Thread: Signal great at dish, but not at receiver

I think people here are missing the point that it was working right before he disconnected it. I highly doubt something happened to two strands of cable at that instant. It is most likely a problem with the connector at the LNB like SatelliteAV described above.

Originally Posted by Bob2011

I think people here are missing the point that it was working right before he disconnected it. I highly doubt something happened to two strands of cable at that instant. It is most likely a problem with the connector at the LNB like SatelliteAV described above.

Sorry Bob, but I think you may have missed the pertinent portions of the problem. He installed two very long cable runs last July and everything was working fine until recently. It finally got bad enough for him to investigate and he tried the second cable and it proved bad, too. Either both cables have degraded over time and with the weather or the problem lies elsewhere.

I vote on the problem being elsewhere right now, but the long cable run is not helping the situation. I suspect that there is either a ground terminal block or a through-wall connector that is poor. However, since the signal took a long time to degrade to being a detectable problem, it was not something that he did. From the description, it was working and started to develop problems and then progressively became worse. Then he tried the second cable run for a troubleshooting exercise and the problem still existed.

Unless both cables (which are far too long for RG-6 in this case) have failed, the problem lies elsewhere. But, we don't know that, even if we suspect so because we are not privy to all the pertinent information. We need more supporting information from the troubleshooting process.

The length of the extension of the center conductor is not likely to be an issue here. Although I would not rule it out, you must consider that it was operational and has recently ceased to be so. Sounds quite indicative of a poor connection steadily getting worse over time. The owner of this equipment was wise enough to install a secondary or redundant cable from the dish to the house for the longest part of the cable run. This is absolutely good planning.

Could both runs be bad? He tried both and got the same results. Yes, this is a possibility, but I doubt it. Too easy.

Could it be the length of the exposed center conductor? Yes, this is a possibility, but I also doubt this, too. The system was operational from the start and the installer has technical background to know about these things. Too easy and it doesn't match the symptoms (gradual degradation).

Since the owner/installer has background with cable systems, he knows to install a ground terminal block hear where the cable enters the home.
I suspect that the trouble lies between this point and the receiver. Most people, pros or amateurs, would route a solid cable run between the LNBF and the Receiver. Did you? I did not. I don't think that this man did so either.

I think that we need Stiche to check the signal at each of these junctions. Then we can discuss the situation better.

RADAR