Losing Signal at night!

[Drone35]

Seems like almost every night I lose signal on my 622! It's fine until u change the channel then shows serching for signal and thats it! Its not all channels but seems to happen mainly to 61.5 and 110! It's just weird. During the day everything is fine! Anyone have a clue!

 

[whatchel1]

Couple of things

Seems like almost every night I lose signal on my 622! It's fine until u change the channel then shows serching for signal and thats it! Its not all channels but seems to happen mainly to 61.5 and 110! It's just weird. During the day everything is fine! Anyone have a clue!

Maybe need dishes re-peaked. There is also the impossibly that you are having problems w/ connections to the LNB's. We are in the time of year w/ all the change in temps that causes condensation in connectors. Have been have some trouble w/ this at KFDA. My Chief Engineer says that this happens every fall. I believe him in the past couple of weeks have had to disconnect a few things and reconnect them to fix the problem. Nothing more than doing that has made the connections work fine again.

 

[Drone35]

Yes I've checked connection and even sparyed a little wd-40 in them just in case! Could not get ESPN HD tonight went to signal meter and selected tuner 1 instesd of tuner 2 and then I could get it! Signal strenght seems to be good in the fifties and even some sixties! Just puzzling you know! Guess ill just have Dish come out and check everything, I have the insurance so it will just cost $29 I believe! But don't won't them here when everything is working! lol

 

[whatchel1]

Wd 40

Yes I've checked connection and even sparyed a little wd-40 in them just in case! Could not get ESPN HD tonight went to signal meter and selected tuner 1 instesd of tuner 2 and then I could get it! Signal strenght seems to be good in the fifties and even some sixties! Just puzzling you know! Guess ill just have Dish come out and check everything, I have the insurance so it will just cost $29 I believe! But don't won't them here when everything is working! lol

What's up w/ the WD 40? That stuff is terrible on electronic connections. If it is on the center contact it will keep it from making a connection. If on the outside it is going to attract dust & dirt. It's also not very good on the jacket of coax..

 

[downriver]

Bats!!!

 

[WiCkeDuDe]

A dielectric grease would be much better.

 

[Jim5506]

It could be that the center connector on the cable is just long enough to make contact during warm weather, but when it cools off it loses contact.

What results do you get with check switch when this happens?

 

[rcdallas]

Coax retracts (shrinks) in the cold - sign of a bad connection somewhere, I say Jim5506 hit the nail on the head.

 

[NoWhrMn]

I was having issues with my dish losing signal which seemed to happen mostly at night. The tech's came and started troubleshooting my system and what they found was that some of the coax barrels were not the right type and what they would do was allow the current to flow from the receiver to the LNB until they reached a certian point and then they would basically overload. Once they did that they would not allow the current to flow and essentally cut off the signal.
Since they came and replaced these I have not had any problems (knock on wood). You may want to check this out.

 

[md_paul]

Another possiblity (although probably not since you've already been checking connections and would have noticed) is a bee's nest on the LNBF. Bee's come home to their nest at night and block reception.

 

[Drone35]

No bees nest,lol! But the shrinking problem has got me thinking! All the connectors are Dish prepped, meaning compression fittings and for the length of the wire I have been told that to long( from a Dish installer) will put a hole in the back of the plug and then its useless, but too short is a problem too, so what is the correct length! Maybe about a 1/8 of a inch from the end, I don't know, maybe a installer will chime in on this one!

 

[RandallA]

No bees nest,lol! But the shrinking problem has got me thinking! All the connectors are Dish prepped, meaning compression fittings and for the length of the wire I have been told that to long( from a Dish installer) will put a hole in the back of the plug and then its useless, but too short is a problem too, so what is the correct length! Maybe about a 1/8 of a inch from the end, I don't know, maybe a installer will chime in on this one!

Not an installer but I know it's 1/16 from the end of the connector or the size of a penny.

You can find a nice PDF in this zip file from the Tech Support site. Look for page 5.

http://rweb.echostar.com/departmental_content/TechPortal/content/zips/PPC.zip

 

[Drone35]

Not an installer but I know it's 1/16 from the end of the connector or the size of a penny.

You can find a nice PDF in this zip file from the Tech Support site. Look for page 5.

http://rweb.echostar.com/departmental_content/TechPortal/content/zips/PPC.zip

Thanks, Randall!

 

[RandallA]

One more thing, if you have a DPP44 I would make them a little longer for the satellite input ports.

 

[charlesrshell]

No bees nest,lol! But the shrinking problem has got me thinking! All the connectors are Dish prepped, meaning compression fittings and for the length of the wire I have been told that to long( from a Dish installer) will put a hole in the back of the plug and then its useless, but too short is a problem too, so what is the correct length! Maybe about a 1/8 of a inch from the end, I don't know, maybe a installer will chime in on this one!

What do you mean "will put a hole in the back of the plug"

 

[Drone35]

What do you mean "will put a hole in the back of the plug"

Don't really know thats the first I had heard of that! I'm not a installer and really don't know the ends and out of the female connector(no comment here,lol) but thats what the installer said, so is he full of sh*t or what!

 

[charlesrshell]

Don't really know thats the first I had heard of that! I'm not a installer and really don't know the ends and out of the female connector(no comment here,lol) but thats what the installer said, so is he full of sh*t or what!

Well, I read the Dish's Cable & Connectors Facilitator's Guide FSS-111 PPC and on page 10 it states "When cut too long, the center conductor can damage components inside the device." Maybe that is what Drone35's installer met by too long would put a hole in the back of the port. I looked inside my 3 gig barrels and 3 gig grounding blocks and they are straight through holes, so nothing could get damaged there I guess. I agree with RandallA that it wouldn't hurt for the center connector to be a little longer for DPP44 switch. Also on page 10 its says to clip excessive center conductor to be within 1/16-inch of the end of the F-connector, about the thickness of a nickel is usually a good gage.