Sun Causing Signal Fade???

[JWXTREME]

Has anyone experienced the sun causing signal fade? The same time everyday I lose signal for a couple of hours. It cuts in and out, I'll have a 93-95 signal and it will immediately drop to 0. It's seems to happen when the sun is in the same position and shining directly on the dish and LNB. It's not from the weather, it happens everyday when it's bright and sunny. At night I never have any problems at all.

Any tips on troubleshooting would be appreciated! Maybe my LNB is staring to go bad or something. I am using the 5 LNB slimline dish.

Usually I'll just deal with it for the couple of hours, but it's extremely frustrating now because the football season is starting and I lose the signal through the start of the 1:00 games.

Thanks!

 

[susanandmark]

I've heard about signal fade and sun spots and whatnot but I don't know if what you're experiencing is that or not. We are sort of on the edge of our locals spot beam (I know we are at the edge of our local DMA), or at least we used to be. When they first went to spot beams we would routinely lose signal during the day for about a three month period every year. (It was about this time because it always seemed to happen during football and my husband would freak out.) Now, our signal strength seems higher and it rarely, if ever, happens anymore. When it first started happening--didn't occur on national channels, just local, where the signal strength is a bit lower--we were told it was sun fade (at night all was fine) and that our particular spot beam is "narrow" because there are multiple spot beams in our area. Like I said, I don't know if they adjusted the spot beam or whatever but it no longer seems like an issue.

 

[scoop8]

I think it's due to the annual spring/autumn equinox when the sun lines up directly behind the DTV birds and your location causing a temporary power drop output from the birds. Something like that. It used to happen twice a year on my C-Band dish. It usually lasts a few moments, at least that was the duration of sig loss in the north Texas latitude.

The further south that you are located in latitude, the longer the sig blackout lasts, at least that's the way it woked with the C-Band setup. Since you're in Ohio, I wouldn't expect your sig loss to last long. Your problem may be unrelated to the semi-annual equinox.

 

[TNGTony]

It's too early for solar conjunction in Ohio for DirecTV. It's probably a bad or failing LNB or loose connection.

Solar conjunction times for this fall in the Cincinnati area at 101° (DirecTV's main location) are predicted as the following:

Predicted Fade | Start    | End      | Duration | Start    | End
Date             | GMT      | GMT      |          | EDT      | EDT     
mm/dd/yyyy       | hh:mm:ss | hh:mm:ss | mm:ss    | hh:mm:ss | hh:mm:ss  
-----------------|----------|----------|----------|----------|---------
10/01/2009       | 18:32:00 | 18:52:15 | 20:15    | 14:32:00 | 14:52:15
10/02/2009       | 18:30:17 | 18:53:22 | 23:05    | 14:30:17 | 14:53:22
10/03/2009       | 18:28:56 | 18:54:11 | 25:15    | 14:28:56 | 14:54:11
10/04/2009       | 18:27:46 | 18:54:41 | 26:55    | 14:27:46 | 14:54:41
10/05/2009       | 18:26:55 | 18:55:00 | 28:05    | 14:26:55 | 14:55:00
10/06/2009       | 18:26:11 | 18:55:06 | 28:55    | 14:26:11 | 14:55:06
10/07/2009       | 18:25:38 | 18:55:03 | 29:25    | 14:25:38 | 14:55:03
10/08/2009       | 18:25:14 | 18:54:49 | 29:35    | 14:25:14 | 14:54:49
10/09/2009       | 18:25:02 | 18:54:32 | 29:30    | 14:25:02 | 14:54:32
10/10/2009       | 18:25:05 | 18:54:00 | 28:55    | 14:25:05 | 14:54:00
10/11/2009       | 18:25:13 | 18:53:18 | 28:05    | 14:25:13 | 14:53:18
10/12/2009       | 18:25:29 | 18:52:29 | 27:00    | 14:25:29 | 14:52:29
10/13/2009       | 18:26:04 | 18:51:29 | 25:25    | 14:26:04 | 14:51:29
10/14/2009       | 18:26:51 | 18:50:16 | 23:25    | 14:26:51 | 14:50:16
10/15/2009       | 18:27:54 | 18:48:39 | 20:45    | 14:27:54 | 14:48:39

 

[jtwex]

The above chart, which is nice by the way, & the fact that when you are getting Sun Spots they manage to send a signal down to your boxes that say you are temporarily out of service due to Sun Spots. How they get the message down but not the picture is one for science unless it revolves around the small broadband needed to get that little picture of the sun on your screen.

 

[oldford]

It has nothing to do with sunspots. Solar transit occurs when the sun gets directly behind the satellite your dish is aimed at. For Direct and Dish, solar transit outages are very short. I've only seen it a couple of times over the past 5 or 6 years. The OPs problem is failing hardware: connector, LNB, cable, or other.

TNGTony has it right.

Incidently, sunspots are at a near historical low - spaceweather.com has a nice page covering the cycle and other planetary events.

GL, Eric

 

[Jimbo]

It's too early for solar conjunction in Ohio for DirecTV. It's probably a bad or failing LNB or loose connection.

Solar conjunction times for this fall in the Cincinnati area at 101° (DirecTV's main location) are predicted as the following:

Predicted Fade | Start    | End      | Duration | Start    | End
Date             | GMT      | GMT      |          | EDT      | EDT     
mm/dd/yyyy       | hh:mm:ss | hh:mm:ss | mm:ss    | hh:mm:ss | hh:mm:ss  
-----------------|----------|----------|----------|----------|---------
10/01/2009       | 18:32:00 | 18:52:15 | 20:15    | 14:32:00 | 14:52:15
10/02/2009       | 18:30:17 | 18:53:22 | 23:05    | 14:30:17 | 14:53:22
10/03/2009       | 18:28:56 | 18:54:11 | 25:15    | 14:28:56 | 14:54:11
10/04/2009       | 18:27:46 | 18:54:41 | 26:55    | 14:27:46 | 14:54:41
10/05/2009       | 18:26:55 | 18:55:00 | 28:05    | 14:26:55 | 14:55:00
10/06/2009       | 18:26:11 | 18:55:06 | 28:55    | 14:26:11 | 14:55:06
10/07/2009       | 18:25:38 | 18:55:03 | 29:25    | 14:25:38 | 14:55:03
10/08/2009       | 18:25:14 | 18:54:49 | 29:35    | 14:25:14 | 14:54:49
10/09/2009       | 18:25:02 | 18:54:32 | 29:30    | 14:25:02 | 14:54:32
10/10/2009       | 18:25:05 | 18:54:00 | 28:55    | 14:25:05 | 14:54:00
10/11/2009       | 18:25:13 | 18:53:18 | 28:05    | 14:25:13 | 14:53:18
10/12/2009       | 18:25:29 | 18:52:29 | 27:00    | 14:25:29 | 14:52:29
10/13/2009       | 18:26:04 | 18:51:29 | 25:25    | 14:26:04 | 14:51:29
10/14/2009       | 18:26:51 | 18:50:16 | 23:25    | 14:26:51 | 14:50:16
10/15/2009       | 18:27:54 | 18:48:39 | 20:45    | 14:27:54 | 14:48:39

It has nothing to do with sunspots. Solar transit occurs when the sun gets directly behind the satellite your dish is aimed at. For Direct and Dish, solar transit outages are very short. I've only seen it a couple of times over the past 5 or 6 years. The OPs problem is failing hardware: connector, LNB, cable, or other.

TNGTony has it right.

Incidently, sunspots are at a near historical low - spaceweather.com has a nice page covering the cycle and other planetary events.

GL, Eric

Thank you guy's.
OP,
It's definantly not sunspots, we are getting close to the time of the year, but thats not it.

It IS weather related, your dish set up is heating regularly.
sounds like your LNB has/is going bad.
When it warms up, it fails, when it cools down, it works.
Call D* they will cover that stuff with your Protection plan, or you can buy one and change it yourself !

 

[JWXTREME]

Thanks for everyones input! I guess I'll try a new lnb and hopefully that fixes it. If it is the lnb it sure didn't last very long. It's only about four moths old....

 

[scarebear]

don't forget to change all of your exterior connectors, it could be heat expansion causing a short