resurrecting a receiver

[4issquared]

Hi there, new here and hopefully have a not too dumb question. I have multiple receivers in my house and have upgraded a couple of them to HD, and put the RCA430 in a drawer. I have brought it out to put in the garage for my son, and it picks up the guides and the preview channel, but none of the programs. all i get when i go to select a channel is "searching for satellite signal, please stand by" . Am I doing something wrong? I never had this box deactivated so it should work. thanx for any help you can give me. I will call *TV for help, just thought there might be better assisstance here.

 

[kdarcangelis870]

If the box has not been receiving a signal from the satellite for awhile (at least a month or two), the access card will lose it's authorization and you will have call directv and get it re-authorized. The one thing I don't understand is why you are getting the searching for satellite signal message on the subscription channels even though you are receiving the preview channels. The subscription channels should say
something like "call customer service ext. 711 or 722" instead of searching for signal. You could be losing some of the transponders due to a cabling problem.

 

[4issquared]

I checked all the signals on the transponders and it seems that, 4,12 , 20,and 26 don't have a signal but the rest are pretty good, ranging from 36 up to 83 on some. Could that be the problem. oh yeah, the dish is a round one RCA DTV. thanx for your time The box has been unplugged since september or october if memory serves me, so I will call for a re-authorization.. thanx again

 

[damaged]

Any transponder signal below 50, or so, will result in missing channels, so, those missing channels are on those weak transponders.

Assuming your coax runs, multiswitch and LNBs are fine amd if you have a known good receiver, try it on that line if you have not already, if the signals are just as low, I suggest a dish realignment, your signals should never be in the 30s under normal circumstances. They should be high 80s at least, mine (for example) average in mid 90s.

If the known good receiver works fine and gets strong(er) signals (i,e, 80s+) on that same coax, it is probably the receiver.

 

[4issquared]

thanx for the reply, I will switch things around and let u know. cheers

 

[damaged]

Good luck, remember to disconnect the power cord of each receiver you plan on switching around before you mess with their coax runs, just to be safe, not doing so could damage the LNB.

 

[4issquared]

thanx damaged. i just ran a system test and all the results came back as check connections, except for when i run the test with it on the preview channel (100) it comes back all ok. so is this a cabling, pointing problem? sorry to be asking so many questions.

 

[damaged]

Did you try to use a receiver that you know works 100% for sure?

Also try the 'revived' receiver on a known GOOD coax connection to see if it does it.

If it does fail with a known-to-be-good receiver, it sounds like a multiswitch, or a cabling issue, are the lines ran from the dish (or cascaded mswitch if applicable) directly to your receivers, or are they ran wall jacks, you'll want to pull apart each coax connection and check for corrosion, bad center leads (touching the sides or too short), cuts in the coax itself (staples, kinks, etc), if you have wall jacks you'll have to pull the plate off and check those too.

If the coax all looks good, and no receiver can get a proper signal, than the only things left are multiswitch or LNB,

If the revived receiver works on a different coax connection, then that other run is bad, or the port on the mswitch for that run is bad.

 

[dodge]

Directv Rca Box ???

Transponders 4, 12 , 20 and 26 are all spot beams for local channels. I believe chicago loclas are on 26 as everyone gets 100% signal on 26. If all the other transponders read over 70 the box should be ok, just probably needs to re hit ny Directv.

 

[HCI]

Transponders 4, 12 , 20 and 26 are all spot beams for local channels. I believe chicago loclas are on 26 as everyone gets 100% signal on 26. If all the other transponders read over 70 the box should be ok, just probably needs to re hit ny Directv.

0 on 26 in North Miss.

 

[4issquared]

thanx for all your help, I was able to get this up and running with another "hit" from DTV. appreciate all the suggestions, the cabling was a little shoddy and I fixed that up also. cheers