Thomas Reagan

DirecTV problem: 1/2 Dual LNB goes bad?

Hi,

I recently moved into a new home and took the plunge to get DirecTV instead of cable. The house already had a dish and hook up left behind. I took one of those two room/two receivers deals (Dial-a-Dish) that are popular recently. While I waited for the installer to show up, I plugged in one of the boxes and ordered service. Reception was fine. The installer came and changed the single LNB to a dual one and ran a second cable for me into the house for the second room. Both cables were split at a grounding junction in the basement. About a week after installation, I lost reception in the room that I had been watching TV in (the second room was not set up yet; basement renovations). I called the installer and he said the LNB must be bad, and I should be able to get a new one free from Dial-a-Dish. In the meantime, he said the LNB might not be totally dead, and I should try swapping the leads at the grounding post. That worked, and I just waited for my replacement LNB to show up.

I finally got the new one, went up the ladder, swapped the LNB's, and both leads were live again. Yay !

A week later the signal went out again. I swapped the leads in the basement, and sure enough, as before, one side worked while the other one was dead.

So now I have 1/2 an LNB again. What are the odds of a second LNB having the identical problem of the first and the same side of the LNB going dead again? Could it be an issue of cheap equipment (it was free after all). Has anyone had similar problems? How did you resolve them?

Thanks in advance,

Thos.

PS Can anyone recommend a DSS receiver which has a serial port compatible with a TiVo HDR312. The mouse that came with the TiVo doesn't always work.

Robert_J

Are you talking about using an actual one input/two output cable splitter? Those do NOT work with satellites.

What are the symptoms? Do you lose odd or even channels? Lose all channels?

If you don't have a splitter, have you done any other trouble shooting? When you have an outage, swap the receivers to eliminate the chance of it being a bad receiver. Swap the cables at the LNB to eliminate the chance of it being a bad LNB. That leave a bad cable or F-connector. Check each one carefully to make sure there is no shielding toughing the center conductor. Make sure there is no moisture in the connector. If you get it working seal each connection with some special tape from Radio Shack. It will make a weatherproof cover over each. Make sure the center conductor is long enough to make contact in the receiver (I had this problem when I switched from Dish to DirecTV).

If you get locals from D* (or live near a city that does) dump the stand alone Tivo and get a DirecTivo.

-Robert