Weirdest Transponder Problem. HELP!!!

[EdofAv]

Okay, I have a DirecTV system installed that was installed in around 2005-06. It is a single dish 18 inch, with a single box in the living room. It has always had the typical DirecTV problems such as going out during rough weather etc... but recently it has developed a seemingly inexplicable problem, which is, I actually get BETTER reception in the rain. The only cause for this that I can surmise is that somehow the rain is actually refracting the satellite signal and thereby making it easier for the signal to reach my dish.

When it is bright and sunny or a night with nice weather, transponder 2 and all the even transponders come in at 60 to 70 (which I understand is low anyway) but the odd number transponders including 1 will not come in at all, causing half of my channels to have the infamous "satellite cannot obtain signal" message in the lower right-hand part of the screen. The only exception to this is when I have the signal meter on transponder one it will occasionally tick up for just a second, seemingly for no reason. When it is overcast however, or is raining lightly to moderately, all transponders come in at above 70, including 1.

I have replaced the cable, I have replaced the actual part of the receiver that connects to the cable (of which I had an extra) and the same effect persists. I have attempted to adjust the satellite manually to get better reception for transponder 1 and can still only get transponder 2 to come in at around 60 % during normal circumstances.

There was a cedar tree which has grown up directly beside the receiver but I have pruned all the branches in the receiver's line-of-sight away from it. There is one oak tree about 20 feet away from the receiver that seems to have some branches that could be in the line of sight and one pine tree on the other side of the road, about 300 feet away that would also seem to be with the path of the beam, but I would think if these were interfering with 1, they would be interfering with 2 as well. Perhaps I am wrong.

I'm a fairly technical person so I've figured my last resort is to remove the receiver from the roof, attach it to a post, and direct it accordingly (as I have figured out the required angle based on the receiver's current position) to see if in fact the problem is resolved. If this doesn't fix it I suppose I will finally have to give in and call my local installer in Northeast Mississippi and hope they can think of something I didn't.

I had ran across your site however and firstly wanted to see if anyone here had ever heard of such a problem (as better reception in the rain, and 1 out and 2 in) and secondly I wanted to see if your community could offer any advice on such an issue.

Thanks!

 

[coconut10]

Usually under the circumstances your expiriencing it has to do with a bad LNB. Replace the LNB and see what your result's are. Or it can also be an alignment or LOS problem, because your signal is lower than it should be on the transponder you are receiving.
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[jugghedd]

That is a weird issue. I wonder if there are certain failure conditions where less light or overcast could actually improve signal. I would guess that there's something else going on. Like, the weather is affecting something else which in return affects signal. This is just an example but, the wind also blows when its overcast, the wind is blowing a loose mount and the mount is swaying toward the direction it needs to be adjusted to. Something like that. When I have conditions that are complicated and wont reveal themselves, I start deconstructing the setup a piece at a time and sanity checking things along the way. When issues still wont reveal themselves, eliminating some of the variables can be helpful.

Another example, maybe a bad one. But, imagine if you did replace the dish for troubleshooting and the problem stayed. This would mean you have a receiver problem and could have worked on this forever with no success. This for me is an important step. It usually reveals the fact that I was making one assumption. It ends up being the one assumption I shouldnt have made.


I dont know how possible this would be for you, but I would try and get a spare dish and pole and try mounting one in another location before moving anything. If you post an ad in the local classifieds, you can usually get one for free or close to it. Maybe even swap out the LNB (head) on the old one and see what happens.