11597 Transponder on Astra

[JonathanW]

Hi,

Currently in Italy (Spoleto) at the moment enjoying my Astra/Hotbird & Topfield TF5500PVR setup that was installed by a local technician (well, he put up the dish/LNBs/switch boxes).

During the last couple of weeks any programs on the Astra 11597 transponder i.e Sky News, BBC World etc (typical!) have become almost unwatchable as the 'Quality' is varying wildly from 10~75%.

When originally installed a month or so ago, all was fine. All other Astra transponder/channels are picture perfect. Using knowledge gleaned from this forum I successfully set up my own system in the UK so I feel I am not quite newbie status but this one has me stumped. I am reluctant to call the engineer as his English is as good as my Italian ;-)

Any ideas would be really appreciated.

Jonathan

 

[Analoguesat]

Whilst problems like this are notoriously hard to identify, heres a quick possibility. Do you have a dect phone in the house? If so unplug it and see if its affecting the install. (They often only affect one tranponder)

 

[JonathanW]

Thank you for that - yep, not one but two! However, I tried turning each one off and then both off with no difference.

I have various other bits of PC gear including a Skystar USB hooked up to a Thinkpad (for weather data from Hotbird/EUMETSAT) and turning off the Skystar DID make a huge difference - the quality was still varying slightly but between 60~75%, much better. Weird thing is I am sure the Skystar has been operating when all was well and I know I have not changed the position of either this or the Topfield.

Would the problem be related to the fact that both receivers are linked via DiSEqC boxes (either receiver can get Astra/Hotbird) or is it just a matter of moving the two receivers further apart physically?

Thanks again,

Jonathan