Over past week or so, I've had recordings fail and, last night, while
watching Sky 1, lost the signal completely on all channels. I switched
off and re-started box and, after a while, the signal was restored.
Whether this was as a consequence of may action or coincidence, I'm not
sure.

The box is an HD box, within its guarantee period.

Before calling Sky, are there any checks I could make to verify that the
fault is with the box and not my dish or cabling? (Dish is original
equipment, installed over 10 years ago and, to date, has never had a
problem.)

--
George from Cartland

On Sun, 28 Nov 2010 13:10:43 +0000, George Reid
wrote:

Before calling Sky, are there any checks I could make to verify that the
fault is with the box and not my dish or cabling? (Dish is original
equipment, installed over 10 years ago and, to date, has never had a
problem.)

Has it been snowing? This is not a frivolous question as we've been
without satellite services since mid-morning due to heavy snowfall.

--
Alan White
Mozilla Firefox and Forte Agent.
Twenty-eight miles NW of Glasgow, overlooking Lochs Long and Goil in Argyll, Scotland.
Webcam and weather:- http://windycroft.co.uk/weather

On Sun, 28 Nov 2010 13:10:43 +0000, George Reid put finger to keyboard and
typed:

Over past week or so, I've had recordings fail and, last night, while
watching Sky 1, lost the signal completely on all channels. I switched
off and re-started box and, after a while, the signal was restored.
Whether this was as a consequence of may action or coincidence, I'm not
sure.

The box is an HD box, within its guarantee period.

Before calling Sky, are there any checks I could make to verify that the
fault is with the box and not my dish or cabling? (Dish is original
equipment, installed over 10 years ago and, to date, has never had a
problem.)

As has already been mentioned, has it been snowing? A sufficient build-up
of snow on the dish could be enough to shift it - and the fact that it's
been OK for ten years means that it may well not have been checked for ten
years, giving plenty of time for something to work loose! Dishes are
exposed to the elements, so the wind and rain will repeatedly nudge them
and, over time, it's quite possible that a screw will work loose or the
mounting will deteriorate. And, of course, when it's actually snowing then
even a perfectly-aligned dish is highly likely to lose signal.

As for checking, the obvious first thing to do is go in to the system setup
menu (accessed from the Services button) and check the signal
strength/quality. A typical good value is anything over 70% for strength
and anything over 60% for quality. If either strength or quality are below
50% in clear weather then you probably have a problem with dish alignment.

Mark
--
Blog: http://mark.goodge.co.uk
Stuff: http://www.good-stuff.co.uk

On 28/11/2010 14:08, Alan White wrote:
Has it been snowing? This is not a frivolous question as we've been
without satellite services since mid-morning due to heavy snowfall.

and
On 28/11/2010 14:54, Mark Goodge wrote:
As has already been mentioned, has it been snowing? A sufficient build-up
of snow on the dish could be enough to shift it - and the fact that it's
been OK for ten years means that it may well not have been checked for ten
years, giving plenty of time for something to work loose! Dishes are
exposed to the elements, so the wind and rain will repeatedly nudge them
and, over time, it's quite possible that a screw will work loose or the
mounting will deteriorate. And, of course, when it's actually snowing then
even a perfectly-aligned dish is highly likely to lose signal.

As for checking, the obvious first thing to do is go in to the system setup
menu (accessed from the Services button) and check the signal
strength/quality. A typical good value is anything over 70% for strength
and anything over 60% for quality. If either strength or quality are below
50% in clear weather then you probably have a problem with dish alignment.

.....while it has been snowing the past two days, the dish is absolutely
clear of snow. The loss of signal has occurred when there has been no
snow, nor any particularly poor weather conditions (we have received a
good signal in much poorer weather than of late).

Further info:

Right now I am had a partial loss of signal. Some channels are
unaffected while others are down.

Channels which were OK included: BBC1,2 STV(ITV1), C4, 5, Sky 2,3
ITV2,3,4 E4 FX

Channels which had no signal included: Sky 1 Gold (but Gold+1 OK) Dave
Living Channel 1 (but C1+1 was OK)

Looking at signal strength: on channels which had signal, there was NO
signal on input 1 while input 2 was OK for strength and quality. On 'No
Signal' channels, perhaps not surprisingly, there was no signal on
either input.

Unplugged and restarted box. ALL channels now give "Channel
Unavailable" message.

--
George from Cartland

On 28/11/2010 13:10, George Reid wrote:
Over past week or so, I've had recordings fail and, last night, while
watching Sky 1, lost the signal completely on all channels. I switched
off and re-started box and, after a while, the signal was restored.
Whether this was as a consequence of may action or coincidence, I'm not
sure.

The box is an HD box, within its guarantee period.

Before calling Sky, are there any checks I could make to verify that the
fault is with the box and not my dish or cabling? (Dish is original
equipment, installed over 10 years ago and, to date, has never had a
problem.)


I had a similar problem about a year ago, it was intermittent for a week
or so but eventually one of the two feeds showed no signal at all.

By a process of elimination I figured out it was one of the two cables.
I swapped the cables around on the LNB and the fault switched from one
tuner to the next. There was a joint in the cable and this was letting
in water, easily repaired and as good as new in minutes.

Mike

On Sun, 28 Nov 2010 18:53:17 +0000, George Reid put finger to keyboard and
typed:


Looking at signal strength: on channels which had signal, there was NO
signal on input 1 while input 2 was OK for strength and quality. On 'No
Signal' channels, perhaps not surprisingly, there was no signal on
either input.

Unplugged and restarted box. ALL channels now give "Channel
Unavailable" message.

Two more things to check:

1. Swap the cables round on the box and re-check the signal. If input 1 now
has signal but input 2 doesn't, then it's definitely the dish or cables.
But if it's still input 2 with signal and nothing on 1, then it's the box
that's at fault.

If it's the box, then phone Sky. If not, move on to:

2. Check the cabling yourself if the dish is accessible enough - just make
sure that everything is plugged in correctly. If a cable has simply come
unplugged, then it's not difficult to correct that.

If you can't find an obvious problem that you can fix yourself, phone your
local independent installer and get them to take a look at it. There's no
point calling Sky for cabling or dish problems - you won't get (and don't
need) a replacement box, and you don't want to let their engineers anywhere
near your dish and cabling if you can avoid it.

Mark
--
Blog: http://mark.goodge.co.uk
Stuff: http://www.good-stuff.co.uk

On 28/11/2010 20:30, mike wrote:
By a process of elimination I figured out it was one of the two cables.
I swapped the cables around on the LNB and the fault switched from one
tuner to the next. There was a joint in the cable and this was letting
in water, easily repaired and as good as new in minutes.

....I've done that, or similar - swapped connectors at box end. Still
poor or no signal on tuner 1. Can I take it that cable and dish are,
therefore, OK?

Phoned Sky last night. As I was describing problem, the signal came
back on those channels where it had been lost. Operator said she
couldn't arrange an engineer since the fault was not happening. I
should call back next time it happened! Thirty minutes later, signal on
tuner 1 was lost again.


--
George from Cartland

"Alan White" wrote in message
...
On Sun, 28 Nov 2010 13:10:43 +0000, George Reid
wrote:

Before calling Sky, are there any checks I could make to verify
that the
fault is with the box and not my dish or cabling? (Dish is
original
equipment, installed over 10 years ago and, to date, has never
had a
problem.)

Has it been snowing? This is not a frivolous question as we've
been
without satellite services since mid-morning due to heavy
snowfall.

--
Alan White
Mozilla Firefox and Forte Agent.
Twenty-eight miles NW of Glasgow, overlooking Lochs Long and
Goil in Argyll, Scotland.
Webcam and weather:- http://windycroft.co.uk/weather

In addition to Alan's excellent advice, snow on the LNB on the
dish and LNB can definitely prevent reception. Try brushing the
snow off the dish and LNB (provided the dish is reasonably
accessible). However, be careful not to knock the dish or LNB
out of alignment.

Even if the dish and LNB are clear of encrusted snow, falling
snow (or rain) and exceptionally dense clouds can also block
signals between the satellite and your dish.

In message , Alan White
writes
On Sun, 28 Nov 2010 13:10:43 +0000, George Reid
wrote:

Before calling Sky, are there any checks I could make to verify that the
fault is with the box and not my dish or cabling? (Dish is original
equipment, installed over 10 years ago and, to date, has never had a
problem.)

Has it been snowing? This is not a frivolous question as we've been
without satellite services since mid-morning due to heavy snowfall.

On a slightly different note, does dish size matter in these
circumstances? I appreciate that rain and snow can severely attenuate
the signal strength, but would a larger signal collection area on say a
90cm dish give reception when a 60 cm dish cannot?
--
Chris Ridley,

who just can't get around to setting up a decent sig file.

On 29/11/2010 07:52, George Reid wrote:
On 28/11/2010 20:30, mike wrote:
By a process of elimination I figured out it was one of the two cables.
I swapped the cables around on the LNB and the fault switched from one
tuner to the next. There was a joint in the cable and this was letting
in water, easily repaired and as good as new in minutes.

...I've done that, or similar - swapped connectors at box end. Still
poor or no signal on tuner 1. Can I take it that cable and dish are,
therefore, OK?

Phoned Sky last night. As I was describing problem, the signal came back
on those channels where it had been lost. Operator said she couldn't
arrange an engineer since the fault was not happening. I should call
back next time it happened! Thirty minutes later, signal on tuner 1 was
lost again.

I would say so. If the signal was fine on tuner 2 and after swapping
the connectors around the box end tuner 2 was still fine then you've
eliminated the dish and the cable as a fault that only leaves the tuner.
If it where the cables/dish I would expect all the channels to be lost
as the signal comes from the same satelite but someone more savvy might
disagree!

With mine swapping the cables produced the opposite result in that the
fault moved from one tuner to the other.

If you really want to be certain do you know anyone with a Sky+ or HD
box who can bring it round and plug it in for a few moments? Leave
their card in their box and just check the signals.


Mike