[bikestuff]

Gang,

I have a Winegard Trav'ler SK3005 antenna that is causing me problems.  My setup has two directv receivers and both receivers are having the problems.  The issue is that some channels show an error message related to signal strength.

Here are the facts...

1.  The satellite box has an asterisk on all three birds (101, 110 and 119).  That means that the receiver can see the satellites.
2.  When I look at signal strength for the transponders on 101, I see mostly 99 or 100 percent signal strength.
3.  On some transponders the signal strength is much less...around 30-50.
4.  Have reset everything with no change.

So the question is...What can cause some transponders to have much lower signal than the others?

I have swapped my two DirecTV receivers with no change.  (Including the B-Band converter)  
I have also swapped the cables between the two receivers and don't see much of a change.

Cheers,
bill

[bikestuff]

Ok, upon further research, it appears that the transponder business is a red-herring. Directv says that some transponders are expected to have low signals.

But I am still having problems with some channels.

Update: It appears that the problem is that I have a low signal level coming from the antenna. While I can move the problem from front to back....it seems as if the signal level is degraded on both cables coming from the antenna. While I have not been on top of the coach to check the cables, it would all make sense if there are corroded connections between the antenna and the cables that enter the coach.

[folivier]

That would have been my suggestion to run a new cable temporarily from the dish to a receiver and see if that fixes the problem.
I use Deoxit to clean electrical connections.

[Richard]

Forrest

That is logical, BUT with the winegard the cable must go through the base. I tried going straight from the head to the receiver and that doesn't work at all. Winegard told me I had to go through the base and I didn't believe them so I had to try it. Funny, they knew what they were talking about

[Junior Guru]

I had similar issue. Finally climbed on roof. Glad I did. Cables were loose, the winegard dome was dented which interfered with the function, and the dome was loose. Cleaned and tightened everything up and no issues since.

[bikestuff]

Update:

I am at Newell. We climbed up top and found that the control cable going to the InMotion antenna is completely degraded (UV damage). The cable going to the SK-3000 looks ok but the coax cables look a little iffy. The connectors were tight and had little if any corrosion.

So my questions are:

1) How do you tell if the dish part is warped. Is there a signature that will tell you this?
2) What do I do about the control cables on the InMotion. Newell says they don't have the cables and the InMotion worked the last time I tried it. (I could cover it with Eternabond, but am worried about water getting under the tape and causing more troubles)
3) Is there any way to isolate the LNB?
4) The problem occurs on both of my receivers, though one is much worse than the other. Could it be that two receivers failed at the same time?

cheers,
bill

[Richard]

When you have locked onto 101, and you look at the other two birds do any of the versions of the bird have a strong signal? For example, I may get a Zero on "b" but a high ninety on "ca".

[Yachts]

Bill we could both put ours up and compare signal strength