Satellite Problems

#11

JamesAnderson wrote:Anyone else have that glitch at the end of the priesthood session?

Not in Layton, UT. Solid signal clean through.

Does anyone know if they going to make the special broadcast available for download? Being a former Californian, I would very much like to see it.

#12

I don't know whether a copy will be available or not.
Our stake president requested that we not record it.

I suppose that Tom might be able to check with someone and find out

#13

RussellHltn wrote:"not authorized" is a normal occurrence for an encrypted broadcast after a reboot/reset until the receiver gets what it needs.

. . . I suspect it's a interfering signal.

This sounds as if it would have been an encrypted broadcast. This makes it more difficult for the receiver to get the signal, and sometimes results in more errors. The priesthood session of general conference is also encrypted. That is why you will have problems with that session more often than with the other general sessions, or the YW or RS broadcasts.

The sun fade cycle is also around this time of the year, but that should not have been a problem for an evening broadcast.

#14

lajackson wrote:The sun fade cycle is also around this time of the year, but that should not have been a problem for an evening broadcast.

When I contacted the Satellite Support Desk I was told that they had experienced a few minutes of problems for units on the west coast around the afternoon of General Conference due to the angle of the sun and the dish being aimed at each other. This occurs every year about this time and I'm afraid I don't have the faith to move the sun out of the way

It usually lasts for a few minutes.

The broadcast we had problems with began at 7:30 PM and by that time the sun was well down.
My goal in posting this thread was to see if any other units in California may have experienced a problem.

russellhltn · #15

Encryption does put a little more stress on marginal setups.

In my experience, sun outages can last 10 minutes or so but then they are done. If your dish is the type that has the feedhorn right in the middle of the dish, then look at where the shadow of the feedhorn is on the dish. If it's right in the center, you've got a sun problem.

Keep in mind that most satellite channels are not in use 24/7. The are brought up "as needed" for a game, a news cast or whatever may be going on. Your one and only clue is that they are most likely to start/end right around the top or bottom of the hour.

#16

RussellHltn wrote:...
I remember seeing information years ago (during the analog time era) that the dish needed to be aligned periodically as wind and ground settling could cause the aim to "drift". However with the move to digital, I don't think it's practical for us to aim our own dish as the signal strength indicator isn't reliable for use in aiming. I guess it has to be done professionally.
...

Several years ago, when I was a stake satellite equipment operator, a tech. support person from Church headquarters said aiming should be done by signal quality or signal, signal to noise ratio, Eb/No rather than signal strength. He said there is an nearby satellite with a much stronger signal, and if we aim our dishes by signal strength we will be pointing closer to that satellite and will get inferior signal quality. The situation may have changed, but the advice is likely still valid.

RussellHltn wrote:Encryption does put a little more stress on marginal setups.

In my experience, sun outages can last 10 minutes or so but then they are done. If your dish is the type that has the feedhorn right in the middle of the dish, then look at where the shadow of the feedhorn is on the dish. If it's right in the center, you've got a sun problem.

Keep in mind that most satellite channels are not in use 24/7. The are brought up "as needed" for a game, a news cast or whatever may be going on. Your one and only clue is that they are most likely to start/end right around the top or bottom of the hour.

Thanks for those great tips, especially using the geometry of the center-fed dish as a sun-dial to detect sun crossings.

#17

When our dish was re-aimed a year ago, I was at work. I DO recall a conversation afterwards with the FM employees who adjusted it. I believe they mentioned that they had tried to adjust it but the signal they were getting at that time was the strongest they could get. I also don't know what equipment was used to do the adjusting.

Everyone's comments have been very helpful. I plan on passing them along. It might be necessary to have a professional come out and check out the entire system.

skiptaylor · #18

At our Stake building, the satellite receiver is a Wegener. It's really hot and the fan doesn't like to work all the time so we have an external fan on it. I was told it won't be replaced until it dies completely. It seems to be one tough unit as it's had this heat problem for over a year now.

During all of Conference it ran well. We did have a couple of red light times during the Church News between sessions on Saturday. We also experienced a few seconds of "Not Authorized" at the beginning of Priesthood. A call to the Satellite Desk and I was told the problem was on their end and had been corrected (and it had).

During the California only Marriage broadcast we had no problem at all. I was also told by the Stake President not to record the broadcast.

Due to the distance from the dish, our normal led color code is 2 flashing yellow. That seems to be permanent.

russellhltn · #19

The fan has been a source of concern to me. It's noisy and I imagine must be small. My experience with computers is the reliability of the fan is inversely proportional to the size. Not to mention that forced air cooling is a major dust magnet.

So one time I finally pulled the case off of it (after consulting with support over all the problems we had) and to my surprise found almost no dust at all. The fan is a squirrel cage type, not the little propeller type I had been expecting.

All this reminds me, when we had a problem I worked the phone on satellite support describing the problem. I ended up with a ticket number which I gave to the FM group. Likewise Satellite Support had all the info needed to talk to the FM group. I don't know what was done, but it's been working OK since.

#20

avskip wrote: Due to the distance from the dish, our normal led color code is 2 flashing yellow. That seems to be permanent.

How far is the receiver from the dish? Our receiver is on the south side of the building and the receiver is on the north side so the cabling has to run into the building up and across the widest portion of the facility and back down into where the receiver is located. I'd make a guess that the distance is a couple of hundred feet easily perhaps more.

Since you're dealing with a digital signal the strength of the signal isn't as important as the quality. If you haven't had it done, you may wish to have someone run a check of the alignment. I'm guessing that you've already confirmed that the dish is clean and has no obstructions.