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I have a panasonic digibox connected to an 80cm dish. When I first set it up about 8 months ago it recieved most of the free channels OK with a signal strength of about 80% and signal quality of about 40%.

For the last 2 months the reception has been getting worse until I could get virtually nothing at all. I tried adjusting the dish and resetting the digibox but to no effect, in fact I lost the signal completely!

I guessed it might be because of surrounding trees coming into leaf so I moved the dish to a clearer position and with the aid of sat finder meter set it up again.

The meter shows a signal strength of around 90% both at the lnb and the digibox ends. but I still get nothing, not even network ID or transport stream readings.

I have reset the digibox, removed and replaced the card etc to no avail.

Any suggestions please?

cheminot.
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The trees are definately a consideration. I have found that there musnt be any in the line of sight to the satellite if you want to get a really good signal. If you have a building in the path then that may not impair the signal, but vegetation of any kind may cause problems.
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The feeling I get is that if you're sure that the trees are not obscuring the line to the satellite, then I would suspect that you've got the dish pointing at the wrong satellite. Sky boxes are not very good at dealing with signals from satelites other than those at 28e - and alot of satfinder machines are unable to distinguish between them as well. I would double check that when you moved the dish that you've got it pointing the right way..

Tim

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Thanks for your replies. I am pretty confident that I am pointing at the right satellite because when I first installed the dish I marked the direction and elevation on the support brackets with indelible marker and as all I have done is moved the dish vertically then those marks gave me a good starting point. I have double checked it with a compass and it is as near as possible to tell, on 28e.

cheminot
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Definately the wrong satellite. The strength indicator is an analogue measurement of the satellite signal - it will work with any satellite producing a signal. The Quality indicator (IIRC) is just a SINAD (don't ask!) or BER (likewise) guage. So, all you can conclude is that you have found a digital satellite.

You must have the correct lock, ID & transport stream (07d4 & 0002) for it to work.

Added to which, from department 16, you should be pointing your dish at 143 degrees (what's that? 37 deg west?) with an elevation of 31 degrees. So, you could be 9 degrees out - something like 7 times the beamwidth of your dish.

 

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Apologies for inaccuracy in my last post. I was being lazy when I said The dish was pointed 28e without checking first.

The settings I have used are 143 degrees, 31 degree elevation and 17 degree clockwise tilt on the lnb. I found these figures by 'googling'. As I said before the coordinates the dish is in now correspond very closely to the previous marks.

I have just moved the dish vertically by less than a metre and before I moved it I was getting a signal.

I'll try setting it up again from scratch tomorrow.

cheminot
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As others have said,  signal strenth means nothing.   I have one box that simply shows good signal if the dish is pointed anywhere near the Clarke belt.

If you can borrow an FTA box for your setting up I would.   I keep one for this purpose,  with Hotbird/Astra1/Astra2 all programmed in.   That way if I get stuck finding Astra2 but see a peak on the meter,  I can "get my bearings" by confirming which of th others I have found.

Bon courage.

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[quote user="Martinwatkins"]As others have said,  signal strenth means nothing.   I have one box that simply shows good signal if the dish is pointed anywhere near the Clarke belt.

If you can borrow an FTA box for your setting up I would.   I keep one for this purpose,  with Hotbird/Astra1/Astra2 all programmed in.   That way if I get stuck finding Astra2 but see a peak on the meter,  I can "get my bearings" by confirming which of th others I have found.

Bon courage.
[/quote]

 

Ditto Martin - spot on - as soon as I read the OP's message I had serious doubts about the direction of the dish.

On one occasion I was asked to help with an installation - the owner had told me that he was getting a good signal on his Sky box,but no pictures. I went round with my ancient Humax - only to find that his dish was almost pointing at the ground!!

Tim

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Lovely story!    I mentioned earlier our acquaintance in the UK who - despite being told countless times - is still convinced that he can have his Sky dish on a part of the house screened by enormous trees.   Every spring he rings up to ask me to do something.  Now I just tell him to call a professional....

Still maybe it would be less confusing if signal strength onscreen displays were simply outlawed.  

Humax - very good receivers.  I have two Technomates with which one can do all sorts of things.

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Started again this morning. To cut what could be a long story short, by much careful aligning and more experience with the satfinder meter I have got a good signal.

My thanks to you all for information about the other satellites, from this I was able to separate the signals I was getting and eventually lock onto the right one.

cheminot
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My sky receiver just shows a bar graph for signal strength and quality without percentages.

I have gradually fine tuned it so that I no longer lose some channels during snow storms etc, I believe it to be as well aligned as can be as when I connect my sat meter and deflect the parabole slightly in any direction the signal drops off.

Recently something strange has been occuring, all channels work fine excepting channel 5 and I thing sky 3 (it is channel 108), when I switch to them, every time I get the "no sattelite signal" message for about 30 seconds before the channel appears working fine.

I can switch to and from other channels quickly without problem but if I have been watching another channel say for 20 minutes I have to wait the 30 seconds again before getting channel 5.

My viewing card is the one that I have had for years, the contract has been cancelled for about 5 years now, maybe they want me to pay £20 for a freeview card?

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[quote user="J.R."]

Recently something strange has been occuring, all channels work fine excepting channel 5 and I thing sky 3 (it is channel 108), when I switch to them, every time I get the "no sattelite signal" message for about 30 seconds before the channel appears working fine.

I can switch to and from other channels quickly without problem but if I have been watching another channel say for 20 minutes I have to wait the 30 seconds again before getting channel 5.

My viewing card is the one that I have had for years, the contract has been cancelled for about 5 years now, maybe they want me to pay £20 for a freeview card?

[/quote]

Well, my feeling is that your box may be developing a fault. I don't think it's your card as you say you do (eventually) get Channel 5 and Sky 3 - the card also gets Channel 4, so if that had stopped working, you would have lost these channels completely.

The first thing to try, if you haven't done so already, is to remove the power from the box - pull it out of the mains - count to ten and reboot. You will have to wait for the EPG info to download before you can select any channel. If this doesn't work, then I suspect a fault. Someone else on here may have another idea for you to try though, before you think about a replacement.

Tim

P.S. you could also try re-seating the card  - it's possible the contacts may be dirty.

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[quote user="cheminot"]Started again this morning. To cut what could be a long story short, by much careful aligning and more experience with the satfinder meter I have got a good signal. My thanks to you all for information about the other satellites, from this I was able to separate the signals I was getting and eventually lock onto the right one. cheminot[/quote]

I'm glad you finally managed to get the thing pointed at the right 'bird' - Well done.

Tim

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