Sudden Intermittant Loss of 4DTV Lock

[Guest]

Archived from groups: alt.video.satellite.4dtv (More info?)

Just as I was kicking back thinking my C-Band system was nothing
requiring any more thought, my wife advised me last evening that all
of the C-Band 4DTV channels are breaking up. Dang! I went to several
satellites, and saw the same pixilations. Ku channels and C analog
are just fine. Signal quality on 4DTV intermittantly drops from
around 90 to 30 or so. Tried to see if there was any timing
associated with this, like perhaps a radar sweep, but it seems random.
I don't have a clue as to where to start troubleshooting. There have
not been any changes made to any part of the system for a couple of
months. Any suggestions? I'd sure appreciate any.

 

[Guest]

Archived from groups: alt.video.satellite.4dtv (More info?)

On Sat, 07 Aug 2004 17:57:04 -0700, <bitbucket@linkline.com> wrote:

>Just as I was kicking back thinking my C-Band system was nothing
>requiring any more thought, my wife advised me last evening that all
>of the C-Band 4DTV channels are breaking up. Dang! I went to several
>satellites, and saw the same pixilations. Ku channels and C analog
>are just fine. Signal quality on 4DTV intermittantly drops from
>around 90 to 30 or so. Tried to see if there was any timing
>associated with this, like perhaps a radar sweep, but it seems random.
>I don't have a clue as to where to start troubleshooting. There have
>not been any changes made to any part of the system for a couple of
>months. Any suggestions? I'd sure appreciate any.

It your system "warm", or abnormally warmer than normal? I have a
Starchoice DSR305 that dops out when it gets excessively warm.

 

[Guest]

Archived from groups: alt.video.satellite.4dtv (More info?)

Airplanes flying over cause this with my system.

Greg O.

"Gary Tait" <classicsat@yahoo.cominvalid> wrote in message
news:q3fch0h1mb545ir77g1ku50ud9e13sh6f7@4ax.com...
> On Sat, 07 Aug 2004 17:57:04 -0700, <bitbucket@linkline.com> wrote:
>
> >Just as I was kicking back thinking my C-Band system was nothing
> >requiring any more thought, my wife advised me last evening that all
> >of the C-Band 4DTV channels are breaking up. Dang! I went to several
> >satellites, and saw the same pixilations. Ku channels and C analog
> >are just fine. Signal quality on 4DTV intermittantly drops from
> >around 90 to 30 or so. Tried to see if there was any timing
> >associated with this, like perhaps a radar sweep, but it seems random.
> >I don't have a clue as to where to start troubleshooting. There have
> >not been any changes made to any part of the system for a couple of
> >months. Any suggestions? I'd sure appreciate any.
>
> It your system "warm", or abnormally warmer than normal? I have a
> Starchoice DSR305 that dops out when it gets excessively warm.

 

[Guest]

Archived from groups: alt.video.satellite.4dtv (More info?)

Believe it or not,for whatever reason the signals "skew angle" changes
depending on the temperature and weather conditions.Go into the OPTIONS
menu,hit OPTIONS 6,4,4 and key on the affected satellite(s) and go to
line 4 MANUAL skew adjustment. In TINY,SMALL adjustments,slowly change
the skew angle.Watch after each adjustment for a few seconds if the
"QUALITY NUMBER" changes for the worse or the better.When you have gone
in both directions and you feel you have maximized this adjustment,THEN
use the left/ right MANUAL adjustment (line 2 ) and see if you can get
some more by adjusting PULSE counts +/- 10 either way.This usually works
for me.I am not saying this is your problem,but you might try it.The
default settings that you initially programmed your receiver with
sometimes do not stay where you put them.DO NOT USE AUTOPEAK,generally
you will make your problem worse.Autopeaking is generally for analog
channels.

 

[Guest]

Archived from groups: alt.video.satellite.4dtv (More info?)

On Sat, 07 Aug 2004 17:57:04 -0700, <bitbucket@linkline.com> wrote:

|Just as I was kicking back thinking my C-Band system was nothing
|requiring any more thought, my wife advised me last evening that all
|of the C-Band 4DTV channels are breaking up. Dang! I went to several
|satellites, and saw the same pixilations. Ku channels and C analog
|are just fine. Signal quality on 4DTV intermittantly drops from
|around 90 to 30 or so. Tried to see if there was any timing
|associated with this, like perhaps a radar sweep, but it seems random.
|I don't have a clue as to where to start troubleshooting. There have
|not been any changes made to any part of the system for a couple of
|months. Any suggestions? I'd sure appreciate any.

Thanks for the suggestions. Don't know what is causing this. Things
are solid again. The aircraft traffic could be the cause since we do
have a great deal of it just to the south of us. All the gear runs in
the living room with reasonably stable temperature but I will check to
make sure the nearby VCR and DVD players are off next time. Hate the
thought of having to buy a waveguide filter to 'maybe' eradicate this.
Next time this happens I will try the gentle skew adjustments
suggested by SAC441. Guess that once thermal and skew are eliminated,
I'll need to borrow a spectrum analyzer and horn to sniff for RFI.