Shaw Signal Drop 15:00 Saturday

[mkshawn]

We have experienced a drop in signal strength #40? Receiver keeps attempting to Reacquire the signal, Red to Green every 6 seconds

Checked mounting brackets: All very tight, same for all connections at dish & back of 505HD receiver. Are the current comets possibly causing interference? Last evening reception was excellent?

Now solid Green Strength 36-37? Nothing so Shut down for a slow 15 count restarted to solid Red 15-20 sec then Green for 5sec

[snowyco]

I just checked Shaw ABC out of Seattle and TSN (112) and Shaw ABC out of NY City and the current signals are strong. A similar thing to what you described happened on a friend's Shaw system - and it was due to his LNB shifting a little. Have all channels dropped by the about the same amount? or are some channels still strong? If all have dropped, it is possible that your LNB shifted. The body of the LNB must be rotated to the correct angle to get maximum signals and the head of the LNB's input horn must be positioned at the focal point of the dish. Do you have a multi-head LNB with an elliptical dish? If your cable going to the LNB is not secured and the wind blows on it, the cable can move the LNB. Black electrical tape does a good job of securing the cable to the support arm after you adust the LNB position to get maximum signal strength.

Tight connections does not say much about the quality of a high frequency signal connection. At another time, a friend's Shaw system had some channels stay strong, while others (like TSN on 112) signal strength dropped down into the 30's, and his problem was light corrosion at 2 different connections on the cable between the LNB and the receiver. The light corrosion selectively affected some frequencies (channels) and not others. I used some NASA anticorrosive lube on the cable connection at the back of the receiver and on the LNB connection to the cable, and within 15 minutes, the anticorrosive lube reversed the corrosion and channels 111 & 112 recovered high signal strengths back above 95%. The little copper wire at the center of the connections should be bright and shiny at the LNB, at the back of the receiver, and at any connections or junctions in between. The braided wire shielding must also have good contacts with the crimped cable ends. If there are shabby or compromised connections (no blackened coating, no hazy whitish coating, and no powdery white material) at these junctions of either the signal wire or the grounded shielding wires, then you may have to cut off the bad end, and install a new terminal (unless you have NASA lube). I especially like the NASA lube, because it allows high frequency signals to move freely on the Ghz satellite signal connections and also on computer ribbon cable connectors. The oily component lasts at least a year, protecting the connection from future corrosion. Once you have bright and shiny connections, entombing the cable connections in black silicone is an even better measure to exclude moisture and oxygen that cause corrosion. Some guys use WD-40 to reverse corrosion, but WD-40 evaporates over time and leaves a black residue. One friend who has used WD-40 on his computer cables found it worked for a few months, but not as well as the NASA lube.

[johanson]

Please remember folks that when you quote a channel #, you have to let us know whether you have the classic channel list that was used by Star Choice where the smallest channel # is 200 or the new channel list started by Shaw Direct when they bought out Star Choice where they start at either 100 or even a smaller Number.

Sadly, at the moment signals coming from Anik F-2 located at 111.1 West are not coming in, while those from the old satellite Anik F-1r are coming in.

Why is one of the satellites not working? I don't know. But I too am having problems with those signals that are normally in HD and no problems with those channels in SD.

Let's hope that this isn't a permanent problem.

[penny]

We are also experiencing the same trouble--no HD, only SD channels.

Hopefully it will all work itself out.

[johanson]

I just checked. Anik-F2 (the HD channels) is working again, thank goodness.

[mkshawn]

Who knows, 1 hr later± I have a signal. Hold on it is gone again?

[mkshawn]

It quit as they were delivering a PPV without any subscription. To bad it was a good movie! Took a few senior minutes to realize that all my channels are back & counting.

Tks all for the help. Comet Storms or something up above?

[snowyco]

Please remember folks that when you quote a channel #, you have to let us know whether you have the classic channel list that was used by Star Choice where the smallest channel # is 200 or the new channel list started by Shaw Direct when they bought out Star Choice where they start at either 100 or even a smaller Number.

Sadly, at the moment signals coming from Anik F-2 located at 111.1 West are not coming in, while those from the old satellite Anik F-1r are coming in.

Why is one of the satellites not working? I don't know. But I too am having problems with those signals that are normally in HD and no problems with those channels in SD.

Let's hope that this isn't a permanent problem.

Good point. The 112 TSN and ABC NY and Seattle are all SD channels for us and they are on the new Shaw system with channels ranging down into the 1 - 10 range.