Has Anyone Noticed?

[wvman]

A while back while watching 87W, I had an complete loss of signal for about 3 seconds on Heartland, but later found it wasn't restricted to that particular channel or satellite. To eliminate the possibility of it being a switch problem, I disconnected the 87W coax going to the switch feeding the second receiver and hooked it to a spare receiver. Still did it.

I did the same with 91, 97, 99, 101 & 127W and found all of them suffered a temporary signal loss at varying intervals. I can't imagine it being restricted to my setup since it happened on six different dishes, with six different LNBF's, aimed at six different satellites. Am I the only one seeing it and if not, what would cause a temporary loss of signal on every satellite.

It's not a huge problem, but it's annoying when you're recording.

 

[Magic Static]

This is what having a good signal meter will answer. You can tell the difference between loss of signal or increase in interference. You never know what will be out there giving you fits. A mobile weather radar run by storm chasers, a radar on a cruise ship in the harbor. Back in the 70's we had a kidney dialysis machine in the hospital that would shut down the CB radios in town.

 

[raydio]

Back in the 70's we had a kidney dialysis machine in the hospital that would shut down the CB radios in town.

Breaker, Breaker good buddy -

 

[PBSer]

...complete loss of signal for about 3 seconds on Heartland, but later found it wasn't restricted to that particular channel or satellite...

I've got a somewhat similar problem with Over-the-Air (OTA) receivers; but, only with a particular broadcast network. A "INFO" box continuously displays every few seconds; and video and sound drop at the time for one second (always one second). My signal quality is 60%. As best I've determined so far, may have something to do with a receiver firmware version used in more than one "brand" receiver. Or, perhaps not having a coax filter in my particular case is causing a problem.

 

[waylew]

A while back while watching 87W, I had an complete loss of signal for about 3 seconds on Heartland, but later found it wasn't restricted to that particular channel or satellite. To eliminate the possibility of it being a switch problem, I disconnected the 87W coax going to the switch feeding the second receiver and hooked it to a spare receiver. Still did it.

I did the same with 91, 97, 99, 101 & 127W and found all of them suffered a temporary signal loss at varying intervals. I can't imagine it being restricted to my setup since it happened on six different dishes, with six different LNBF's, aimed at six different satellites. Am I the only one seeing it and if not, what would cause a temporary loss of signal on every satellite.

It's not a huge problem, but it's annoying when you're recording.

I'm beginning to think you have some secret government installation buried under one of your mountains .
And they're just messin with ya!

 

[wvman]

This is what having a good signal meter will answer. You can tell the difference between loss of signal or increase in interference. You never know what will be out there giving you fits. A mobile weather radar run by storm chasers, a radar on a cruise ship in the harbor. Back in the 70's we had a kidney dialysis machine in the hospital that would shut down the CB radios in town.

Where I'm at we don't have to worry about shipboard radar or storm chasers. The test receiver I used was a completely different brand (Amiko H265) to independently test each dish. There is an airport about 40 air miles to the north of me, but there are several mountains between us and I am on the south slope of mountain north of me.

It's kind of weird that I got the same results on all the dishes I tested. I have a couple meters, but the signal drop out doesn't seem to happen at set intervals, so it would be blind luck that I'd catch it at the right time. I may hook up an external hard drive and let it record and see if there's some sort of a pattern to it.

 

[wvman]

I'm beginning to think you have some secret government installation buried under one of your mountains .
And they're just messin with ya!

I never thought of that. Funny you'd mention that. Sugar Grove Naval Base, if you can imagine that in the middle of West Virginia, used to be near Green Bank Observatory. At one time, they were the monitoring station for all sorts of wireless communications, cell phones etc., intercepting suspicions transmissions that could be linked to terrorists activities or meddling from other countries.

Sugar Grove is now shut down, and perhaps operations were moved to another location. I can't imagine an ideal location anywhere around here, too much traffic that would interfere with their reception. I know people who lived inside the "Quite Zone" around the Green Band and they weren't allowed to use microwave ovens, CB's, Ham radios and other electronics that would interfere with the observatory and Sugar Grove. It was an interesting scenario.

 

[wvman]

I've got a somewhat similar problem with Over-the-Air (OTA) receivers; but, only with a particular broadcast network. A "INFO" box continuously displays every few seconds; and video and sound drop at the time for one second (always one second). My signal quality is 60%. As best I've determined so far, may have something to do with a receiver firmware version used in more than one "brand" receiver. Or, perhaps not having a coax filter in my particular case is causing a problem.

I have a BIG problem with OTA.........there are none. Haven't had a local stations since they forced all the TV stations in the area to go digital. Had all three networks before.

 

[PBSer]

wvman,
Concerning OTA, what's www.fcc.gov/media/engineering/dtvmaps show using a nearby street?

 

[wvman]

wvman,
Concerning OTA, what's www.fcc.gov/media/engineering/dtvmaps show using a nearby street?

I checked this website before, here are the recent results. Not promising. CBS- Weak NBC-Weak
ABC- Weak Fox-Weak PBS No Signal. "Signal strength calculations assume an outdoor antenna 30 feet above ground level." My antenna is on a 60 foot tower previously used for HAM radio. I have a 50 foot tower on top of the hill 1468 feet from the house. Too far and too expensive to get the signal to the house.

That tower is presently occupied by a business band radio antenna and a HAM repeater. It's not really worth the effort to get these channels to the house.

 

[Titanium]

I checked this website before, here are the recent results. Not promising. CBS- Weak NBC-Weak
ABC- Weak Fox-Weak PBS No Signal. "Signal strength calculations assume an outdoor antenna 30 feet above ground level." My antenna is on a 60 foot tower previously used for HAM radio. I have a 50 foot tower on top of the hill 1468 feet from the house. Too far and too expensive to get the signal to the house.

That tower is presently occupied by a business band radio antenna and a HAM repeater. It's not really worth the effort to get these channels to the house.

Do what I do for OTA... install a Silicondust HomeRun LAN tuner at the tower and use Cat6 or Wifi to distribute. No signal loss and receive many channels that are lost going through distribution and splitters.

 

[wvman]

Do what I do for OTA... install a Silicondust HomeRun LAN tuner at the tower and use Cat6 or Wifi to distribute. No signal loss and receive many channels that are lost going through distribution and splitters.

Right now, that isn't possible. I have the tower and site leased out with an agreement I wouldn't add anything else to the tower. I appreciate the information. The other tower is in a location where the signal is very weak. One question. Have you developed a dual output LNBF with the WiMax filters? I ask about that a while back, but none was available then, if not, possibly later? Just curious.

 

[Titanium]

Right now, that isn't possible. I have the tower and site leased out with an agreement I wouldn't add anything else to the tower. I appreciate the information. The other tower is in a location where the signal is very weak. One question. Have you developed a dual output LNBF with the WiMax filters? I ask about that a while back, but none was available then, if not, possibly later? Just curious.

Yes, they are on the ocean. Likely will be in the warehouse around the 1st or 2nd week of January.

 

[N6BY]

You guys make me feel very fortunate. I've got an ordinary roof antenna which points at the TV broadcast towers in Walnut Grove, and the Sutro tower in San Francisco (100 miles away). My house is located where its the same direction for both. I get a total of 95 channels channels including KTVU 2, KRON 4, and KPIX 5 San Francisco after the sun sets. The San Francisco stations are VHF-Low. I don't get the VHF-High or UHF stations from SF.

 

[wvman]

Yes, they are on the ocean. Likely will be in the warehouse around the 1st or 2nd week of January.

Glad to hear it. I'm sure a lot of people will be glad to know they're coming.

 

[wvman]

You guys make me feel very fortunate. I've got an ordinary roof antenna which points at the TV broadcast towers in Walnut Grove, and the Sutro tower in San Francisco (100 miles away). My house is located where its the same direction for both. I get a total of 95 channels channels including KTVU 2, KRON 4, and KPIX 5 San Francisco after the sun sets. The San Francisco stations are VHF-Low. I don't get the VHF-High or UHF stations from SF.

Wow. I can't imagine getting that many channels OTA. When I was growing up, we had 2 channels, 5 & 12, and those went off the air after the 11PM news. On the weekend, the only thing on was sport, no movies or much else in the form of entertainment. Come to think of it, there wasn't much on during the week either. Once in a while, we were able to get WTRF-Wheeling, WTAE-Pittsburgh, WTOV-Steubenville, OH, WOAY-Oak Hill, WV or WCHS-Charleston, WV, but the conditions had to be right.

I spent a lot of time hunting and fishing.

 

[PBSer]

wvman,

60 foot tower

Maybe instead of going so high, go big and omni-directional with the antenna--"8-bay" hdtv antenna.

 

[wvman]

wvman,

Maybe instead of going so high, go big and omni-directional with the antenna--"8-bay" hdtv antenna.

We've had a half dozen different antennas on that tower and still didn't have enough signal to lock the channels. We are down in a bowl between 4 mountains. Everything OTA goes right over us. The only reason we have wireless internet is due to a new tower installed a few years back that's 400 feet high sitting on top of a mountain a few air miles from here.

Had it not been for a saddle in one mountain, and the fact that my internet antenna is sitting on top of a tower in the yard, we wouldn't have internet either, and it's not that great. Off and on, and very slow most of the time.

 

[N6BY]

wvman,

If you give me your lat, lon I can make a viewshed map. It will indicate all the areas in your vicinity where you have a direct line of sight. Also, I can use it to tell you how high off the ground your antenna would need to be to 'escape' the bowl.

 

[wvman]

wvman,

If you give me your lat, lon I can make a viewshed map. It will indicate all the areas in your vicinity where you have a direct line of sight. Also, I can use it to tell you how high off the ground your antenna would need to be to 'escape' the bowl.

I appreciate the offer, but I got together with a friend last who leases my tower on top of the mountain behind the house and he said he's fine with it. Right now, I am weighing the options and cost to determine whether or not it's worth pursuing. My wife's the one whose interested in the local channels, and even she seemed reluctant to start such a project right now considering her health issues.

We get all the networks via FTA and to be honest, there isn't more than a couple programs I'd consider watching. Just too much trashy programming on these days.