No satellite signal on certain channels

[Bill1968]

Hi, all. I recently moved house and was told by the engineer who came out to set me up (with my existing box and the dish which was already at the property) that I wasn't receiving a signal on input one. He did some checks and fiddled about with the cable outside and was able to get a signal on both inputs. He was at a loss as to what the problem was but was happy he'd fixed it. Sure enough about four days later I start getting a "No signal" message on a number of channels. When I check the signal on the channels that aren't working I see there's nothing on input one (not locked either) but when I check the signal on the channels that do work, the meter for input one is at about 70-80% on strength and quality.

The channel loss was intermittent at first (about 50/50) but now those same channels are getting no signal 100% of the time.

I've tried every conceivable fix known to man, all to no avail, but what's bugging me more than the problem now, is that I can't figure out where the problem lies. I've eliminated the box, as I hooked up a spare and still had the same problem. This leaves cable, LNB, dish, or the channels themselves. I don't imagine it's the channels, but If it's cable, LNB or dish then why do most of the channels work okay?

Sky are upgrading me to Q next week so hopefully that will fix the issue, but it's still bugging me anyway.

Any ideas?

[Mark39 · Accepted solution]

The engineer will check the signal as part of the S,y Q installation, but I'd recommend telling them about the problem you're having and which channels are affected. It's likely to be the result of a faulty LNB or possibly a slight dish misalignment.

[Bill1968]

But if it's LNB or dish alignment, why aren't all the channels out?

[Bill1968]

And why is this thread being shown as 'solved' in the 'suggested threads' list??

[Mark39]

Different channels are on different frequencies and have different tuning characteristics, so may be differently affected.  It's not uncommon for the dish to be unable to pick up the channels allocated to one or more transponders,  while the others are fine.

[Bill1968]

@Mark39 

Ah, okay. That makes it a little easier to understand. So if the dish is slightly misaligned it's perfectly possible only certain channels will be affected?

[Mark39]

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@Bill1968 wrote:

@Mark39 

Ah, okay. That makes it a little easier to understand. So if the dish is slightly misaligned it's perfectly possible only certain channels will be affected?

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Yes, that's right. It's not uncommon. 

[Bill1968]

@Mark39

I wonder if this may shine any light on the problem. If I access the hidden menu and do an LNB reset, I get the problematic channels back, but only for about 2 minutes. They almost immediately start to break up and gradually get worse until pop!  I lose the signal again.

Does that suggest anything?

[Mark39]

It might point towards a failing LNB, but really it will need an engineer to diagnose. 

[Bill1968]

Okay. Thanks very much for all your help, @Mark39 .