Sky Q - satellite signal strength and quality

[dragon+attack]

My satellite dish is situated on a crown (flat) roof of a tall house with clear, unimpeded sight of whichever satellite it is pointing at.  The dish was installed in 2020, so it's not old.  My question is why is my signal strength only ever a maximum of 50?  The signal quality is 90.

I don't generally have any issues with getting a signal or the picture, but why isn't the signal strength 80 or 90 and what difference does it make having a low signal strength?

I have read that swapping over the 2 connections into the Q box may improve the signal strength, but I am unclear why that would make any difference.

Thanks.

[nigea99]

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@dragon+attack wrote:

My satellite dish is situated on a crown (flat) roof of a tall house with clear, unimpeded sight of whichever satellite it is pointing at.  The dish was installed in 2020, so it's not old.  My question is why is my signal strength only ever a maximum of 50?  The signal quality is 90.

I don't generally have any issues with getting a signal or the picture, but why isn't the signal strength 80 or 90 and what difference does it make having a low signal strength?

I have read that swapping over the 2 connections into the Q box may improve the signal strength, but I am unclear why that would make any difference.

Thanks.

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hi @dragon+attack 

Possibly the cause is a very slight misalignemnet, unless you are,say,  verynortherly with the  smaller dish used for the South

The key reading is Signal Quality, although a lower signal strength may lead to loss of quality during adverse weather conditions. A signal strength of 50 does seem low though 

BTW In case you are not aware the Signal condition indicators on SKY Q do not report on the channel you are watching but  a  fixed transponderset in an Engineer's menu

Swapping the cables over has no bearing - each cable for SKY Q carriesthe signals from the different polarities (i.e one for Horizontally polarised transponders & the other vertical ones)  

[Godfrey]

@dragon+attack   A few questions;

What is the total length of the coaxial cables that run between the Sky MiniDish LNB and your Sky Q receiver?

Is the outer diameter of these coaxial cables 4.8 mm or 6.6 mm ( ie   CT63 / WF65 or CT100 / WF100 )

Is your Sky MiniDish the small default Zone 1 dish or a larger Zone 2 dish?  ( 45 cm or 65 cm width )

What county are you located in?

Godfrey.

[dragon+attack]

Thanks for the reply.

I am in Hampshire, with a straight line view of the main radio transmitters on the Isle of Wight.  I believe the dish is 45cm, but there is no access to the crown roof (dumb decision by developer), so I cannot check.

Interesting question re. the length of the cables between the LNB and receiver.  It is a tall, 3-story house and the satellite (and terrestrial aerial) are routed via a distribution amplifier, located on the top floor.  We have active coaxial sockets for the satellite signal in several rooms, although only use the 2 sockets in the main room where the Q box and TV are located.  Therefore, I'm not sure the total length of cabling as the cables do not go directly from the LNB to the Q box.

Because the sockets on the wall bringing the signal from the dish/amplifier are coaxial, I am using RF female socket to F type screw male plug adapter converters to connect to the Q box.  In my previous house, the cables from the LNB were routed directly through the wall, which is the standard way I think, but means drilling holes in your wall.

The cables going into the distribution amplifier are all 4.8mm.

Thanks.

[nigea99]

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@dragon+attack wrote:

Thanks for the reply.

I am in Hampshire, with a straight line view of the main radio transmitters on the Isle of Wight.  I believe the dish is 45cm, but there is no access to the crown roof (dumb decision by developer), so I cannot check.

Interesting question re. the length of the cables between the LNB and receiver.  It is a tall, 3-story house and the satellite (and terrestrial aerial) are routed via a distribution amplifier, located on the top floor.  We have active coaxial sockets for the satellite signal in several rooms, although only use the 2 sockets in the main room where the Q box and TV are located.  Therefore, I'm not sure the total length of cabling as the cables do not go directly from the LNB to the Q box.

Because the sockets on the wall bringing the signal from the dish/amplifier are coaxial, I am using RF female socket to F type screw male plug adapter converters to connect to the Q box.  In my previous house, the cables from the LNB were routed directly through the wall, which is the standard way I think, but means drilling holes in your wall.

The cables going into the distribution amplifier are all 4.8mm.

Thanks.

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Ahh so in your case you are not connected directly to the dish but a Communal distribution system  so my guess is that the dish is more likely to be OK but somthing in the distibution system amy result in the lower signal strength that those connected directly to their own dish see.

@Godfrey  is our expert here  

[Godfrey]

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@dragon+attackwrote ...........the satellite (and terrestrial aerial) are routed via a distribution amplifier, located on the top floor.  We have active coaxial sockets for the satellite signal in several rooms, although only use the 2 sockets in the main room where the Q box and TV are located.  Because the sockets on the wall bringing the signal from the dish/amplifier are coaxial, I am using RF female socket to F type screw male plug adapter converters to connect to the Q box.  In my previous house, the cables from the LNB were routed directly through the wall, which is the standard way I think, but means drilling holes in your wall.

The cables going into the distribution amplifier are all 4.8mm.

I have read that swapping over the 2 connections into the Q box may improve the signal strength, but I am unclear why that would make any difference.

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Sorry for all the additional questions, but your last message raises more questions than answers in my mind.

If this is an industry standard communal distribution system, feeding several wall mounted media plates, then I would have expected all the coaxial cables to at be at least the industry standard CT100 / WF100 6.6 mm outer diameter cables, with only one Single Cable Router (SCR) coaxial cable connection cable being required from the wall mounted media plates to feed your Sky Q receiver. Additionally, if this is a normal communal Integrated Reception System then the satellite transponder signals would emerge from a female 'F' connector on the media plate, so your mention of needing to use adaptors to connect to your Sky Q receiver raises further questions.............

Could you therefore post clear photographs of the central distribution amplifier and the wall mounted media plates in an attempt to establish exactly what type of distribution amplifier / dSCR multiswitch has been installed, and why you need to use adaptors to connect from the wall mounted media plates to your Sky Q receiver.

Lastly, as your last message mentions 'plug adaptor converters' do you have one or two coaxial cables feeding the satellite transponder signals into your Sky Q receiver. ( Thus, is it a conventional communal Single Cable Router (SCR) signal or a very unusual twin cable Wideband LNB distribution system )

Godfrey.

[dragon+attack]

I have attached photos of the 2x Q box cables connected to the coaxial media plate.  Is this the unusual twin cable wideband set up you mention?  I didn't want to disconnect the cables and disrupt the signal to the Q box.  You can see the adapters being used.  Also a photo of the same media plate in another room in the house.  Lastly, a photo of the distribution amplifier.

Just to clarify, this is not a communal system used by multiple different occupants.  It's a new build house, which came with the set up described in this thread.  Interestingly when the Sky engineer installed the Q box, he did not know how to connect the Q box cables to the media plate as he'd not seen that method of connection before.

Thanks for all the advice.

[dragon+attack]

[dragon+attack]

Apologies, my old eyes mis-measured the cable diameter.  They are 6.6mm.

Thanks.

[dragon+attack]

What I haven't shown (because it's hidden) is that there's another single cable behind the wall-mounted TV for the Freesat connection (normal aerial socket on TV).  So the 2 cables shown in the photo are just for the satellite signal.

[nigea99]

hi @dragon+attack 

Many thanks for the images.

It seems to be a  non-standard  set up  - especially using TV aerial style wall  connections for the Satellite rather than standard F-connections

The distributioon amplifier your image shows looks to me  like it iis the Freeview TV system  feeding the connection you have direct to your TV(which I presume you meant rather than Freesat)  - although @Godfrey is more likely to know if it could be used for dSCR signals 

BTW if using dSCR you would only need a single connection

I don't suppose you have spotted  another distibution amplifier which I think is likely to have at least 2 Satellite inputs (more likely to have 4)  

[Godfrey]

@dragon+attack   The amplifier shown in your photograph is just being used for distribution of UHF Terrestrial Television signals.

We will probably never find out why the person who installed the media plates for your Wideband satellite signals chose to use the wrong type of sockets.

If they have actually installed a device to distribute your wideband satellite signals in more than one room they might have used passive splitters, which would help to explain why the Wideband LNB signals are lower than expected.

Godfrey.

[dragon+attack]

@Godfrey 

There is a cabling box below the amplifier.  Photo attached.

There is no other amplifier that I am aware of.  I am assuming from this that 2 cables run from the wideband LNB on the dish into this box and then down to the 2 coaxial sockets in the lounge.  Not sure why there are 3 cables with F-type connectors (quad LNB with a spare?) and I don't really want to start pulling the cables.  It may be that there is another live coaxial socket for satellite in, say, the master bedroom.  I don't know.  I have 2 Sky minboxes, so don't need another Sky Q box.

I think the reason why the developer (not the satellite installer) fitted coaxial sockets was to provide flexibility for the home owner to choose what they used those sockets for, but agree it was a strange decision.

Is there anything I can practically do to improve the signal strength above 50?

Thanks.

[Godfrey]

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@dragon+attack wrote:......I think the reason why the developer (not the satellite installer) fitted coaxial sockets was to provide flexibility for the home owner to choose what they used those sockets for, but agree it was a strange decision.

Is there anything I can practically do to improve the signal strength above 50?

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My crystal ball suggests to me that your unexplained signal loss might be due to the cables behind the incorrect media plate have been forced to bend much tighter than the minimum bending radius of around 66 mm, by an untrained operative / electrician, and one of the inner conductors has possibly broken.

If you changed LNB cable A and B over in the top distribution box it would mean that the Wideband LNB Horizontally and Vertically polarised transponder signals would then use a different coaxial cable down to the Lounge media plate, and if this now gave a much stronger signal indication from your Sky Q receiver default channel it might well confirm this possibility without you having to unscrew the media plate which always creates the possibity of further damage as the cables are initially pulled out of the backing box for inspection and then forced back into the backing box to allow the media plate to be screwed back in its original position,

Additionally, the coaxial cable presently feeding LNB 'B' signal to your lounge media plate does not look as if it is fully tightened onto the F type coupler.

Godfrey.

[dragon+attack]

@GodfreyThanks, that's super helpful.  I will check the connections in the cabling box and swap them over and see how that affects the signal strength and quality.

Your crystal ball is correct that all the cabling in the house was done by electricians and the guy that installed the satellite complained to me that they don't take care when installing non-electrical cabling, e.g. stripping some the sheathing from RJ45 cables.

Any thoughts on what cable "C" is, with the other F type connector?

Thanks again.