[rbaldwin]

Watching the final of CSI tonight (first episode) torrential rain and high winds began in the last 5 minutes of the show.


I started to see pixels and and cutouts as I heard the wind and rain pick up in intensity.


As a quick backround I am 13 miles from transmitter with a Wingard UHF OTA antenna. Normally all D channels are at 100%


I was pissed! as it was the last 5 mins of the program.. Thinking it was the weather I shrugged (cringed) and continued watching. The problems continued.


So the show ended and the wife wanted to watch ER (alternate channel) and I saw pixels on this station as well. She moved to a more stable tv... (the ultimate let down.. but she wanted to view the show without issue. Totally understandable.)


I then checked the signal by traversing to the signal strength page in the setup menu.


The Hughes continues the video signal as an underlay until you get deeper into the system and select the system setup button. (Not sure on different make boxes)


Once I selected this the signal it was at 100% (no underlay picture now)


I quickly returned to video and have now experienced no dropouts on either channels for the last hour.


I hear the wind howling and the rain coming down in different intensities just as when the problem started. Still all ok


The box seemed to correct itself AFTER accessing the strength indicator page.


This could all be coincidental but I wanted to share this with other hughes e86 users experiencing this problem.


It may not be heat related or a combination of heat and a bad signal bouncing around until an out is provided


rbaldwin

 

[rbaldwin]

Well, the frequency of the interference has increased in the past week. I cannot figure it out. Per previous post it seems to correct itself by switching the input


As of late just switching to an alternate local digital channel seems to correct the problem. I cannot catch the drops however in the system strength meter. It is always at 100% when I go to it


Feeling on top of the box it is warm but know where near what it used to run at (installed fan another post). I wonder If it got to hot and now am passed the point of no return.


rbaldwin

 

[rbaldwin]

Ok some good news for a change...


I noticed two differences this time. One is that it was my local channel 41 (ABC) that I was having the signal loss problem. No other channels affected. And 2, the signal actually dropped to 0. Before this was never the case. The signal strength would never drop below 80%, just would jump all over between 80-100%


I noticed the leaves on the trees outside are now in full bloom. My antenna points through some very thick clusters. I realized the problem started about 2 weeks ago.. and gradually got worse..


I decided to go up and make a point adjustment on the antenna (no rotor) This fixed the problem. Because of the interference and the somewhat weak signal from ABC, adjusting the antenna to a more exact line to the ABC transmitter corrected the problem. Luckily the rest of my local digital signals are strong enough to compensate for the adjustment


rbaldwin