Losing Signal During the Day. Fine at Night!

[robx46]

This is super annoying. D* Installed this past spring, April. Never had any signal loss up until a few weeks ago, where it went out all day & night. I got up on our roof, just pushed the dish around a bit (didn't mess with alignment). Just thought it was maybe off a hair, IDK.
But doing this worked, and we had signal back for a couple days.

Every since then, we've gradually been having an issue where we lose signal during the day, especially when its sunny (maybe that is coincidence), though this past week we have pretty much lost signal during the day every day at some point.
Sometimes only for a half hour, sometimes out for a few hours. Then come nightfall or late day, signal is usually OK.

Is there anything I can do? As I said, dish alignment has never been changed, so I hate to mess with that.
I was thinking that maybe the dish wasn't aligned very well by D* back in april. Maybe good enough to get a signal, but not aligned well enough to be able to handle even the slightest change. In other words, they didn't give the dish enough "leeway".
We had E* for nearly 18 months, never had such an issue, and E*'s dish was installed in the exact same place as D*'s.

Btw, all channels are out when signal loss (including locals). I checked all connections, on the dish & to the back of reciever, they are tight. I wiped off the lens of the LNB, the dish itself is clean. Not sure what else to do, and this is just getting worse.

Also had a weekend of football planned, which may not happen now. And I know D* will take a few days to get here to fix things, but even then...this issue is NOT our fault, so unless they come & fix this for free, I will be trying to do it myself. I have zero $$ to pay somebody for something I can probably do.

Does my signal being out mostly during the day tell you guys anything? Also, this might be a longshot, but the dish is isntalled on our roof, over shingles. We only had D* since the weather has been warmer (april). So the 1 thing that does go along with the signal loss lately is that we've had a lot of real cold nights lately.
I can't help but wonder if the roof shingles are expanding during the day (in the sun), then the opposite at night, where they shrink in the cold. I doubt the temp changes could raise/lower the dish much more than a hair, but what I'm noticing is that it being off just a hair, literally, can make a difference. It seems.

 

[Joe Diamond]

This is super annoying. D* Installed this past spring, April. Never had any signal loss up until a few weeks ago, where it went out all day & night. I got up on our roof, just pushed the dish around a bit (didn't mess with alignment). Just thought it was maybe off a hair, IDK.
But doing this worked, and we had signal back for a couple days.

Every since then, we've gradually been having an issue where we lose signal during the day, especially when its sunny (maybe that is coincidence), though this past week we have pretty much lost signal during the day every day at some point.
Sometimes only for a half hour, sometimes out for a few hours. Then come nightfall or late day, signal is usually OK.

Is there anything I can do? As I said, dish alignment has never been changed, so I hate to mess with that.
I was thinking that maybe the dish wasn't aligned very well by D* back in april. Maybe good enough to get a signal, but not aligned well enough to be able to handle even the slightest change. In other words, they didn't give the dish enough "leeway".
We had E* for nearly 18 months, never had such an issue, and E*'s dish was installed in the exact same place as D*'s.

Btw, all channels are out when signal loss (including locals). I checked all connections, on the dish & to the back of reciever, they are tight. I wiped off the lens of the LNB, the dish itself is clean. Not sure what else to do, and this is just getting worse.

Also had a weekend of football planned, which may not happen now. And I know D* will take a few days to get here to fix things, but even then...this issue is NOT our fault, so unless they come & fix this for free, I will be trying to do it myself. I have zero $$ to pay somebody for something I can probably do.

Does my signal being out mostly during the day tell you guys anything? Also, this might be a longshot, but the dish is isntalled on our roof, over shingles. We only had D* since the weather has been warmer (april). So the 1 thing that does go along with the signal loss lately is that we've had a lot of real cold nights lately.
I can't help but wonder if the roof shingles are expanding during the day (in the sun), then the opposite at night, where they shrink in the cold. I doubt the temp changes could raise/lower the dish much more than a hair, but what I'm noticing is that it being off just a hair, literally, can make a difference. It seems.

I would look for loose mast attachment bolts. The mast should be firmly attached to the roof and if it moves at all that is your problem.

The second thing I would look for are "skid marks" where the tuning adjustment surfaces have slid because of loose bolts. Use a i/2 inch wrench for HD dishes and a 7/16 inch wrench for the older round dish.

Finding and eliminating movement is the first thing and then tuning an acceptable signal seems to be your task.

Joe

 

[sddtvtech]

i dunno, but it sounds like a bad LNB going out or switch.



1/16 of an inch off is 1,400 miles off the satellite.

 

[Joe Diamond]

i dunno, but it sounds like a bad LNB going out or switch.

1/16 of an inch off is 1,400 miles off the satellite.

Yup,

That would be next...tap the LNB and if that brings back the signal replace it.

Shake all cables and see if that brings back the signal...look for an uncompressed fitting.

Joe

 

[sddtvtech]

look for an uncompressed fitting.

Joe

ive often too many times come across SVC where the fittins are loose. espeically on a SL dish set up. just a nick from being tight can give you pixel freeze or SFSS..


day its warm, the cable relaxes and thins out from warm air.. nights it tightens up due to cooler air and can cause the fitting to tighten back on.

wind can do this too, shaking of cables from wind can unwind the fittings.

first off, make sure all cable fittings are on tight regardless where they are, barreled or at the dish.

your reciever fitting should be hand tight, not wrench tight on the reciever.

dish and at the switch should be tight with a wrench as well if theres any barrels in the house. if theres barrels outside between the switch to the reciever, check them and make sure the conductor and cable is WHITE inside the fittings. if its black or blue.. its bad. same as from dish to switch as well.

 

[robx46]

I did get the signal back. Which also isn't unusual. I get the latter, go up & just start messing with everything I see. Might just push up on the dish a bit. Tighten some bolts, maybe that won't work, so might double/triple check connectors, tighten those. Might wiggle the wires around, maybe wipe off the LNB white plastic piece.

And I'm always able to get the signal back in, but of course its a pain in the ass to bring the latter out every day & do all that. And for all I know the signal may go out again in a half hour.

So what am I doing that gets the signal back? IDK. I can't pinpoint any 1 thing that immediately brings the signal back.
I did notice that the front mount bar wasn't tight, had some wiggle in it, so I loosened it, pushed the dish up while re-tightening. This doesn't work every time though.

But here are a couple notes, what I think the problem is. The mount. The dish, mounted on roof, is NOT bolted into any wood or anything solid. No, it was attached to the shingles! So if you push up on the assy, you can see the shingles lift a bit from the roof!
Is this normal for a roof install? I mean, the dish probably isn't gonna fall off or anything, but still.
I also notice b/c of this that when I went to tighten all bolts mounting dish to the roof, none of them tighten, they just keep turning.
I'm wonder if over the past months that gradually the pull on the shingles has lowered how high the dish points.
As mentioned, if the dish is only off a hair, thats all it takes.

Today, the interesting thing that seemed to bring the signal back was the exposed cable end.
Yeah, there are 2 cables that go to the LNB, but only 1 was hooked up. The other cable end is just tied to the main pole, completely exposed to the elements. And we only have 1 cable attached to our main reciever, which in turn distributes the signal to our other 2 recievers that all used to be connected back when he had cable.
IDK if this is a normal install. But anyhow, I took the exposed cable end tied to the dish, moved it away from the sun, then put some electrical tape over it. Then our signal came back in...for now!
I haven't even checked to see where the other end of that cable ends up, I'll probably do that shortly, but I can't imagine its connected to anything since the other end isn't either.

 

[Joe Diamond]

I did get the signal back. Which also isn't unusual. I get the latter, go up & just start messing with everything I see. Might just push up on the dish a bit. Tighten some bolts, maybe that won't work, so might double/triple check connectors, tighten those. Might wiggle the wires around, maybe wipe off the LNB white plastic piece.

And I'm always able to get the signal back in, but of course its a pain in the ass to bring the latter out every day & do all that. And for all I know the signal may go out again in a half hour.

So what am I doing that gets the signal back? IDK. I can't pinpoint any 1 thing that immediately brings the signal back.
I did notice that the front mount bar wasn't tight, had some wiggle in it, so I loosened it, pushed the dish up while re-tightening. This doesn't work every time though.

But here are a couple notes, what I think the problem is. The mount. The dish, mounted on roof, is NOT bolted into any wood or anything solid. No, it was attached to the shingles! So if you push up on the assy, you can see the shingles lift a bit from the roof!
Is this normal for a roof install? I mean, the dish probably isn't gonna fall off or anything, but still.
I also notice b/c of this that when I went to tighten all bolts mounting dish to the roof, none of them tighten, they just keep turning.
I'm wonder if over the past months that gradually the pull on the shingles has lowered how high the dish points.
As mentioned, if the dish is only off a hair, thats all it takes.

Today, the interesting thing that seemed to bring the signal back was the exposed cable end.
Yeah, there are 2 cables that go to the LNB, but only 1 was hooked up. The other cable end is just tied to the main pole, completely exposed to the elements. And we only have 1 cable attached to our main reciever, which in turn distributes the signal to our other 2 recievers that all used to be connected back when he had cable.
IDK if this is a normal install. But anyhow, I took the exposed cable end tied to the dish, moved it away from the sun, then put some electrical tape over it. Then our signal came back in...for now!
I haven't even checked to see where the other end of that cable ends up, I'll probably do that shortly, but I can't imagine its connected to anything since the other end isn't either.

The extra cable is a jumper to allow tuning without having to disassemble the dish to connect or remove the meter; an unnecessary feature.

The dish needs to be reinstalled so that the lag bolts hit roof studs. There should be at least one monopole brace to aid in holding the mast in a rigid position.

Your roof will need some attention. It probably has leaked. Caulk the old holes and start over. If there is a way of mounting the dish so it is not over a living space that should be done.

Once the dish & mast are properly installed repoint the dish.

There is a good chance the installer crunched the pin on the jumper and when it moves it shorts your system; just a guess.

Joe