Viasat signal drop off after 5pm on 4.8'E

[tottenham]

Hi all,

In recent weeks i have been experiencing picture breakup on my official viasat package in the evenings. I decided something must have happened my dish so on saturday i took my signal meter out to my dish to check. At around 2pm i was getting great results- about 56% quality on the horizontals and 59% on the verticals which i have always found stronger (I have found that a quality level of around 40% clears on my receiver). I watched a match yesterday fine but around 5:15pm i noticed that picture breakup was begining to happen. So i went out again around 7pm to check the dish with my meter and found that the quality readings on the horizontals had dropped to around 37% and 44% on the verticals. The cloud cover was roughly the same on both occassions. I have this 1.85m prime focus dish installed for about 6 months and this is the first time i have had any problems.

Is anyone else experiencing this? I know from reading the forums that people in Spain loose some of there S*k*y channels at night- not sure why though.

Any advice would be greatly appreciated.

Trev

[Burnham]

I read in your earlier posts that the dish is located in Northern Ireland so you need someone located there to comment on reception of 5°e.

There is often a drift of the footprint over a 24 hour period but only people on the edge of the footprint can detect this.

[fernandez]

Whilst I can't explain your particular problem, this sums up the situation with S*y in Spain and ou may find it interesting and may have some answers

h**p://costablancasatellite.blogspot.com/2011/06/satellite-signal-fade-at-night-in-spain.html

[BW12]

We used to get the same problem years ago in the UK from the sat at the 5e position when it was known as sirius. Other than getting a much bigger dish I don't think you will overcome it.

[echelon]

Hi all,

In recent weeks i have been experiencing picture breakup on my official viasat package in the evenings. I decided something must have happened my dish so on saturday i took my signal meter out to my dish to check. At around 2pm i was getting great results- about 56% quality on the horizontals and 59% on the verticals which i have always found stronger (I have found that a quality level of around 40% clears on my receiver). I watched a match yesterday fine but around 5:15pm i noticed that picture breakup was begining to happen. So i went out again around 7pm to check the dish with my meter and found that the quality readings on the horizontals had dropped to around 37% and 44% on the verticals. The cloud cover was roughly the same on both occassions. I have this 1.85m prime focus dish installed for about 6 months and this is the first time i have had any problems.

Is anyone else experiencing this? I know from reading the forums that people in Spain loose some of there S*k*y channels at night- not sure why though.

Any advice would be greatly appreciated.

Trev

the answer is simple , sky is aimed at the uk and ireland and not spain

4.8e is aimed at scandinavia and not the uk or ireland

so as mentioned above the further you are away from the footprint of the beam the worse the signals , and if the satellite is in one of those strange orbits or is inclined then the problem you are getting happens , and as BW12 said we used to get it a lot on 4.8 due to the inclined or elliptical orbit , never mind the eclipse effect as mentioned in that blog

_http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Inclined_orbit

the easy answer is move house to a region in the strongest spotlight of the beam and you wont have the problem , and a smaller dish can be used , which is why in england we use 39cm dishes and in malia in crete they use ENORMOUS dishes for sly reception , like the Union Jack pub for instance :D _http://www.trazzler.com/trips/union-jack-pub-in-malia-kriti-gr

so as phil and kirstie would say , LOCATION , LOCATION , LOCATION

or get a dish like that one on the union jack pub , and a controller to track the ellipse

[supakev]

also on saturday at around 5pm over the uk there was a lot of bad weather and electric storms even sky uk went off here for a while this may have contributed,however i find the signal stronger in the evening than in the morning here in north east england.

[keith mawer]

moving home is a bit drastic!!!!:respect-069:

[echelon]

moving home is a bit drastic!!!!:respect-069:

but highly effective and guaranteed to work ;)

I am always amazed that people who dont live inside the footprint of a satellite complain about reception problems from it

reminds me of this thread here https://www.satpimps.co.uk/showthread.php?151404-What-size-dish-for-Sky-in-Saudi

if you do receive channels from satellites not targeted on your location its a bonus , not a right , and the broadcasters would prefer to tightly focus their beams so that only the target audience can receive them , which would cause even more problems for those on the fringes

[satwyn]

you mention 1.8m dish this can also make a difference top quality dishes can out perform the fortec petalised ones try elite antennas for a 2m-2.2m prime focus dish what frequency on 5e are you getting trouble with

[inherent]

Solar wind.

as the satellite goes into darkness,it is protected from the solar wind.

this moves the satellite,hence change in fringe reception

cheers

[Raitsa]

I have the very same problem regarding 28E here in Finland, where the 4.8E Sirius beam is aimed at ;)

Maybe we need to change houses? :)

[tottenham]

Hi all,

I understand the principle of fringe reception i.e. the further you are away the harder it is to get. All i was trying to say was that i did have had a good solid strong reception 24/7 for around 6 months but in the last 4 weeks the signal has started to drop off in the evening.

T

[Burnham]

As I said in the very first reply you really need to get a reception report for 5°e from someone living near you (Northern Ireland / north of RoI)

Then you can judge whether you are getting the best out of your dish size or whether you are underperforming the benchmark.

[satwyn]

Hi all,

I understand the principle of fringe reception i.e. the further you are away the harder it is to get. All i was trying to say was that i did have had a good solid strong reception 24/7 for around 6 months but in the last 4 weeks the signal has started to drop off in the evening.

Ti understand your question as to why the signal has dropped now but i don't have the answer but if you need a cure a bigger dish would help also try another lnb to see if you can get bit more signal out of the system also some receivers have better tuners but when the weather gets worse heavy rain you will need even more gain i will if i get time try my 1.8m prime focus dish on 5e to see what the results are i'm not in ireland but not too far away in north wales coast

[ouagadougou]

Diurnal variation is normal for all radio signals and also annual variation is quite normal as well and is caused by changes in the atmospheric conditions on the radio path. Then you can add to this the variation caused by the movement of the satellite as it moves within its orbital slot and the resulting change in pointing of the satellite antenna. The satellite antennas beam centre is kept pointing at its intended service area +/- whatever the service specification is and the signal received off centre is not guaranteed in any way but that's half the fun of trying to get the fringe signals.

Luckily most satellite signals are received at a fairly high angle and so the worst effects of diurnal variation caused by atmospheric changes are reduced. Try receiving a satellite with a low elevation angle of less than 5 degrees and see how much that signal varies over time. I have seen terrestrial microwave links that fade by over 40dB during the worst fading in desert climates so the average few dB we see on our satellite TV signals is nothing really. Sunset to sunrise is the accepted worst period for fading of these type of radio signals because the atmosphere is more disturbed during this time.

Cheers.

[echelon]

or to put it another way

its a fact of life , or physics , get used to it !! :D

[radtom]

it is a fact of life ,thats what makes this hobby so interesting.change the lnb,adjust the elevation,tweak this,tweak that,stand behind the dish and see if a tree is starting to interfer with the signal.its all good fun,especialy when it works.

[3tv]

all the electronics onboard a satellite are powered by solar during day light, once the satellite is plunged into darkness it has to rely on battery power.

[Keano]

Hi all,

I understand the principle of fringe reception i.e. the further you are away the harder it is to get. All i was trying to say was that i did have had a good solid strong reception 24/7 for around 6 months but in the last 4 weeks the signal has started to drop off in the evening.

T

M8 its nothing new and its happening because of the winter. I had the same problem with 7.0w when I had my 240cm dish. The Earth is set at a angle so come the winter months you are even further away from the footprint and of course the Earth spins so at different times of the day you will get signal drop. This is not a problem if you are under the footprint but if you are not and are already border line then once the Earth moves then bye bye signal. If you can get a globe then you will see what I mean.


Have a read of this and this might help you to understand

h**p://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Earth%27s_rotation

Replace * with t

[echelon]

M8 its nothing new and its happening because of the winter. I had the same problem with 7.0w when I had my 240cm dish. The Earth is set at a angle so come the winter months you are even further away from the footprint and of course the Earth spins so at different times of the day you will get signal drop. This is not a problem if you are under the footprint but if you are not and are already border line then once the Earth moves then bye bye signal. If you can get a globe then you will see what I mean.


Have a read of this and this might help you to understand

h**p://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Earth%27s_rotation

Replace * with t

its also worth noting that the recent earthquake with tsunami in japan also knocked the earths axis by another degree I think

as you say , its nothing new and the various eclipses of the earth or moon cause light to fade and plunge us into darkness , been happening for thousands of years , and I remember listening to radio luxembourg which used to fade out at night due to tropospheric scatter or whatever , and I remember learning about it at college in radio and line transmission decades ago LOL :D

it seems to me he got the system just after the spring problem time and has now hit the autumn problem time , thereby assuming the bit in the middle would be the same all year round

[renshai]

@tottenham
living of the east coast of Ireland just South of Drogheda. I too have the experience you talked of. My peak signal on5e has almost halved this last four weeks. Cannot explain why though, perhaps the Winter has to a factor?