What is a good signal (trouble with picture breaking up)

[CRFTony]

Over the past 2 weeks I've had considerable problems with my signal breaking up. I checked signal strength today and here's what my system is showing.

Sat 118 - Signal Strength anywhere from 41-43
Sat 119 - Signal Strength 71
Sat 110 - Signal Strength 76
Sat 61.5 - Signal Strength anywhere from 43-45

 

[USMCGrunt0307]

What transponders are those readings coming from?? Check the following:

Sat 118 TP 22 = 40+
Sat 119 TP 14 = 65+
Sat 110 TP 14 = 65+
Sat 129 TP 32 = 40+

Those are the numbers I look for...if your below that then there is a peaking issue. Also, if its intermitant are there any trees nearby, go up and check the pole the dish is mounted on, see if its solid in the mount location.

 

[CRFTony]

Mine are listed as:

118 TP 1
119 Spotbeam 1
110 TP1
61.5 TP1 (and now I have a signal strength of 6)

I tried to change the TPs to what you advised but as soon as I click done and go back in, they revert to TP1

Edit: Actually every time I check I get different numbers. Sometimes 110 comes up as a TP and sometimes as a spotbeam. At the moment, it's Spotbeam 29 and I have a signal of 54

 

[USMCGrunt0307]

no no...as an example...goto sat 110 and change the TP to 114 and leave it...the signal meter at the bottom will take a few seconds and then acquire the strength...which should be about 65 or better....but if your getting a locked on signal strenth of 6 on your 61.5 you've got some problems. If you have the tools and meter id say you need to repeak the dish...at least the 61.5 dish.

Did your problems start after some bad weather? Id so go out and check all the lines that you can and see if there are any connectors outside...if so, unscrew them one at a time and check the connectors for corrosion, rust, water, etc.. If you find any connectors that are anything but pearly white youll need to replace them. If they all check out ok then id say call up a tech and he/she will be able to properly fix the issue.

 

[CRFTony]

Sorry for being dense.

Here are the #s.

118 on 22 gives a SS of 46
119 on 14 gives a SS of 67
110 on 14 gives a SS of 74

I didn't check 61.5 but channels on that dish come in perfectly, no drop outs/pixelating.

When I check system info, I always get an error on 118.

119, 110 and 61.5 are error free. Does this mean the dish needs re pointed or is there something wrong with the dish? I mean, aren't 118, 119 and 110 all picked up by the 500+ and if so, if something was blocking the dish or something was out of alignment, wouldn't 118 and 110 be affected as well?

I'll head out and check the connections now. The problem seemed to arise out of the blue, no particular storm.bad weather.

 

[oljim]

System info error with 118 is a sw449 problem, it is fixed with 510. nothing to worry about

 

[USMCGrunt0307]

Under system info look at the details...if it says something about LNB drift then one of the LNBs needs to be replaced...otherwise ignore sys info for the 118...its never been right except to tell LNB drift.

The 110 is a few degrees across the sky from the 119 and 118...if youve got a compass stand at the dish and look at 210 degrees...thats the 110 sat. Then go and look at 219, thats where the 119 is at. The big differance here though is that the 110 is 40 degrees in elevation which is pretty good (almost half way between straight up and the horizon basically) but the 119 is only at 30 degrees...much lower.

That was kind of going off on a rant but basically if you are getting signal that doesnt go out when the weather gets bad you probably dont have a line of sight issue but a bad connector or something like that somewhere in the line. Its also possible that the dish may have moved a little due to the mast (pole connected to roof) not being probably tightened down or mounted.