FAULT Sky digital

Pssst

I dont really watch much TV but my OH decided she wanted me to take the freeview box out and put the sky digi receiver in. It hasnt been in use for maybe a year or so and has a skycard but no subscription so freeview only. Anyway,connected up,checked setup menu, no sig, no lock ,no transport stream.

Ladder up,unscrewed coax from LNB,lots of water came out of the coax despite being sealed with self amalgamating tape. Let it drain and dry,still nothing.

Is it likely the lnb has got water in it and is knacked?

Cheapo alignment meter on coax at dish end seemed to indicate feed voltage from receiver so i guess it probably is the LNB?

kev_min

Possibly the LNB but for certain you need some new coax, as once water gets in it "wicks" its way right into the cable. Use a good quality CAI benchmarked cable such as PF100.

Pssst

kev_min wrote: »

Possibly the LNB but for certain you need some new coax, as once water gets in it "wicks" its way right into the cable. Use a good quality CAI benchmarked cable such as PF100.

Hmmm..i was thinking this but the cable actually rises from the dish,goes over the roof,then back down. Obviously the water was collecting in the cellular spaces in the plastic insulator between inner and outer conductors. I drained it,left it to dry,re-attached to LNB and bagged it with a cable tie (plus small drain hole)

kev_min

There you go, cable is toast...honest, even if you did get all the water out what has it done to the RF characteristics of the cable. If, as you said in your first post, the water came out when you undid the connector you have to ask how it got in there, maybe the outer sheath is split up on the roof, just be thankfull it has not come down the other side and into the Sky box. Was the cable just "thrown" over the roof where the outer sheath can rub through, or properly secured along its run.
There is also a good chance that it has got into the LNB, should be easy to tell if the connector is full of blue/green corrosion.

Pssst

kev_min wrote: »

There you go, cable is toast...honest, even if you did get all the water out what has it done to the RF characteristics of the cable. If, as you said in your first post, the water came out when you undid the connector you have to ask how it got in there, maybe the outer sheath is split up on the roof, just be thankfull it has not come down the other side and into the Sky box. Was the cable just "thrown" over the roof where the outer sheath can rub through, or properly secured along its run.
There is also a good chance that it has got into the LNB, should be easy to tell if the connector is full of blue/green corrosion.

Hmmm. yes,,the retard from sky who fitted it a few years back,fitted the dish at front of house as he said no sig could be had at back. I wasnt in at the time but doubted it. Next door neighbour has just had twin feed minidish fitted at back of house ! I might move it to the back. At least there will be a shorter cable run.

kev_min

well I guess the sky guy fitted where he did for a reason, they dont make life difficult for fun, but you may be able to get a good line of sight form the back of the house. To be honest I would be reluctant to move an aligned dish for the sake of a few yards of cable and a few cable clips, unless you are running over 100 yards of cable line attenuation will not be a problem, and i guess you are talking nowhere near that.

BTW refering to the sky guy as a retard is a bit harsh, sure some are not the brightest tools in the box, but could most folks do a full sky install in the time they are allowed?

Brian_The_Lion

kev_min wrote: »

well I guess the sky guy fitted where he did for a reason, they dont make life difficult for fun, but you may be able to get a good line of sight form the back of the house. To be honest I would be reluctant to move an aligned dish for the sake of a few yards of cable and a few cable clips, unless you are running over 100 yards of cable line attenuation will not be a problem, and i guess you are talking nowhere near that.

BTW refering to the sky guy as a retard is a bit harsh, sure some are not the brightest tools in the box, but could most folks do a full sky install in the time they are allowed?

Im an ex sky engineer and as long as you didnt have a contractor out originally you would have had the best possible job done, i assure you... theres was nothing worse for me than to have to go out to a repair call only to find shoddy wiring, etc...

Pssst

Brian_The_Lion wrote: »

Im an ex sky engineer and as long as you didnt have a contractor out originally you would have had the best possible job done, i assure you... theres was nothing worse for me than to have to go out to a repair call only to find shoddy wiring, etc...

Yes apologies for the retard comment. My dish is pointing directly at the roof next door which is about 13 ft exactly horizontally in front of the dish. Even when it was new,the sig level/quality meters were far from full scale. The roof of next door would be almost obscuring the viewing angle of the dish apart from a small portion which would be "peeping" over the roof tiles next door.

I'd estimate the cable run to be about 60ft.
In contrast,neighbours had sky minidish fitted recently only about 9ft ft up with clear view downrange,nearest obstruction about 200ft away and a cable run of about 12-13ft.

kev_min

well maybe the move to the rear is an option if you are confident in your abilities, aligning the dish is not difficult without a meter, but takes a little finesse...have a look at www dot dishpointer dot com for angles etc.
bolt the dish securely to the wall at a suitable height, no need for it to be high, only needs to see the right bit of sky without bushes, trees, houses, kids etc getting in the way.

kev_min

Brian_The_Lion wrote: »

Im an ex sky engineer and as long as you didnt have a contractor out originally you would have had the best possible job done, i assure you... theres was nothing worse for me than to have to go out to a repair call only to find shoddy wiring, etc...

Brian, I know what you mean, previous house i had the "sky" guy had to kick start his spurs before he started the job, in this one the guy was great, knew his stuff and was appologetic that he had to charge me for a sky HD upgrade, he even got a coffee out of me!!