Can someone explain the tech behind this?

[sam_gordon]

I have two receivers. Each one is on it's own line going to the dish. Had heavy storms last night. After the storms, I had no reception on either receiver. Fine. I'll deal with it in the morning.

This morning I start examining the lines and at one of the outdoor ground blocks, ONE line is corroded. OK. I replace that connector and ground block. Great. I wonder which receiver I now have signal on? I turn on both receivers and now have signals on both. Huh?

I have voltage (19VDC) on both lines at the ground block. There's another groundblock right at the dish, but since that's 20' in the air, I haven't gone up there yet. I was going to do that this afternoon, but there's really no need to now.

TL;DR: why does replacing one connector (and ground block) fix the signal to both of my receivers?

 

[boba]

You probably need to replace all outside connectors with compression fittings.

 

[Tony S]

I have two receivers. Each one is on it's own line going to the dish. Had heavy storms last night. After the storms, I had no reception on either receiver. Fine. I'll deal with it in the morning.

TL;DR: why does replacing one connector (and ground block) fix the signal to both of my receivers?

Water probably leaked into both lines during the heavy storm. Afterwards, the water dried out in the line that you did not replace the connector, allowing it to work again. As boba said, you probably need to replace the other connector(s) as well to avoid future problems with rain.

 

[sam_gordon]

You probably need to replace all outside connectors with compression fittings.

They are already compression fittings.

It's an awful coincidence the water dried out in the second line at the same time I replaced the connector on the first line. Just to update... both receivers went out again. I changed the ground block (again) and presto, BOTH receivers work again. I'm going to get some more connectors and ground blocks today.

 

[dishdude]

Be sure to add a drip loop to the coax if you don't have one already.

 

[sam_gordon]

I just replaced both lines going from the house connection to the dish. Yes, added drip loops. Hopefully this will hold. I think at least part of the lines were ~17 years old.

 

[HipKat]

Water is conductive. I've seen water damage at the ground block and behind the receiver on the same cable. Matter of fact, one in particular, the "stinger" was completely dissolved at the Receiver

 

[NYDutch]

Water is conductive. I've seen water damage at the ground block and behind the receiver on the same cable. Matter of fact, one in particular, the "stinger" was completely dissolved at the Receiver

I've seen similar problems, particularly with the old crimped fittings on RG59 runs to rooftop OTA antennas.

 

[sam_gordon]

Water is conductive. I've seen water damage at the ground block and behind the receiver on the same cable. Matter of fact, one in particular, the "stinger" was completely dissolved at the Receiver

Not disagree with that. Still doesn't explain why fixing one line resulted in changes to both lines. Possibly just coincidence, but it happened a couple times.

 

[boba]

Not disagree with that. Still doesn't explain why fixing one line resulted in changes to both lines. Possibly just coincidence, but it happened a couple times.

If it happened a couple times you have a cable/fitting problem.

 

[Magic Static]

Not disagree with that. Still doesn't explain why fixing one line resulted in changes to both lines. Possibly just coincidence, but it happened a couple times.

The one corroded fitting probably shorted the LNBF assembly which prevented signal to the other receiver.

 

[Claude Greiner]

You likely had the power back feeding through the other connection.

For example if you have a perfectly grounded system meaning the dish and receiver, you only need the center conductor to get a good connection