Freesat Signal Loss

geordie_joe

I have a problem with loss of signal for Freesat, but please read the entire post before replying.

I have been losing signal every morning for about two weeks. It started that there was no signal until 7.00am then went to 8.00am and then to 9.00am, this morning there was still no signal at 11.00am but it was back at 11.30am. The signal also goes at 10.00pm about 3 times per week.

My system. I have a dish, 3 cables run from the dish, 1 goes to a freesat box which is connected to my TV, the other two go to a freesat card in my computer. I have a second monitor for my computer and I watch/record TV on it. When the signal goes it goes on the TV and computer at the same time.

So whatever is causing the signal loss it can't be the TV, Freesat box or the computer.

I should point out that a neighbour says she has no signal loss and at the times when I suffer signal loss her freesat works just as normal. A couple of colleagues at work have said they have not had signal loss either.

Now, when I get signal loss I can still get a signal for sky channels and non freesat channels. When I retune the computer software it finds all the sky channels and I can watch sky news and pick etc. When I try to retune the freesat box it says there is no signal, but when I "add none freesat channels" it finds half a dozen and I can watch them.

One more thing that is bothering me. Three weeks ago a neighbour came and said the trees had grown so much they were blocking his sky signal and the council won't let him cut them down. So I agreed that he could connect his sky box to my dish. This was done, on the Friday, by a sub-contactor sent by sky. He came just as I was putting my jacket on to go to work, so I just told him it was OK and went to work.

When I got home everything seemed fine. I don't watch tv in the morning on the weekend so I don't know if there was any signal loss. I watch the morning news for half an hour on weekdays, but on the Monday morning when I switched the tv on there was no signal, and it's been like that every day since.

So, what is happening? I'm told freesat is working as normal, but there is no freesat signal going down 3 different cables to 2 completely different systems. So it can't be a software problem. It can't be a hardware problem for the same reason, plus I am getting a sky signal to both systems.

The only common point is where the cables connect to the dish and the dish itself! And everything was working fine before the sky man connected a new cable to it.

I have searched for freesat problems but found nothing. I would have thought that if freesat was down every morning until 9.00am for 2 weeks it would have been mentioned somewhere.

Sorry for the long post, I'm just annoyed because I am sure I know where the problem is but I can't get to it. But I'm calm enough to know I should check that it can't be anything else before I shout at someone that that is the only thing it can be.

PS, I won't be shouting at my neighbour, it's not his fault and he would be very upset if it was anything the sky man did that caused this.

googler

Do you know how the Sky sub-contractor connected your neighbour to your dish? Whether or not he's connected two boxes to one LNB, or has fitted a second LNB to the dish to serve your neighbour?

geordie_joe

googler wrote: »

Do you know how the Sky sub-contractor connected your neighbour to your dish? Whether or not he's connected two boxes to one LNB, or has fitted a second LNB to the dish to serve your neighbour?

I'm not certain but when my dish was installed it had connections for 4 cables and I am using 3 of them. As my neighbour only had 1 cable to his dish the plan was to just use the spare connector on my dish to run 1 cable for him.

I thought it would just be a case of running the cable to the dish then plugging it in, but my neighbour says he was "at the dish" for a long time, so he must have given it a thorough check while he was there.

It's possible he changed the LNB but I wouldn't know as I have only ever seen it once, just a glimpse when the installer carried it past the window.

GunJack

he's not subtly moved the dish from the optimal angle has he? Might be worth getting the alignment checked...

geordie_joe

GunJack wrote: »

he's not subtly moved the dish from the optimal angle has he? Might be worth getting the alignment checked...

I don't know, but would moving the dish stop it getting a freesat signal before 9am but not after? And as I said, I can still get sky news, pick, yesterday and a few other channels.

Just checked and I have no freesat signal, the signal comes back later and later every week.

kwikbreaks

It has to be something to do with what the installer has done although I don't know what. You need to somehow get them to come back and fix it - probably through Sky.

maas

Did the installer fit a new LNB?

If you've upgraded your satellite system from 2 devices to 3 then you'd need to upgrade the LNB so that you get a distinct signal coming down each wire.

If you have a twin LNB and then simply install a cable splitter in order so that you have 3 wires coming from the dish, you'll lose access to certain channels when the other device (computer for example) is tuned into a Sky channel.

The simple way to test this, is to turn off all the devices and just use the Freesat box at the times you state you normally lose the signal and see if it works on its own.

MoneyMate

Anyway you can check your wiring to the dish , or as mentioned B4 your dish has moved slightly.
Hope it's fixed soon.

geordie_joe

maas wrote: »

Did the installer fit a new LNB?

If you've upgraded your satellite system from 2 devices to 3 then you'd need to upgrade the LNB so that you get a distinct signal coming down each wire.

If you have a twin LNB and then simply install a cable splitter in order so that you have 3 wires coming from the dish, you'll lose access to certain channels when the other device (computer for example) is tuned into a Sky channel.

The simple way to test this, is to turn off all the devices and just use the Freesat box at the times you state you normally lose the signal and see if it works on its own.

I don't know if the sky installer changed the LNB, but he had no need to. The dish was installed with a 4 cable LNB because I needed 3 cables. So 1 connection was not being used.

As for testing just the freesat box on it's own, I do that every day anyway. I always turn the TV on ages before I turn the computer on. And when I am watching tv on the computer the main tv is switched off. The only time both are switched on at the same time is when I lose the signal on one and switch the other on to see if it has a signal.

Fightsback

geordie_joe wrote: »

I don't know, but would moving the dish stop it getting a freesat signal before 9am but not after? And as I said, I can still get sky news, pick, yesterday and a few other channels.

Just checked and I have no freesat signal, the signal comes back later and later every week.

Possibly if the dish alignment is at the edge of the signal and heating of the dish is throwing it just enough offline.

geordie_joe

MoneyMate wrote: »

Anyway you can check your wiring to the dish , or as mentioned B4 your dish has moved slightly.
Hope it's fixed soon.

No, I live in a 3 storey house and have no means of reaching the dish. Not that it matters as when I lose the freesat signal I can still get non freesat channels and sky news.