Help - Suddenly no signal on satellite 1

Archived from groups: alt.satellite.tv (More info?)

Well, I guess I might start. I am assuming you have a multi-switch on the
dish and each of your leads comes off a separate feed. One note, be careful
connecting the cables because there is power going to the LNA and it seems,
to me at least, that you might damage the receiver by changing cables with
it plugged in. I also am assuming you don't have any devices in line that
you need to troubleshoot.

The dish is aimed by finding a weak transponder and getting the max gain on
it, which you probably know. Depending on where you are located, you should
be able to get a good signal on most transponders. Certain channels go with
certain transponders so you might notice problems with certain channels
depending on which transponder is showing a bad signal. If you only aim
one, you may not get good signals on the others. The way your signal
strength on Sat 1 jumps around, you might even have a bad connection
somewhere.

Finally, if I understand you correctly, you can get good signals on all
transponders at the Sat 2 input with either cable. If you use Sat 1 input
with either cable, you can only get a good signal on Transponder 1. My most
recent situation was a little similiar to yours where I had an HD receiver
that would not get certain transponders with a signal strength above about a
30-35. Other transponders would get almost 100. By swapping out boxes (I
have two) and other troubleshooting procedures, I decided the tuner in the
HD box had gotten weak. Replacing it showed me to be correct since I now
have strong signals on all transponders (except the ones that don't
transmit).

Replacing the receiver would of course confirm if it was bad. Maybe you
could borrow another box (you don't have to activate it to check signal
strength) or signal meter to confirm the signals on both cables are good
which would confirm the box is bad. I guess you could consider the 2 tuners
in your Tivo box as being two different receivers. DirecTV said they would
replace mine with a refurbished one for about 1/2 of what it might cost you
to buy a new one. Whether they will do that on your box, I don't know but
you might ask.

Clark

"Bob Ray" <bobray@softvacuumville.com> wrote in message
news:cXL0d.158548$9d6.76655@attbi_s54...
> My Phillips Directivo (DSR 704) just lost signal on Satellite 1.
>
> There are two cables from the dish. If I plug either one into the
> Satellite 2 input, I get a signal strength of 90 on Satellite 2.
>
> Here's the odd part: Most of the time, I get no signal at all on
> satellite 1 no matter which cable is connected to the satellite 1
> input. Every once in a while, I get a 90 signal on satellite 1 but
> only on Transponder 1. If I switch to another transponder, I get zero.
> If I switch back to transponder 1, I get zero again.
>
> I'm assuming that since either cable gets a strong signal to the
> satellite 2 input, and since I sometimes get a 90 signal on both 1 and
> 2 (on transponder 1) that my dish is aimed correctly, but maybe I'm
> confused (actually, I'm sure I'm confused).
>
> I'm hoping someone can tell me what these symptoms mean. My guess is a
> bad Phillips unit but I hope I'm wrong.
>
> Bob
>