No Signal. Is it a misaligned dish?

[john kimon]

I was wondering if someone could help me out here:

I've two satellite dishes. A one meter dish at the back of the house that picks up Hotbird and Astra, and an 80cm dish at the front of the house that picks up Hellas Sat. The receiver I use is a Technomate 5000DA.

Since last night, I have not been able to pick up any signals, for either dish. I've tried restoring the factory settings on the receiver and tuning everything from scratch, but nothing. While retuning for Astra and Hotbird, the signal bar will be strong while the quality indicator remains stuck at 10. I don't know what this means.

Although it's been very windy in London these last few days, I find it hard to believe that the wind misaligned both my dishes at the same time. Besides, I've had this system for years and there've been much windier days, and there's been to misalignment.

Any ideas?

Thanks in advance

John

[Robbo]

Hi, it could be the diseqc switch that has gone faulty or the receiver.

Or somehow you have lost the diseqc switch settings.

If you could try the receiver directly to one of the lnbs without the switch, that could prove that the dish is ok and the receiver.

[satelliteman]

Yep, you'd be very unlucky indeed if both dishes were blown out of alignment.

[john kimon]

No, I'm not of the opinion that it's a wind issue either, although I've noticed that the smaller satellite dish is a little loose on its moorings. I also don't think it's a diseq issue either, since my system doesn't seem to have been set up with diseqs, but linked directly to the lnbs.

From what I can tell, I've got one cable running from one lnb on the larger dish and connecting directly to the receiver, while the other lnb cable from the larger dish ends up connected to the smaller dish. This was how my installation guy did it years ago – 2004? – and it hasn't given me problems till now. I can't see any loose connections on either dish, but still resolutely No Signal.

Any further ideas?
Thanks
John

[Robbo]

How you say it is connected doesn't make sense. There must be a diseqc switch or switch in there somewhere.

[john kimon]

I had a feeling it wouldn't make sense and that I just hadn't been able to locate the switch. Where should I look for the switch? Would it be attached to the larger satellite dish? There's certainly nothing like a switch attached to the receiver. I guess I was looking for a diseq switch, but couldn't find anything resembling it on my system. What other type of switch should I be looking for?

Apologies for this amateurism and thanks for your help.

John

[Mickha]

Can you take any pictures and upload them?
Failing that it's a matter of trial and error to locate the problem, I would start by running a single cable from one dish to your receiver, then check if you get a signal, then do the same with the second dish.
No doubt when following the cable you will locate a switch.

[Rick]

Yeah, Robbo is right there must be a switch in there somewhere. Follow the cable's from the dishes and the reciever, they will all meet somewhere, that's your switch.

[john kimon]

I've now located the switch, which is strapped to the back of the larger dish. Is a problem with the switch the likeliest fault? If it is, then I don't think it's something I can attempt to fix myself since this large dish is fairly inaccessible without the proper equipment. Time for an engineer?

[Rick]

It would be easy enough to change the switch, but if your going to struggle getting to it you might have to get someone in. What makes the dish so inaccesable ?