Starchoice 505 Receiver and things that make me go hmmmmm

[timmyg]

Hi all,

I have a SC505 receiver and 75 cm elliptical dish here in Montgomery AL. It installed very easily and worked great for a while, then the last wind storm misaligned the dish.

When this happened, the 505 wouldn't power up. It took me a multitude of times to hard start it, eventually requiring me to unplug it for a day to get it to work. I finallly did a factory reset to gt it working properly.

I've realigned the dish and get a strong signal on both 299 and 583. I noticed however, that 400 and 302 get no signal. I get no channels right now and need to get SC to re-authorize me, but should I not get signal strength on those channels? Is this normal prior to authorization or could I be missing one of the satellites due to the screw being off? (I have 123 set IAW one site, despite KUSAT saying that 112 is the number ... and it worked before).

I also noticed that I don't get the SC channel like I didi teh first time I set it up. I've ruled out the receiver as an old 401 that I have seems act with the same results.


Any other ideas?

thanks much,

 

[Satellite Expert]

One of 2 things has happened:
1) Dish is aimed @111.1 but your skew is incorrect. That is you are aimed at F2 but dish cannot see F1R
or
2) Dish is aimed @114.9 so you are receiving F2 signals at the F1R LNBF

Bet you get a signal on 420 as well

 

[timmyg]

But when I puch in 4128 on the receiver it goes green ... would this be the case if it were pointing at either satellite?

 

[timmyg]

Answered my own question ... yes is the answer ... interesting .. all is working great now, thanks much

 

[Napa_Golfer]

I'm experiencing some frequent audio dropouts/pops on my DSR505, either through the normal audio or optical ouputs. Does anyone have this same issue? My version now is 00.34 .......thanks

 

[Jumbo Dumbo]

My version now is 00.34 .......thanks

Sometimes a "hard" reboot is needed to clean out all the old software.

Disconnect plug from wall. Disconnect RG6 cable at receiver. Wait at least 5 minutes before rehooking up.

 

[Napa_Golfer]

jumbo,
I tried your suggestion, and it seemed not to make a lot of difference.

I notice that some channels are worse than others, and some channels I can hardly tell is there is an audio drop. Is it possible that it's related to rg6 cable length or signal strength? My worst channels (off the 111 deg sat) are around a 66 and an Ecbno of 7.2

thanks

 

[Satellite Expert]

You only need a ECBN of +2.5 to get the signal properly.

If you are not seeing picture dopouts, I wouldn't suspect a cable/connector/LNBF issue.
What happens if you change the audio output to "Mono?

 

[Napa_Golfer]

haven't tried it yet, but I will try tonight. I also searched the site and saw a post where someone recommended quickly turning off and then on the receiver. I'll give that a try too.

LIke I said, the variation is puzzling.....on ABC-HD east, it's quite frequent, but on CBC-HD, or PBS-HD, it hardly drops out.