I am having big problems with my Sky TV during heavy rain and especially thunder storms; the picture breaks up for certain channels to the point where I get the "no signal is being received" message on the blue screen. Mostly it's the BBC, ITV & C4 channels being effected, I can still watch some other channels with no problem. What I'm not sure about if it's an alignment problem or if it's normal for Sky digital here in CH. Can anyone else who has got Sky let me know if they have this too.

Thanks,

Lou

how big is your dish?
it sounds like alignment....here's a test so you can see strength + quality on the 2D transponders - which are the weakest ones:

• You will have to go to the installer menu Services 4, 0, 1 Select (exactly in that order), then go to Manual Installation.
• Frequency 10773 Horizontal, FEC = 5/6 and Symbol Rate=22.0
• Then go to the last line then Select, you should then get the signal meters showing you the strength of the 2D channel.

I bet the quality is low.

What can you do?

• Loosen the LNB holder and gently rotate the LNB, This is called skew. Recheck the signal
• If that fails to improve the quality, minor reallignments may help
• It could be LNB failing, tuner failing, cabling problem, water seeping into cables - if you're still stuck, a professional with a proper digital satmeter will have it fixed in 5 minutes....

PS: I have only lost reception when the snow was a foot deep on my 1 metre dish - fixed with a cunningly-placed broom and some old-fashioned brute force & pig ignorance

Thanks for the quick reply Lob. I have a feeling that it may be an allignment problem as I suspect some kids that were playing in my garden may have bumped the dish, but as this was only days after getting it installed and before any rain I was not sure. I'll check out your instructions and see what happens.

Cheers, Lou

Lob - Mr Satman!
Another quick question.
We have just upgraded to Skyplus and installed it ourselves using the ID lock on signal strength on a suck it and see basis! (shouting alot).
We also sometimes have problems during bad weather.

For curiosity's sake, I follwed your instructions but the results I got were
Freq of 11.778
FEC of 2/3
Symbol = 27.5

Now, should I be worried?

I should say that it doesn't happen too often (poor reception) and we're not that bothered anyway - but I am curious.

if you highlight each line, you can change the frequency with the number keys and using the left/right direction keys on the remote, you can change FEC and symbol rate.....

btw the best way to fine-tune your signal reception using the meter in the box is to walk back and forth yourself. Alternately, adjust, wait 5 seconds then tell the other person to report the change.

Unsolicited shouting from that person is a hinder to you. Trust me....first time I did my Sky Digital, I had 4 people "advising" me. Two hours in November on the balcony is cold.....

Needless to say, next morning at 7am when they were all asleep, it took 5 minutes.

Lob, I checked the settings last night and have a wee question. I found that the settings on my Digibox are the same as misplacedheidi's settings. Does this mean that they are set up for reception in the UK still and need to be changed to the ones you recommended? Do these recommended settings pertain to reception in CH? I'm not doubting your advice just curious as to what they mean.

Cheers, Lou

effectively what you're doing is changing some parameters to search a transponder. You need to change the settings from their initial values on the page using numbers for the frequency and left/right for the other settings.

The last option you Select and it'll search - and show signal/quality for BBC channels. Your quality will be low, I bet.

Lob,

I went to the manual tuning and changed the settings but don-t manage to get more than say 50% signal strengh and about 30% signal quality (whereas with the previous settings I was well above 75% in both).... funny thing is that I get to see BBC 1 and 2 whereas before I didn-t (and the image is just fineas well)

.....I have a 80cm dish and a 5db LNB,

the manual tuning gives you a hint as to how strong you're getting Beeb, etc. But I don't understand your problem - or don't you have one? In bad weather you might lose BBC and so-on.

Lob,

Thanks for the reply. I only get channel 4, ITV2 and the travel channel (the rest is crap).... I don't manage to get a strong signal these days for the 10.773 freq, but I do for the default(11.778 V??) I don-t know what to do.....or we just can't get BBC1,2,3,4 ch5 etc on a rainy day? (i.e. from now until May?)

thanks

I used to lose regional channels such as BBC, ITV etc in the rain or thick fog but this has ceased to be a problem since the dish was upgraded to a larger model.

Clearly some signals are stonger than others and of the free to air ones, Sky News will hang on when the others are lost. That said my 60cm dish receives 99% of the time. It is only in a heavy thunderstorm - more likely in August than the winter - that I lose the signal and then usually for only a few minutes. I think you need to check the alignment of your dish...

I have been supplying and fitting Sky systems in Switzerland for over 10 years now and although the standard mini dish works in fine weather, the FTV channels are on a different footprint and supposedly need a 90cm to 1m dish over here. That said, the Zone 2 dish ( 60cm ) works well in all but very rainy weather. Even a 1.2m dish will lose signal in heavy thunder storms. The secret is very accurate alignment. Signal quality should always be higher than strength

Any reason why, although I'm subscribed to the Sky sports and movies package, I can get Sky Sports 1 &3 but not Sky Sports 2, and on movies I can get channels 1, 3, 5, 7, 9 but not 2, 4, 6, 8, 10?

Is there something significant about even numbers?

your alignment or skew is out.
I assume you get a "no signal received" message?

Sky Sports 2 rules....

I love Movie Channels 2,4,6,8 and 10.

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To be honest, I can get them all, but have major issues with all ITV programs (no great loss there) especially when it rains or is stormy, but anyone know why?


H

yes; you have too small a dish or your allignment or skew is out.

Are you saying I have a small dish?????

Can I still skew around with a small dish?

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Seriously now, do I need to pay someone to sort out my alignment (if that is the problem) or is there a sneaky DIY way of sorting it out. I can't miss another episode of Harry Hill's TV Burp!!!

Yes, The dish is to small. I had the same problem as I was using the original Sky dish it was having problems getting a signal in bad weather and overall generally. I now have a 70cm dish and I can get all programmes, including itv3 and 4. And so easy to install.