Question Issues with ITV HD and BBC1 HD cutting out on freesat - installer saying it's my wiring, dish or box??

goatywoaty

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Hi chaps

I have a Humax Foxsat box which I used at my old house which worked perfectly there, it's only a few months old. Anyway, we recently moved to a house which needed a dish and cabling installing. I installed decent coax cable throughout the house, all leading from satellite points on the wall to a sky dish on the wall outside. I used a rubbish sat finder but couldn't get a signal with it. I've always managed to at my Mum's house and at our old house so was a bit miffed!

Anyway, cut a long story short, I gave up and got an aerial/satellite guy out and he put the sky dish back up (i'd taken it down thinking the location was no good as there is a tree about 80m away), he said the tree wasn't an issue and managed to meter it up so it had a decent signal. However, i'm getting ITV HD and BBC1 HD cut out every now and again. To try and put a time on it, it might cut out every 3 hours for a few seconds (I think it's worse when it's raining).

The aerial guy says that he can't meter it up any better, and the next steps are to change wiring, sat dish, lnb, freesat box.

I'm very sceptical that it's any of the above issues because I used a brand new Sky dish and LNB, the freesat box is pretty new and worked perfectly at our old house a couple of months back and I used premium cable, plus I spent time making good connections etc.

Could he be right and I need to look at the rest of the bits, or is it more likely a dodgy location for the dish? Why would it work perfectly and appear to have a strong signal, but then just cut out on ITV HD and BBC1 HD?

Getting a bit narked with this and I might sack it in and go with a freeview box and aerial if that's easier!

Any thoughts/info appreciated :)

Thanks in advance
 
What signal strength and signal quality do you get on the HD channels?
A Foxsat that is only a few months old does not sound possible?
I assumed you installed connections in multiple rooms, if so did you try another room?
 
A tree 80m away would have to be 35 - 40m (well over 100ft) tall to block signals from 28.2E in UK. (95ft in Edinburgh) and that's assuming the dish is at ground level.
 
In the old day of Sky boxes as they aged you would get certain channels breaking up.

The cause was the PSU in the Sky Box degrading - basically the voltages it was providing to the LNB were dropping out of spec. The fix was to replace the capacitors in the PSU which would fix the problem every time. I have fixed a number of Sky boxes like this over the years.

Having said that, this is not a problem I have seen in many years, but it might be worth googling your Humax box to see if it suffers similar issues.

Cheers,

Nigel
 
Location? What $ky dish size installed? Exact spec of cable installed? Length(s) of cable runs? Are cables for connection from wall plates to receiver the same, hand made type?
Exact model of Humax to confirm it's not a Foxsat-HDR but a 1100S or similar of recent manufacture?

Any decent installer technician would meter at dish and repeat on any internal outlets to confirm levels and that poor or lossy cabling is the cause.

The Humax signal diagnostics figures may point to an issue?

The transmit mode used by BBC & ITV HD transponders does show up any alignment issues more than other channels.
 
This one could be an electrical fault, could be the PSU but it's usually stray AC voltages and they can upset just one TP or a shorter frequency range but it could just upset those that are more delicate such as some HD but the fault/s can be coming from another device such as a TV or other box including in another room if there's any cabling connecting them including satellite or aerial cables.
 
A decent installer would meter at the dish and at any/all connection points. The tree could be a factor though. On a still day, metering may show no problems, but could change on a windy day. Just because new components were used doesn’t guarantee anything. The LNB could be marginal in some way. I had a similar situation awhile ago (posted in this forum) whereby I would periodically get failed recordings, intermittent no signal. The LNB seemed fine when checked, but a swap cured the issue. Electrical interference could be another issue. HDMI cables are known to the electrically noisy, for example, or it could be something like a fridge/freezer. Tidy-up the cable routing, use ferrite chokes, etc.

My money at present is on either a dish that’s slightly off skew or a marginal LNB. Use a different installer to the first one used. If the results are the same in that the dish and LNB are OK, then the external parts of the puzzle can be assumed to be OK. At present, all bets are off until the source end of things has been eliminated. However, given how cheap LNBs are, I’d be inclined to swap that and return the original one as duff.

Clem
 
Thanks for the info and suggestions chaps, really appreciate it.

I used Webro 100 cable, my max run of cable is about 18m, the box is a Humax 1100S. I can't test in other rooms as i've not made up the wallplates, plus they are all works in progress, only got the living room finished!

Clem, I think you may have a point about the wind. Where the dish is installed, it gets very very windy as it's high up and open. I queried this with the installer and he said that it shouldn't be an issue but he noted it and put in an extra bolt onto the mounting to keep the dish steady. He convinced me it wouldn't be an issue claiming that it might be good for 10 years, or I might be unlucky and need it metering up again in 2 years if it's really bad, but once the bolts have seized on then they don't move.

The installer did meter it up at the dish with an expensive signal finder, plus he checked at the box end and everything seemed fine, decent/strong signal.

I'm a bit loathed to pay out again for another installer if I can get freeview instead as it's nigh-on the same channels, plus it's more maintenance free i'm hoping.

My nearest mast is less than 10m away, so i'm tempted to go with one of these:


Should be more than enough to get a solid signal. Anyone used one of these flat type aerials before?
I shouldn't suffer with it getting out of alignment with the wind!

Can I keep my f-connector wall plates and just chop off the opposite ends of the cable and fit/solder IEC plugs to connect to the aerial and freeview receiver?

Thanks again guys, appreciate the info
 
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Do not buy that aerial! Waste of hard earned cash. A directionalaerial like a log periodic would be much better.
Location? 10 metres from a transmitter is very close! 10 miles is another thing altogether.
Without location (postcode of shop, pub, church, school within 100m or so of your home) we can't predict reception conditions using Wolfbane and DigitalUK. NB Trees can affect UHF TV reception badly, so outlook towards the wanted transmitter matters (ideally clear line of sight).

You can buy screw on adapters to Belling Lee TV plugs or fit your own to WF100 cable.
My sat dish is on a to do list and moves in the wind (or when pigeons try to nest behind it) due to a loose fixing. That caused some breakup on the channels we watch/record sometimes.
 
I was only thinking one of those aerials because it wouldn't be succeptible to wind like others would. Would a mini log periodic like this be acceptable?


Thanks again for the advice!
 
Sounds a bit drastic and there's far fewer channels off an aerial with many just on a few hours or carrying ads.... yes and reception issues with hills and valleys, trees with councils increasingly leaving them to just keep growing due to (their') cut backs , buildings and fill in transmitters with reduced services.

But you can get f connector adaptors so no need to alter cables or wall plates
 
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Would a mini log periodic like this be acceptable?
I have one of those and it works just fine. Having said that, without being able to get a prediction of your signal strength, it's impossible to say whether it would work for you.

Re. connectors. It's actually a jolly good idea to use F type connectors throughout, using an adaptor to convert F Type to Belling Lee right at the TV/Box end.
 
I've checked out wolfbane and it looks like the big Emley moor transmitter is only 8 miles away so I *should* be able to get a decent signal. I think i'll try one of the small Labgear aerials first, with some adapters on my F connector wall plate, thanks for the info :)

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It might sound a bit drastic, but the channels are pretty much the same (slightly better on Freeview). Yes there might be some obscure random channels available on a satellite, but we just watch regular stuff. Plus if it's just a matter of fitting an aerial, swapping my freesat box with a freeview box and using my existing wiring then i'm happy. Rather do that than have the expense and hassle of a satellite dish that goes out of alignment and needs fine tuning by an installer (who has the fancy meters).


 
My guess would be that the log would be OK. I live just a bit less distance than that to a much lower powered relay. F Type connector on both ends of the patch cable then an F Type to TV on the TV end is good.
 
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Satellite's got a lot more than Freeview. . You'll see.. but if it's enough it's enough

An easy way of judging reception in your immediate area is to look at your neighbour's aerials.
Small ish aerials on short poles in horizontal and all aiming the same way means it's a good reception area usually.
Aerials on very long poles & you have a problem.. vertical also usually means they are on a smaller local fill in transmitter.
 

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