Almost no signal on G10R - dish size?

[dzinkin]

For the past few weeks I've been lucky to get a usable signal from G10R for even a few hours per day. Nothing changed with my setup in some time before then (Winegard DS2076 dish, Fortec Star quad-output LNB, two Coolsat 5000s and one Geosat Pro PVR). A couple of days ago, while I was getting a usable signal, I re-aimed the dish in case wind had somehow knocked it slightly out of alignment; a few hours later, I was back to a blank screen with occasional pixellation.

I'm in the Rochester, NY area and we're getting into winter weather here. Is the weather change just showing me the limits of what I can do with a 76 cm dish, or is there something else I can do? Thanks for any advice.

 

[SatinKzo]

I use a 90cm dish in sw Michigan with little problems execept when some of the recent lake effect came in I got pixelation on 11720, but 11799 and the rest was fine.

 

[Mr Tony]

I use the same dish in Minnesota with no issues. All signals good

 

[dzinkin]

Update: currently getting 11805 crystal-clear but nothing on the Equity muxes.

 

[Mr Tony]

what kind of signal are you getting on 11805? Mine blows the meter off

 

[techpuppy]

Have you checked your connections to make sure they are clean and dry? It might be worth checking just to make sure there's no corrosion or that moisture hasn't creeped into them.

 

[dzinkin]

what kind of signal are you getting on 11805? Mine blows the meter off

66% on both the Research Channel and UWTV. 10% on the Equity transponders.

I'm guessing it's either the size of my dish or the fact that it's on my (covered) balcony.

 

[dzinkin]

Have you checked your connections to make sure they are clean and dry? It might be worth checking just to make sure there's no corrosion or that moisture hasn't creeped into them.

Connections are clean and dry -- just went outside and looked.

 

[Mr Tony]

66% on both the Research Channel and UWTV. 10% on the Equity transponders.

I'm guessing it's either the size of my dish or the fact that it's on my (covered) balcony.

thats low for Research. I have a Coolsat 5000 too and right now both are at 82 (on my box 82 is the max)
Equity at 73 (11800) and 72 (11720)

try and tweak the dish maybe. Maybe you are off by a little bit. Have you tried to nudge the motor a little?

 

[dzinkin]

try and tweak the dish maybe. Maybe you are off by a little bit. Have you tried to nudge the motor a little?

No motor here (I wish it made sense where I am!). I'll try tweaking the dish again and report back.

 

[Mr Tony]

try and skew the LNB (twisting it counterclockwise or clockwise)
When moving the dish, since you are VERY close, just lean into it and see if the signal changes.

 

[dzinkin]

try and skew the LNB (twisting it counterclockwise or clockwise)
When moving the dish, since you are VERY close, just lean into it and see if the signal changes.

Back. Yeah, leaning into it does change the signal quality, but I still can't get above 63-64 at the moment. Changing the skew doesn't let me raise it either. I'm also now getting some breakup on the 11805 channels since it became dark outside -- not sure if that even makes sense but it's what I'm seeing.

Is there a chance that changing the elevation would help? Can't do it right now because I can't see it even with the balcony light on, but I can give it a try later in the week.

 

[Mr Tony]

sure...

some dishes the elevation is off. On my 90cm Fortec dish, G10 is at 30 elevation but on the dish its closer to 28

every little smidge helps

 

[bidaw]

Might want to check how plumb your pole/mast is. We had a big windstorm blow thru here on Thursday and it caught into my 90cm enough to move it 1/2 - 3/4 of an inch off plumb and it destroyed my quality on most all birds. Took me awhile to figure it out, but once I did...all is good!

 

[drhydro]

You might also want to try moving the lnb back and forth in the holder to see if you dont have the focal point set up perfectly. G10 on a 76 cm is doable in the northeast ( I am in Vermont) but you have to have everything just about perfect.

 

[dzinkin]

Never before did I wish I'd had three hands. ;-) Turned out that changing the elevation did the trick. I'm now getting 90-98% quality on 11805 and fluctuating between 70-97% on the Equity muxes.

Any ideas why it suddenly changed with the weather? I don't recall any really heavy wind that would have knocked it off kilter.

 

[limburger]

I once had a bird collision knock my dish out of alignment. I actually found the bird dead on the ground under the dish. So who knows, something like that might have happened.

 

[Sadoun]

Any ideas why it suddenly changed with the weather? I don't recall any really heavy wind that would have knocked it off kilter.

It could be the mast have moved a little.

 

[mrweather]

Linear KU is not nearly as forgiving as circular KU to equipment movements. Heck, I've been out probably 2 degrees before when pointed at a DBS bird and it still gave me a useable signal.

 

[dzinkin]

Obviously something moved it, and whatever it was, it didn't take much. Luckily I can walk out to my balcony with the TV turned toward the door to check the signal strength!

Thanks to everyone for the help. To think that without all of you, I'd still have a DirecTV dish sitting out there doing nothing. Now it's sitting in my closet doing nothing.