For three months of the summer my family and I live in West Glacier, in northwest Montana. We live in a really nice trailer. When I bought the trailer I got an option put on the roof called a king-dome. It's a plastic dome covering a satellite dish. For the first few years I had great reception with no problems. Last year I had to move my trailer to a different spot in the campground, and unfortunately there were two many trees in the way of the dish. So I got another dish to set up away from the trees and obstructions. To accomplish that I had to move my dish a good distance away from my trailer.
I was finally able to get reception from my dish. I set the transponder on number 1 or 2, I can't remember, but after moving the dish around for a while I finally got a signal in the 70's on one of the transponders. However, this is when some strange things started happening. My problem was that I only got good signal strength on half the transponders, the strong signal would come in on only the evens or odds, unfortunately I can't remember which. What I mean is, I would get good signal strength (mid 70's) on the even numbered transponders, but I would get a signal strenght of 0 on the odd numbered transponders. I can't remember if the odd transponder numbers were getting 0 or the even numbered transponders. I don't know if it matters, but I don't think it does.
Since I got a good signal strenght on half the transponders I was able to pick up some of the channels. I would usually always get the history, discovery and science type channels. I would get TBS, Comedy, TNT and sometimes USA. It was really weird because some channels kind of came in for a while, then for what seemed like no reason, the channel would go out. At the very best I might have barely gotten a third of the channels I am supposed to get. But most times I would only get about 25% of the channels I was supposed to get. There were a ton of channels that I would never get. At home I usually get all the NBC, CBS, Fox and ABC east and west feeds, but while living in my trailer I never got any of these networks ever. I am pretty sure I never got any of the movie channles I was supposed to get.
I called directv for some help and they tried a few different things and nothing worked. They told me it must be the receiver, because it's pretty old, so I swapped out my old receiver for my newer TIVO receiver, and it didn't fix anything. The directv tech I was talking to didn't seem to know what was happening. He told me that if you can get a strong signal on any of the transponders that nothing is blocking the signal to your dish. So he said moving the dish around wouldn't help anything because it was already getting the signal from the satellite. I don't think there could be any problems with the receivers because they all work fine at home and I tried them all at the trailer, and they all did the same thing. The only thing that I thought might be causing the problem was the lnb. I was using a different dish than the one I had at home. So I swapped the lnb out from the dish on top of my trailer. I know it works because I have used it a lot and never had any problems with it. But this still didn't fix the problem.
So all of this troubleshooting left me with only one other possible problem, and that is the coaxil cable connecting the dish to the receiver. I had to get a really long bit of cable because I had to put the dish in a place where the signal wasn't blocked by trees. I'm not sure how long the cable is, but I think it is probably around 150 yards long. So I thought the cable might be so long that it could cause problems. But if the cable was the problem, wouldn't it cause problems for all the transponders equally, not just the odd transponders? I am really perplexed by this problem, and I have no idea what to do to fix the problem.
I am really sorry for making this post so long, I just want to make sure I put in all of the information I possibly can. The reason I am posting now is because I am going to glacier in about a week and I am hoping I can somehow fix the problem before I go, or when I first get there. I would really appreciate any ideas from anybody, even if an idea seems really obvious to you, I probably haven't thought of it so post it anyway. I will really appreciate any help that anyone can offer. Maybe someone knows of a web site that explains a lot about problems like this, if so, please tell me so I can find more info. My trailer is parked by a lot of trees, and I can't seem to get a signal any where close to my trailer, I have to go out to the nearest road to mount the dish there away from the trees. So if you have any ideas about how to get a good signal closer to the trailer please let me know. I am really hoping that someone might be able to tell me why I am only able to get a good signal strength on half of my transponders, and only get about a quarter of my channles. Again, sorry for making this post so dang long, and thank you for spending the time to read through it and help me out with any info you can think of.
I was finally able to get reception from my dish. I set the transponder on number 1 or 2, I can't remember, but after moving the dish around for a while I finally got a signal in the 70's on one of the transponders. However, this is when some strange things started happening. My problem was that I only got good signal strength on half the transponders, the strong signal would come in on only the evens or odds, unfortunately I can't remember which. What I mean is, I would get good signal strength (mid 70's) on the even numbered transponders, but I would get a signal strenght of 0 on the odd numbered transponders. I can't remember if the odd transponder numbers were getting 0 or the even numbered transponders. I don't know if it matters, but I don't think it does.
Since I got a good signal strenght on half the transponders I was able to pick up some of the channels. I would usually always get the history, discovery and science type channels. I would get TBS, Comedy, TNT and sometimes USA. It was really weird because some channels kind of came in for a while, then for what seemed like no reason, the channel would go out. At the very best I might have barely gotten a third of the channels I am supposed to get. But most times I would only get about 25% of the channels I was supposed to get. There were a ton of channels that I would never get. At home I usually get all the NBC, CBS, Fox and ABC east and west feeds, but while living in my trailer I never got any of these networks ever. I am pretty sure I never got any of the movie channles I was supposed to get.
I called directv for some help and they tried a few different things and nothing worked. They told me it must be the receiver, because it's pretty old, so I swapped out my old receiver for my newer TIVO receiver, and it didn't fix anything. The directv tech I was talking to didn't seem to know what was happening. He told me that if you can get a strong signal on any of the transponders that nothing is blocking the signal to your dish. So he said moving the dish around wouldn't help anything because it was already getting the signal from the satellite. I don't think there could be any problems with the receivers because they all work fine at home and I tried them all at the trailer, and they all did the same thing. The only thing that I thought might be causing the problem was the lnb. I was using a different dish than the one I had at home. So I swapped the lnb out from the dish on top of my trailer. I know it works because I have used it a lot and never had any problems with it. But this still didn't fix the problem.
So all of this troubleshooting left me with only one other possible problem, and that is the coaxil cable connecting the dish to the receiver. I had to get a really long bit of cable because I had to put the dish in a place where the signal wasn't blocked by trees. I'm not sure how long the cable is, but I think it is probably around 150 yards long. So I thought the cable might be so long that it could cause problems. But if the cable was the problem, wouldn't it cause problems for all the transponders equally, not just the odd transponders? I am really perplexed by this problem, and I have no idea what to do to fix the problem.
I am really sorry for making this post so long, I just want to make sure I put in all of the information I possibly can. The reason I am posting now is because I am going to glacier in about a week and I am hoping I can somehow fix the problem before I go, or when I first get there. I would really appreciate any ideas from anybody, even if an idea seems really obvious to you, I probably haven't thought of it so post it anyway. I will really appreciate any help that anyone can offer. Maybe someone knows of a web site that explains a lot about problems like this, if so, please tell me so I can find more info. My trailer is parked by a lot of trees, and I can't seem to get a signal any where close to my trailer, I have to go out to the nearest road to mount the dish there away from the trees. So if you have any ideas about how to get a good signal closer to the trailer please let me know. I am really hoping that someone might be able to tell me why I am only able to get a good signal strength on half of my transponders, and only get about a quarter of my channles. Again, sorry for making this post so dang long, and thank you for spending the time to read through it and help me out with any info you can think of.