Old sky dish, no signal

Sone · 21 Jun 2010 at 11:36

We had sky digital installed around 1999/2000 and had a mini dish on the front of the house. Upgraded to Sky+ around 2007 and a new dish was installed at the back (installers said they could not go on sloped roof to fit new cable / lnb)

The cable has since been outside but the end has been sealed with loads of electrical tape. Just tried to use it again but getting no signal, what could it be, misaligned dish? Waterloged cable? Dead LNB?

If it is just misaligned is there any easy way to tell?

Corasik · 21 Jun 2010 at 12:08

Probably a corroaded LNB. One of the reasons that Sky STB's have such a "high" standby power usage is the fact they keep the LNB powered up all the time. It's said that keeping the LNB powered up (and slightly warm) helps prevent condensation and corrosion.

Missalignment generally causes poor signal, and poor quality, unless the dish has really changed directions. The arm on the minidish is a bit weak though, so its not impossible that the lnb is no longer focussed on the dish properly.

Waterlogged cable is possible, but if the install was decent in the first place shouldnt be the problem.

supermodder · 21 Jun 2010 at 13:57

try getting one of these, it will tell you if you are receiving a signal from your lnb and if the dish is receiving the enough signal for a picture. should help with your fault finding. if the lnb is non responsive take it of the arm of the dish and take it apart and check for any corrosion and clean with a fibre tipped contact cleaning pen. If this still doesnt work it could be the box itself. the website linked here: http://cpc.farnell.com/slx/27867r/tv-signal-meter/dp/AP02083 should be able to find a new lnb.
The other option is to tell sky you want to cancel your subscription if you still have one because you are not receiving a picture and they should waver the call out and repair fee if you continue subscription. Hope this has helped

bitslice · 27 Jun 2010 at 17:29

I thought I might tag my question on here

I have a really old sky 80cm dish and have a couple of things I wanted to check

I'm assuming that a bigger dish must be better than a small one, so I was thinking of just replacing the existing LNB and keeping the dish? Maybe rewire it to

As I understand it, dual LNB's are required if I want to watch one channel, record another?

LNB's all seem to have different fittings, how do I tell what fitting mine is?

I haven't got sky or a freeview aerial yet

bitslice · 27 Jun 2010 at 17:30

I thought I might tag my question on here

I have a really old sky 80cm dish and have a couple of things I wanted to check

I'm assuming that a bigger dish must be better than a small one, so I was thinking of just replacing the existing LNB and keeping the dish? Maybe rewire it too

As I understand it, dual LNB's are required if I want to watch one channel, record another?

LNB's all seem to have different fittings, how do I tell what fitting mine is?

I haven't got sky or a freeview aerial yet

Sone · 27 Jun 2010 at 21:15

got it working with a new LNB, so thought i would tag a question on.

Box is an old Sky not used for about a year, works with the blue card but when i put the new white one in keeps telling me to replace old viewing card and retry in 5 mins. Have i just waited to long to swap cards? (white card was still on letter so i know its the right one to replace the blue card)

EDIT: Just rang a very confused sky and its all working