Bad Dish Tuner?

[menelfloss]

I have noticed my Dish OTA usb dongle/tuner is not pulling in stations as well as it once did.
I am using the same antenna hardware and checked connections.
Is it possible that the tuner reception strength weakens over time?
Is there another OTA USB tuner that does a better job than the one Dish Network provides?
Thanks

 

[Bobby]

As answered in your like post yesterday there is no other dongle available that works. I doubt that the dongle loses strength over time. You get reception or you don't. What might have changed is the direction of your antenna, even slight, or perhaps the station transmission power. Have you tried a rescan of the OTA channels?

 

[menelfloss]

As answered in your like post yesterday there is no other dongle available that works. I doubt that the dongle loses strength over time. You get reception or you don't. What might have changed is the direction of your antenna, even slight, or perhaps the station transmission power. Have you tried a rescan of the OTA channels?

Bobby,
Thanks for the reply. I actually posted this in the OTA forum but it was moved to this one. I know it is a bit redundant
If you change direction of the antenna slightly is it best to re-scan?
Does the tuner lock into the transmission at the current antenna direction?

 

[Bobby]

Bobby,
Thanks for the reply. I actually posted this in the OTA forum but it was moved to this one. I know it is a bit redundant
If you change direction of the antenna slightly is it best to re-scan?
Does the tuner lock into the transmission at the current antenna direction?

I rescan often. Stations are continually adding or changing sub channels. Yes, the tuner will lock into whatever the antenna is looking at, or not...

 

[Jim5506]

Check the cabling from the antenna to your receiver something may have degraded there.

Exercise each of the connections, maybe a little corrosion.

 

[rip77]

Have you tried hooking the OTA antenna directly to your TV and performing a scan that way? How does it compare to your results with Dish?

 

[menelfloss]

Have you tried hooking the OTA antenna directly to your TV and performing a scan that way? How does it compare to your results with Dish?

Yes I did that test and the results on the Sony TV tuner were better, although there was no strength meter.

 

[menelfloss]

Yesterday I refreshed connections, and fine tune pointed my antenna (took about 3 hours).
I live within city limits and my antenna is on the side of my house about 24feet up but not above the roof line.
Interestingly the best overall reception has the antenna pointing quite a few degrees away from the main broadcast tower farm in our area. My reception on the two difficult stations is now acceptable.
Thanks to Bobby, Jim and RGX for your time and effort to help me.