Freesat callout. Octo LNB issue with raincover.

[IbanezSatWorks]

Hi all,


Been reading the forum and the help looks really positive. Wondering if anyone can advise. Got called out to a Freesat fault this evening. A Huwell OCTO LNB that used to have Sky but the new owners havn't opted for that and just have 2 TV's running Freesat.

Owner of house called and said she had no signal, completely dead, so stuck a meter on it and got about 55 S and 49 Q which was obviously too low. When I got to the LNB , I noticed that the raincover was UP revealing all of the terminals; not a good sign. The dish was a tiny bit wobbly, so got it to lock and for all the fine tuning just couldn't get any above this. She said signal worked fine before this.

The second thing I discovered was a join in an outside cable covered with insulation tape, upon inspecting the join, it was brittle, corroded and broke apart very quickly.

The LNB is still getting signal, albeit poor; am I right in thinking that the break in the cable, coupled with the fact that the raincover has been up for the best part of a decade, would explain the "weak" signal. Of course I'm going to replace the LNB, but I'm not 100% certain this will boost the percentages? I've never been to a dish callout and seen a raincover up before

Thanks!

 

[Analoguesat]

There is a VERY good chance the cable is full of rainwater. Insulation tape is not waterproof so it WILL have let water into the join and almost certainly into the interior of the cable too.

If so the entire cable run will need replacing.

 

[IbanezSatWorks]

There is a VERY good chance the cable is full of rainwater. Insulation tape is not waterproof so it WILL have let water into the join and almost certainly into the interior of the cable too.

If so the entire cable run will need replacing.

That's definitely my plan for that cable. I know that any water ingress outside has a very heavy chance of shorting the LNB. So I would assume that the LNB is likely knackered?

 

[Analoguesat]

I had a failed cable join fill one of my satellite cables up with rainwater a few years ago - on the Sky box. I had lost most but not all of the frequencies. When I disconnected the cable I watched a a good pint of water dribble out

I swapped the cable & it all worked fine!

 

[Terryl]

I always put some coax rated silicon grease in all connections, and use compression water tight connectors.