Sky box in France, lost channels

[rborse]

I have a Panasonic digibox here in south west France. It has worked just fine with a non-subscription card for several years but a week of so ago some channels have stopped working. After a while you get "There is a technical problem with this channel" and then "No signal being received". It is just BBC1,2 and Ch5 - 101, 102, 105 I have spotted so far. I can some of the other BBC1s, eg 984 but not the other BBC2s. Signal strength and quality are showing about 65-70% (as usual). Anybody got any ideas?

Thanks

Richard

[Robbo]

Hi Richard

:welc1: to the forum.

It is only possible to guess at this stage, as your problem could be caused by a number of things.

So I'll just write down a few for you to check:-

Dish has moved a bit, so not aligned properly.
Some of the connections have come loose.
You have water in the c@ble, because it's not water-prooofed on the connectors.
The LNB has gone faulty.
The receiver has lost sensitivity.
A tree or building has sprung up and weakening your signal.

Can't think of anything else right now.

A cheap satellite finder meter (£10) will help you check the alignment.

A replacement LNB, would enable you to check the LNB.

Physical inspection of the caable and connectors will reveal anything obvious.

The thing about the skybox is that the quality reading applies to the default transponder, and therefore you may be getting insufficient signal on channels that are not on there, and not realise.

Robbo

[BGonaSTICK]

Yep - first, a good visual inspection. Next, test the (disconnected) cable for continuity down the core and isolation between core and shield. Next, swap the F connectors and then replace the LNB. Finally, see if you can borrow a digibox to test.

My guess is that it's either the LNB or the receiver. It's a case of checking and replacing parts until you nail it - starting with the cheapest options first