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Stiche,

You stated that you checked the signal with the meter at the dish and then at the receiver. Surely you didn't use the full 225 feet to go straight to the receiver? You surely must have installed a ground terminal block near where the cable enters the house and then some sort of a wall termination for an outlet near the TV. Didn't you? If you did install these, try checking the signal on the antenna side of these connections. If the signal is good for both of the cable runs you made at these points, then it is a problem with the cable leading into the house to the receiver.

Another possibility, what type of cable did you use? RG-6 could possibly function at that length, but I would have used RG-11. I have about 280 feet between the antenna and the receiver (at least) and I couldn't use RG-6 for this. I lost most all of the signal and I had a lot of trouble driving my motor, switches and powering the LNBF. So, I am wondering if over time and with weather changes, the cable hasn't simply degraded enough to cause you trouble (especially if any moisture happened to get into the cable jacket). This could possibly explain why both cables are presenting similar symptoms. Of course, that is reaching a little.

Let's see, what else? How about any cable routing which resulted in a bend with too tight of a radius? This can damage a cable and since you ran two cables, they probably are both routed in the same fashion so would have the same bends. That would damage the insulating core around the center conductor.

RADAR

Optimal bending radius of Rg6 should be no less then 5 inches, 8 for Rg11. But 75 yards with rg6 is pretty extreme.

Loss at 1000mhz with rg6 is 6.55 db per 100ft, while rg11 is 4.23 db at 100ft. Runs over 250ft for optimal signal results should use flexfeeder to miminize loss

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.

Bob2011 said:

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.

Click to expand...

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

Remember this rule for troubleshooting... Divide and Conquer! Break the system down into blocks and isolate the problem to one particular block, then break that block down and continue refining your search in this manner until you isolate the one component responsible for the error. Yes, it requires time, but so does growing old.

RADAR