I've lost a small number of channels?!?

[Will94]

I've noticed over the past few weeks that occasionally I'll turn to a channel and get a '771' no signal strength error. Today was the first time that it's happened on something that I wanted to watch, a match on Fox Soccer Channel. BTW, there wasn't a cloud in the sky when it happened. To complicated things for me, I "live" at my sister's address in Houston, so that I can get their locals. I know a DTV installer who I've been paying on the side, but he recently moved to Georgia. For me to get service, I either have to find a new guy or "move" to Bryan, TX, get service, and then "move back" to Houston. My wife was born and raised in Houston, and it's very important to her to be able to keep their locals.

I went through all eight signal strength screens this morning and have posted the thumbnails. I've also posted a regional map to help show what should be zero because of locals that I can't see and also which locals are low strength. I've put an ugly blue circle on Bryan to show where I am.

If anyone can give me advice as to what is going wrong, I would greatly appreciate it!

 

[Will94]

I failed miserably on my thumbnails, so I switched them to urls.

I really thought that the code was [thumb]http://image[/thumb]?!?

 

[Will94]

Getting more serious... I've lost ESPNHD and am stuck watching the New Mexico Bowl at 480i. I guess they switched transponders today as I had the Montana at SHSU game in HD last night.

 

[Jimbo]

Will,
Looks to me like you need to fine tune your dish, while the 101 is OK, the 99 and 103 are seriously low ...
That would be the Dithering portion of the alignment.

The 101 could also be bumped up a bit while your at it.

 

[Jimbo]

Getting more serious... I've lost ESPNHD and am stuck watching the New Mexico Bowl at 480i. I guess they switched transponders today as I had the Montana at SHSU game in HD last night.

While your 101 is OK, if theres something you REALLY need to see, shift back to the SD version and it will be on the 101 sat that is more stable.

 

[Mr Tony]

I fixed the pics. Instead of url you need to do img (or better yet the manage attachments makes them thumbnails....I'll fix that soon

But yeah the HD sats (99 & 103) are terribly low signal. Mine are all in the 90's (not spotbeams sats)

 

[Will94]

Iceberg, thanks for making the thumbs. Is there a link you could provide to tell me how to do that? I really thought it was [thumb] [/thumb].

Jimbo, is "dithering" fairly easy to do? I did all of my own setups back when I had a round dish and a single satellite to find. I've done nothing since then.

 

[Mr Tony]

to add thumbnails (or really any picture attachment) click on "go advanced" which is right below the quick reply box
scroll down and you'll see "manage attachments"
then in the top right corner it says "add file" which you can add the files (as many at one time as you need)

 

[raoul5788]

I'd check the dish first to make sure it's not loose and that your mast is plumb. While you are there, take a look at all of the connections and tighten if necessary.

 

[Jimbo]

Iceberg, thanks for making the thumbs. Is there a link you could provide to tell me how to do that? I really thought it was [thumb] [/thumb].

Jimbo, is "dithering" fairly easy to do? I did all of my own setups back when I had a round dish and a single satellite to find. I've done nothing since then.

If your use to working with the dish, yes.

Dithering will make VERY FINE adjustments vs moving the dish the way you would to originally set it up.

 

[AC Lown]

I had the same problem about a week ago, suddenly the NHL Center Ice channels wouldn't work. Got a tech on the phone, and he had it fixed within about 15 minutes after doing a bunch of remotely and asking me to perform a few things myself via my remote. He said it was alignment issue, but I didn't really grasp the meaning -- nothing needed to be physically changed with my dish. Incidentally, the guy I talked to said he was in Montana.

 

[Jimbo]

Iceberg, thanks for making the thumbs. Is there a link you could provide to tell me how to do that? I really thought it was [thumb] [/thumb].

Jimbo, is "dithering" fairly easy to do? I did all of my own setups back when I had a round dish and a single satellite to find. I've done nothing since then.

Did you get my PM ?

 

[Will94]

Did you get my PM ?

Yes, I did. Thank you! We had Christmas with the inlaws this weekend, and I thought they would never leave. I am planning on "dithering" on Friday. This time of year, it already getting dark when I get home from work, but I have Friday off. ESPN came back. If that hadn't happened, I'd be taking vacation time to fix this!

 

[Will94]

Well, after looking at my dish, I decided that working on it was more than I could handle. I found a local installer, and he set me up with a new satellite. Apparently slimline dishes are no longer the latest and greatest. I got back all of the channels that I was missing. The even better news is that he installed a new kind of dish that allowed me to ditch my B-band converters and to be able to DVR one thing while I watch another using only one drop.

 

[Mr Tony]

slimline is the most cuirrent dish. He switched you to SWM which is sooooo much easier on installs

one cable from LNB to splitter
one cable from splitter to each receiver regardless if DVR or not