Sky dish replacement

[UNICRONICUS]

Our sky dish is rubbish, whenever we have moderate rainfall (or constant light rain) our sky signal will completely diminish and we will lose signal on our TV for the duration, very frigging annoying!

When we moved into our current property I just connected the sky box up to the dish that was already in place, so there was not much work involved. Do you know if sky will replace this dish for free as it is very rusty and we could do with a new one to be honest. I phoned them up earlier but they mentioned about a £65 engineers fee which I though was ludicrous seeing as though it's their equipment that has packed in! Do we really have to pay for replacement equipment under our subscription?

[Arrows]

Buy yourself a 60cm dish kit from ebay and do it yourself, its really easy and the bigger dish will improve your reception quality, has for me.

[Nayls]

i doubt the signal will improve!

i recently had an aerial upgrade for digital tv & radio,massive dish but still right this second i cant see **** cos it's raining

[Arrows]

i doubt the signal will improve!

i recently had an aerial upgrade for digital tv & radio,massive dish but still right this second i cant see **** cos it's raining

Has for me no issues with rain anymore.

[Nayls]

Has for me no issues with rain anymore.

i must be unlucky!

[Arrows]

i must be unlucky!

or the installation is S***, a bigger dish will improve signal quality.

[Nayls]

or the installation is S***, a bigger dish will improve signal quality.

could just be a bad area? do have a pylon above & a new road being built next to me that could cause some interference.

[Scoff]

Its satelite, so area has nothing to do with it. local obstructions do however!

The dish needs clear sight of the sky above and to the front of it. Imagine a path to the sky, in the direction the dish is pointing and at an elivation of about 25deg, that path needs to be 100% line of sight, totally clear to the sky. If even a tree is in the way then this is a big problem. Move the dish somewhere else and set it up again.

If the path is clear then either the dish has moved, the lnb has some issue, or the coax is old and full of water, etc.

[Scoff]

could just be a bad area? do have a pylon above & a new road being built next to me that could cause some interference.

not likely the problem, unless the pylon itself is right in the path, as described just now.

[UNICRONICUS]

Cheers for the replies! But as for past dealings with Sky, have you ever had a replacement for free due to the dish being rotten? That's mainly my problem here by the looks of things... The signal strength is usually quite high but the quality varies all the time. There is a roof in the way of my sky dish which is about 5-6 metres away, but why would an installer put the dish in this position if it would give a bad signal?

[Hoolio]

If the path is clear then either the dish has moved, the lnb has some issue, or the coax is old and full of water, etc.

That about sums it up.

[Frix]

[quote=UNICRONICUS;85914]There is a roof in the way of my sky dish which is about 5-6 metres away, but why would an installer put the dish in this position if it would give a bad signal?[/quote

is the roof part of an extension that was put there after the dish was put up?

[Scoff]

Cheers for the replies! But as for past dealings with Sky, have you ever had a replacement for free due to the dish being rotten? That's mainly my problem here by the looks of things... The signal strength is usually quite high but the quality varies all the time. There is a roof in the way of my sky dish which is about 5-6 metres away, but why would an installer put the dish in this position if it would give a bad signal?

because some of them are just knob heads, that do not understand that a damp piece of paper will attenuate heavilly at 11ghz, let alone a building's roof!!

[UNICRONICUS]

I see. I'm not sure how long that dish has been there for, maybe the roof was put up after the dish, or maybe the installer is scared of heights and didn't want to put it on our roof? But saying that, my new neighbour downstairs has a sky dish that is even lower than mine and pointing in the same direction... Knob head installer then I think

[Scoff]

As I say though, you have to consider that the dish doesn't look in the direction it apears too. imagine looking straight ahead, then looking up 25° and that is the angle that the dish needs to have clear to the sky. as long as that elivation is clear it doesn't matter what is below or above it, within reason.

[rich-hgtt]

You shouldnt need a very big dish to get Astra @28 on scillys either mate so as scoff is saying it's got to be obstruction, Mis-alignment or attenuation in the cable, connectors, lnb.

I totally agree that the the genuine sky installers are utter W**kers. Some of the private ones are alright though. I think more enthusiasts with a genuine interest in sat persue working with sky as a contractor.
Whereas the Bozos who dont care just go on the two week course, get the free van and crappy tools/ twist on connectors , Cheap RG6 and work for Sky.

[rich-hgtt]

Do we really have to pay for replacement equipment under our subscription?

Oh and ye, Crafty sky make sure that YOU own the equipment so they can wash their hands of it when it breaks.

As crap as Virgin are, at least they'll come and replace their box when it breaks.