The cold is messing up my DirecTV

[carbonel]

At least, that's the only conclusion I've come to.

Remember a week or two ago when we had several inches of snow, then a cold snap? The snow caused a bit of fuzz on my TV picture -- annoying, but I'm used to it. The next day, though, when the temperature dropped to -17 or so, my local channels didn't come in DirecTV at all. All the others did, but not the locals -- which is particularly annoying, since about 90% of my TV watching is on the local network channels.

Two days and a reboot later (there had been several other reboots that didn't help in the interim), the local channels were back.

Now, during the current cold snap, my local channels have gone away again. If they come back when it warms up again, I'm going to count that as a confirmed theory, even though there are only two data points. Not that it gives me any idea what to do about it, or why the cold is doing that, or why it's only the local channels.

In the meantime, I don't suppose putting a space heater on my roof near the satellite dish would be a good idea, on several counts -- not the least of which is that I don't own.

Anyone have any other suggestions? Other than Bittorrent, that is, which is my current workaround.

Comments

[ckd]

OK, here's the secret.

DirecTV has multiple satellites in orbit, at different orbital locations. (Technically, they have multiples at the same one as well but ignore that for the moment.)

The original DTV dishes only hit the 101°W slot. The national standard-def channels are still on 101W, as well as some of the more major local markets SD channels.

Later dishes hit both 101W and 119W, or 101/110/119W, or if you have HD you get 99/101/103/110/119. (99 and 103 are on a different frequency band.)

There's a "satellite test" screen somewhere in your receiver's menus. That will let you see what signal strength you get from different transponders on different satellites.

If it's snow on the dish and/or antenna, brush it off and then spray the antenna with PAM or a similar cooking oil; that might keep it from sticking again (yes, really). If not, there might be a loose joint that's getting water in that then freezes or something.

If there's nothing visible on the dish, call DTV and they'll probably walk you through the transponder signal strength check. They can send out a tech to replace the antenna horn and/or cabling if needed.

(As for space heaters, there are heated antenna designs AFAIK, but the PAM trick is supposed to work fairly well.)

[marydell.livejournal.com]

Agree about testing the satellite. Didn't know this stuff about the older vs the newer dishes, but we've had very good support from DTV including, IIRC, a dish upgrade. Maybe your dish just needs to have its angle changed...?

[carbonel]

Maybe your dish just needs to have its angle changed...?

Maybe, but why is it the cold that affects it? It really seems to be cold rather than snow that's the problem.

And yes, I've had good service from DTV as well. If the service hadn't come back last time, they would have sent a service tech. Maybe I should have done that.

And now the issue is moot, since the floor guys have disconnected everything but the DVR, so I won't be able to check until the floor is done. When all is said and done, floor trumps TV.

[carbonel]

Thanks. It hasn't snowed recently, so I was assuming it wasn't blockage on the dish, but I really should figure out some way to check it. (Can't see the whole thing without a ladder, which I don't own.)

And as I told marydell, I won't be able to fiddle with anything until my new floor is in, since at this moment the floor guy and his assistant are dismantling my living room.