61.5 Signal Strength Changes Causing Dropout

[ucfknights90]

I have been struggling with my 722k receiver using both 1000.4 and 1000.2 Dishes with Eastern Arc.

I can get 72 tuned in without issue with high signal strength however 61.5 is always a problem.

Started with 1000.4 Dish (3 eyes) 61.5 was going in an out on channels. I was thinking it was an obstruction so I moved the Dish to a better place.

However, after moving, I could not get Check Switch to find 61.5 and all I could get was 72 with good signal strength.

I was thinking the LMB was going bad so I switched out the dish with a 1000.2 I had which was working. Now check switch finds 61.5, but the signal strength oscillates between 7 and 30 in strength. Stays around 11-14 most of the time, then jumps up for 20 seconds then back down.

There are some trees, but they are 200 yards away and the ones to the left are not thick.

Do you think these trees are still a problem and is it the ones on the left or the ones 200 yards away?

 

[Pepper]

Based on that first picture, I would say it's the trees.

The 61.5 LNB is on the right side, signal comes from the left at the exact angle it has to reflect to hit the LNB on the right. So to my eyeballs, it looks like it has to get through the trees. Remember, the look angle is higher than it "looks" because of the offset dish. If you raise your arm to 45 degrees and turn slightly to the left, about the same angle as that right side LNB is from the center, are you pointing into the trees?

Can you move it a few more feet to the right? And the 1000.4 dish is slightly larger so should in theory give a better signal overall.

 

[HipKat]

Based on that first picture, I would say it's the trees.

The 61.5 LNB is on the right side, signal comes from the left at the exact angle it has to reflect to hit the LNB on the right. So to my eyeballs, it looks like it has to get through the trees. Remember, the look angle is higher than it "looks" because of the offset dish. If you raise your arm to 45 degrees and turn slightly to the left, about the same angle as that right side LNB is from the center, are you pointing into the trees?

Can you move it a few more feet to the right? And the 1000.4 dish is slightly larger so should in theory give a better signal overall.

I was going to say the same.

 

[ucfknights90]

Based on that first picture, I would say it's the trees.

The 61.5 LNB is on the right side, signal comes from the left at the exact angle it has to reflect to hit the LNB on the right. So to my eyeballs, it looks like it has to get through the trees. Remember, the look angle is higher than it "looks" because of the offset dish. If you raise your arm to 45 degrees and turn slightly to the left, about the same angle as that right side LNB is from the center, are you pointing into the trees?

Can you move it a few more feet to the right? And the 1000.4 dish is slightly larger so should in theory give a better signal overall.

Thank you for the confirmation. Today, I removed two large branches from the far tree and all of the small branches on the closer top area of the photo. 61.5 now has a signal strength of 60+, and 72 is the same. I added a second photo so others can see which branches I removed to address my signal strength issue.

 

[Foxbat]

We had a tree problem that arose four years after we put in the EA 1000.2 reflector on our vacation home. There was a pine that grew up enough that the top of the tree started to interfere with our 61.5° reception, which would clear up if the wind would blow strong enough to move the tree top out of the line of sight. We had to have the arborist come and lop 12 feet off the top of the pine. We’ll probably need to do this in another ten years (or just cut it down.)

But in ten years the whole Pay TV landscape will have changed.