Disappearing signal - need some ideas for a fix

[L3ft2]

I'm not sure where to put this, so here is as good a place as any...

I'm currently deployed, but before I left this past spring I setup the Dish 500+ and iLink 9000+ in the yard and it worked fine and rcvd a S/Q of 81/99 all the way until two weeks ago I found out.

Here's the stumper for me; they say it now only gets a signal like that from around 1000-1900 then it goes to basically nothing? Did the seasonal orbit and arc shift so much that it could be dipping below the horizon or the dish LOS?

We have moved this setup to three different states in as many years and never saw this problem before. The STB and dish are currently in VA 60 min from the TN/KY border.

The dish is on a metal pole cemented into the ground about 3 feet with 5 feet of it above ground.


Any ideas the wife could manage to do would be appreciated. She already missed one UFC one more and It'll really be my ass! LOL

[anyonomus]

Post your/her antenna/switch/LNB settings along with LNB type..
Signal is the electrical connection from the LNB to the receiver..
Quality is what the LNB sees from the Sat and is what will give u a pic..
Bad cable/connectors/switch/LNB/ and a host of other things that escape me at the present time...but most times it is an incorrect antenna/switch/LNB setting that causes an issue..

[stman]

As Any said, there can be numerous things that can cause signal issues. Your dish could have been bumped out of place for one. Moisture can get into the connections and degrade the signal. The receiver settings can be accidentally changed. It can be difficult to diagnose all these things long distance. If you can post settings, what switch you are using with the 500+, both signal and quality on different transponders on each satellite (if you lose quality on any one transponder, you will not get the channels on that entire transponder).

[L3ft2]

Dish 500+
The settings of the Ilink 9000+ STB:
LNB type - OCS-DP
119 - LNB1
110 - LNB2
auto
power 13/18
No other switches are being used (dp44 etc.)

I think think that's all the settings.
The problem is not signal as I get a Strength of 81 and Quality of 99 on both 110/119. But rather that we only get the signal from 1000-1900. Before or after those times the signal is nothing.
The dish has not moved as evident of signal s/q during the times it works.
This just started a couple of weeks ago. It had been working fine 24/7 since this past spring.

[Pollypurabred]

Follow stman advice and bypass switch just to verify that this signal is not time based issue. Make sure the wife actually powers down the Stb (and unplugs it) before bypassing switch. May need a union/coupler to connect the cables (rat shack).

I believe it was Terryl that said with time change/elevation < 20 degrees may cause a problem with reflection problems and since it has only been six month, maybe you haven't been through cycle.

BTW, THANK YOU for serving!

[clarkie]

DP + has a built-in switch..what is your Disq set to..1.1..does the banners match as you play with your setting..119= 119 that will tell u if your setting are correct.. and etc with 110, sounds like a cable issue..and DONT forget to power off the STB when hooking up the LNB cable to your STB... have seen so many blown LNBs that way

[jvvh5897]

Hum...there could be something with temperature involved in this. Could be an intermittant that just developed and the problem is only when cold temps shrinks the intermittant--maybe crack on circuitboard from hard handling.
Other possibility is outside interferance--maybe someone comes home and fires up a piece of equip that emits at the band you use, Ku band from what you are posting is aprox 12 GHz. Maybe they just moved into the area. I would rate this as distant possibility.

[L3ft2]

From a screen shot, line by line on antenna setup:

Satellite ECHOSTAR7/Ku
LNB Freq OCS-DP
DiSEqC -LNB1
22KHz Tone -OFF
LNB Power -Auto
LNB Power Option -13/18 Volt
TP Freq -12224V
Antenna Positioning -OFF
No switch being used (Dish 500+)

Signal strength 19 quality 40 during times of no signal and 81/99 when signal comes in

When on the Echostar 7 it says as much in bottom banner and same for Echostar 10 (so birds are locked on when signal is present)

Thanks helping with this!

[Pollypurabred]

Curious, (see jvvh5897 (http://www.satfix.net/member.php?5150-jvvh5897) post above) as you say that you have trace it to a particular time 1000-1900. Is that correct? Is so it may be a temperature problem.

However, not familiar with the guts of that LNB but evidently they do join for one output so may be a switch/temp related problem.

[jvvh5897]

They should really try to swap out parts of the LNB side to see what might be going on. Could be loose coax connection, could be something bad in LNB or switch. Could take a little time to track down though, so the more parts that can be substituted in the better.

[Pollypurabred]

Okay L3ft2 (http://www.satfix.net/member.php?25098-L3ft2), wish to make sure. Ask wife to see if she can view channel 101, actually at any time especially the the 1000-1900 time.

[Terryl]

IF it may in fact be a temperature problems then one quick test can tell if it's the LNB or something else.

Wrap the LNB with aluminum foil, do not get any of the foil in front of the LNB eye's, but wrap it up as good as possible.

This will reflect any heat that may be focused at the LNB off the dish.

The Sun does not have to be directly in front of the dish, it can be off to one side and still over heat the LNB, the fact that this occurs from 1000 to 1900 looks to be that the Sun is in a line of sorts and the Infra-red is reflecting off the dish.

If this fixes the problem then you may need a new LNB, of a good coat of aluminum pain on the outside of the LNB may fix it up.