Any idea what would cause this "771" error message

[Rough2000]

I use my receivers from home when we go camping. I have two H-21 200 receivers. I had an experience the other morning that I can't explain. Each receiver has a home run coax from the lnb to the receiver. Last week we had been set up all week with Directv working fine. Friday morning when we were getting ready to leave, I disconnected the bedroom receiver. When I went to the living area, I turned on the other receiver and got "771-no signal message" on all three sats. (I use a 3 lnb dish when camping and have a slimline 5 lnb dish at home).
i assumed that a wire had gotten disconnected or someone had bumped the dish. I checked both and there were no problems.

My first thought was possibly my lnb had went bad. I went back and reconnected the bedroom receiver and the living room receiver started working. When I would disconnect the antenna wire from the bedroom receiver the living room receiver would give me the 771 message. If I unplugged the bedroom receiver from AC it had no effect on the living room receiver. The message only happened when I disconnected the antenna wire. Anyone have any suggestions on what maybe causing this. I tried the same thing when I got home and did not have this problem.

 

[TheTechGuru]

Well "sounds" like you have SWM and the PSU for it is in the bedroom and you're disconnecting it killing all receivers.

but if you don't have SWM, I can't think of anything as everything is supposed to be totally independent with non-swm.

For the hell of it try putting a terminator on the open end in the bedroom after disconnecting the receiver.

 

[Rough2000]

Well "sounds" like you have SWM and the PSU for it is in the bedroom and you're disconnecting it killing all receivers.

but if you don't have SWM, I can't think of anything as everything is supposed to be totally independent with non-swm.

For the hell of it try putting a terminator on the open end in the bedroom after disconnecting the receiver.

I don't have SWM. Not sure what the terminator would do. I have 100 feet of dual coax on a wire reel. I was only using about 50 feet. I am wandering if the spool was acting as a coil and somehow affecting the signal????

 

[texasbrit]

If you don't have SWM.
The LNB at the dish is powered by the receivers. If disconnecting one receiver causes the 771s, that probably means the other receiver is not delivering enough power to the LNB for it to operate correctly.
Not enough power can be caused by:
A poor connection, causing voltage loss.
Cable too long or using the wrong type of cable.
A faulty receiver (unlikely). You can check this one by swapping the receivers and see if the problem moves with the receiver.

 

[TheTechGuru]

I don't have SWM. Not sure what the terminator would do. I have 100 feet of dual coax on a wire reel. I was only using about 50 feet. I am wandering if the spool was acting as a coil and somehow affecting the signal????

I'm not sure what the terminator would do either, worth a shot, this is simply not supposed to happen. My only guess is the LNBF is bad. Try switching to different ports on it if you're not already using all 4.

 

[Rough2000]

Texasbrit,
i do not have a SWM, right now that's the only thing I'm sure of. I am using 100ft of duel coax on a wind up spool. I tried reversing the duel coax to see if the trouble followed...it didn't. We had been using the receivers all week long, often being of different birds...no problems. When I got home, I tried to duplicate the problem on my slimline 5LNB, it didn't happen at home.

When I was at the campground, I was using about half of my coax, leaving about 50ft still on the reel. I'm wondering if the coil of the coax could be electrically causing the problem. I have been using this setup for the past seven years...the new thing is the dual coax on the reel.

The system works, but it sure has me scratching my head. It doesn't make any sense to me so I just can't leave it alone.

 

[Rough2000]

I'm not sure what the terminator would do either, worth a shot, this is simply not supposed to happen. My only guess is the LNBF is bad. Try switching to different ports on it if you're not already using all 4.

Thanks again for your response. I tried reversing the two LNBs that were hooked up, but didn't try any of the other ports. I am going to get a terminator and try it... See my above comments to texasbrit...it's just not making sense to me and I can't leave it alone. Won't be able to try it again until I'm out camping again.

 

[Jimbo]

Texasbrit,
i do not have a SWM, right now that's the only thing I'm sure of.?? I am using 100ft of duel coax on a wind up spool. I tried reversing the duel coax to see if the trouble followed...it didn't. We had been using the receivers all week long, often being of different birds...no problems. When I got home, I tried to duplicate the problem on my slimline 5LNB, it didn't happen at home.

When I was at the campground, I was using about half of my coax, leaving about 50ft still on the reel. I'm wondering if the coil of the coax could be electrically causing the problem. I have been using this setup for the past seven years...the new thing is the dual coax on the reel.

The system works, but it sure has me scratching my head. It doesn't make any sense to me so I just can't leave it alone??.

The coil of coax is not your issue.