Signal strength problems after upgrade

n3qnj

Active SatelliteGuys Member
Original poster
Sep 2, 2008
18
0
A couple of weeks ago, a nice friendly Dish tech came out to our house and "upgraded" us to a new single dish which now picks up 61.5, 72 and 77.

Not long after he left we started getting "Partial Signal Loss" and sometimes even "Full Signal Loss" messages on a perfectly clear day.

While talking to Dish tech support on the phone, we did a check switch and the signal strength on the 61.5 satellite was 57. They said that sounded low.

A tech came out today and realigned the dish. I now have a 60 on my 61.5. Doesn't seem like much of an improvement. I decided to check the other two and on 72 and 77 I have signal strength in the 40s.

If 57 was low - - - is being in the 40s low?

I guess my question is, what's normal? I don't want my TV to go out when a spring drizzle blows over my house. A blizzard or a nasty thunderstorm... ok I can deal with that.

Any insight would be great. I'm an IT network engineer, so feel free to be technical with me.

Thanks.
 
Depending upon the transponder, 40's may be normal. My signal strengths are mostly between 40-60 on EA, and I almost never lose signal. Your SS was probably higher on WA because most of their transponders are still QPSK. I start losing lock when my SS is down around 12 or so.
 
Depending upon the transponder, 40's may be normal. My signal strengths are mostly between 40-60 on EA, and I almost never lose signal. Your SS was probably higher on WA because most of their transponders are still QPSK. I start losing lock when my SS is down around 12 or so.

I agree. EA is known to show a lower signal strength on the point dish screen than WA (as TheKrell said 40-60 is normal on EA), but your signal shouldn't be going out in light rain and whatnot.
 
If you are getting a signal loss on a clear day I would say your problem is not coming from dish alignment. Your signals sound normal for EA. I would say either the lnb or a cable related issue.
 
By the way, Dish has as many as 32 transponders at each orbital location. So you don't just want to report a signal strength of 57, but rather you want to check each transponder individually. If you are on a problem channel, then go to the Check Switch screen (menu 6-1-1) and see which transponder it is having trouble with. If you are losing lock, then I'll bet the SS is in the teens.
 
What model receiver do you have?Do you have more than one receiver connected?The reason I ask is I'm curious to know if its dual tuner and is using a dish pro separator.
 
Eastern arc looks lower because most of the transponders are running in 8PSK. WA 110/119 is mostly QPSK. 8PSK has more bits per second than QPSK so there is more error correction needed, so the signal looks lower.
 
Anything 50 or higher is more than sufficient to not lose your signal unless it is raining very ,very ,hard and fast. I installed my own eastern arc dish back in 08 when they first came out and re installed it again after Hurricane Ike. I rarely lose my signal strengths unless it is raining cats and dogs. I also had a side sat dish for 110 sat when I had HD distants from L.A. from AAD. I get the following strengths on my eastern arc dish using the diagnostic readings: Notice how much higher the side sat dish is than the eastern arc dish 1000.4.

77 sat

13 - 50
16 - 54
20 - 55
21 - 51

72 sat

15 - 63
17 - 61
19 - 62
21 - 62

61.5 sat

10 - 54
14 - 61
29 - 64
31 - 57

110 sat add on dish (1000.2 with single lnb)

14 - 77
15 - 77
16 - 78
21 - 73
 
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