Can the heat make the satellites mess up?

[Dee_Ann]

Hi again..

I took a few weeks off to get away from all the stress and heat of making all this crazy stuff work. It was, interesting, to say the least.

I read more stuff in a few weeks than I read in a year. Wow!

I think, to be honest, that I got all that stuff working strictly through trial and error, mostly error. And a whole lot of help from you guys.


Well, I really haven't touched it much in a few weeks other than to put up a little dish to see the stuff on one of the Dishnet satellites, I don't remember the name or number but I can get NASA and ION on it. Heh, that's better than the ONE channel I get on the other one for White Springs. Oh well.

So the Dishnet satellite is pretty boring. ION is almost all infomercials and NASA is, well, NASA. Men making really big machines fly. And stuff.

I saw NASA runs some kids programs on it sometimes and that would be nice for when my grandson comes to visit but otherwise I don't have much use for it. But, it's free.


Ok, so here's my question. Can the heat make the satellites fade out? The thermometer was showing it to be 112.6f outside the other day!
It's the only thing I can figure, they work pretty good at night but towards the middle of the day as it gets blistering hot outside, the pictures start to go all checkerboardy and squeaky. The noises are horrible, they hurt my ears and I have to mute or change channels. Some are worse than others, I think. I think White Springs is the worst one.

And RTV seems to have like ghosts that flicker in and out rapidly. I don't know how else to describe it.

And last question, how come the channels don't show you what's playing now or what's playing next? The two channels on the Dishnet do, I can press the info button on the remote and it shows the program name, who's in it, what year, etc.

None of the other channels on other satellites do that.

Seems like the Fashion Channel used to do that too, a long time ago, but I may be wrong.

Oh, and that reminds me, how can I get the Fashion Channel? I can hear it just fine but the picture is black. Is that the scrambling they were supposed to start?
I don't have a dish aimed at them right now but I would put one up if I can get Fashion TV again.

Thank you guys!

 

[Tron]

That does sound like it could be a heat-related issue, but it could also be adjacent satellite interference from a transponder that kicks in during the day. If it is happening on all of the satellites, however, something else could be wrong.

The clear Dish Network channels on 119w (and on any of the other DN satellites) may have a working guide, but very few if any of the channels on the other satellites will. This is because no guide is transmitted with them, since they are usually uplinked for broadcasters and cable companies who don't use guide information.

 

[eurosport]

Oh, and that reminds me, how can I get the Fashion Channel? I can hear it just fine but the picture is black. Is that the scrambling they were supposed to start?
I don't have a dish aimed at them right now but I would put one up if I can get Fashion TV again.

Thank you guys!

The Fashion channel (FTV) is in HD only now. You'll need a high definition FTA receiver to see it.

 

[SatelliteAV]

The video or audio break-up during the heat of the day can be related to the LNBF LO Frequency drifting due to the temperature changes affecting the LNBF electronics. All LNBs LO frequencies shift with heat variations. Better quality LNBs drift less and poorly constructed LNBs can drift excessively even when new. As LNBs age, the LO frequency can start to drift away from the standards. Receivers usually can handle a 3 - 5 MHz frequency drift with an automatic tuning control circuit. Often the LNB drifts outside of this tunable range and the receiver can no longer keep the frequency optimally locked, resulting in the picture breaking up.

You can either replace the defective LNBF or modify the LO frequency in your receiver to better match the new drifted frequency. Adjust the receiver's LO Frequency in 1 or 2 MHz steps (I.E. change the setting in the receiver for the Dish Network LNB from LO Frequency 11250 to 11255 or 11245). If the LNBF is drifting too much, the receiver may have to have the LO adjusted during the extremes of the heat or cold and the receiver will require adjustment again during the other extreme.

 

[zamar23]

Dee_Ann

You may need newer model LNBs with more environmentally stable frequency specs to get signal stability in high temp. Don't forget, you're using highly obsolete hardware for all sats catching. Also, stress deformation of some dishes can be releived or aggrevated by heat, giving you deviation from low temp. signal Q value.

According to FTV site, the signal is transmitted in both HD MPEG-4 (which your PC Card can't decode) and SD (on TP 12060 G19 97W), but the last signal can't also be decoded by an SD receiver for some reason, probably went HD as well. You may want to look at this RRSat PR. Look at Wild Feeds forum section for more channels periodic variety.

 

[Dee_Ann]

I was asking because I see some of the stuff has stickers on it that say something about a temperature.

Oh, I wonder if maybe the stuff could be warping in the heat.
It's sooo hot out that you can't touch anything that's been in the sun for a few minutes. I leaned on the car the other day in shorts and it blistered my backside.

I put some white plastic margarine tubs over the ends of the lnbs, maybe that will help? It hasn't gotten really hot yet so it's too soon to know if it will help.

But yes, all this junk is really old, I know a lot of it has been around here at least 10 years, maybe longer.

Maybe I can go spray it with the hose to cool it down and see if the picture gets better?

Thank you!

 

[Jim S.]

HD MPEG-4 (which your PC Card can't decode)

Since she's getting audio, the channel is being demodulated and demuxed just fine, so maybe she just needs to install software to display MPEG-4. Assuming that her computer is fast enough to do so, and that the channel really isn't encrypted.

 

[hd fan]

Wouldn't Solar activity also affect the free space losses? It will also increase the noise level therefore decreasing the Signal to Noise Ratio, right?. the same happens with VHF and UHF frecuencies specially during sunset , after that the signal kicks back in perfectly. I am assuming of course her signals are already borderline to begin with otherwise you would not notice anything.

 

[guapoharry]

Maybe its a loose connection or cable issue...

I live in the desert. Outside it can be 115º in the shade. No satellite TV heat problems here.

 

[Dee_Ann]

It seems since I put those plastic butter tubs over the ends that they work a little better now. Anything metal out in the sun for even a short time gets too hot to touch. I took one of my little covers off of one of them and when I touched it about 15 minutes later it burnt me.

I do know that when cars get too hot they break down so I thought this might be the same way. At the very least it can't hurt it to protect it from the heat, right?

Oh and the cables too, I was thinking it would be a good idea to keep the rain off of them so they don't rust up.

 

[Dee_Ann]

I guess I was wrong about the butter tubs helping.

It seems on average that starting about 10am the picture gets all checkerboardy and freezy. It really gets to be just useless. The sound also squeaks really bad, like very loud, high pitched chirps and they really hurt my ears so much that I have to mute the darn thing.

By late evening, sunset or so, things start to work better again.

I put up a little dish for the ION & NASA satellite and it works fine, all the time, day & night. None of that silliness like the others do.

The ones that give me trouble in the day time are RTV, White Springs and ThisTV. Or those satellites do. Sorry, I forget the numbers at the moment, I have a terrible migraine.

There are three separate dishes for those and a 4th dish for the ION & NASA.

I can not understand why the one works fine and the three have such trouble in the day time.

Can it be maybe birds or clouds flying in front of them?
Or can they be warping from the heat? The three that cause trouble are all made of plastic, the one that works fine is made of metal. That seems contrary to what I would think.

Thank you!

 

[Skyscanner]

Dee,
You didn't specify what the construction of your dishes is, but I suspect they are probably stamped sheetmetal. You mentioned that your smaller dish doesn't have those issues, and the smaller the dish the less likely it is to warp, so I suspect that yes, you might have issues with the heat warping your dishes. If you have old P* dishes, then you can disregard what I said about warpage, but I have experienced heat-related dish warpage before with sheetmetal dishes. I no longer use sheetmetal dishes for KU reception, but have replaced everything with scrounged P* dishes and I have never had a heat warpage problem with them. Since the satellites themselves are in space 22,000 or so miles out, they are in the heat all the time and their performance should be constant, all things being equal, except for solar activity as HD fan mentioned, and even this would not likely occur every day near the same time. I would do as you suggested and point a fine spray at the back of your dish and see what happens. Sky

OOPS! Sorry, I see you did say they were made of plastic. Haven't had any experience with those, but just curious, how thick are they?

 

[SatelliteAV]

Have you tried adjusting the LO frequency, yet? Does the Signal Quality reading drop during the times when the picture breaks up and the audio screeches?

 

[zamar23]

Signal from 119W is 10 times stronger than the rest, hence less affected by freq deviation. You might use newer LNB with DN dish with more stable specs. Try to cover the whole linear LNB from the Sun with a white plastic well vented container and see what happen. It has electronic components inside, and their specs change depending on outside temp.

 

[Dee_Ann]

Dee,
You didn't specify what the construction of your dishes is, but I suspect they are probably stamped sheetmetal. You mentioned that your smaller dish doesn't have those issues, and the smaller the dish the less likely it is to warp, so I suspect that yes, you might have issues with the heat warping your dishes. If you have old P* dishes, then you can disregard what I said about warpage, but I have experienced heat-related dish warpage before with sheetmetal dishes. I no longer use sheetmetal dishes for KU reception, but have replaced everything with scrounged P* dishes and I have never had a heat warpage problem with them. Since the satellites themselves are in space 22,000 or so miles out, they are in the heat all the time and their performance should be constant, all things being equal, except for solar activity as HD fan mentioned, and even this would not likely occur every day near the same time. I would do as you suggested and point a fine spray at the back of your dish and see what happens. Sky

OOPS! Sorry, I see you did say they were made of plastic. Haven't had any experience with those, but just curious, how thick are they?

They are made out of plastic. The ones that give me trouble.
Two of them say Direcway on them and one, I'm not sure, it's big and old. Someone knew what it was but a few weeks have passed and I've forgotten what it is. But all three are made of plastic.

The one that works fine all the time is much smaller and made of metal, I think is says "Dish" on it, I forget at the moment but it's much smaller than the others.
It looks like the same kind that all the neighbors have on their houses.

The thickness of the plastic on them is pretty darn thick and heavy, maybe as thick as two pennies. And there's like ribs on the back side, I assume to make it stronger. That's the only thing I can think they would be for. Unless it just makes them look "cooler" which would be dumb in my opinion.

Oh, and the plastic dishes are much heavier than the metal one. The metal one weighs almost nothing, the plastic ones are a bit of trouble for me to handle them. I can say they weigh about as much as a large bag of dog food.

I do not know what P* is. I have seen nothing that says that in all this junk.

I took some pictures of them but for some reason my dumb computer won't see the memory chip from my camera anymore when I plug it in. Now I don't know how to get pictures from my camera into the computer.

I have been poking through boxes and in the tool shed and found all sorts of knick-knack junk that looks like satellite parts. I wanted to put some pictures of them up too, hoping maybe someone might know what it all is, maybe there are better parts that I could replace the outside stuff with.

It's ridiculous the amount of junk my ex collected. He was a junk hoarder. It makes no sense for him to have gathered up all those little satellite dishes, no human being on earth could use or need that many of them.

I know why he wanted the big dishes, he wanted to build a solar water heater for the hot tub because the electric bill to heat the thing was insanely high.
I saw a video of one that some guy made and it was pretty neat. And free hot water was just fine with me. Anyway...

Well once I can figure out why my pc won't see my camera memory chip I'll try to put some photos up of the dishes that are out there now and some of the junk I found in boxes.

Thanks again!

 

[osu1991]

P* is for Primestar a defunct satellite company that used Channelmaster dishes. These are very good dishes and what everyone looks for and I believe one of the dishes you were using was a Channelmaster.

 

[Dee_Ann]

P* is for Primestar a defunct satellite company that used Channelmaster dishes. These are very good dishes and what everyone looks for and I believe one of the dishes you were using was a Channelmaster.

Oh! Ok.. Thank you!

Yes, there are several of those channelmaster dishes out back. Two oval ones and a really big round one. One of the oval dishes is for White Springs, it says channelmaster on the back of it.

The other two just say direcway, I can't remember if they say anything on the back of them though. It's all the plastic ones, one channelmaster and two direcways that conk out in the day.

I'm at a loss as to why. I do not pretend to know what I'm doing, I just keep fooling with it until I get it. I'm very stubborn and hard headed.

Thanks again guys.

 

[zamar23]

Dee

Try to de-install and re-install the newest driver for your particular camera from its manufacturer website. Change its batteries as well. Restart the PC and then connect the camera again to its USB port.

Try to protect from direct sun radiation the whole LNB with a big white color plastic well vented open container (say a milk tube) and see if it helps. The ribs on your dishes add strength protecting from warping, including thermal deformation due to uneven stresses in different parts of dish irradiated differently and having somewhat varying material density and thickness along the dish surface.

 

[Dee_Ann]

Dee

Try to de-install and re-install the newest driver for your particular camera from its manufacturer website. Change its batteries as well. Restart the PC and then connect the camera again to its USB port.

Try to protect from direct sun radiation the whole LNB with a big white color plastic well vented open container (say a milk tube) and see if it helps. The ribs on your dishes add strength protecting from warping, including thermal deformation due to uneven stresses in different parts of dish irradiated differently and having somewhat varying material density and thickness along the dish surface.

I still can't get the pc to see the camera chip, or anything else that I plug into it, I have one of those keychain chip sticks and it won't see that either anymore.
Very annoying. And I know my camera has fully charged batteries.
It doesn't work if I put the chip directly into the pc or use the camera cable.

I'll figure it out one of these days.

The "ribs" on the dishes, yes, I was thinking that's what they are for, to make it stronger.

I put some white plastic over the ends but it doesn't help a lot. Maybe a little bit but not a great help. I guess I'll know when (IF) "winter" ever comes along and it cools down a little. Not that we ever get a real winter here, just a slight cool break from the heat for a few weeks. It's summer here about 11 months of the year.

I guess there's not much I can do about it, I am pretty sure I've reached the limits of my ability on this whole thing. It mostly works some of the time so I should just be happy that I got this far with it.

Besides, it was all free stuff that I was going to throw away anyway so I got what I paid for.



Thanks guys..

 

[zamar23]

Try to cover the whole LNB instead of its end only. Electronics inside is located far from its end all around the whole thing.

You may have USB device driver problem with your PC. Your Camera Card, once removed, might be inserted in your PC via a Multi-card Reader internally connected via USB to PC's motherboard. You also seems to have problem with reading from a USB Stick Drive. What ports (located where?) you try to connect the devices to? Run devices diagnostics on your PC. But this stuff is off topic here.