5G (BLUE) Filter Issues

c.schleicher

New Member
Original poster
Jun 1, 2023
4
5
Nebraska, USA
Hello!

I work for a telecommunications company and we take several television channels over C-band on 4.5 Meter Dishes. Starting on 5/24/2023 we started having quality issues on several different dishes at a similar time. Channels had severe tiling and pixelization and were for the most part unwatchable. We had several dishes with a BLUE 5 GHz filter installed and several which had a RED filter installed. We were not required to have BLUE filters installed until December of 2023. We had issues both with some using RED and some using BLUE. We had great signal levels and couldn't figure out what could cause multiple dish issues at the same time. Terrestrial in band interference was always in the back of our mind, but its very hard to mitigate. Long story short after peeking dishes (didn't help) and swapping filters around we finally found the issue. We had several of the BLUE filters that were not performing as they should. I have included some images of before and after on a spectrum analyzer. You can see where the haystacks look much different after we switch out filters. We believe a local cellular carrier started using the 3.7-4.0 GHz frequencies ahead of schedule and that is what caused the issues all at once. We have switched to a different manufacturer of filters and are planning to just replace all of our LNBs with 5G filtering integrated. Once we replaced the faulty filters we gained several DB signal strength as well. The filters we had the issues with were the ALGA 2100318-03-K-01-03 UPC: 210031803K. We replaced with Viking VSF-K-01-03 5G filters. You will also notice (see pictures) the ALGA cosmetically looks awful when exposed to the elements for a short amount of time.

Hopefully this helps someone out there. Sure gave us a few gray hairs over a holiday weekend!
 

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Hello!

I work for a telecommunications company and we take several television channels over C-band on 4.5 Meter Dishes. Starting on 5/24/2023 we started having quality issues on several different dishes at a similar time. Channels had severe tiling and pixelization and were for the most part unwatchable. We had several dishes with a BLUE 5 GHz filter installed and several which had a RED filter installed. We were not required to have BLUE filters installed until December of 2023. We had issues both with some using RED and some using BLUE. We had great signal levels and couldn't figure out what could cause multiple dish issues at the same time. Terrestrial in band interference was always in the back of our mind, but its very hard to mitigate. Long story short after peeking dishes (didn't help) and swapping filters around we finally found the issue. We had several of the BLUE filters that were not performing as they should. I have included some images of before and after on a spectrum analyzer. You can see where the haystacks look much different after we switch out filters. We believe a local cellular carrier started using the 3.7-4.0 GHz frequencies ahead of schedule and that is what caused the issues all at once. We have switched to a different manufacturer of filters and are planning to just replace all of our LNBs with 5G filtering integrated. Once we replaced the faulty filters we gained several DB signal strength as well. The filters we had the issues with were the ALGA 2100318-03-K-01-03 UPC: 210031803K. We replaced with Viking VSF-K-01-03 5G filters. You will also notice (see pictures) the ALGA cosmetically looks awful when exposed to the elements for a short amount of time.

Hopefully this helps someone out there. Sure gave us a few gray hairs over a holiday weekend!
Was this problem continuous or somewhat intermittent? I've been chasing problems here with KU and C Band but mines intermittent but then again you can almost bet on what time it will happen if it does. It's looking more like an adjacent carrier that's really hot but I haven't noticed anything odd spectral wise, and I wouldn't think it would affect both bands
 
Was this problem continuous or somewhat intermittent? I've been chasing problems here with KU and C Band but mines intermittent but then again you can almost bet on what time it will happen if it does. It's looking more like an adjacent carrier that's really hot but I haven't noticed anything odd spectral wise, and I wouldn't think it would affect both bands
 
It was intermittent at times. We would throw a brand new filter on and it would clear up for a while then the issue would come back. Really hard to troubleshoot! For a non-electronic piece of hardware we definitely didn’t think a filter could cause the problem.
 
That is the same with my problem,intermittent to the point of when you head out to troubleshoot LOL I have a cell tower probably 6 or so air miles to the south of me that Us Cellular built but I'm unsure if they have turned on 5G at that site. The next closest that would be anywhere close to LOS would be 15-20 miles away and is actually obscured by a ridge directly in front of me. What little OTA I manage to get comes from the same mountain and it's a continual battle to keep that working due to the ridge. I guess I could be suffering from adjacent carrier interference but I've never been setup to look when it was happening. Always fun keeping the radio equipment working plus these other little adventures in interference LOL
 
When you install these filters, you should use EVERY bolt hole, torque them down alternate sides like a wheel on a car, and make sure the gasket side is on the correct end. Plus, it couldn't hurt to maybe wrap the connection joint area with aluminum tape. You want to keep out every chance of signal ingress in the wrong spot.
 
I am using the same LNB's the NORSAT 3220 so far I haven't any 5g interference except for any freq's that are in the 3700 range.. So which 5g filter worked and I know
RICKS is never a good place to get anything.
 
I have the misfortune of buying the same ALGA filters as the OP. So far I have had 8 of 24 fail.
I also bought the Norsat 3200F-BPF-6 Integrated 5G Rejection LNB and have removed ALL of them. Without a good Blue 5G filter installed, these were not enough to block 5G interference. I have attached spectrum analyzer pics of the before and after of replacing the ALGA filter.
FYI, I have seven 4.5M Satellite dishes picking up 12 Satellites. I still have 9 Blue ALGA filters that I need to pull and replace.
I wonder how many others have purchased the ALGA Filters and are really regretting going for the cheapest solution.
 

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I have the misfortune of buying the same ALGA filters as the OP. So far I have had 8 of 24 fail.
I also bought the Norsat 3200F-BPF-6 Integrated 5G Rejection LNB and have removed ALL of them. Without a good Blue 5G filter installed, these were not enough to block 5G interference. I have attached spectrum analyzer pics of the before and after of replacing the ALGA filter.
FYI, I have seven 4.5M Satellite dishes picking up 12 Satellites. I still have 9 Blue ALGA filters that I need to pull and replace.
I wonder how many others have purchased the ALGA Filters and are really regretting going for the cheapest solution.
very interesting information and screenshots! Thanks for sharing.

about the Dawnco filters, what kind of price range are we talking about?
 

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