the cable connection at the dish end? I appreciate this could be tricky if it's on the roof;). As well as receiving the signal, the co-ax also carries a DC supply to the LNB* on the dish. Cable could be coming undone, have got damp / corroded, or just have broken.

LNB - low noise block, a frequency down-converter and low-noise amplifier. [/ex satcomms engineer]
 
OP
OP
4F

4F

Active member of Helmets Are Sh*t Lobby
Location
Suffolk.
TheDoctor said:
Have you checked the cable connection at the dish end? I appreciate this could be tricky if it's on the roof;). As well as receiving the signal, the co-ax also carries a DC supply to the LNB* on the dish. Cable could be coming undone, have got damp / corroded, or just have broken.

LNB - low noise block, a frequency down-converter and low-noise amplifier. [/ex satcomms engineer]

Hi Doctor, no not checked the connection to the dish / LNB but should not be a problem as it is mounted on the rear wall. Is this likely to be a screw type fixing ?
 

mangaman

Guest
I got this last year - it turned out that I lost the signal strength when the dish got too hot, so the signal would come and go with the weather

I needed a new dish

The bloke says it's a common problem - I don't know if you've noticed a link with the weather?
 
OP
OP
4F

4F

Active member of Helmets Are Sh*t Lobby
Location
Suffolk.
Thinking about this more the problem seems to happen more in the morning and resolves itself in the afternoon so I suppose that this points to it being a moisture problem.
 

TheDoctor

Europe Endless
Moderator
Location
The TerrorVortex
FatFellaFromFelixstowe said:
Hi Doctor, no not checked the connection to the dish / LNB but should not be a problem as it is mounted on the rear wall. Is this likely to be a screw type fixing ?

Yes, I believe so. It's been a while (like 8 years), but i think it'll be a screw connector. Probably under a rubber cap thing.
 

Maz

Guru
could it be the cable getting disconnected? Is it a continuous cable or does it have connectors mid-length?

I had a similar problem to yours and I phoned up Sky Support. They said to switch the box off then leave it for at least 30 seconds for the circuit boards to come to life...and it worked again!
 
OP
OP
4F

4F

Active member of Helmets Are Sh*t Lobby
Location
Suffolk.
mangaman said:
I got this last year - it turned out that I lost the signal strength when the dish got too hot, so the signal would come and go with the weather

I needed a new dish

The bloke says it's a common problem - I don't know if you've noticed a link with the weather?

Snow and really heavy rain certainly affect it but in the past as soon as the bad weather calms down everything is up and running again.
 
OP
OP
4F

4F

Active member of Helmets Are Sh*t Lobby
Location
Suffolk.
Maz said:
could it be the cable getting disconnected? Is it a continuous cable or does it have connectors mid-length?

I had a similar problem to yours and I phoned up Sky Support. They said to switch the box off then leave it for at least 30 seconds for the circuit boards to come to life...and it worked again!

It's continuous. The box has been turned off several times in the last week for minutes / hours at a time to try and rectify this but this has not changed things.
 
OP
OP
4F

4F

Active member of Helmets Are Sh*t Lobby
Location
Suffolk.
TheDoctor said:
Have you checked the cable connection at the dish end? I appreciate this could be tricky if it's on the roof;). As well as receiving the signal, the co-ax also carries a DC supply to the LNB* on the dish. Cable could be coming undone, have got damp / corroded, or just have broken.

LNB - low noise block, a frequency down-converter and low-noise amplifier. [/ex satcomms engineer]

No checked that and all seems ok however still no signal grrrrrrrrrr
 
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