Slimline Dish and bad LNB

[moonman]

Hi everyone....with the advent of the new H/D channels, I thought I would share my recent experience....on the day of the "big event" I started to get
"searching for satellite" errors on several channels. Just the day before, I did
a signal level test, and all the sats. were in the hi-90's with a few 100's.
When I tested on Wed. all sats again showed similar readings EXCEPT tuner-2
readings which were in the toilet(30's-40's zero's)...this caused me to suspect
my HR 20-700 had a bad tuner line on line 2..this turned out to be false.
The real culprit as it turned out, was a faulty LNB assembly on the slimline dish.
which was just installed last Nov. Further research turned up some evidence
that these earlier dishes had a problem with bad LNB's. I noticed that the
replacement LNB assembly, has a curved head look much like the dish face itself, instead of the "old" one which had a straight across look. FWIW

 

[stumo]

Interesting. I just lost the 101 bird on my Slimline. Great signal on 119. Tried moving the dish around slightly with a Birdog satellite finder hooked up and still no 101. Ordered a new dish as couldn't find anybody that had a replacement 5 LNB only.

Moonman, did you buy just a LNB or a whole dish? If just the LNB, would you have the part number for it?

My current LNB is what I believe you describe as the straight across look. Hope the new one is better.

stumo

 

[moonman]

Interesting. I just lost the 101 bird on my Slimline. Great signal on 119. Tried moving the dish around slightly with a Birdog satellite finder hooked up and still no 101. Ordered a new dish as couldn't find anybody that had a replacement 5 LNB only.

Moonman, did you buy just a LNB or a whole dish? If just the LNB, would you have the part number for it?

My current LNB is what I believe you describe as the straight across look. Hope the new one is better.

stumo

-----------------
I am sorry but I cannot....I have the protection plan, so the installer came out
and moved the dish around while using the meter....I suggested he try a new
LNB assembly just for giggles, and I could hear it squak from the ground. I
think the LNB head assembly are regionalized by area, so you can't just
replace a single LNB...you need to replace the assembly bar with the LNB's
attached. The installer did have a replacement on the truck with him, so I
did not need a new dish. As I mentioned in my first post, the old LNB assembly was flat and straight across...the new one is curved. Maybe you could check with an installer in your area, to see if they know about the
defective older style assembly and see if they can replace it with the newer
one? My replacement has been fine....

 

[jcrandall]

They have two manufactures of LNBs and dish mounts - they are a little different. They are the same nationwide and interchangable.

Sounds like you just had a bad LNB, glad it is fixed.

 

[stumo]

A new LNB assembly corrected the problem. When I went to change it out I noticed water dripping from the LNB that receives signals from the 99/101/103 sats. It's the one inline with the LNB arm. Water was actually dripping onto the arm. I hooked up my Birdog satellite finder again and this time I had a signal. I guess enough water had leaked in to hinder reception. And as it leaked out over time the signal came back. We have had some heavy rains prior to 101 going out. The white plastic hood/ring is just snapped on to the housing. The center cover underneath is sealed to the housing with an o-ring. Mine didn't seal very good at the bottom but I can't really see where the water came in. So I guess I'll let it dry some more then seal it all back up with silicone and keep it for a spare. I wish I could have bought the LBN separately but could find anyone selling it that way so bought a complete dish assy. I do not have a service contract with DTV as prefer to do it myself.

stumo