intermittent reception on sat129

[menelfloss]

I have had a problem where when it gets a little windy, some stations get intermittent reception. They go off and come on etc.
Anyway, the dish is on the roof of my garage and there is a black walnut tree above. The line of sight from the dish out does not seem to be interrupted by that tree. The coax leading from the dish does not go ariel, and connections are tight.
About 80 feet away however, there are a couple of trees that might be in the lower south eastern quarter of the dish which is pointed southwest.
The transponder is 22 the sat is 129 the signal strength bounces from 0 to 25 with the average around 14. Other signal strengths and sats are good.
Think it is a tree? think it could be re-pointed?
Thoughts?
Mike

 

[Jim5506]

The line of sight for the satellites is actually about 22 degrees above the perpendicular to the dish face, so the overhead tree might be a problem.

Otherwise is the dish solidly mounted to the garage roof so that it cannot wiggle or move in the wind?

129 comes in from the southwest, so trees to the southwest might be a problem.

The signal level sounds low. My lowest signal on my D1000 is about 30-32.

You might need to sacrifice a little bit of signal on 110 and 119 to boost 129's strength.

Only adjust one parameter at a time, first the azimuth, then retighten the post clamps, then the elevation, then retighten the elevation bolts. Repeat.

Check the skew, but it is unusual for it to be the problem.

 

[menelfloss]

Thanks,
yes, the dish is solidly mounted.
I have since called Dish and they are sending out a tech to look the situation over. The rep I talked to was pretty nice and decided to waive the $99 fee of having somebody come out.
Thursday afternoon is the time.
I will post an update with the details.
Mike

 

[Laserich]

Thanks,
yes, the dish is solidly mounted.
I have since called Dish and they are sending out a tech to look the situation over. The rep I talked to was pretty nice and decided to waive the $99 fee of having somebody come out.
Thursday afternoon is the time.
I will post an update with the details.
Mike

I'd try a re-point. Or you could trim a couple of branches. With the signal strength going to zero to 25, you can probably (temporarily) fix it with a tiny trim. Or the dish might be moved to a better spot.

Had a tech re-point my dish for 129 because of intermittent loss of signal, but it did not help. He was left wondering if a certain tree was on the fringe of blocking the signal.

Unfortunately, I get random signal loss when the wind and trees are dead calm. There's no increase in the frequency of signal loss in windy conditions.

The number of signal drops on 129 per day range from a handful to like 20. They're brief and can cause an audio screech and a video burp.

Sometimes when tuning to a 129 station, locals and HD channels, the error screen immediately appears titled "Acquiring Satellite Signal" followed by "Signal Lost". Then a few seconds later the signal will return and remain.

That doesn't sound like it's caused by fluttering tree leaves.

There have been posts on the condition of the 129 satellite: it is failing. The signal loss I'm seeing seems symptomatic of an unstable orbit. The impact on signal strength depends on geographic location.

That DISH waived your service call fee sounds like CSR's are increasingly aware of signal loss from 129.

 

[cincyguy2k4]

This surprises me more and more as to why dish wants to keep 129 for western arc. As soon as I see Cincy locals come up on eastern arc im getting new box with the updated smart card and buying a dish. The dropouts are getting ridiculous.

 

[Jim5506]

New sat is going up to 129.

Hopefully it will fix the problem.

 

[highdefjeff]

I have had a problem where when it gets a little windy, some stations get intermittent reception. They go off and come on etc.
Anyway, the dish is on the roof of my garage and there is a black walnut tree above. The line of sight from the dish out does not seem to be interrupted by that tree. The coax leading from the dish does not go ariel, and connections are tight.
About 80 feet away however, there are a couple of trees that might be in the lower south eastern quarter of the dish which is pointed southwest.
The transponder is 22 the sat is 129 the signal strength bounces from 0 to 25 with the average around 14. Other signal strengths and sats are good.
Think it is a tree? think it could be re-pointed?
Thoughts?
Mike

It's the tree. Signal bounce of that magnitude and your connection with wind make it the tree.

What does a dish "see"?- Picture Examples

 

[Netstar]

Try changing transponder

I had the same problem with 129 and I was dropping signal. I thought my satellite dish was out of alignment but I decided to try and change the transponder channel to the strongest signal. I haven't had the problem since. I checked 129 transponder 22 and noticed that it was very low and bouncing. Try another transponder and see if it makes a difference before attempting dish re-alignment.

 

[highdefjeff]

I had the same problem with 129 and I was dropping signal. I thought my satellite dish was out of alignment but I decided to try and change the transponder channel to the strongest signal. I haven't had the problem since. I checked 129 transponder 22 and noticed that it was very low and bouncing. Try another transponder and see if it makes a difference before attempting dish re-alignment.

That is not how transponders work and would do nothing to change your system's performance. The channels that you watch are already coming from or assigned to a specific transponder. Changing transponders in the check switch menu only gives you the signal strength of a particular transponder. When you pick a channel, the reciever picks the transponder...the same one for the same channel, everytime.

Transponders - What are they?

 

[tastim]

My guess is the tree. Line of sight can be tricky without a compass... you can't judge elevation by the angle of the arm that holds the LNBF... the actual sighting angle is quite a bit higher than the angle the Dish is pointed at....

The reason I say it is the tree is that you describe a 20+ point signal variation... even though the 129 Satellite does move in the sky, your signal strength should never jump anywhere near that many points....

Technically, your 129 strength is a bit low, but it should still be fairly stable at 25 on the modified meter, no matter where you are.

 

[Justsuern]

That DISH waived your service call fee sounds like CSR's are increasingly aware of signal loss from 129.

They waived my fee also when I reported problems with 129 channels. Of course they said it was a tree issue. Cut down 3 tress that they said caused the problem. HD channels worked for a few weeks and now back to being scrambled at times. Signal strength is usually above 30%. A few transponders are 17%. Dish is coming back out on Wednesday. They best not tell me it is another tree!

 

[Justsuern]

As soon as I see Cincy locals come up on eastern arc im getting new box with the updated smart card and buying a dish. The dropouts are getting ridiculous.

They promised me last October Cincy would have local HD within a year. No such luck. And of course now they can't tell me when it will happen. With my luck I will have to cut down my entire hill of trees to get the signal!