oooooooook .. this noob would appreciate a word ..

[mediafury]

I vented on the chit chat forum and I feel better already ..

I've been wrestling with my DISH set up since June. To make a wearisome and inFURIating story short, I cannot seem to resolve an issue I keep having with the LNBF switch on my system that causes me to lose reception of the 110 satellite .. again and again. I have a DP twin set up, a standard Dish receiver 311 and a good clear shot at where the sats should be.

In June, a DISH contractor replaced the old LNBF with the newer one that doesn't need the external switch it had on it. Almost exactly 3 months later, and a ton of intermittent signal losses later, I finally lost reception of the 110 satellite, taking down half the channels. After a lot of wrangling with the contractor, who turned out to be a really nice but thoroughly incompetent character who I will be referring to the BBB, I decided to try to address this myself.

After a lot of heated debate with DISH, I've replaced the receiver I just bought three years ago with a new one and smart card from DISH. It resolved the issue for all of two days. Once again, back to square one. I've bought another LNBF just today, again no dice.

What's so frustrating is that I know I've got good signal strength from both the 119 and 110 satellites .. they show nice and hot and then, right as I'm watching TV .. BAM .. the infamous error message about having a switch problem comes up and I find out after running checks on the system that I've lost reception again to the 110! After showing good connections on both, I suddenly lose it!

and I'm about to lose it myself and pitch this junk out the door and go back to cable. Yet I like the channel line up on DISH and really, that's the only thing holding me back so far, along with the headaches of going to cable.

If there's ANYONE with an idea of why 119 can come booming in here and 110 just up and dies regularly in front of me even after checking everything I can, I'd really appreciate it, thanks!

 

[Dah-Henny]

?Maybe a voltage issue from the receiver or ...?

Sorry...not much help.

 

[Dah-Henny]

oops...I see that you changed receivers.

If you know that the receiver is OK, and you know that the lnbf's are OK, I would double check my RG6 coax.

 

[Jamez74]

dahenny is right

I'm an Installations Manager for a DISH RSP. If it's not the LNB or the receiver then:
Cabling
Dish Alignment

 

[tastim]

There are a couple things it could be... bent or too short of a stinger(usually from a loose fitting slipping), too LONG of a stinger(which causes the stinger to bend when tightened down)... bad barrel either in a wall plate, or somewhere else in the system (ground blocks go bad too).... overly kinked/damaged cabling.

OR it could just be a poorly pointed Dish.

Post your signal strength on the 110, transponder 21.

 

[tkwasny]

Be sure RG6 ground is true and hard earth ground. That your home circuit breaker box earth ground is also the same true and hard Earth ground. (Real copper coated 8' rod(s) buried so there is no more than 8" above ground, solid bronze/copper fittings, #4 or #6 COPPER not AL wiring, contact points Scotchkoted) I use three such... CB box, OTA , SAT Ant. all at diff. sides of the home, then wired to each other. All odd noise, loss, other problems gone ever since.

 

[WiCkeDuDe]

If if the dish is in alignment as you say with the high signal strengths then it must be cabling issue. A quick cutout has almost always been a cabling issue on all the TCs Ive been on. Check that all your cable is RG-6, NO rg59. Also all your barrel connectors, wallplates, and groundblock need to be the blue fittings, or high frequency. Eventually the low frequency stuff goes bad. Also check for any flaws in your cable like punctures, rusting on the stingers, or water damage or burning.

 

[8bitbytes]

+1 for cabling

 

[vegassatellite]

Remove the gold barrels and gold screw-on fittings and replace them.

 

[peano]

+2 for cabling

 

[rcdallas]

I'll go for the barrels.

 

[firesole33]

I actually just had this exact same problem, after awhile of testing, the contractor replaced a barrel that is right before the STB. And my problem has been fixed. It has been about 3 weeks now not one issue.

 

[Rangers484]

Had a VIP 722 installed a few weeks ago. I lose my locals on 129 TP 32. All of the barrels were replaced at the end where the satellite wires come into the main box in the garage and at the other end where they come out of the wall. The tech also replaced the coax from the wall to the VIP722 and my VIP622 and diplexers on both ends of the system.

All of this started in August about when Dish was adding the Olympic coverage. I assumed it had something to do with that because my NBC affiliate was switching back and forth all the time until I realized that my other 2 locals on TP32 did the same and the locals on another TP were fine.

It seemed to work fine. An hour after he left I lost them again. It does it on both of my VIPs so I am fairly sure it is not the cabling and it only does it on that 1 transponder.

Dish alignment or bad LNB? Best guesses? I get error 002 and if I leave that channel on long enough (5-30 minutes) the channel magically appears. Then if I change the channel and come back I typically lose it again.

 

[vegassatellite]

What is your signal strength on that transponder?

 

[stryker221982]

i had kinda had the same thing happen to me when my sat first got installed. Dish network out by me using indepedent contractors to do most of their work so after i placed my order the day came and i had an install time of between 12-5. well its always my luck that the guy didnt show up till 6. the truck he showed up with was an early 80's chevy S10 that was spray painted white. he rushed through the installed because he had personal plans that night and he was supposed to be done working by 530.

the dish worked for about week before we began to see problems with the sat dropping out, so i began to look at it myself before waiting to have someone come look at it. the first thing i found was he screwed a diplexer to the top of my roof to use in place of a barrel connector. over the week we had it work when had a couple rain storms and the place he screwed the diplexer was in a high water runoff channel. after i removed this from the situation the system was working but had really low signals so i called dish network and demanded a tech come out and look at it. they showed up the next day and find that the previous installed was in such a hurry that he didnt make any of the compression connector on the rg6 any good. he called me out side and said you see that white center, yea ok......., well that should be flush with the base before the swivel not pushed down a 1/4"

he fixed all the connectors which were all made the same and he havent had any problems like that since

check cables and connectors for quality of work and placement

 

[Rangers484]

What is your signal strength on that transponder?

Sat 129, TP 32 right now 35 on tuner input 2, not locked on tuner input 1.

 

[gregskin]

TROUBLESHOOT

BEST WAY TO SEE IF IT'S THE CABLE, DIRECT RUN NEW CABLE FROM DISH TO REC.

 

[vegassatellite]

Sat 129, TP 32 right now 35 on tuner input 2, not locked on tuner input 1.

Depending where you are, that might be a weak signal. Here in Phoenix that is a fine signal because we are in the secondary section of the footprint of 129. Is that tuner 1 not being locked occurring on both the 622 and the 722. If you have a dish 1000.2 and both receivers are directly wired in to it, I would suggest replacing that LNB. With both receivers losing lock, I would say it's a common component such as a dual ground block, an LNB, any switches, or if it was the same installer for both receivers at the same time, his work may be suspect as well.

Go to Menu 6,1,3 and if it X's out the 129, go to DETAILS and see what it says. You might have LNB DRIFT.

 

[tastim]

It seemed to work fine. An hour after he left I lost them again. It does it on both of my VIPs so I am fairly sure it is not the cabling and it only does it on that 1 transponder.

Actually, this is exactly what damaged or poorly made cables can do.

 

[Rangers484]

Actually, this is exactly what damaged or poorly made cables can do.

I would be willing to run new wire from the dish to the junction box but why would this only affect 1 transponder?

If it were bad cable wouldn't I experience issues on other transponders as well?

I did check the LNB drift on all 3 satellites and this is what it was:

110 e-5, 119 e-5 and 129 e-7.

According to Dish's technical chat rep the drift is not enough to cause the problem I am having but I also don't trust anything that a Dish rep utters anymore.