Every night about 11:15 pm my signal for the NYC locals drops down to where I usually lose the signal. I only have a problem with the locals on the spot beam, not the other channels and it only happens after 11:15pm or so. The signal usually goes back up about 30 minutes or so later. I am on the fringe area of the spotbeam but it is only late at night that I have this problem. I have had this problem even before Dish moved a new satellite into the 61.5 position recently. Does anyone know what would cause the signal to be worse late at night?
Low signal
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Hello Mr. Bacon Lettuce Tomato Sandwich.
If your signal was dropping off at night, I would suspect your LNB is "temperature drifting". This is caused when the local oscillator in your low noise block is affected by temperature changes.
However since it comes back on in about 30 minutes, then we can rule this out.
Next up..a microwave signal can "drown out" the signal, this is called terrestrial interference.
Since you live on the "fringe area" of the spot beam, this makes it even more suspect.
Since your conus satellite transponders would come in strong, the TI would not be enough to drown it out, but since you live on the fringe of a spotbeam it would be easier for this to occur.
There are MANY things that use microwaves, such as airport radars, military radars, weather radars, etc. I don't know much about what frequency bands they use.
Thing is, most transmitters are not allowed to operate in the Ku band (I think), but one that "leaks", or broadcasts too wide on the spectrum, could cause interference.
Get on Google maps or Google Earth, and look in a line of direction similar to what your dish points.
If your near a military base, airport, or weather radar, this can be the source.
If you can pinpoint the place it's coming from...I would kindly call them and explain one of your radars is causing interference with your dish reception. Like I said before, I don't think airports and what not are allowed to interfere with Ku satellite reception, but I could be wrong.
If your signal was dropping off at night, I would suspect your LNB is "temperature drifting". This is caused when the local oscillator in your low noise block is affected by temperature changes.
However since it comes back on in about 30 minutes, then we can rule this out.
Next up..a microwave signal can "drown out" the signal, this is called terrestrial interference.
Since you live on the "fringe area" of the spot beam, this makes it even more suspect.
Since your conus satellite transponders would come in strong, the TI would not be enough to drown it out, but since you live on the fringe of a spotbeam it would be easier for this to occur.
There are MANY things that use microwaves, such as airport radars, military radars, weather radars, etc. I don't know much about what frequency bands they use.
Thing is, most transmitters are not allowed to operate in the Ku band (I think), but one that "leaks", or broadcasts too wide on the spectrum, could cause interference.
Get on Google maps or Google Earth, and look in a line of direction similar to what your dish points.
If your near a military base, airport, or weather radar, this can be the source.
If you can pinpoint the place it's coming from...I would kindly call them and explain one of your radars is causing interference with your dish reception. Like I said before, I don't think airports and what not are allowed to interfere with Ku satellite reception, but I could be wrong.
Out of band interference can cause the issue you have. If by chance you do have military in the area they could be doing air craft touch and goes at that time every night. It's much less likely that it is a commercial airport as you would have it taking place several times a day. If it is a radar installation of military you can talk to them but unless they are operating out of spec you are SOL. It will then be a case of shielding the dish. We had to do this in the old C-band days as we had a much larger aperture (dish) to worry about reflecting the signal into the LNB's.
If you have a TV news bureau near you that appears on the air every night, the broadcast microwaves for ENG work is in the 2 gig range. Even if the main station is miles away, they may have a new bureau or weather camera that uses a Ku microwave pointed right down your dish's throat every night on thier 11 o'clock news.
Another suggestion is a business that uses microwave communication to report some aspect of it's business such as a branch bank to it's home office. It has a window in which it has to send the report, say 11:15-11:45PM.
Thanks for everyone's response. I don't live near any military base's,airport's or any microwave towers. If it was a temperature problem would it also cause it to happen year round? Like I said earlier sometimes the signal comes back after 30 minutes or so but other times it lasts longer. I have Dish coming out next week so maybe they can get a stronger signal. What should the signal strengths be for spotbeams and the conus? Does anyone know if they can peak the dish for just satellite 61.5? I just have the Welcome package right now and I am just interested in the local channels and not the other channels they throw in with it.
